What’s the problem with England?

[cityloyal473]

40 minutes ago, Redpool said:

Are we able to remove a head coach during a tournament? Should have gone last year. 
 

Still frustrated and angry as I was last night! 

I went to bed fuming.  I shouldn't let it bother me and I usually don't.  But that, I mean what the hell was that? Totally clueless at all levels. 

[The Coach]

4 minutes ago, cityloyal473 said:

I went to bed fuming.  I shouldn't let it bother me and I usually don't.  But that, I mean what the hell was that? Totally clueless at all levels. 

Same as me, and as said. Still woke up fuming.

[Numero Uno]

10 hours ago, Fordy62 said:

I’d like someone to convince me it’s not Gareth Southgate. 

We have an embarrassment of riches and we’re about as good as QPR. 

I feel lucky to come away with a point against ******* Scotland. 

Jesus wept. It’s got to get better than this. 

Simple to explain last night. The management and players were shit scared of losing and played with fear. When you play with fear your intensity naturally drops off which Mings referred to. Only Mings and Pickford came out of that game with any credit. The rest were playing with paralysis. We know England are better than that, they’ve proven it many times.

[East Londoner]

I don’t mean to sound patronising but England tend to struggle against teams who raise their game because they’re playing England. Last night was Scotland’s cup final you only have to see the way they’re celebrating drawing 0-0

Had it been France or Germany last night they’d have played with a lot more intensity, it could be arrogance that they expect to beat Scotland easily 

As a side note it’s interesting how covid restrictions seem to have disappeared in London last couple of days and how the person who slated Rangers fans for celebrating winning the title has remained silent 

[Shaun Taylor]

She's spot on with her assessment 

 

[Wrongagain]

9 hours ago, pl00peh91 said:

We didn’t win on purpose to come second and avoid the group of death. Watch us draw against the Czechs to seal the deal....

Watching the last couple of games I expect a Kalas og! Factor that in Gareth!

[Bristol Oil Services]

I think Harriet Wheeler had it right: such miserable weather.

[lenred]

51 minutes ago, BS2 Red said:

Actually it was all Uri Geller's fault.

‘Spoon Botherer’

[Phileas Fogg]

Think it was a combination of things yesterday. Scotland raised their game and we didn’t have an answer to their fairly defensive system. Their 5 defenders kept Kane quiet really effectively.

I think Grealish showed his worth and needs to start next game. Very frustrating watch. I don’t care about results too much usually but I’m genuinely quite annoyed about the result yesterday.

[Abraham Romanovich]

32 minutes ago, DaveInSA said:

I reckon that England  vs Bristol City at Ashton gate might be the dullest game you would ever see.

Neither side with a shot-on-target.

Turgid, awful, chess playing crud.

I give you Reece James , magnificent passing stats for tonight's game 55 passes , 42 BACKWARDS 9 SIDEWAYS 4 forward yet he was excellent in the CL Final.

One has to wonder how many holding midfielders are required if we play a decent side probably a minimum of five if last night was anything to go by.

[Red Army 75]

2 minutes ago, Abraham Romanovich said:

I give you Reece James , magnificent passing stats for tonight's game 55 passes , 42 BACKWARDS 9 SIDEWAYS 4 forward yet he was excellent in the CL Final.

One has to wonder how many holding midfielders are required if we play a decent side probably a minimum of five if last night was anything to go by.

Totally agree. I posted about James during the match. His constant turning backwards and passing summed up England last night. With Walker he has pace and instinct to get forward and IMO is our best right back. Southgate was hugely negative last night against average opposition. And that impacted the players. Yes the players were disappointing but I firmly blame Southgate 

[Will Rollason]

Pleased that Pickford had a good game and his kicking was excellent... He put Sterling through with one in the second half.

As for the rest of it....soooooo slow ... Meaningless possession... And the one player with a bit of spark gets hooked? My non footie friend's that I was watching with were even asking why.... And no offence but why do we need two holding mids and why was Phillips so deep? 

Well played Scotland tho . They were excellent to a man and played their collective hearts out.. and there it is I suppose

[BanburyRed]

1 hour ago, BS2 Red said:

Actually it was all Uri Geller's fault.

WTF?! A shortage of pigs in blankets? I'm off down the shops....

[fatchers]

Sterling was as much use as a cash tray on a motorbike. He should have been replaced by Grealish at half time. I'm not a great fan of diving Jack but he would have had more impact than Sterling. 

