WORLD CUP: Day 29/30 - the hangover

I think it’s ended up being that the semis and final will be at Wembley as well as three group games and maybe one more knockout match?

Rakitic is totally a DiSser

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They only got to play at Wembley in 96 because they beat Holland and Scotland and won the group. Would’ve been elsewhere if they had finished second

This is a very lopsided view of the game. Colombia were shithouses. Everyone else its been similar levels of gamesmanship on both sides

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I suspect that in time we may appreciate going out at this stage and to a very good tactical side more than we might have losing a final to a perfunctionary France. It kind of feels like it was about the right time for us to exit, and the better team on the night went through.

It will hopefully mean that Southgate’s ideas and methods have been justified to the point of him getting a new deal, and any players around the squad who hadn’t already bought into how he wants to do things might.

Ultimately, rather than point to individual instances like a missed chance, substitution, or likelihood of a key player hiding an injury, you’ve just got to admit that quality-wise we didn’t really have enough. We still lack that midfielder who the ball can stick to, and a second clinical attacker. Maybe Foden and Sancho or Sessegnon can be those players in time.

I think Southgate’s canny enough to know that tactics depend on personnel. We played to our strengths - playing out from the back against teams who didn’t press well, delivery from wide areas, and set-pieces. Perhaps in two years time our strengths will be different.

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Reckon we would’ve done Croatia with one Harry Winks in the team.

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These are just those auto-generated names you get in Champ Man after playing 50 seasons.

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It’s Air Force One. Trump mauled to death by ruddy brave three lions.

Low-key England player of the tournament for me might be Kyle Walker btw.

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100% ^This
As I said upthread, this loss doesn’t seem quite as painful as 90 or 96 (and 98 actually) because the circumstances were different. Felt like we were robbed on those occasions

Think he was probably our most important player for our tactical set up and his pace bailed us out a few times, but was also at fault for a couple of goals and, no fault of his own, doesn’t really know how to defend a cross as a centre back.

Fackin coming home innit

I’m saying that the English team were dicks, and that’s fine and to be expected from any professional football team. And it would be naive for a team not to be

They had much more quality than Croatia though. Game was over before it started…

https://twitter.com/moe_yasmin/status/1017199546458308609?s=21

(not a bam up by the way, some people just get far too caught up in the hype)

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I think it was very important to have him able to cover Trippier in his familiar defensive areas as Trippier is not strong defensively IMO.

The positional discipline required to play as the right or left side of a defensive three is not something I thought he had though and he was really impressive IMO (and yeah, has the pace to bail himself out for the odd positional lapse)

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Quite fond of Mandzukic and his shark face.

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I thought he was responsible for the first Croatia goal last night and was by far the weakest part of the team for the rest of the match.

Can’t look past Maguire or Trippier for England’s player of the tournament personally.

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I don’t like many/any of the Independent writers so haven’t read this in full so apologies if i’ve interpreted it incorrectly, but i think it’s probably reasonable to criticise the changes last night. Moreso taking Walker off when we already knew Trippier was struggling, but taking Sterling off as well. The game was already slipping away, but we were getting completely overrun in midfield and he was our only real outball.

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Quality wise is there really much of a gap though?

Kane is one of the best strikers in the world. Alli/Sterling/Henderson all key for their respective clubs, who have all had great seasons. An arguable decline in top class defenders across the leagues means that Trippier, Walker, Stones and even maybe Maguire are among the best in their positions.

Completely agree that England’s main weakness is a good midfielder to transfer the ball quickly onto attack, which conversely is exactly Croatia’s main strength…

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England only played two games against challenging opposition, Belgium and Croatia, and lost both.
Was just a lucky draw wasn’t it, and fortunate coming second in the group.
Looking forward to this statue of Gareth Southgate being built.

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