I’m disappointed

[foxes_rule1978]

Had Kane finished that Chance, had stones put his clear header away, this is England you look back and it was just almost... will be 54 years of hurt now... hope 2020 brings us something 

[The Syrup]

If my aunty had boll0cks  she'd be my uncle.

 

Onwards and upwards to 2020....

[theboyC]

What if they didnt hit the post and went 2-1 up ?!

[Guest]

6 hours ago, foxes_rule1978 said:

Had Kane finished that Chance, had stones put his clear header away, this is England you look back and it was just almost... will be 54 years of hurt now... hope 2020 brings us something 

 

You don't live in France and mix with young people everyday. You have NO IDEA how bad this world Cup can be to an Englishman's life.

 

Having said that England got much further than expected.

 

Trippier was by far the cream of the crop. Really impressed with his play. Kane was a disappointment in the SF, Alli a disappointment throughout.

 

Southgate seems to be getting a lot of plaudits but he is too stubborn and set in his ways to ever win anything.

 

It was clear that Young needed replacing earlier, he was dead on his feet and being skinned alive down the wing. It was obvious that Kane was having a bad day - unable to hit the target and too greedy to pass to teammates - he should have been subbed in the second half. It was obvious that Sterling was killing the backline with speed and movement but equally unable to score a goal for England in a hundred years. The second half shouted out for a deadly and fast striker to replace kane - England have the deadliest and fastest striker in the prem but chose not to put him on until the 120th minute or somewhere near there. It was obvious that Alli shouldn't even be on the park.

 

England should be happy with making the last four but unhappy with blowing the chance of a freak finals win - I seriously doubt that England will ever again get as good a chance to win the tournament and I don't expect us to make the WC SF again in my lifetime.

 

Well done lads but you could have done better - it was Croatia and Lovren!

[AlloverthefloorYesNdidi]

3 minutes ago, FIF said:

 

You don't live in France and mix with young people everyday. You have NO IDEA how bad this world Cup can be to an Englishman's life.

 

Having said that England got much further than expected.

 

Trippier was by far the cream of the crop. Really impressed with his play. Kane was a disappointment in the SF, Alli a disappointment throughout.

 

Southgate seems to be getting a lot of plaudits but he is too stubborn and set in his ways to ever win anything.

 

It was clear that Young needed replacing earlier, he was dead on his feet and being skinned alive down the wing. It was obvious that Kane was having a bad day - unable to hit the target and too greedy to pass to teammates - he should have been subbed in the second half. It was obvious that Sterling was killing the backline with speed and movement but equally unable to score a goal for England in a hundred years. The second half shouted out for a deadly and fast striker to replace kane - England have the deadliest and fastest striker in the prem but chose not to put him on until the 120th minute or somewhere near there. It was obvious that Alli shouldn't even be on the park.

 

England should be happy with making the last four but unhappy with blowing the chance of a freak finals win - I seriously doubt that England will ever again get as good a chance to win the tournament and I don't expect us to make the WC SF again in my lifetime.

 

Well done lads but you could have done better - it was Croatia and Lovren!

Yep.  Pretty shitty anywhere in Europe I imagine.  Here in Czech the shit smugness of continentals is a killer

Its always open season on hating England

[Bob Weasel Fox]

4 minutes ago, FIF said:

 

You don't live in France and mix with young people everyday. You have NO IDEA how bad this world Cup can be to an Englishman's life.

 

Having said that England got much further than expected.

 

Trippier was by far the cream of the crop. Really impressed with his play. Kane was a disappointment in the SF, Alli a disappointment throughout.

 

Southgate seems to be getting a lot of plaudits but he is too stubborn and set in his ways to ever win anything.

 

It was clear that Young needed replacing earlier, he was dead on his feet and being skinned alive down the wing. It was obvious that Kane was having a bad day - unable to hit the target and too greedy to pass to teammates - he should have been subbed in the second half. It was obvious that Sterling was killing the backline with speed and movement but equally unable to score a goal for England in a hundred years. The second half shouted out for a deadly and fast striker to replace kane - England have the deadliest and fastest striker in the prem but chose not to put him on until the 120th minute or somewhere near there. It was obvious that Alli shouldn't even be on the park.

 

England should be happy with making the last four but unhappy with blowing the chance of a freak finals win - I seriously doubt that England will ever again get as good a chance to win the tournament and I don't expect us to make the WC SF again in my lifetime.

