Romared Match Thoughts England v Serbia

[animallittle3]

I've criticised Southgate in the past but feel the job that he's done overall has been very, very good. We're knocking on the door in terms of winning tournaments. His tactics are sometimes questionable but twas ever thus. Name me an England manager who doesn't get berated or heavily questioned when things don't go our way. He done what he thought best at that moment. What some people overlook is that you can't play well in every game, you can't legislate for certain things and of course yo win a tournament you need some luck.

Southgate has given me more pleasure than any of his predecessors right down to Venables and Hoddle in the late 90s.

He's got the most out of a bang average squad in 2018 by reaching the semi final. The penalty shootout win vs Columbia was a great moment and relief.

Euro 2020 we improved as a squad and deservedly reached the final. Beating Germany along the way was another hoodoo lifted and another great moment.

Qatar 2022 was our strongest squad yet under Southgate and we played well winning games with ease. We dropped on a French team that perhaps had the rub of the green against us. That's tournament football as I said, you need the breaks.

2024 brings an even stronger squad than the previous World Cup squad and we are favourites. Southgate has built a young and very capable team. The defence is not as good as what it could be but lets face it, they're not exactly garbage are they? They're experienced in the cases of Luke Shaw, John Stones, Kyle Walker and the goalkeeper.

Let's see what happens

I'd go along with much of that Pass regarding our chances in this tournament and Gareth Southgate .

The real sting in the tail was the last Euro Final and how he managed the game after taking such an early lead with the Italians all over the shop , disappointing to say the least .

Hopefully this is the tournament when it all comes together and we get a bit of lady luck that every team needs to win a major tournament .

[Young_Nudger]

Boring dull watching paint dry football.
Well done Mr Southgate.

[pass_and_move]

After a very good opening 30 mins we dropped too deep both defensively and so too did the midfield leaving not much outlet or chance to retain possession. It needed the whole team to push up 10yards and pressure/press the Serbians rather than letting them dictate while we sat too deep. A better quality team than Serbia would've equalised tonight in my opinion.

A nervy opening game but a great result. A couple of positives to draw upon. The first being the character and resolute mindset to see the game out and keep a clean sheet. The 2nd positive was the beautiful slick passing football and threat we possessed in that opening half an hour which was classy at times.

Work to be done though.

[Acido]

That 2nd half was hard to watch admittedly, and in fact it carried on from how disappointingly that 1st half ended.
But we weren't going to dominate the whole 95 minutes were we. I think the Serbian team actually looked better than both Denmark and Slovenia.
Let's worry about the harder teams if or hopefully when, we do get to the knockout rounds. 👍

[perkytyke]

We are notoriously bad in opening games! That was only the second time we have won an opening game in 11 tournaments!
We have had the players to win tournaments in the past and it’s the same with this one, it’s getting them to play as a team and not individuals.
Southgate for me has done a fantastic job, and winning the first game was the priority, we really only need a draw from the remaining two games to get through the group! The players will relax a bit now and most likely take Denmark apart? Let’s not forget their are a lot of young lads out there, Bellingham is only 20, Mainoo is 19……..there is a lot of pressure on these kids to deliver!
I’m hoping we take that first 30-35 minutes and build on it, then grow as a team as the tournament progresses, we can win this!

[Barnsley Chop]

Solid performance and as they say job done.

Always good to start well in a major tournament something we have too often failed to do. I thought we were really dominant in the first 35 mins or so and got our just reward with a nice goal. Hopefully the solid performance and win will give the players the belief that we can go all the way..... it's long overdue!

[Young_Nudger]

Other teams watching that will be laughing - they now know that if they get at England then they are there for the taking.
It was a good job we wernt playing a good team.
Coaches from countries like Germany will be left open mouthed after watching that.

In the 1st Half - keep ball 40m from the oppositions goal - with Kane only having 2 touches - does not qualify as a dominant performance in my book.

1st Half was horrible.
2nd Half was worse.

We have players like Foden and Saka that have the ability to rip teams like Serbia apart.
Those 2 alone - playing together in the same team should frighten any other team - but they hardly got a touch.

IMO - the 4231 formation was wrong.
Or should that be the wrong players in the wrong positions.
Arnold was definitely playing out of position.
There was no energy in midfield - and no link between the defence and attack.
Other than Jude - all the other players looked TIMID.
.
And this from a manager who has years to prepare for a tournament and is paid £££millions to do that one job.

I hope I’m wrong about Southgate.
But it’s current not looking good.
Overall a dull boring frustrating performance
Fingers crossed things improve.

[pass_and_move]

Can't argue with that Nudger.

[SBRed48]

Your views are noted Nudge.