That's five defenders, one goalie and two midfielders (which adds up to 8 by the way), not seven defenders.
Unless toying with Arsenal in the cup
Shaw had more touches in Germany's half:
Rice is pretty much a CB playing in midfield and Pickford is technically a defender so that’s 7.
I’m not really slagging off the performance, in fact I’m buzzing we won. Doesn’t change the fact we have a very conservative team selection with 6/7 defenders out there which just isn’t the way I’d like us to play. Ultimately if we win I don’t care at international level.Shaw had more touches in Germany's half:
And so did Trippier:
What's interesting is that Gosens, Kimmich, Kroos and Goretzka didn't. If anything, Germany had 8 defensive players on the pitch to England's 6.
I honestly can't work out of you're joking or just have a very, very unorthodox take on football.
Shaw and Trippier weren't branded with theword 'defender' on their buttocks at birth.
Can they be as attacking as genuine attackers though? We left players like Grealish, Sancho and Foden on the bench to accommodate a more defensive system. Again well done Southgate, I criticised it but it worked well on the day. Struggling to see it was anything other than a conservative led approach though.
The number 7 is largely irrelevant but the point is we had 7/8 defensive players out of 11 on the pitch. Credit where it’s due it was a good call because we won. Don’t think anyone can claim it was pretty though, or offered great football.
Luke Shaw is definitely not a fully fledged attacker. He knows it and he has scored 3 careers goals out of 266 games.
But to say that and claim Ole has never done that is nonsense. United have played with 3 at the back with Fred, McT or Matic as the midfield duo.
We have very rarely used that system and I'd argue Fred and McTominay are not purely defensive midfielders anyway especially when compared to Rice. I've criticised Ole at times for not being brave enough but I think its clear Southgate takes that to the next level considering some of the attacking options he has sat on the bench. Ultimately it doesn't really matter because club football and international football have different requirements and expectations. I just want England to win however they can, with Utd I fully expect us to play well and win in style.
If it works, couldn't care less in all honesty. Southgate's team selections used to wind me up at the start of the tournament because I thought it was a waste of all the attacking talent we had available. We're overwhelming favourites to reach the final, and in a position where not winning the whole thing would feel like a massive disappointment. I'm completely OK with Southgate's preferences now.
Yeah, I didn't like his selections and like many others I wanted England to make full use of their attacking talent. But end of the day it's a month or so long tournament where only thing that matters is winning.
We're not overwhelming favourites at all and if we don't win the competition it will not be a massive disappointment. We have the youngest and most inexperienced squad left in the tournament and overall the least experienced in the whole thing. We won our group for only the third time ever and reached the quarter finals without conceding a goal. We beat a major nation in the knockouts for the one of the few times in our history and it was psychologically the worst draw we could possibly get to overcome that. Unless we put in a pathetic display against Ukraine then the tournament represents progress.
Is this a parody? Feel like it's the total opposite? Every English person is rejoicing, and everybody non-English is starting to hate the team because of the fans hyperbole and behaviour?
:0) I can almost believe that!
Perhaps an overstatement on my part, but do you not feel we're huge favourites to at least reach the final looking at the remaining teams on this side of the bracket? I'm not even remotely suggesting it will be easy. Far from it, but I think we would be big favourites against each of the other 3 remaining teams. I don't think it's such a controversial take.
You could also argue that many of them are also part of the attack when the team are going forward.
But how many has Luke Shaw had an assist in?
Sure but at the cost have actual specialist attacking players on the pitch. I'm pretty sure he will revert back to the 4 against Ukraine for that reason and we will see either Mount or Grealish start.
We're favourites to get to the final sure but not huge favourites I don't think. Denmark in particular are a very solid international side with a special motivation here. We played them twice in the Nations League last year. First was 0-0 and then we lost 0-1, Maguire was sent off fairly early in the loss and they scored from a free kick. Very tight games no matter how you look at it. They are 10th in the FIFA rankings which is a couple of places higher than Germany at the moment.
Fair enough, I admit that was an overstatement on my part, but it was never a chest beating we're the best or we're the absolute worst for me. It's perfectly reasonable to adjust expectations the deeper we go in the tournament, especially when previous tournament favourites start dropping out. We can disagree on how to accurately sum up our chances. We both agree we're favourites to at least reach the final, but your objection is just the degree to which I think we're favourites.
I was a penalty yes. In the first game they shaded it I think but I actually think we were the better side with 10 men even though we lost in the return game. Either way it's avery tough game if we play them. They don't have the stars that Germany have but they do have a cohesive side where everyone knows what they're doing and generally a high standard of player throughout the XI.
I think it's safe to say we agree 95% of the way on this. There are no easy games left, and we certainly haven't had any easy games throughout the tournament.
At doing the job Southgate wants? Probably.
There're quite a few options England have at RB. Alexander-Arnold, Trippier, AWB, Walker and James are all very good in different ways. It depends what Southgate wants from his RB but Trippier or Walker would be his preferred choice. If walker plays in a back three then Trippier seems to suit the RWB position pretty well.
I don't see why Tyrone Mings couldn't slot in at CB with Kyle Walker shifting out to right wingback. Walker is far more effective from an attacking perspective, where England struggle the most in this set up. Also, I am halfway convinced Trippier is still a member of the first team squad due to that free-kick that happened. That one time. Many moons ago.
Yeah true. It'd reduce the defensive burden on TAA if he had another CB there to cover as well.
Mings is a much worse option at centre back than Trippier is as a wing back.
Absolutely.
Agreed completely. Mings is not a terrible player but he's a lot worse than Maguire or Stones.
