Post Match - England 1 - Croatia 2 (AET)

[whoareyaaa]

2 minutes ago, Kitchandro said:

Honestly, I could accept what has been a decent run if we didn’t lose to small nations on the back of selection based on big club bias. It’s not good enough.

 

Sterling and Rashford should never be mentioned in the same breath as Vardy either as a support striker or main striker. I expect Leicester fans who watch him every week to agree with that. It’s not positivity to back the manager when he is biased towards or against certain players, it’s stupid.

 

Accept that these players were poor and it’s unjust that Vardy wasn’t picked. This is your club and city being disrespected, there is no reason behind it.

agreed.

 

Southgate ain't got it in him, Neville was saying Kane has looked like he had a picked up a knock or something since the Colombia game, yet still persisted with him and left the biggest goal threat on the bench.

[Nalis]

As a neutral, England had the match in the first half, decent positioning by Walker would have prevented their goal. Gutted for you guys....

 

Reminds me of Belgium v France in a way...

[Leicesterpool]

Looking at this tournament overall, as much as good as Maguire was, our weakest link was the back! they just couldn't be trusted together, Walker great right back but no centre back to think Phil Jones was snubbed for that role. Stones and Maguire have been fantastic most of the time but can make some weird awkward decisions and some of their back passes sometimes nearly left Pickford in trouble.

Edited 11 July 2018 by Leicesterpool

[foxfanazer]

On a positive note, really proud of Maguire’s performance at this World Cup. For a debut tournament and hardly any international experience he was incredible. That goal is undoubtedly my favourite moment of the past month. Well done big H

[Facecloth]

Hate the pundits. Nothing but praise all tournament for Kane and the trio behind him. Now we've lost, the balance is wrong etc etc. Nothing but praise for Kane scoring a few pens and a deflection, but now he's not quite right. 

 

I was happy we got this far, and elements of the team pleased me. The back line were good. Maguire very good, Stones barely put a foot wrong, and walker surprised me. Pickford was excellent. Trippier was great too. Young I wasn't a fan of and I felt the front 4 wasn't the right balance. Henderson had a great tournament. As for Southgate, overall did well, hopefully learns a few things though. For me waited too long to change things at times, and too reliant on certain players. Waited too long to bring on Rashford and Vardy at times. Left the midfield too exposed with the balance of the team going forward. Also left players who were clearly injured or completely ****ed on far too long on games. Too reliant on Kane, Alli, Sterling. Kane was knackered today, get him off. Alli was half fit in three games, get him off.

 

I said all this pre tournament, and during it btw.

[Guest]

Good game won by the better team. Modric started slowly but ended up running the show. I can only think Alli's some way off full fitness because he was so ineffectual again, having the knock-on effect of causing Kane to drop far too deep. Thought Sterling was good first half and should have been handed a goal by Kane. 

 

Nothing to be ashamed of - did anyone seriously expect a semi-final before the tournament started? A team and manager with plenty of room to grow.

Edited 11 July 2018 by Guest

[foxes_rule1978]

The lads can come home proud I didn’t expect we would make it into the last 16, there is a togetherness in the side and with all the success at youth level I feel we are finally moving in the right direction 

[RoboFox]

It’s not coming home just yet, it’s just taken a detour. ETA four years’ time.

 

Gutted though, not necessarily because England are out, that’s fair enough. But because it’s the first time in probably a decade I’ve actually given a sh*t about the national team and I felt quite invested in what Southgate was doing. I feel sorry for him more than anything.

 

Proper decent bloke. Leave him in place and let him work with them. Love that he’s proved everyone wrong... Including me.

[sm1]

Gareth summed it up perfectly when asked if England deserved better, he said "not really."

They tried their best but lost to the best team, no dishonor in that.

[NasPb]

Why vardy didn't come on earlier I will never understand. Rashford was ****ing shocking. 

[Phube]

Fiiiiiight!!!! 

[AlloverthefloorYesNdidi]

Dunno why people are moaning about kitchandro. Man has an opinion, expresses it strongly. Who cares?

 

Also, he's not a million miles wrong

 

We did well this tournament but were too rigid and could have made more changes. Then again, maybe these players needed that stability to get where they did...?

Who knows

 

Kitch may be right though. We will never know

[EnderbyFox]

This tournament has renewed my passion for England and international football in general, that’s testament to Southgate and this squad.

 

That being said, can anyone explain to me the point of Eric Dier? 

[AlloverthefloorYesNdidi]

2 minutes ago, Guest said:

Good game won by the better team. Modric started slowly but ended up running the show. I can only think Alli's some way off full fitness because he was so ineffectual again, having the knock-on effect of causing Kane to drop far too deep. Thought Sterling was good first half and should have been handed a goal by Kane. 

