Quite amazed at the criticism towards England and Southgate in this thread but if this World Cup has taught me anything it's that a small section of people are joyless, miserable, nit picking feckers.
Nobody, nofeckinbody thought England were getting to the Semi Finals of the World Cup. I can't remember who but someone showed an array of comments regarding how far England would get and 2nd round exit was unanimous. I think I saw 'Colombia will beat England' about fifty times in that thread.
"The route was easy".
No shit, but who cares, people must have short memories, this England national team failed to beat USA and Algeria at the 2010 World Cup and barely got past Slovakia, that was a team with far superior players. England couldn't beat anyone in Brazil four years ago. Only have to look at the last Euros and England couldn't beat Russia or Slovakia and lost to Iceland. At least this team had the decency to beat the teams at their level and below.
"Southgate tactics and subs".
He was probably the most inexperienced manager at the World Cup, surprise surprise he's not got it all figured out, his game management still needs work, who'd have fecking thought it. He's found a formation and a style of play and he's working on it, the players like him, make no mistake this England team on paper is bang average. I dunno about others but I actually enjoy watching this England team play, which I haven't been able to say in about 12 years. They actually look like they give a shit and are trying to do something. This is the first England team in my lifetime I can genuinely say doesn't include a single World class player and yet it's the one that's reached the furthest in any competition.
Yes, Ali, Sterling could and probably should have been dropped, possibly even an unfit Kane but really is there anyone on the bench who could have changed things significantly. Stop with the fecking nitpicking.
"England didn't create chances and were unconvincing throughout".
Well yeah if you ignore the catalogue of chances created in the Tunisia game, the 6 goals scored against Panama and the complete control of Sweden in the quarter final. Could even mention a number of wasted chances in the 1st half of the Semi Final. Edged out by a Croatian side with the best player at the tournament and some rubbish players from Barcelona, Juventus and Inter.
"Haha, its not coming home".
Do people not know the coming home thing was you know a joke? yeah sure the part time fans joined in and made it slightly cringe but it was something that started off as self mocking.
Basically back in the day England had amazing players and fans and media would predict and expect a lot and would inevitably end up with egg on their face because the team would fail spectacularly. Well what England fans did this time was accept the team was actually a bit shit, not really expect anything and decide to sing it's coming home anyway as a way to laugh at themselves. Unfortunately a lot of people (mostly Irish, Scottish and Welsh people) are miserable fecks, probably because they've never seen their nation play in a World Cup, your fault not ours...
"England fans and ex players were getting too excited and carried away"
Ah yeah, supporters of a team unexpectedly getting to a Semi Finals never get excited, in fact I'm amazed the England players weren't being stoned by England fans. Belgium have one of the best teams in the world, finished a place above England and they're basically having festivals of celebration in Brussels, but yeah it's only England.
Anyone remember that time Wales got to a Semi Final and all their players and the nation descended into deep depression? No? me neither. Fecking joyless feckers. The best this generation of England fans have seen is a 3-0 2nd round win over Denmark in 2002 and people are surprised they were excited and getting carried away with being in a Semi