England of old
That was like watching England of yore. A group of obscenely well paid club players that look good on paper, but they pull on an England shirt and play like they’ve been plucked from the National League.
In recent tournaments England had become imminently watchable and supportable unlike the despair we mostly wrapped ourselves in for the decade and a half previous.
Dreadful performance today, and in a tournament that has offered a lot of really good games thus far, I think we have played in the two dullest.
Talking of dull, and I have admired how Southgate has (mostly) united a nation of football critics, but come on…. take the bloody shackles off. We have some of the best attacking players on the planet yet we are scared of our own shadow.
Where’s the press and speed of thought and dynamic patterns of play? This is England of old, retreat, retreat, retreat. Dreadful.
I have no idea what is going on with some of the players, but the finger has to be pointed at Southgate, and his comments post match did him no favours whatsoever.
He has to realize that there are far better men coaching these players daily, and he has to jump on that bandwagon and play to their strengths, not try to be clever and reinvent the wheel. Trent is an experiment? Are you kidding?
It was another fine start however, 1-0 up after 18 minutes, so why did we get so nervy? We are still in a position of strength but England need to be so much better in so many ways next Tuesday otherwise the first decent side we play will shut down Southgate’s reign in such incompetence.
Had a long day. Got up at 2.30am South African time to watch England play West Indies. 11 Englishmen committed to the cause. Fabulous entertainment.
12 hrs later watch England v Denmark. Such a hard watch. Don’t have the words to explain how talented players could be so average.
Absolutely dreadful display. Agree with all you say except the “imminently watchable” bit. I have not enjoyed watching England for many years now. Last season you said something about the Charlton side and how hard it was to love them and that’s how I feel about Southgate teams.
I refer the honourable gentleman to my comments of June
16th
Can’t understand why Southgate plays Foden out of position and ‘experiments’ with Trent in midfield. Why not play Bellingham alongside Rice, play Foden as a 10, and have a natural wide man on the left.
For years now England teams fail to kill teams off when leading…..why is that?
To quote from Waterloo:
“They are the noblest cavalry in Europe. And the worst led.”
Same analogy.
Agreed, no pressure, no attack. If Trent was an experiment, why was it not tried in frendlies? why wait for major comp before realising its not working.
That was awful, boring, clueless and just plain dull, I couldn’t believe we went with the same starting XI from Sunday when it was clear we had players out of form and the set-up wasn’t working. So why try it again? Was it stubbornness? We’ve played some good football in the last few years – but that was like watching 1980s stuff or peak SGE. The players looked lethargic on and off the ball, there was no pace, no pressure or discernible game plan. Did the players trust each other or the strategy?
We have some great midfield options in the squad – and yet chose to play a defender out of position. It’s not as though playing TAA in midfield worked against Serbia, it didn’t, while he’s a good player he lacks that spatial awareness that midfielders learn from playing there week in and week out. Predictably he was subbed off and an actual midfielder brought on.
Also, why play Harry Kane up front on his own where he was marked out of the match? It enabled Denmark to push up and concentrate more players into a crowded midfield. Get someone playing off him – either another centre forward, someone with pace or a proper number 10.
Foden’s skills look wasted and Jude Bellingham was marked out of the match. It was all too easy for Denmark to stop us from playing.
Southgate is a good manager but not a great one. He picks players not a team. Unlike Alf Ramsey he would never have left out Jimmy Greaves in 1966!
Good news
He will be gone after this tournament and we can move on with some of the best players in the world.
After being beaten by Croatia a few years ago my hope that we would win a tournament was zero, so the excitement and tension before a game was also zero so although I will still watch the games it will be with no optimism at all.
I am a very optimistic person who every year will have a bet on Charlton and Welling who were let down this year with no friendly but that’s another story.
Prove me wrong Southgate.