[2015]

Still annoyed about last night if i'm honest. England performances have been nose diving ever since Czechs beat us in 2019. Southgate has not addressed the issue, he showed real ignorance to the problems. 

Lets be honest though with a Midfield of Rice and Phillips are we really that good? (I'd play Bellingham). 

[TedsHeadIs Red]

I was really disappointed with that end product from last night. Domino’s should be ashamed of themselves.

[The Bard]

Full backs in general is our big problem.  Too much choice has confused him.  Massively overthinking stuff.

Chilwell 100% should have played last night.  His understanding with Mount plus calmness in the opposition penalty area would've improved us.  Shaw is decent but Chilwell is a step above.

On the other side, we need to provide crosses more and that means Trippier.  Play Walker and there will be a calamity at some point.  

[2015]

1 hour ago, cityloyal473 said:

The team is reflective of Southgate - a dull, uninspiring wet-blanket.  He's the problem.  But hey, he writes nice letters.

He is a yes man and the FA love it.

[Lew-T]

That was pretty painful. We didn’t move the ball quickly enough, lack of movement, no runners. 
 

That was a City esque display with Kane playing like Fam last night...

[Davefevs]

4 hours ago, swanker said:

I’ve started making my own. Get the bases from Sainsbury’s, make my own tomato purée and pop some strong cheddar on the top with a drizzle of olive oil. 

They come out wicked 

Me too.  Bought a Roccbox portable pizza oven….it’s ace.  Most weekends my daughter and I make our own dough, stretch it, and have fresh cooked pizzas.  Take about 90 secs to do a margerita.

2 hours ago, Robbored said:

In which case that has to come from top - Southgate.

He’s yet another manager who’s way too cautious. In both games England have been defensively sound but barely had a shot on target…….………

He has an abundance of top class players at his disposal but fails to give them license to play their own game and consequently England are dull and uninspiring to watch. That’s two games now where I almost nodded off………..

Most of agree that Grealish is the closest we’ve had to Gazza in 25 years but he doesn’t start……… and when he did come on after an hour he was sent to play on the left…..ffs…..he should have been in the middle and told to run at the Scottish defenders but he was unable to create much at all from the left.

Southgate said  afterwards that English fans would be disappointed - too bloody right!. 

4 points will take us through to the last 16 but I dread to think what’ll happen when we come up against the Dutch,Italy or France or even Germany who are currently playing poorly.

Imo England have zero chance of winning it based on the performances so far.

Yep, don’t disagree.  We don’t play to our strengths, but then again I don’t think we know how to either.

Croatia we played well, I enjoyed it.  But that is the exception to the rule when watching England.  Most games are like last night.

FWIW I don’t think Mings is that great, but last night him and Stones defended really well….I think we’d have lost without them.

I could go into analysis mode on every player, but last night it felt like I was watching City with a lacklustre Diedhiou up top, rather than England with “world class” (alleged) Kane.  Most know my views on Kane, wonderful goal scorer, doesn’t do enough for the team.  Last night epitomised it.

[Davefevs]

1 hour ago, cityloyal473 said:

I went to bed fuming.  I shouldn't let it bother me and I usually don't.  But that, I mean what the hell was that? Totally clueless at all levels. 

1 hour ago, Redpool said:

Same as me, and as said. Still woke up fuming.

I’m ok, we played pretty much as I expected us to play.  Scotland raised their game, we played into their hands by only playing in the wide areas, and they contained us easily.

Looking forward to Wales v Italy 

[TonyTonyTony]

Same old shite as it’s been for the last 30 odd years. Every time I get excited and end up disappointed. 
 

Pathetic. We will get a draw against Czech and limp into the next round. Flukily avoid Portugal / Germany and get through (just) to play France in the QF and lose (bravely)

Rinse and repeat as they say

[woodsy62]

This team will probably draw with the Czechs and get easily beaten by France

[downendcity]

4 minutes ago, Davefevs said:

 

I could go into analysis mode on every player, but last night it felt like I was watching City with a lacklustre Diedhiou up top, rather than England with “world class” (alleged) Kane.  Most know my views on Kane, wonderful goal scorer, doesn’t do enough for the team.  Last night epitomised it.

You should do Dave.

No matter how tedious the analysis might be , it would still be a damn sight more entertaining than the 90 minutes with of dross they served up last night!

