World Cup KO: En-ger-land, En-ger-land, En-ger-land (was 'Group G')

PrestonHammer

We've done better than I thought we would do but we lack a proper midfield when playing the better teams. We had no creativity from midfield, all we had from the beginning of the second half was the hoof.

whupathman

So both Belgium and England lose in Semi's they should win, any guess the common theme? Yup a core of spurs players, Kane missing in action and I thought he was poor in the quarters as well. NVM Euro's next.

OldCastleSwift

PrestonHammer said:

The midfield has been non existent.

Yup. Out biggest weakness. Alli and Henderson had bang average tournaments, IMO.

It was a fun ride, but just not good enough in the end.

SuzanneClaret

A much better tournament than we have seen in a very long time and one I’ve very much enjoyed.

I was odd to feel joy and not embarrassment whilst watching the national team.

#proud

baracks_a_hammer

Valiant and honourable effort, but came short against the first half decent quality opposition faced (except the Belgium game which had nothing riding on it). It was such a great chance.

Yeoldhammer

We fell into the trap of ball back to defenders and hoof. Thought Henderson was ok. Just don't get Ali and Lindgard they don't put themselves into positions to pick up the ball. Kane became anonymous and just a target man. We lacked ideas and fitness.

IronHerb

Step up Jack Wilshere. ;poormf

baracks_a_hammer

I was just thinking that when they said we lacked someone who could pick that killer pass

;hmm

baracks_a_hammer

I’m trying to get a response from my Airbnb host in Dubrovnik - I think I’ll be waiting a while

Hammerex

On the bright side " sir" Robert Moore is still the only English man to lift the
World Cup.

claretandbluesky

Did better than expected and provided a world cup us fans would never have anticipated, however I think much of it down to the passage we had rather than our ability. It really doesn't stack up on that we have suddenly turned some corner nationally.

Tunisia won
Panama won
Belgium Lost
Colombia drew ( through on penalties)
Sweden won
Croatia drew (lost in extra time)

It's hardly form that suggests some new dawn. What was positive was Southgate showed class and managed to create a good team spirit and will have served his players in terms of furthering them very well.

ClaretandBlueforLife

Well done England and well done Gareth Southgate and his staff, you gave me back my passion for England which had been lost/killed off under the dull direness of Roy Hodgson. We’ll never know how well England would have done under Alladyce but I feel sure we’d not have progressed as far under him.
Disappointed yes, but from my pre World Cup prediction that we’d struggle to get out of the group and be home early that I posted somewhere on here a few months back Gareth Southgate and his team have proved me wrong and I am happy to admit I was so wrong.

chicagohammer

A really good effort, Southgate proved himself to be a class act and the team can hold their heads high.

Shame to fall at the last hurdle, losing a semi final in any tournament is tough, but we lacked something in the final third, that killer pass, first touch control and general awareness.

Was a fun ride ;clap

baracks_a_hammer

On the bright side, it would have been hard to utter the words Dele Alli MBE

Vorselaarhammer

I think Croatia deserved it, no complaints.

But the young lions did us proud and put a smile back on our national team...

Look forward to watching England again....

mike

We came out second half a different team.Instead of looking for the second goal we sat back and started to defend deep.It was only a matter of time before crotia scored.
In the end Croatia deserved it and anyway being a club over country sort of person i get far more upset when west ham lose.

WHU_Champo_league_in_7_years

Has to make you wonder when he brought on Dier for Henderson....surely a wilshere or shelvey wouldve been better choice

Hell even carroll...i dont rate him particularly highly but you need to get the ball up the pitch why not lump him on hes effective with what he does...surely hes worth more than Welbeck who had no role

All in all i was disappointed as i dont rate croatia but we went a hell of a lot fruther then i thought we would

MIAHammer

We lacked creativity from our midfield. Once we got out of the group stage, we struggled to score from open play.
Good overall result from this WC as we never expected to get this far but disappointed in our performance today.

