England v Poland (Wed)

I've previously doubted Declan Rice but have to say he's played well today I think too, in a not great overall performance from the team.
 
Lee Dixon sums it up - Gareth will say we kept plugging away. With the talent available that isn’t anywhere near good or ambitious enough.
I really hope I'm wrong but I think we might be about to blow the advantage of having our most talented group of players for some time. Way too cautious - I'd accept it if we had great defenders but we don't they are all average at best.
 
Poland possibly deserved a draw as the away team. Shoddy performance and we struggle when coming under pressure when we don't have the ball.
 
The team looks less than the sum of its parts, that usually comes down to the manager.
That said I think the England manager should be English and I cant see any obvious replacement.
 
Pretty crap performance.I doubt we can expect much more with Southgate in charge.
Germany beaten tonight by North Macedonia at home.
I wonder what their saying about their manager. 😂

FFS we’ve just taken 9 points from 9 conceded our first goal scored 9 so what more do you want?
 
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It’s this England DNA nonsense that annoys me, it kills the natural flow and mutes talent. How on this earth can our talented u21team not qualify and perform so poorly against the likes of Croatia and Switzerland. All down to the safe approach to coaching, rather than encouraging flair and risk.
 
North Macedonia only recognised as a country since February 2019. Been arguing with Greece over the name, hence North.
 
Doesn’t fill you with confidence with the Euro’s only 3 months away, no idea how we are the bookies favourites.

Cracking half volley from Maguire, not sure why prior to that we didn’t make any subs, two holding midfielders against Poland at home whilst drawing with ten minutes left? Ridiculous.

Don’t get the Phillips obsession Southgate has either, assume Henderson (sigh) will be ahead of him in the 11 though when he’s fit.

The more I think about the fantastic World Cup run was it more luck than quality of players/management/tactics, I say luck due to the kindness of the draws and we only got past Colombia on penalties and Sweden are never going to go all the way are they.

There is clearly talented individuals in that squad but is Southgate getting the best out of them I’m not so sure, his persistence in not playing Grealish last year was an example of this when at the time he was easily one of the best English players in form.

I also don’t get the argument that Pickford should be picked over Pope, because he’s “better with his feet”... he’s a goal keeper FFS surely the better shot stopper is needed? Not the best night to bring this up as he didn’t do Stones many favours in the lead up to the error but the book lies with Stones in my view.

9 points is 9 points but it’s hardly inspiring is it.
 
What I do like is the team spirit. I get the impression they're becoming a strong group and that counts for a lot. The better aspect of Southgate's management style.
 
I really hope I'm wrong but I think we might be about to blow the advantage of having our most talented group of players for some time. Way too cautious - I'd accept it if we had great defenders but we don't they are all average at best.
There is a risk this will happen, but if we get it right, we have the potential to win trophies.

Stones is a good player, but he has mistakes in him, as does Maguire. Our keepers all have mistakes in them. For me, Shaw and James are by far the best full-backs we have.

Our best form of defence is attack.
 
Everything these days seems to be press, high press, low press I can’t say I remember this terminology it was always they are closing us down well or visa versa Another word they all seem to have jumped on. Nothing to do with a trouser press I presume.
 
Doesn’t fill you with confidence with the Euro’s only 3 months away, no idea how we are the bookies favourites.

Cracking half volley from Maguire, not sure why prior to that we didn’t make any subs, two holding midfielders against Poland at home whilst drawing with ten minutes left? Ridiculous.

Don’t get the Phillips obsession Southgate has either, assume Henderson (sigh) will be ahead of him in the 11 though when he’s fit.

The more I think about the fantastic World Cup run was it more luck than quality of players/management/tactics, I say luck due to the kindness of the draws and we only got past Colombia on penalties and Sweden are never going to go all the way are they.

There is clearly talented individuals in that squad but is Southgate getting the best out of them I’m not so sure, his persistence in not playing Grealish last year was an example of this when at the time he was easily one of the best English players in form.

I also don’t get the argument that Pickford should be picked over Pope, because he’s “better with his feet”... he’s a goal keeper FFS surely the better shot stopper is needed? Not the best night to bring this up as he didn’t do Stones many favours in the lead up to the error but the book lies with Stones in my view.

9 points is 9 points but it’s hardly inspiring is it.
Who else is pulling up trees in qualifiers? Germany got beaten at home by North Macedonia, Italy limped to a 2-0 against Lithuania, Spain just 3-1 to Kosovo, France scraped a 1-0 to Bosnia, Croatia lost to Slovenia last week, only Belgium looking any good right now.
 
Don’t get the Phillips obsession Southgate has either, assume Henderson (sigh) will be ahead of him in the 11 though when he’s fit.
Grealish will come into midfield

The more I think about the fantastic World Cup run was it more luck than quality of players/management/tactics,
It was pure luck. We were average to say the least
I also don’t get the argument that Pickford should be picked over Pope, because he’s “better with his feet”... he’s a goal keeper FFS surely the better shot stopper is needed?
Pope should stay as number 1
 
I think we should qualify. But it’s at the business end we need to have that bit of world class. We’ve got some good players but not sure we’ve got anyone who really is head & shoulders above.
 
I notice that Rumania lost to Armenia.
There have been several shocks so far and it will continue .
Albania will be gunning for the second spot and will cause an upset in this group.

Awin in Hungary and we have one foot in Qatar.
The other home nations and ireland can only dream of that.
 
I’d forgotten about Grealish & providing he doesn’t keep standing still on the edge of the penalty box & lose momentum he’ll definitely add something.
 
Eddie Howe would certainly be better than the present incumbent who was a failed club manager and is replicating that for England.