[downendcity]

3 minutes ago, TonyTonyTony said:

Same old shite as it’s been for the last 30 odd years. Every time I get excited and end up disappointed. 
 

Enough about your marriage, what did you think of the footy?  

[Davefevs]

1 minute ago, downendcity said:

You should do Dave.

No matter how tedious the analysis might be , it would still be a damn sight more entertaining than the 90 minutes with of dross they served up last night!

Just read all my City stuff and replace it with England

I’m disappointed but not surprised.  I really rate Reece James, but he did nothing to work space or overloads for Foden last night, meaning Foden was the one subbed.  He’s supposed to be an attacking FB.  Shaw on the other side showed glimpses.

[Show Me The Money!]

8 hours ago, JamesBCFC said:

Is it really Southgate thats the problem?

We've had talented squads for a while now, with the tournaments where our squad wasn't good being the less common (hindsight wise people will criticise those teams, but it was our "golden generation".

And in that time multiple managers failed to get the best out of the players available.

I'm not saying Southgate is a great manager or anything, but underperforming England sides predate him and have happened under more talented managers than him.

Sadly this is bang on

Can’t remember the last time we actually comfortably beat another home nation in a qualifier or tournament. They are always nightmare games.

 Ok Southgate ain’t Bob Paisley but he isn’t doing any worse than any previous manager in the last 40 years. He has got a team to a semi final. Same as Bobby Robson and we were terrible in pretty much all the WC90 games bar the West Germany game.

We do need to change from the 2 holding midfielders though. I’d stick Foden alongside Phillips or Rice myself

[2015]

12 minutes ago, Davefevs said:

Just read all my City stuff and replace it with England

I’m disappointed but not surprised.  I really rate Reece James, but he did nothing to work space or overloads for Foden last night, meaning Foden was the one subbed.  He’s supposed to be an attacking FB.  Shaw on the other side showed glimpses.

To me it looked like he had been told he could go no closer than 35 yards nesr the goal. Was such a pathetically conservative performance.

Hey ho, he writes good letters though

[Pearcy]

11 hours ago, Sir Geoff said:

Luke Shaw too slow on the ball or hoofs it long. Two holding midfielders ffs. Sterling continually running into blind alleys. Kane nowhere near match fit. Playing Foden rigidlly on the right then taking him off (and leaving 2 holding midfielders on).

Or was it just a mater stroke to avoid topping the group ?

People saying we want to avoid topping the group but I think that will be the easiest route to the final. Ok our next game will be tougher but from then I think it gets easier.

I've plotted both routes based on my predictions;

Win the group: round of 16 Portugal, QF Spain, Semi Holland

finish 2nd: round of 16 Sweden, QF France, Semi Belgium or Italy.

Note I'm not entirely convinced Spain will top the group so Spain and Sweden could be switched around in my prediction.

Based on what I've seen so far Portugal don't look as strong as when they won it last time, just the small problem of Ronaldo. Both Spain and Holland look weaker then pervious years too. 

To answer the OP the problem is Southgate. I heard that Kane has only had 6 touches in the opposition box so far in 2 games, we've only had 3 shots on target in those 2 games too. We seem to be set up to defend rather then trying to attack and win games. No creativity, no passion, no closing down. Possession football will the sole purpose of trying to prevent the opposition from scoring while we try to nick a 1 nil. Boring negative football.

[downendcity]

3 minutes ago, Pearcy said:

People saying we want to avoid topping the group but I think that will be the easiest route to the final. Ok our next game will be tougher but from then I think it gets easier.

I've plotted both routes based on my predictions;

Win the group: round of 16 Portugal, QF Spain, Semi Holland

finish 2nd: round of 16 Sweden, QF France, Semi Belgium or Italy.

Note I'm not entirely convinced Spain will top the group so Spain and Sweden could be switched around in my prediction.

Based on what I've seen so far Portugal don't look as strong as when they won it last time, just the small problem of Ronaldo. Both Spain and Holland look weaker then pervious years too. 

To answer the OP the problem is Southgate. I heard that Kane has only had 6 touches in the opposition box so far in 2 games, we've only had 3 shots on target in those 2 games too. We seem to be set up to defend rather then trying to attack and win games. No creativity, no passion, no closing down. Possession football will the sole purpose of trying to prevent the opposition from scoring while we try to nick a 1 nil. Boring negative football.

When and how the did LJ get the job as consultant to the England manager?