So, what did Southgate learn tonight?

[great_fire]

Seems to be a bit of controversy about the Russian TV producers showing crowd shots of mainly female fans of most of the nations.
Columbia are by far the best so roll on Tuesday.....just saying

But.....I don't recall any female England fans being shown.

Done that at every world cup haven't they?

[sCORaFU]

So saying that you think someone is not good enough is slagging them off?

Point taken about the terminology, but to say that someone is not good enough is based on what assessment? Previous England appearances, last night, or Premier League performances. All goalies are prone to the occasional gaff. Think of 1970mWorld Cup and what does everybody talk about? Gordon Banks save from Pele. Not many mention another game in that group wherte he totally fumbled a shot. Lets see how Pickford plays from now on shall we?

[Grist_To_The_Mill]

Seems to be a bit of controversy about the Russian TV producers showing crowd shots of mainly female fans of most of the nations.
Columbia are by far the best so roll on Tuesday.....just saying

But.....I don't recall any female England fans being shown.

Why is this a one way street?

Why no mention of female fans ogling the players on the pitch?

Yet another example if saddo people hijacking football for their petty obsessions.

[Grist_To_The_Mill]

Still think we are all reading too much into what we've seen so far.

Two games v ordinary teams and a reserve fixture.

England defence not really been put under sustained pressure and some players are clearly needing pitch time.

Next game will tell us if we have a realistic chance of lifting the trophy

[mellowmiller]

I think he was caught between a rock and a hard place. So, he plays his strongest side and Kane gets injured, Ali and Tippier get injured. That's 2 of the best players so far who are out of the competition and all because of what in real terms was a friendly. And lets be fair, for 80% of the time it was played like one. I had to go to the fridge, but not for a beer, but to watch it defrost because it was more interesting.

And at least he got some players tournament practice.

Why take the negative view? Just because our best players are picked it doesn't mean they will automatically get injured. Let's face it that could happen at any time and is just a weak and convenient excuse to hide behind.
The team selection and performance last night was poor, Belgium's reserves were better than our reserves, much better actually, and that is all that was learned from last night.
Unfortunately some of the feelgood factor has been lost because of that performance and if we lose to Colombia, the vultures in.our media will have a field day.

[Grist_To_The_Mill]

Why take the negative view? Just because our best players are picked it doesn't mean they will automatically get injured. Let's face it that could happen at any time and is just a weak and convenient excuse to hide behind.
The team selection and performance last night was poor, Belgium's reserves were better than our reserves, much better actually, and that is all that was learned from last night.
Unfortunately some of the feelgood factor has been lost because of that performance and if we lose to Colombia, the vultures in.our media will have a field day.

Correct.

Travelling fans should be refunded.

[Pattylallacks2]

Correct.

Travelling fans should be refunded.

Did they charter a plane from Doncaster?

[BigLadonOS]

What he learned last night is that 3 at the back is our best formation and that we could go on and win this thing.

People are reading way to much into last nights game and I was telling everyone who would listen that he would put out the weakest side he could.

Just because the reserves did not play that well does not mean that the depth of squad we have is weak, it just means that when they all play at the same time it is a weak team.

It gave the players a run out instead of bench warming and it saved some strength and fitness for the A Team.

Also I thought Belgium were pretty weak too and on another day the result could have gone our way.

Personally I think that Southgate did the right thing because it is what I would have done.

[Pattylallacks2]

That settles it then