cityfanlee23

Fact of the day, Enzo Fernandez has had more shots today than Englands last 14 tournaments

WHAT A TACKLE!!!!

Relegated ✅ Administration ✅ Sponsor gets banned ✅ Wout Faes + Vestergaard Contract extension ✅

So far i've seen some positive steps being taken under RM albeit there is not a lot to go on, he spoke well of the young players and made it clear they will be given opportunities if they want it enough, and his emphasis on the fact he has given them a "really tough 2 weeks, a lot of running, a lot of work and a lot of detail", it's been a while since we've had a squad I felt was physically fit enough to compete over 90, so hearing these sort of back to basics approaches of just getting us fit as a first pillar of squad building is good to hear. The talk about habits, intention, behaviours etc is obviously very cliché, but it's something we haven't had for multiple years now, when was the last time we had a group of players who had discipline, intention and worked hard for the badge? IF Russell Martin can deliver that sort of attitude then I'm fully behind that aspect of his management here. If rumours are true, the fact Southampton players asked for Russell Martin to return after Will Still was sacked it speaks volumes about the bond he built with the players, and in the absence of the club itself creating an environment that makes players want to run through brick walls, if RM can garner the same sort of respect we might just be able to turn a corner with or without the clown show upstairs. Edit: Don't get me wrong, every manager often rolls out the same cliches, however from what I've seen and heard, RM does demand standards, so I'm inclined to believe him a bit more, however it might just be desperation from me as it's been a while since we had a squad we actually liked, so the idea of us building a squad of players who are young, love the club and are willing to fight sounds like a dream and I want to believe it.

Spence has been one of our best players this tournament. Hes been immense for us on multiple occasions now.

Fair enough mate 👍 I can actually see both sides here as there’s always a grey area but I just fell on the side of the fence that it felt like it was being played for. I’ve lost all faith in footballers being honest these days so I tend to look at every player going down with a bit of skepticism 🤣

Really surprised nobody got suspended so far today

No he doesn’t, they were side by side for most of the duel and the ball was going in an angle away from Spence. Spence was losing control of the duel and made a desperate attempt to tangle and go down. Players looking for contact to go down needs stamping out, can’t see us agreeing on this one.

The defender has nowhere to go, spence purposely tried to place his leg so that a tangle would occur so that he could go down. It’s a desperate move and it needs stamping out of football.

Okay but that still doesn’t make it a foul. The fact you’ve used Argentina as an example does more to discredit your point than support it

Yet again a footballer is purposely using his body to go down. Looked a penalty at first glance, in reality Spence knew he was losing possession and decided to try to force a penalty. There is often grey areas but we must start stamping this out with punishments when it’s blatant.

From your description I think it’s this one

If this goes to ET we might as well pack our bags. We look absolutely done in, this game simply cannot go another 30.

Yes, Haaland was baited into pushing a player who wanted to go down. Plan worked perfectly!

It’s a clear push but the only reason Anderson is on the floor is because Anderson wanted to be on the floor.

Should be a goal. Anderson purposely stands facing haaland at an angle that a feather could push him off balance, he made no effort to even look at the crosser he was just trying to stop haaland and went down the moment he got a light push. So bored of this in football. Everyone is baiting contact to go down.

I don’t mind those subs. Madueke has done about as much as me in this game. Rice apparantely has been unwell this week and looked out on his feet. I do like Tuchels subs, he does seem to know what the team needs and when it needs it.

The thing is, I get that it’s a World Cup game and we are close to the final, if you can control a game and limit the opposition it makes sense, but we just look so lifeless with it. Make no mistake, if we play this way against a team like France we would be packing our bags already. If we are to become world champions we need to be 10x better than this.

It’s a shame we sat on the ball for 40 minutes, we probably didnt need more minutes we just needed to actually attack in the 40+ we wasted! Now we gift Norway a chance to reset and we need to hope they come out panicked.

I just can’t understand why so many possession managers seem comfortable to aimlessly pass the ball from left wing, right across the defence to the right wing, then back again. I get you want to control the ball but what’s the point if you’re not using that control to wear down your opponent or drag them out of position to create space? Time and time again we see possession managers happy to play the ball so slowly and ineffectually that the opposition can literally walk left and right tracking us. We wasted 40 minutes of that first half doing absolutely nothing and we almost went into half time 1-0 down. The only time we looked good was when we played the ball quickly.

It’s amazing what happens when you actually attack

Hydration break sub for England coming on

Good job we have this hydration break so we can regroup after that frantic 14 seconds of running

I was going to insult us and say “It’s just like watching Leicester” but I actually think we might better than that opening 20

I don't know if I want Belgium to inflict a record breaking destruction of USA tonight, or I want Balogun to score the winner and create a global corruption scandal that sees Infantino out of his role, and maybe, just maybe some of the idiots who support Trump over here realising just how corrupt the man is. I'm leaning toward 36-0 Belgium.