 

Well done lads but you could have done better - it was Croatia and Lovren!

Great post @FIF and as @Carl the Llama in the other thread spot on. Southgate has (generally rightly) had many plaudits in this World Cup and let’s face it to make it to the semi final is a decent enough achievement however the team selection was baffling as it was clear Deli Alli was not fit or in poor form for the last 2/3 games he played and should of been dropped. Kane had a stinker and Vardy clearly should of been brought on much much sooner (I would almost argue half time of normal time ?) 

 

Trippier had a great tournament  and Harry was good also and there were definately positive signs there but as already stated this was a mega missed chance as with all due respect to Croatia (well done to them by the way) we could and perhaps should of beaten them if we had gone for the killer second goal instead of letting them take a grip of the game.

 

Also had we made the final and with a few alterations and tactical improvements we could of beaten France in the final

 

i kind of hope (against all hope) that Croatia beat France in the final 

[Kendal Fox]

31 minutes ago, FIF said:

 

You don't live in France and mix with young people everyday. You have NO IDEA how bad this world Cup can be to an Englishman's life.

 

Having said that England got much further than expected.

 

Trippier was by far the cream of the crop. Really impressed with his play. Kane was a disappointment in the SF, Alli a disappointment throughout.

 

Southgate seems to be getting a lot of plaudits but he is too stubborn and set in his ways to ever win anything.

 

It was clear that Young needed replacing earlier, he was dead on his feet and being skinned alive down the wing. It was obvious that Kane was having a bad day - unable to hit the target and too greedy to pass to teammates - he should have been subbed in the second half. It was obvious that Sterling was killing the backline with speed and movement but equally unable to score a goal for England in a hundred years. The second half shouted out for a deadly and fast striker to replace kane - England have the deadliest and fastest striker in the prem but chose not to put him on until the 120th minute or somewhere near there. It was obvious that Alli shouldn't even be on the park.

 

England should be happy with making the last four but unhappy with blowing the chance of a freak finals win - I seriously doubt that England will ever again get as good a chance to win the tournament and I don't expect us to make the WC SF again in my lifetime.

 

Well done lads but you could have done better - it was Croatia and Lovren!

You know what FIF, I agree with you in no small part.

 

Southgate is clearly one of life's good guys.

 

But I find it interesting if a little puzzling that, for someone lauded as being highly intelligent and pragmatic, he was exposed as ultimately being very 1-dimensional?! Not just in last night's match, but as I anticipated, over the last 18 months, he clearly didn't think it worth forging another approach and playing style to go to when things were not working with the Kane's and Alli's of the team.

I thought I was underestimating him but no, he had no answers when things became precarious. And you could see it coming at least 20 minutes before they equalised. Where's the foresight? Agree it will be difficult for him to win anything, unless he starts exploiting other ideas, utilising under-used players strengths in training camp, etc, etc...

[Russell sprout]

I don’t buy all this ‘it’s a success’ bullshit,

weve failed again,

the mentalality kids are brought up on,

such as it’s the taking part that’s counts,

that second best is acceptable,

were england,anything other than success is failure,

Our record in this World Cup is 

won 3,

lost 2,

drew 1(won on penalties)

 

now we we might beat Belgium and come 3rd,we might lose,

that could be 3 defeats in 7 and folk are saying that’s a successful World Cup,

croatia are a solid team,but we’ve really missed an opportunity here imo,

vardy could have scored all the goals Kane did,who again was disappointing,

hes a number 9 who spent most of his time on the half way line

 

 

[Kendal Fox]

3 minutes ago, Russell sprout said:

I don’t buy all this ‘it’s a success’ bullshit,

weve failed again,

the mentalality kids are brought up on,

such as it’s the taking part that’s counts,

that second best is acceptable,

were england,anything other than success is failure,

Our record in this World Cup is 

won 3,

lost 2,

drew 1(won on penalties)

 

now we we might beat Belgium and come 3rd,we might lose,

that could be 3 defeats in 7 and folk are saying that’s a successful World Cup,

croatia are a solid team,but we’ve really missed an opportunity here imo,

vardy could have scored all the goals Kane did,who again was disappointing,

hes a number 9 who spent most of his time on the half way line

 

 

The other thing for me with regard to Kane is that, that golden boot that he'll probably win will have to be one of the most meaningless of any World Cup.

