https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-eng...ill-boost-team
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Not impressed at all with that Modric guy. He may be brilliant for Real Madrid but seemed pretty ordinary tonight.
1 shot on target after Trippiers goal. Just not good enough.
Watching England in the 2nd half and ET reminded me of watching the Jacks (on Sky) i.e a doomed team. No pace, creativity, no shots on target and when they did have the ball woefully slow in distribution and getting the ball forward. Croatia deserved it. If someone built a 'Gareth Bale' factory they could certainly sell one to England and a Rambo and Joe Allen as well. Let's hope our boys make the next one and we can really take interest.
Croatia were superb from 45 mins on. Deserved every bit of that win, well done lads.
England have very little creativity
England better team until Croatia scored and should have been out of sight.
Don't even think England dominated in the first half, especially not in the manner that is being made out. Croatia were miles better than England from the start of the second half, in fact, any England performance this tournament. Kane will get away with that miss as he is the golden boy, but truth be told, that lost them the game. Hope Croatia do France.
THIS!
Watch the whole game back. Croatia controlled the first half even though they were one down. England were opportunistic (and should have been two up). Croatia were clearly the more intelligent and IMO better footballers. It was as if england didn't really want to play with the ball. I suppose that was the idea, don't try and play Croatia at a game you are going to lose.
I can see what Henderson brings to the side in terms of balance, England look far worse when Dier is playing instead of him, but playing both Lingard & Alli makes little sense to me (you can throw Sterling in there as well). I'm not sure the 3 at the back worked as well for them as has been made out
That three at the back system with the full backs is lovely when you play against teams that generally don't attack down the flanks, or have creativity (See Tunisia, Panama, and Colombia w/o Rodriguez and Sweden.. and they struggled in two of those games!) but the two times they play teams with creativity, and players who can actually play the ball, they lose. Flawed system, that got overhyped by some ok performances against below average teams. I look forward to the next tournament, as I really do not think this style will work once teams have looked at it properly. As for Lingard, and Alli, well they better hope Phil Foden and Jadon Sancho get proper game time, the pair of them are garbage against quality opponents. Mexico must be kicking themselves they were so sloppy against Sweden.
Do you think it was a midfield three? It always struck me as a midfield one - Jordan Henderson was faced with an impossible workload once England started playing against sides who were contenders to win the tournament and I presumed one of the more attacking players would be left out to accommodate a "proper" central midfielder. In Southgate's defence, he's hardly spoiled for choice in that part of the field (although Der Kaiser is right to point out that may well change in the not too distant future) as is proved by how close Jake Livermore got to making the final twenty three - would Aaron Ramsey and/or Joe Allen have started last night if they were English, I reckon they would have, but possibly Southgate was so wedded to the system he played that I'm wrong?
Having tipped France and England to progress against opponents that were more tired than them, I was congratulating myself halfway through the second half for getting things right. I don't agree with the argument that Croatia were England's equal, or better, in the first half and I thought they were pretty comfortable until they conceded the equaliser, but once that went in there was only one team in it. Huge credit to Croatia for being the fitter, bolder and committed side for the last hour of the game, but Modric and Rakitic and the rest were helped because they suddenly had so much more room in the middle of the park as England's lack of specialists in there finally told against them.
As for England, I was surprised to feel quite sorry for them at the end, but that didn't last too long because, in essence, what was being said about them by some beforehand (things would look different when they faced a team of true quality) was proven to be the case - England were probably one of the weakest teams to have made a World Cup Semi Final in truth.
Despite everything that has been said about this English squad, at the end of the day, they were just not good enough, end of! Especially when they played against a team like Croatia who played with more drive, ambition, and quality. I agree with a lot the other bob wilson has posted but the most significant part of his post for me and surely for a lot of others was: England were probably one of the weakest teams to have made a World Cup Semi Final in truth.
The midfield was a definite game changer. I think Southgate was right to stick with the tactic that has worked so far this world cup in playing with pace in behind Kane on the counter.
A bit of composure in front of goal in a few occasions would have put England into the final, but in truth the problem runs deeper than that. For whatever reason England never ever produce midfielders who can control the tempo of a match. If they had a Xavi or a Pirlo in their ranks last night they would have won the game but they tend to play with one pace and that is panic mode.
There have been some encouraging signs from an English point of view and they have centre backs who are far more comfortable on the ball now and won't give the ball straight back to the opposition which you can't do at the very top level, however I commend Southgate in that he seems to (unlike the English pundits) have his finger on the pulse and his comment about "we are where we are" indicated to me that he knew they were currently punching above their weight.
There are definitely some good players on the horizon for England to supplement a promising squad but the truth is unless their given opportunity to flourish in the cut throat premier league they'll never reach their potential.
Love the way the media are trying to put a positive spin on this defeat this morning! :hehe:
Yeah that's pretty much what I'm getting at. Alli plays off Kane at Spurs but Sterling is already in that position, albeit a little wider. I don't really know what Lingards best position is. Maybe all three play between the lines and that's too many. I made the very easy prediction that good midfielders would destroy that England midfield and so it was.
I don't rate Dier that highly but he should have been in for Lingard to give some kind of stability and base, particularly with a back three that can easily get stretched and leave holes.
In the past England have been too regimented, but this team is too naive. A lot of flair and creativity but nothing produced and most of the goals were set pieces.
Away from tactics, I think a lack of big game experience did for them. Henderson in a CL final - who else has played really big semis or finals? Has Pickford (who had an excellent tournament) even played in Europe? Up against Modric with four Champs League winners medals.
Completely agree with this, as, incidentally, does Harry Redknapp who sounded doubtful though as to whether it would happen - truth is, managers like Arri are the reason there's a problem because, from memory, he was hardly the sort who would only resort to splashing the cash once he had given the best young players at whatever club he was with a chance to prove themselves in the senior team first.
On BBC this morning (didn't see who was talking) -
the rest of the world "are scared" of how England are developing as a football team.
They're going to win the next tournament(s)
With all the praise they are getting, you would think they played great football and were unlucky.
They scraped past Tunisia, with a 91st minute goal, then they needed a pelanty to draw with a depleted Colombia, if the Swede's would have attacked 'um, instead of trying to play "tippy tappy", they would have put 'um under pressure.
Then, the first time they come up against any kind of side, they lose.
Sterling for all his running about, i don't think he created one chance, the cheat, also known as Deli Ali, scored a header my 9 year old grand-daughter could have put in the net.
Me thinks, they are talking and thinking above themselves.
It's all a bit tetchy at work!
I only mentioned that the ref. had a good game exept for the pelanty that Lovren could / should have had, apparently I'm the only person in the world who thinks that way!
I need to be elsewhere until they've cooled off (a couple of weeks maybe?)
'Underestimated' Croatia stars twist the knife after beating England via @OnefootballEN. Read it here:
https://1.ftb.al/IICZQdNiuO