Hi all, I woke up today not as disappointed as I thought I would be. Before the tournament I wanted a team that I could be proud of supporting and a decent cup run, and we have got that. For one month people weren't painfully tribal when it comes to which players they support and everyone got behind a thoroughly likable group of players.
The reality was that the weaknesses in our team were finally found last night, and we need to address them moving forward (which I believe we can with our exceptional pool of youth players):
- Our midfield isn't good enough. We simply cannot control a game which isn't good enough at this level. Henderson is our only midfielder who was playing and while he is good, he isn't Modric/Xavi levels of good and can't do it all by himself. At 1-0 up we should have slowed the game right down and defended with the ball, Dele/Lingard aren't of a quality to do this.
- Southgate, whilst being really likable and doing a good job. Is still a long way off being a top level manager, which will come with experience hopefully. His tactics (playing the SAME XI no matter what opposition) and in game management is quite poor. When your team isn't better than your opposition sometimes you need a tactical surprise to give you the edge.
- We lost the battle of the fullbacks. Strinic and Vrsaljko punished us with their dominance and created the width to allow Perisic to grow into the game.
- Kane/Sterling combination - while dangerous isn't what we should be working on. Kane is sacrificing his natural game to create for Sterling. While they looked good at points, Sterling's lack of goals in too much of a hindrance to carry.
- We hoofed it long too much. This team was meant to be built around having ball-players in defence yet they all panicked and bar Maguire looked for the Hollywood hoof time and time again (it was very Sven). Walker at RCB may be good vs the sides worse than us, but he should never play there again against a bigger team - it's very much square pegs/round holes.
All in all, that Croatia team were great and it is no real shame to lose narrowly to them. This team are building for the future and hopefully the next Euros we will be even stronger than we are currently.
What we can take from last nights game..
posted on 12/7/18
Mason Mount is another one.
posted on 12/7/18
Firstly , I am a big believer in good footballers having great technical ability. The ability to control the ball , the passing , using your body as a shield , a twist and a turn here to loose you market, not afraid to receive the ball in tight spaces etc. The problem we have in this country is we can do those things but i don’t believe it comes naturally.
Our passing from the back yesterday was woeful. Once anyone came anywhere close to us the ball was hoofed . Anytime our players had the ball and there was contact we invariably lost it, simple passes were misplaced, our so called world class players never showed up. At times it was embarrassing to watch .
Modric, Rakitic and others got the ball and made keeping possession easy , a shimmy and a shuffle here they created space for themselves to loose a feeble marker . Did Alli make a tackle all evening despite all his endless chasing. Where was the creativity from Midfield(blame Southgate for that. A static midfield lacking any semblance of guile !!).
Am sorry to say but players like Alli, sterling , Dier, Henderson and several others won’t even make the squad of several of the top sides but we are in this country quick to laud them.
Probably a blessing in disguise we failed to reach the final . I look at France and see Mpabbe, Griezmann, Kante, Dembele etc proper footballers who would have given us a footballing lesson. Still remember how they destroyed us with 1 touch football playing with 10 men in a friendly last year.
We have done well to make it this far but unfortunately when you win games people ignore performances .
I lamented on here how little football we played when we beat Panama but many were getting carried away.
Looking forward to the final . Think it will be great one to watch with 2 good footballing sides .
posted on 12/7/18
I disagree that France would have given us a lesson as I don't believe they are set up that way. Their team set-up bares resemblance to how Mourinho sets up teams for cup-competitions. I think it would have been a 1-0/2-0 controlled victory for them - not necessarily a lesson. I also think their team dynamic struggles offensively.
posted on 12/7/18
Yup, Deschamp is a cautious manager. Although France are capable of free style footy, he’s put the shackles on. So far so good
posted on 12/7/18
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posted on 12/7/18
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posted on 12/7/18
comment by Tyler Durden (U21874)
posted 4 hours, 8 minutes ago
We dont need 5 at the back
We need a left footed LB
Our midfield options are poor
Sterling isn't good enough to start
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Hi Louis
posted on 12/7/18
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posted on 12/7/18
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posted on 12/7/18
GRAAAAAAAASSSSSSSS