MIAHammer

On a separate note, I didn’t even realize Kyle Walker was playing until the start of the 2nd half. Both my mate and I looked at each other at the same time and said “was he playing in the 1st half or did we make a substitution?”. We had to look up the team sheet to figure it out.
And it had nothing to do with the fact that we were watching the game in a bar. ;whistle

baracks_a_hammer

I’ve heard a lot said about how England have “overachieved”. I may be in the minority but I don’t agree with that. I do agree that we have got further than expected, but that is a different point - that was due to a series of results elsewhere opening up that side of the draw completely. England were in probably one of the easiest groups to get out of (yet only just scraped a draw v Tunisia). A side littered with players who command fees of 50m plus. On any given day you would expect the side to beat Columbia minus their star player, and certainly Sweden, who no longer had theirs. And more often than not we would expect to beat Croatia. What an opportunity blown. Big time.

Pearces_Left_Foot

We needed that 2nd goal in the first half when well on top Kane’s double miss was that big chance he could of squared it for a tap in for sterling. Bringing on two spurs players made the spurs effect too much no wonder we lost I am not sure Kane is the right man to be captain I did not see him encouraging players etc in fact I barely saw him atall since the Columbia game. England have a good core of hard working players we need to add a left back to replace young and some creativity in midfield and maybe a few less spurs players lol

PrestonHammer

baracks.

We beat Tunisia, admittedly we scored the winner in the 92nd minute but we created more than enough chances to win it well before then.

In the second half last night we could have done with Andy Carroll because a lot of the time we were just hoofing up the field to either Vida or Lovren's heads.

baracks_a_hammer

It’s at times like this you appreciate having a player like Arnie - someone with that bit of magic who can make things happen and turn a game. There was no such X factor in the England squad.

OldCastleSwift

Baracks ;ok

Agree with all of that.

When you break it down, we scraped past an average Tunisia team, beat a pub team with the aid of a couple of penalties, limped past Colombia, beat Sweden and lost to the two half-decent teams we played.

Now I don't mean to be negative - I actually like what Southgate is trying to do - but there have been a few questions marks over some of his decisions for me. The squad for a start; no Wilshere or Shelvey, as has previously been said, and Welbeck's inclusion were a bit short-sighted IMO. His persistence with playing Sterling and Alli, who I thought had a terrible tournament, was also frustrating, and he left it too late to sub them yesterday, too.

I guess I'm just a bit sore because it was our best opportunity to win a major tournament in my lifetime. I don't think Germany will be as poor as they have been this time round, and to have made the semi-finals without having to face any major nations is a situation that is unlikely to present itself again any time soon.

baracks_a_hammer

At the end of the day, sometimes when the door is slightly ajar as an underdog (which in terms of the tournament as a whole at the start England would have been), you have to seize the moment. Just like Greece did. Just like Leicester did. There might not be such an opportunity again for a long while.

OldCastleSwift

PrestonHammer said:

In the second half last night we could have done with Andy Carroll because a lot of the time we were just hoofing up the field to either Vida or Lovren's heads.

I said when the squad was announced that Carroll would have been of more value than Welbeck. He is a proper Plan B; perhaps not in keeping with Southgate's philosophy, but he's proved with us on a couple of occassions during the season just gone that he can be very effective from the bench (versus West Brom and Stoke).

Missed a trick in leaving him out, IMO.

baracks_a_hammer

And another thing. Just how bad a miss was the Kane rebound? I mean he pulled it back to create the angle and from, what, 2 yards how on earth did he miss the target? Shocking. That was the game right there. If you are truly world class you simply cannot fluff your lines in moments like these. Top level sport takes no prisoners

IronHerb

The keeper saved it.

baracks_a_hammer

Did he? His rebound hit the post, then came out and hit the keeper? I’m talking about the rebound not the original save by the keeper

Pearces_Left_Foot

For me its another time in big games where Kane has gone missing it has happened too many times FA Cup semi final , PL title run ins and now England games he is great at banging them in against lesser opposition but when he comes to a game with some pressure against quality opponents he does n't do it. He is a v good players but nowhere need world class Manduzic had barely a sniff but when his chance came bang back of the net.