 

3 came from penalties and all of those were literally handed to him by the opposition on a silver platter, one was pure luck from a deflection that he had no way of knowing about and the others were from set pieces.

Even though I wanted us to go deep in the tournament, I couldn't help but think there was something a bit hollow about him racing to 4 or 5 goals after the first week or so, knowing that none were from open play. And when it came for him to show that he could score in open play, he was found well short.

[Stadt]

**** sake it's like some of you want us to fail, it's clearly a step in the right direction. We could have Hodgson in charge picking a crocked Wilshere again. Southgate wasn't perfect and we didn't expect him to be but for once there's a belief amongst the players and the squad which is worth more than a few decisions he should have made. Sancho, Foden and Sessengnon are all very bright prospects that are yet to be capped. There's a fair amount of managers on the top fight that have a greater interest in trusting English players than we've had previously in Pochettino, Pep, Klopp and Puel to some extent.

 

We struggled to create anything in open play which was partly the system but that was to play to our strengths but also the lack of ingenuity in the players, Alli and Lingard as the central two is about as creative as we could get and it still wasn't enough. I've got an inkling Maddison may well become the creative 10 Leicester and England need but it's hard to tell.

[joachim1965]

Only England can have the two deadliest strikers in the country at their disposal and only play one.

Any other country would be having both in the team.

[Chico1958]

I feel for you people............... I really do

 

This really should of been the year England got through to final at the very least

 

As a Welshman I was hoping it would happen for you

 

Mainly cos I feel the pain nearly every time Wales play and I wouldn't wish that on anybody

 

 

[Izzy]

1 hour ago, Russell sprout said:

I don’t buy all this ‘it’s a success’ bullshit,

weve failed again,

the mentalality kids are brought up on,

such as it’s the taking part that’s counts,

that second best is acceptable,

were england,anything other than success is failure,

Our record in this World Cup is 

won 3,

lost 2,

drew 1(won on penalties)

 

now we we might beat Belgium and come 3rd,we might lose,

that could be 3 defeats in 7 and folk are saying that’s a successful World Cup,

croatia are a solid team,but we’ve really missed an opportunity here imo,

vardy could have scored all the goals Kane did,who again was disappointing,

hes a number 9 who spent most of his time on the half way line

 

 

It’s a ‘success’ in terms of us over performing against expectations before the tournament began.

 

It’s a ‘success’ how far we progressed compared to Germany, Argentina, Spain etc.

 

It’s a ‘success’ that the country has finally embraced the national team again and this young squad will only improve together.

 

It’s all relative. We have absolutely no divine right to win the World Cup 

[AlloverthefloorYesNdidi]

Just now, Chico1958 said:

I feel for you people............... I really do

 

This really should of been the year England got through to final at the very least

 

As a Welshman I was hoping it would happen for you

 

Mainly cos I feel the pain nearly every time Wales play and I wouldn't wish that on anybody

 

 

I'm half Welsh half English, support them both.  I also like to see Ireland do well and I would support Scotland if they qualified (hard to say that without sounding like a dig)

[AlloverthefloorYesNdidi]

3 minutes ago, Izzy Muzzett said:

It’s a ‘success’ in terms of us over performing against expectations before the tournament began.

 

It’s a ‘success’ how far we progressed compared to Germany, Argentina, Spain etc.

 

It’s a ‘success’ that the country has finally embraced the national team again and this young squad will only improve together.

 

It’s all relative. We have absolutely no divine right to win the World Cup 

Definitely.  The whole thing has been a success and i'm annoyed with myself I feel so shit about the result today

 

Nothing wrong with losing in the Semi.  Its just, the chances missed, the goals conceded, particularly the second, these are the things that sting

[Russell sprout]

4 minutes ago, Izzy Muzzett said:

It’s a ‘success’ in terms of us over performing against expectations before the tournament began.

 

It’s a ‘success’ how far we progressed compared to Germany, Argentina, Spain etc.

 

befour the tournament began we would have expected to play one of the above teams had we got this far,

the fact all the above teams had been knocked out further confirms my point in this being a missed opportunity,

suppose it all comes down to each and everyone’s expectations,

regardless of wheather I think we would win the World Cup,

being england we should expect to win the World Cup,semi final with the games we’ve had is not good enough in my opinion 

[bovril]

2 hours ago, AlloverthefloorYesNdidi said:

Yep.  Pretty shitty anywhere in Europe I imagine.  Here in Czech the shit smugness of continentals is a killer

Its always open season on hating England

Indeed. Pretty painful as I lived in the Balkans for a long time and lots of Facebook contacts are gleefully proclaiming their 'brothers' have made it to the final. Which is ironic because they normally all ****ing hate each other. 

