England Russia WC 2018

[Saxo1man41]

Decent start. First 20 mins arguably amongst the best football played at the WC so far. Something to build on there. 2 goals for our main striker to take pressure off..

All good, yes..?

[AucklandRover]

A very good performance. I thought the technology was designed to pick up the off-the-ball fouls. It looked like Olympic wrestling, with Kane losing the contest!
Absolutely no need for Walker to raise his arm, as he had already successfully shepherded the ball past the Tunisian.
Henderson and Trippier were excellent. Lingard ran miles, but he did miss a couple of sitters.
I really don't see how anyone can complain about that performance - except for some of the finishing. England kept the ball calmly in midfield, but released the ball wide very effectively.
Sterling was as frustrating as ever in an England shirt. You can't fault his effort, but he seems to run into blind alleys a lot. Perhaps it might be better to use him and Rashford the other way round. That is, Rashford starting and RS coming on for 20 minutes.
Credit to Southgate, though: a very strong team-spirit in evidence.

[Saxo1man41]

A very good performance. I thought the technology was designed to pick up the off-the-ball fouls. It looked like Olympic wrestling, with Kane losing the contest!
Absolutely no need for Walker to raise his arm, as he had already successfully shepherded the ball past the Tunisian.
Henderson and Trippier were excellent. Lingard ran miles, but he did miss a couple of sitters.
I really don't see how anyone can complain about that performance - except for some of the finishing. England kept the ball calmly in midfield, but released the ball wide very effectively.
Sterling was as frustrating as ever in an England shirt. You can't fault his effort, but he seems to run into blind alleys a lot. Perhaps it might be better to use him and Rashford the other way round. That is, Rashford starting and RS coming on for 20 minutes.
Credit to Southgate, though: a very strong team-spirit in evidence.

I don't mean this in a literal sense, but it reminded me of Rovers under bowyer. Some excellent play but when the chances didn't go in, and especially after the equalizer, the doubts crept in..

Still they kept plugging away and got what they deserved.

[AucklandRover]

The moment the equalizer went in, Tunisia shut up shop (understandably), and it was always going to be more difficult from then on.
The key, though, was that England didn't get impatient and change the style.
As you say, a number of Bowyer's games followed a similar pattern - but all too often - we DIDN'T get the late goal!

[champs95]

The moment the equalizer went in, Tunisia shut up shop (understandably), and it was always going to be more difficult from then on.
The key, though, was that England didn't get impatient and change the style.
As you say, a number of Bowyer's games followed a similar pattern - but all too often - we DIDN'T get the late goal!

I thought they played well last night, should've been 4 up at HT.
You cant miss that many chances at international level and not get punished.
While it was exciting to see a last minute, it was vrs Tunisia. Not Brazil.
Once we play anyone half decent, we will get torn apart at the back. Stones, McGuire, Jones, Walker all have mistakes in them. A half decent side will soon see that, and take full advantage.
Sterling simply isn't good enough. Lingard missed 4 very simple chances.

But equally, other than Mexico, I haven't seen a half decent team yet ....maybe Spain or Portugal. The rest have been average at best. So we are no further ahead, or behind.
Plus we have a very young squad, so that should be taken into consideration.

Football works in very fine margins. That last minute goal covered up a huge problem, and it was only against Tunisia (who didn't have a shot in 90 mins) which utlimately will show itself down the line once the very very poor sides (like Tunisia) have been knocked out.

There where more positives than negatives last night, but only down to that last minute header. Which Kane took very well.

[Acido]

Thank goodness that we've got a real quality goalscorer in Kane, and why he wasn't given 1 or 2 blatant pens I'll never know.
Sterling & Lingard were awful in front of goal and they and Alli could be dropped for the next match.

[Saxo1man41]

Funnily enough, I'd have expected england to be strong on set pieces had Sam remained.

[Saxo1man41]

Sometimes I get the feeling some people feel the need to justify their former comments despite evidence presented in front of them suggesting those comments may have been hasty.

This england team can grow into the tournament from evidence I've seen, they may just do us proud.

[Acido]

That depends on what you mean by 'do us proud' Sax, but Im a fan of our national team as well and I always will be. And I don't see the problem with fans in this country, who seem to think that supporting club over country is the norm these days.

[AucklandRover]

Two of the best individual performances I've seen so far: Modric and Loveren against Argentina. Both superb.