As for the performances of other major countries they are irrelevant except that if we were playing anything like it would be giving us an excellent chance of a major win but not if we play such uninspiring football as we did tonight.
 
Carlton Palmer, Peter Storey, Calvin Phillips, Declan Rice, David Batty etc etc forever and ever amen. Hoddle, Alan Hudson, Tony Currie, Frank Worthington and Grealish should have been born French, Italian or Spanish.
 
Doesn’t fill you with confidence with the Euro’s only 3 months away, no idea how we are the bookies favourites.

Cracking half volley from Maguire, not sure why prior to that we didn’t make any subs, two holding midfielders against Poland at home whilst drawing with ten minutes left? Ridiculous.

Don’t get the Phillips obsession Southgate has either, assume Henderson (sigh) will be ahead of him in the 11 though when he’s fit.

The more I think about the fantastic World Cup run was it more luck than quality of players/management/tactics, I say luck due to the kindness of the draws and we only got past Colombia on penalties and Sweden are never going to go all the way are they.

There is clearly talented individuals in that squad but is Southgate getting the best out of them I’m not so sure, his persistence in not playing Grealish last year was an example of this when at the time he was easily one of the best English players in form.

I also don’t get the argument that Pickford should be picked over Pope, because he’s “better with his feet”... he’s a goal keeper FFS surely the better shot stopper is needed? Not the best night to bring this up as he didn’t do Stones many favours in the lead up to the error but the book lies with Stones in my view.

9 points is 9 points but it’s hardly inspiring is it.
bookies favourites because English people back England in English bookies. The more money goes on England the bookies reduce the odds. Go to the other majot countries and if they had bookies then we wouldn't be anywhere near favourites.
 
Eddie Howe would certainly be better than the present incumbent who was a failed club manager and is replicating that for England.

As for the performances of other major countries they are irrelevant except that if we were playing anything like it would be giving us an excellent chance of a major win but not if we play such uninspiring football as we did tonight.
I think it's a bit unreasonable to call him a failure for England at this stage . Result wise how has he failed? Failed to reach a World Cup final?
Let's see how the Euros go before we hang , draw and quarter him.
 
If you`re honest we had an incredibly lucky run in the world cup and by coming second well behind Belgium in our group we then got a really soft run , scraped through on penalties against Columbia then beat a very poor Sweden before barely showing up as an attacking force in the semi against Croatia which caste Southgate in a very poor light in my view.

Once again you want to sit on the fence whilst I am prepared express my opinion.I might be wrong but I doubt it.We won`t win anything big (Euros or World cup ) under Southgate however good the squad may be.
 
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Always a mistake or two in them at the back, no guile in midfield and no pace up front other than Sterling. If and when we get to the business end of competitions Eng will fall short as usual.
 
Great result, indifferent performance.
Poland looked well drilled though. Not convinced by all the team selections or the way the team was set up.
Southgate doing OK, but I find it hard to see him as a tournament winner.
 
If you`re honest we had an incredibly lucky run in the world cup and by coming second well behind Belgium in our group we then got a really soft run , scraped through on penalties against Columbia then beat a very poor Sweden before barely showing up as an attacking force in the semi against Croatia which caste Southgate in a very poor light in my view.

Once again you want to sit on the fence whilst I am prepared express my opinion.I might be wrong but I doubt it.We won`t win anything big (Euros or World cup ) under Southgate however good the squad may be.
You haven't sat on the fence with your analysis of England's last world cup campaign have you but please may I point a few things out.

1. We didn't come well behind Belgium in the group they beat us 1-0 to gain 9 points to our 6
2. You quite correctly pointed out that by coming 2nd we gained an easier run in, do you not think that Southgate and the England backroom staff would have thought of that possibility?
3. Scrapped through against Colombia. The only reason it got to penalties was due to a lucky 93rd minute equaliser.
4. So because we beat Sweden they are poor? Being an England fan you'll know that we've always had problems with the Swedes in major cup competitions but the time we win its because they were poor. In reality england were really good that day.
5. The only major disappointment of that tournament was not putting Croatia to the sword. 1 up after 5 minutes they should have bombarded them thereafter but allowed a very tired Croatia (they had got through the last two games via e train time and penalties) back into the game.
Who knows what the outcome would have been if england had got to the finals as Croatia really were running on empty by then.
Was it southgate's negativity in that semi or did the players freeze?
But you'd already made up your mind.
 
You haven't sat on the fence with your analysis of England's last world cup campaign have you but please may I point a few things out.

1. We didn't come well behind Belgium in the group they beat us 1-0 to gain 9 points to our 6
2. You quite correctly pointed out that by coming 2nd we gained an easier run in, do you not think that Southgate and the England backroom staff would have thought of that possibility?
3. Scrapped through against Colombia. The only reason it got to penalties was due to a lucky 93rd minute equaliser.
4. So because we beat Sweden they are poor? Being an England fan you'll know that we've always had problems with the Swedes in major cup competitions but the time we win its because they were poor. In reality england were really good that day.
5. The only major disappointment of that tournament was not putting Croatia to the sword. 1 up after 5 minutes they should have bombarded them thereafter but allowed a very tired Croatia (they had got through the last two games via e train time and penalties) back into the game.
Who knows what the outcome would have been if england had got to the finals as Croatia really were running on empty by then.
Was it southgate's negativity in that semi or did the players freeze?
But you'd already made up your mind.
Totally agree the England haters are out in force again got nothing decent to say but just say we're garbage blah blah they will never be happy whoever plays or manages the team until we win something which is far from easy.
 
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