I'm still not convinced with Southgate Sinkov, no idea how he Dier gets in the Tottenham team let alone England, same with Stones in that I don't understand why City paid so much for him
Another excellent performance, Gareth continues to impress, I certainly wasn't expecting this when he took over. Yet one thing continues to niggle, he started the lumbering Eric Dier in midfield yet again, and for 25 minutes or so we were slow and cumbersome, just like Eric himself, and making no impression on the opposition. Then he had to go off injured, on came Ross Barkley, we stepped up a gear instantly, well of course we did, the Czechs couldn't live with us and the rest is history.
We have so many options in midfield, surely Gareth will look at replays of this game and realise Dier's best position is on the sub's bench.
I'm still not convinced with Southgate Sinkov, no idea how he Dier gets in the Tottenham team let alone England, same with Stones in that I don't understand why City paid so much for him
Great minds think alike ,don't we Alto! I am also not convinced about Southgate.In the world cup against Columbia he played a back row of 5 players, then before them 3 and in attack 2,thats too defensive for me! Even a clearence from defence will not find your attacking players? If the ball is passed to those 3 middle players before the last line of defense,they can not, will not find any attacking players unmarked, and so they send the ball back into the line of 5 defenders,who then pass it sideways back and forth!Very negative style and boring.
In this game against the Czechs, again after 20 mins I was thinking boring England again! Most of the play was played in our defense in the first half. If Southgate did not have Sterling? What then? Remember the Czechs nearly had 2 goals in the first half!!! How should a team play football to entertain the crowd ,or to pack the defense so at least the other team does not score goals?? Again thats negative and a very boring style of play.
I like Southgate for his humility and ability to gel a squad and his trust in a player's form and willingness to go with youth rather than stick with the old guard.
An opening 5-0 home win and three points can't be all that bad can it chaps?
Of course you can find fault with the way Southgate operates, I do with his insistence on starting Dier, but you can find fault with any manager and I'm finding much more to like about Southgate than to moan about. Overall the results AND performances have been good since he took over, the England team actually looks like a team for the most part, and not eleven blokes playing together for the first time as has often been the case. They even look like they actually enjoy and want to play for England, not something many, if any, manager has achieved in recent times. I like the way he's prepared to give our young lads a chance as well, three of them on Friday on the pitch at the end, who wouldn't even have been in the squad with most previous managers.
Whatever any of us might think about him, football is in the end a results game, and he's getting the results, the bonus for me is the way he's getting them, I can't knock the guy.
I agree with Sinkov.
On this issue at least
I also agree with Sinkov.
How is Ashington's season going Sub, total disaster at Clitheroe, managed to beat Glossop yesterday so we should just about avoid relegation. In such a dreadful state though there were SIX players in the team yesterday I'd never seen before. And this was going to be the season it all came togather and we'd win promotion. You can take nowt for granted in football.
Last edited by sinkov; 24-03-2019 at 03:11 PM.
Another convincing win, OK we played nowt, but these are the sort of teams we've usually struggled against in the past, now we just blow them away.