A win, but a very dull win. We need to be much better than this.
Tough watch at times. My god we're boring. Are our players over hyped or should we be expecting more from the likes of Foden, Kane, Rice and Bellingham? They all look knackered.
Not sure Bowen and Gallagher are the required quality of substitute either.
A win, but a very dull win. We need to be much better than this.
I'm not sure if they've been instructed to, but whenever we go 1-0 up at a tournament we seem to just lose any semblance of attacking impetus we have. We have a great attack on paper but we just don't attack enough because we seem content to just snatch a goal and hold on for however long is left.
Spoilt attitude here. We've got a 1-0 win in our opening game against a decent Serbia side who have some very good players.
It's similar to the Croatia 1-0 at the last Euros that one we got to final in... Why go gung-ho for a second goal and risk leaving yourselves exposed?
We've beaten (IMO) the second best team in this group and we're basically through after 1 game - mission accomplished.
You don't have to throw caution ot the wind and leave the back door open. There's a balance to be struck. I agree with BC... Southgate's approach to being 1-0 up seems to result in losing the initiative. You can breed confidence, but I don't think you do it by sitting back nervously on a one-nil lead. We were a whisker away from snatching a draw from what should have been a nailed on win.
England was lucky, and won't get away with playing walking football
Like don't get me wrong, we probably did deserve to win. While we sat back far too much and let Serbia dominate the play for whatever reason, we did also limit them to basically no decent chances, and despite the fact we were so negative, we did also create enough chances to win comfortably on another day.
But, nonetheless, I find Southgate's approach so incredibly frustrating. We all know the defence is the weakest area of the squad, yet Gareth seems determined to try and win the Euros by emulating Greece in 2004, and that simply is not going to happen.
Alexander-Arnold is such an enigma to me too. He isn't defensively competent enough to play at right back and after yesterday's showing, as well as previous escapades, he is also below par as a midfielder and absolutely cannot start against Denmark. I cannot see Southgate doing it but dropping Bellingham back alongside Rice, moving Foden to his favoured position and moving Gordon to the left flank seems a good bet to me.
Bellingham is a class act and Sakha had a good first half but what has happened to Foden?I thought he might have been taken off. Pity Grealish isn’t there.
England played like they would if Ian Birchnall was the Manager. One or two solid performances but generally dull and insipid. We didn't give them much to go at but we had 3 attempts on target and there was one great save from their keeper. Well it looked like a great save but he would have been disappointed if it went in as he was in the right spot. Alexander Arnold is not international standard, Foden once again very poor at international level yet Southgate keeps faith with him and drops Grealish from the squad who at least draws fouls, Kane anonymous. Rice, Saka and Bellingham come away with some credit. A win is a win.