He is not entirely wrong about the fullbacks, but seeing both fullback are usually attacking for their clubs, you have to look at the manager as to why they weren't doing it. It wasn't one fullback being cautious, it was both of them.
I thought Mount was more of a goal threat. But agree with you about Philips and Rice.
i thought James looked either like a rabbit in the headlights, confused or constrained against Scotland. It wasn’t the Chelsea version that we got.
Yep.
I thought James was tidy enough but completely inhibited. It was very strange. I think we gave far too much respect to Robertson down that side, we treated him like prime Gareth Bale. A good player, yes, but you're always going to need your full backs for width when you've got Foden nominally operating from wide positions.
Thought we looked remarkably like United, why we had two DM's I don't know, hoping for a moment of brilliance from Harry Kane. It could have been one of our matchday threads at certain times during last season. It is like Italy have the manager our players would thrive under and we have a traditional Italian manager.
It's certainly possible, but 4 points is probably enough to qualify as one of the best 3rd placed teams.
Do you think that's Southgate's idea?
That would still potentially mean playing the winners of Group F in the quarters.Setup well for us to draw with Czech Republic and they top the group on GD so we play the second place team from Group E, even if it's Spain. Better than Germany or France maybe if we go through top to play the second place of group F.
After going out to Iceland in R16 last time I think England will want to try and get further.
I see where you're coming from. But I think it has too significant an effect on the team shape for it not to be the manager's idea. Southgate would have to be in on it. If not for the first game, then definitely by the second.
If England are thinking this way, then the Czech probably would be too. Lose to England and they finish 2nd or 3rd with an easier R16. Personally I think going for a draw for just an easier R16 doesn't make much sense when the QF and SF are likely to be very tough.Setup well for us to draw with Czech Republic and they top the group on GD so we play the second place team from Group E, even if it's Spain. Better than Germany or France maybe if we go through top to play the second place of group F.
After going out to Iceland in R16 last time I think England will want to try and get further.
Tbh, I've never been a fan of teams putting that much offensive pressure on players that are still considered defenders. However, what's more annoying about this instance is that Gary used it to effectively relieve Southgate of the pressure of not playing either Grealish or Sancho; whilst also choosing to play with both Kalvin-Phillips and Declan Rice. My issue with him recently is that the favoritism he has towards certain players and managers is far too obvious for someone who is supposed to be Sky's leading pundit. His job is to provide an analysis of games to fans, a lot of whom do not actually understand what their seeing. When you refrain from criticizing certain players because you have personal relationships with them, constantly bashing ( usually foreign) players that you don't have relationships with, protecting certain managers, whilst also constantly lambasting others despite similar results, it becomes a bit deceptive. He's not the only one that does this, but I expect more from him as I do view him as more intelligent in regard to the game that some of his sky contemporaries.
Couldn't understand us having both Rice and Phillips. It was overkill, it would have freed up another attacking option.
Everybody bangs on about Haaland, yet Gareth chooses to ignore one of his supply lines. Kane could have benefited greatly from Sancho being on the pitch.
Yeah I think he's overcomplicating things unnecessarily. Play your best players in their best positions as a starting point. It also doesn't help that Kane seems exhausted and a yard or two off the pace. Southgate does seem to have players he trusts and sticks with blindly (step forward Sterling) and definitely seems too 'safety first' for a side blessed with so much attacking talent. I'd rather see us go out all guns blazing with swashbuckling footie in the semis than lose in the final having played timid, nip and tuck football all the way.
Calling it negative may actually be overrating Southgate. I don't just feel its negative, I think he's legitimately making stupid decisions based on biases and favoritism. To start with, in the friendlies, he had the opportunity to build familiarity within the starting 11. He instead chose to use it to appease Lingard and Godfrey because he didn't want to look bad. In fact, he started by wasting everyone's time with that 33 man squad. In the friendlies, Grealish ends up looking like England's star man, to repay him for those performances and the form he has going in, he places him on the bench, despite him being more productive than either Sterling or Foden. He then plays Trippier at left back despite that player barely even playing in that position previously. If he wanted solidity, he would have put AWB in the squad.
Yeah, I think the World Cup gave us a slightly false sense of this side's progress under him. Still boggles my mind that he got the gig in the first place. It's like the FA is intentionally trying to ruin the best squad we've had in years.
Well that's kind of irrelevant when our attacking players have failed to do the basics.
Kane needs to show some basic movement first before anyone can create chances for him.
But it is his fault for setting them up as he has and for putting the teams out that he has. Agreed that the front three have been poor but that's also on him to a large extent.
I was hoping for something average from Kane, it would be progress.
Well when Kane and sterling can't play basic football we cannot blame it on anything but them.
Yeah, agreed, sterling shouldn't have been on the pitch. Kane...I do wonder whether Southgate is indulging this new fad for Kane as a player that drops and playmakes. If so, that's on him to an extent. He should tell him to do what he does best and just sniff out goals.
Hasn't Kane got into the habit of dropping deep for Spurs, maybe it has just crossed over into his performances for England.
Hard to say what Southgate does or doesn't. He's got no vision imo and is making the easy decisions over the right ones.
Yep, bit worrying if Southgate isn't correcting it. Works for spurs but not for us.
Agreed
He’s not doing that at all. He’s criticising the set up. That’s directly criticising Southgate if perhaps stopping short of saying his name.