 

Nothing to be ashamed of - did anyone seriously expect a semi-final? A team and manager with plenty of room to grow.

We were in a semi final

 

Shows what you know

[Mr Mister]

Disappointed in the result but proud of the team for getting far.

[Miquel The Work Geordie]

Mourinho has properly coached the joy out of Rashford. I'm not having that he's a bad player at all but he really needs out of United.

 

We've got such a promising young spine it's such a shame to see the odd few slating them after this.

 

If Maddison hits the ground running with us he'll be capped by Easter.

[foxfanazer]

2 minutes ago, foxes_rule1978 said:

The lads can come home proud I didn’t expect we would make it into the last 16, there is a togetherness in the side and with all the success at youth level I feel we are finally moving in the right direction 

You didn’t think we’d get out of that group?

[Max Wall]

7 minutes ago, AlloverthefloorYesNdidi said:

We dominated the first half and should have scored more

 

They showed their experience, and that kind of win is never good to take. Second goal should never have happened

 

This is a painful loss. I'm not having it that Croatia were good. Their tales were up after scoring a goal for 20 minutes and parts of the second half of extra time

 

The better team won, we were not savvy or clinical enough

 

But **** em, hate Croatia for life now. It was a bit of a shithouse win when all is said and done

You want France to beat them?

[Nalis]

Some of the foreign pundits seem to think England should challenge and win in Qatar ( a la Germany 2010 to 2014) thoughts?

 

I dont think its impossible, the U20 world cup winners should be coming of age.

[Turbogre]

5 Spurs players in this England team. Should have known they would've "put the pressure on" and then bottle it.

[foxes_rule1978]

1 minute ago, foxfanazer said:

You didn’t think we’d get out of that group?

Based on the sh*te served up before no 

[foxes_rule1978]

Just now, Turbogre said:

5 Spurs players in this England team. Should have known they would've "put the pressure on" and then bottle it.

Funny Belgium and all... 

[Guest]

1 minute ago, Gerbold said:

Kane looked bemused and on the verge of exhaustion for most of the match. Lingard and Rashford still don't have a real football intelligence. Sterling impressed tonight, and there was good interplay at times - but not where it counted. It's easy to blame but Kane was the man who should have been at the centre of the attacks and he was missing. Alli was ok and did endeavour to put a maximum effort in but his performances for Spurs show where his priorities lie.

Trippier was, again, the main source of inventiveness and his goal was superb but as time went on, without a follow-up, the Croatians began to recover - in the end, they were almost playing England off the park.

I don't see a team with Lingard and Rashford representing the future. Unless Kane and Alli commit to the national side then neither do they.

Mags was vying with Trippier for MotM for England - Pickford not far behind. Southgate did the best he could with the materials at hand but were are the English players who can emulate Rakitic, Modric and the likes? Like some have said - France would have been too strong and I think they will be so for Croatia - but I hope the minnows make it hard for them.

The press have flattered England - forming a fantasy about a team which was only sporadically sharp and had stumbled into this position. Best not to pay them any mind.

Largely spot on but I think you're harsh on Lingard who for me is one of the few we've got capable of reading and playing between the lines. Also perhaps a tad disingenuous to put Alli's misfires down to a lack of motivation - he's not been fully fit and he's by no means the first to struggle for England competitively.

[lgfualol]

3 minutes ago, EnderbyFox said:

This tournament has renewed my passion for England and international football in general, that’s testament to Southgate and this squad.

 

That being said, can anyone explain to me the point of Eric Dier? 

Plays for Spurs 

[Kendal Fox]

15 minutes ago, Kitchandro said:

Well said. Except Croatia weren’t even decent for several rounds until the 2nd half tonight.

 

Is Rashford taking free kicks any better than Kane taking them? I’d argue it’s worse. After 7 goals this season he had no place being on the bench, let alone coming on ahead of a 20 goal striker.

 

England got what they deserved, if only for ignoring a brilliant player like Vardy until desperate - AGAIN.

Might be cheesy to quote myself but I wrote this (anticipating this might happen) on the "Vardy" thread 3 weeks ago -

 

On 24/06/2018 at 16:52:

 

The bottom line is that since August 2014 (less than 4 years ago), Vardy has scored 75 goals in all competitions. Surely it's Southgate's responsibility to ensure that a guy that has netted that many goals in a relatively short period of time is properly integrated into England's playing style and gets regular playing time, no?

 

We've been very lucky to have the draw we have had in the group stage, let's not kid ourselves. And you might see it differently (in the knock out stages) if we are playing a decent team and chasing the game, then bring on Vardy with 20 minutes to go only for him to fail because of being rusty.

 

Edited 24 June by Kendal Fox