[z-layrex]

All my Portuguese colleagues at work are over the moon we lost, I don't really get the hate.

[SouthStandUpperTier]

10 minutes ago, Izzy Muzzett said:

We have absolutely no divine right to win the World Cup 

Nobody on here thinks that. We do however expect our team to at least string 2 or 3 passes together. Couldn't do it. We do however expect our team to create some chances from open play. Couldn't do it. We do however expect our manager to change the team's shape to counter the opposition's tactical changes. Didn't do it.

 

Put down those pom-poms Izzy. England's 'success' at this tournament is an optical illusion. We're still miles away.

[AlloverthefloorYesNdidi]

6 minutes ago, bovril said:

Indeed. Pretty painful as I lived in the Balkans for a long time and lots of Facebook contacts are gleefully proclaiming their 'brothers' have made it to the final. Which is ironic because they normally all ****ing hate each other. 

Yeah, the bitterness is strong there. But I think they may be a bit United in their hatred of England?

Difficult to keep track of Balkans biases, takes a f***ing degree in and of itself

[AlloverthefloorYesNdidi]

6 minutes ago, z-layrex said:

All my Portuguese colleagues at work are over the moon we lost, I don't really get the hate.

Everyone seems to relish in it.  They interpret its coming home as arrogance and they think we expect to win every time

 

Somehow they dont know the truth is we expect to lose every time

[Izzy]

1 minute ago, SouthStandUpperTier said:

Nobody on here thinks that. We do however expect our team to at least string 2 or 3 passes together. Couldn't do it. We do however expect our team to create some chances from open play. Couldn't do it. We do however expect our manager to change the team's shape to counter the opposition's tactical changes. Didn't do it.

 

Put down those pom-poms Izzy. England's 'success' at this tournament is an optical illusion. We're still miles away.

 

9 minutes ago, Russell sprout said:

 

befour the tournament began we would have expected to play one of the above teams had we got this far,

the fact all the above teams had been knocked out further confirms my point in this being a missed opportunity,

suppose it all comes down to each and everyone’s expectations,

regardless of wheather I think we would win the World Cup,

being england we should expect to win the World Cup,semi final with the games we’ve had is not good enough in my opinion 

[bovril]

Just now, AlloverthefloorYesNdidi said:

Yeah, the bitterness is strong there. But I think they may be a bit United in their hatred of England?

Difficult to keep track of Balkans biases, takes a f***ing degree in and of itself

If we're being perfectly honest, England do sometimes come across as the Liverpool of International football. Lots of hubris followed by self-pity, and it winds other nations up a little. 

[Izzy]

5 minutes ago, SouthStandUpperTier said:

Nobody on here thinks that. We do however expect our team to at least string 2 or 3 passes together. Couldn't do it. We do however expect our team to create some chances from open play. Couldn't do it. We do however expect our manager to change the team's shape to counter the opposition's tactical changes. Didn't do it.

 

Put down those pom-poms Izzy. England's 'success' at this tournament is an optical illusion. We're still miles away.

Well we did string 2 or 3 passes together in the first half where I thought we played quite well.

 

I agree second half and extra time we didn't create much from open play. Our midfield was always going to be a problem from the day the squad was announced. 

 

Maybe Southgate could have changed things but he did what he thought was best in the moment and I won't criticize him for that. We had the youngest squad in the tournament and they tired badly and lacked the experience and composure to get over the line. It is what it is.

 

We are still a long way off but keep this squad togetherness and team spirit going and we might have a decent shout in 4 years time.

[leicsmac]

10 minutes ago, bovril said:

If we're being perfectly honest, England do sometimes come across as the Liverpool of International football. Lots of hubris followed by self-pity, and it winds other nations up a little. 

Mentioned this in another thread, but I think a lot of it tends to carry over from geopolitics sadly, as well as the hubris.

 

If you're a major world player in history and (to a lesser extent) now, more noise about your progress is going to be made around the world and more folks are either going to be enthusiastic or resentful based on their history with England/the UK.