Football

How that game escaped having any red cards is beyond me. At its worst point, I was expecting two of theirs and one of our guys to be sent marching.

This.

Lost his head in the game and bottled the penalty...

It was a great save but he telegraphed the direction of it from about three weeks out. Gave Ospina a great chance to get over and save it.

Lost his head in the game and bottled the penalty...

It was a great save but he telegraphed the direction of it from about three weeks out.

Are we talking about Stevie G?

Many lols.

What does Rashford have to do to get into the team ahead of Sterling? What are peoples thoughts on Sterling, I'm not a fan no doubt he has the talent but just seems out of his depth on the world stage.

"Plus. If they did play, there's more chance of watching Cavani boot Neymar."

v much this but think Cavani is out :(

I thought sterlings play was as good as much of the rest of the team tbh (which I thought was generally poor). He seemed to be trying to be 'creative' and failing, where most others didn't seem to be trying to be creative.

I have no problem with Sterling playing, I just wonder if he's ever going to shoot?

My issue with last night's match was more the fact there's no connection between defense and attack. Henderson doesn't pass well enough to knit it together, or run with the ball well enough to commit the opposition midfield and then find a pass (I'm not saying Dier would be a better option either), the attackers, Lingard/Sterling/Alli, didn't make enough angles, find enough space or pick up the ball deep enough to initiate any attacks or again commit the opposition midfield so we could then start an attack.
Our best options were the right sided interplay between lingard/trippier, or 2nd half, Maguire bringing the ball out (pretty well) and then having no options once he'd stepped into the opposition's half.
Maybe I'm missing something, but we want to play, and pass, but alot of our passing was across the backline and pretty sterile, when it wasn't causing consternation because we were inviting pressure and getting out of it by the skin of our passing teeth.
Also if we're going to play Kane behind a speedier striker, then he can't be the one to pick the ball up off Henderson/Stones/Walker, one of our midfield trio needs to do that.

This thread's gone from "It's coming home!" to "England are shit" faster than the Liverpool boom/bust cycle.

Henderson.

He did, for the Belgium game.

He was probably the only player starting with a realistic chance of displacing someone from the preferred team.

But you probably forgot he even played, he was that anonymous.

jorge valdano writing sweet lines about the rise of Mbappe
https://www.theguardian.com/football/2018/jul/04/france-kylian-mbappe-closer-summit-argentina

Ronnie to Juve? 88mil for a 33yr old, Football Manager IRL

m'bape to Real for lots and lots

Only players ending game with any credit yesterday were Kane, Trippier and Mcguire, the rest were pony. 4 subs wasn't enough to replace the dross on the pitch. The bench was lame and too young, no experience and it showed. Extra time they shrank into their shells and looked fucking spent long before the end, despite resting the full team last game, go fitness!

Ashley Young? Do fuck off, he was utter shit, didn't beat a man all night, didn't get outside his man once and all his set piece deliveries were utter bollocks. I can only sumise he's in the team because he's ironic, he's called young but he's the oldest.

Alli had a fucking shocker and should have been pulled long before he was, and before Sterling. Southgate was too late doing any subs, and Dier as the first one just stank the place out as a negative move and invited all the pressure on us, his pen was Hendo-esque, ie shit, but he got lucky. Hendo and Dier on pens? WTF? Where the fuck was Vardy hiding?

Maguire did well but is there any set piece variation that does not involve hitting it to Maguire at the back post? It became very predictable, they've spent long and hard on set pieces but, a primary school PE teacher would have done better, Southgate is just Alan Partridge in a fucking waistcoat, tiki taki without the ball, genius!

Lingard is Forest Gump, run Forest run, did some good tracing back at times but hared about like a fucking headless chicken, mostly without the ball, and shat his pants and choked his chances. Midfield is wank and Sweden won't be worried and Brasil must be pissing themselves at the prospect of getting us in a final.

TL;DR. Pen win masked team of shit bottlers.

lighten up grumpo

LOL, we obvs still going to win the whole thing:)

that's the spirit

Hello jeez.

Enjoy your time in Washington D.C. Wayne.

You've both lost me there I'm afraid.

I think you've about nailed it, it's a bit harsh and takes away from the good mood of actually winning a tough game we might have lost rather than swanning around thinking we'll do alright and fucking up.

If Southgate has done something he's done this:
He's worked on his image, how he wants to talk, how he wants to be seen.
He's worked on the way he presents himself to his staff
He's worked with his staff to be inclusive
He's worked with his staff to develop a new, fairly positive, mood within the England set up
He's worked hard to say "no, this is the way we're going to play, this is the way we're doing things". It appears to be connected all the way back to the academies.
He appears to have bypassed the shit tabloids
He's cleaned out a lot of shit (Wayne, Joe et al)
He's got the team playing in a consistent manner, they don't panic (yet).
They're not inspiring, they did look tired after the first half, they will be shell shocked (they're young, they've not been exposed to regular high level football (perhaps?)).
He's broken the reliance on "plays for a top 4 team, has experienced european big cup" (which i've banged on about in here as being the previous managers' criteria for selection (before "are they good?" and "will they gel together")).

More than anything else, and he can get us knocked out by Sweden for all I care because of this, he's got a team through a fucking penalty shootout. How much of it is down to the "owning the process" and how much is luck (henderson, dier, the missed Colombian penno) I DON'T CARE. That is one less thing to think about as an England footballer.
Also, that's the first win in a knockout game since when?

tl;dr
he's performed some sort of augean stable clean
he's connected the team to the england youth set ups
he's broken the hoodoo around pennos

I've seen knighthoods given for less.

@Chalfie who’s this Luke Thomas that looks to be getting linked to West Ham?

Also agree with all that^

They aren't the best team in the world. They are ranked, what 12th? So to have got to this stage with a bit of a fight is about right. If we get further then great but don't start getting sand in your knickers when we're not winning knockout rounds of the world Cup 5-0.