The England World Cup Thread

[Wheeler Dealer]

Surely it'd take a special game by Lukaka, Mbappe or Griezmann to beat Kane?

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I doubt you will see either Lukaku or Kane in this game. Only challenger to GB is Mbappe, and considering how ponderous Lovern is, he may get a hat full.

 

[danielneeds]

England "Well on Top" stats

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It’s a WC semi final, you’re not going to get loads and loads of chances like you’re playing Stoke at home. The Kane chance, and Lingard’s shot on the edge of the box were good chances for that calibre of game. Similarly both France and Belgium created very little the night before either.

 

[Gassin's finest]

 

[Trix]

Surely it'd take a special game by Lukaka, Mbappe or Griezmann to beat Kane?

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Lukaku only needs two because he has an assist, Harry doesn't.

 

[VegasII]

I think we have the basis of a good squad, but we need to look at what pieces we're missing on the international stage. We've been plucky this tournament but we'll need a whole lot more in future.

We need another striker who regularly scores, a very creative mid who can always create, and a boss of a DM.

Sterling and Lingard are very frustrating and they don't score a lot of goals at club level let alone international.

 

[Monkey boy]

In the immediate aftermath of the defeat I felt torn over who I wanted to win the final. Obviously it would be great to see Hugo lift the World Cup, but there is little else to admire about Deschamps' France (Mbappe aside), while Croatia winning it would be a fantastic achievement for a nation so small, and would cement Modric as an all-time great after years of being under-appreciated.

This morning I've woken up to see bizarre comments from Croatia's players which suggest an English arrogance which simply wasn't there this time. So fuck 'em - Hugo all the way on Sunday.

Also its quite depressing to see the immediate re-emergence of club rivalry-fuelled pettiness on social media in the minutes immediately after the final whistle. Nobody let anyone down. There isn't a single player in that starting XI who didn't play a meaningful part in getting England as far as the semis. This team doesn't quite deserve a parade or any of that guff but they do deserve a large dollop of respect and appreciation for exceeding expectations and giving fans who haven't dared believe in their national team for 20 years a reason to believe. However, given how quickly some prominent fan accounts got on the backs of Kane and Stones, its probably only a matter of days before the red-top columnists follow suit. Ho hum.

The holiday's over and it's back to reality - England's just the mistress; Tottenham are the wife.

Well then you must have had your head buried firmly in the sand. The behaviour of the England fans, pundits and so called experts was cringeworthy to anyone bar England it seems. I guess the double standards of the commentators and media are brushed over when it’s in your favour.

Nothing that Modric or the other fella calling out England’s long ball tactic have said is untrue.

I’ll say it again. We beat Tunisia, Panama and Sweden. It was the equivalent of us beating Newport, Swansea and Rochdale this season. The over reaction to these so called “heroes” is quite frankly ridiculous.

 

[Monkey boy]

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What exactly should we be proud of??? Beating the mighty Tunisia, Panama and Sweden. Jesus wept, no wonder this country is seen as a bunch of soft pussies

 

[brendanb50]

I'm a bit torn on where we've landed after yesterday's disappointing result.

On one hand, prior to the WC, i'd have taken a qtr final - i felt that was our limit, maybe beyond it slightly. Even with the group we had, i still think there were a lot of questions about our team and i for one wasn't confident of an easy ride.

To get to the semi and see the gradual improvement in play and confidence in the team surpassed my expectations, so all in all i should be happy.

On the other hand, i felt with that growth we've shown, we should have done better last night. Croatia have a standout midfield but the rest of the team were there to be got at. To be largely outplayed by them (IMHO) over the vast majority of the game + extra time was poor.

Perhaps i shouldn't let one game (especially at a crunch stage in the tournament) taint the overall positivity - after all, this is the first time i actually got excited by an England team in a very long time - but it just feels like a massive missed opportunity.

Another plus side looking ahead is the age of our squad. If we can keep building, even gradually, our team are going to be hitting peaks in the next 5 years - so this gives me a lot of hope for future tournaments.

 

[onthetwo]

If Spurs played like England played yesterday (not looking after the ball) the team would have been slaughtered.
Croatia looked after the ball (no hoofing from the goalie) so that was the main difference for me.
I really hope Southgate doesnt miss that point for the good of the team longer term.

 

[King of Otters]

I feel weirdly philosophical after last night. After the way we played from the second half onwards, it didn't feel like a missed opportunity, 'what could have been moment' like previous major tournament defeats.

Instead, it felt like a minor miracle that we reached the semis in the first place, because this is not a World Cup winning team by any stretch of the imagination.

I'm just thankful that the team gave us three or four good days and nights to enjoy, because that's more than we've had for a long time.

 

[brendanb50]

What exactly should we be proud of??? Beating the mighty Tunisia, Panama and Sweden. Jesus wept, no wonder this country is seen as a bunch of soft pussies

Not disagreeing entirely but much of tournament football involves beating largely inferior teams - as history shows us, this isn't always a given, especially for England, so to actually get near a final is not to be sniffed at.

 

[phillipjpalmer]

I dont think you can judge the team on the run of games they played, you can only beat whats in front of you.
They came up short, but the way the team engaged with media and fans, there were no ego's in the team, no controversial moments like rooney or beckham in years gone by.
We were definitely a few players light in the squad, if you added the Ox and lallana to this group it would have helped with rotation.
A few players were not playing at their peak, Kane, Dele, Rose for example and on the flip side, players like Trippier, Maguire and Henderson really stepped up.
Southgate has grown into the role which most people would say is an unforgiving task and showed class and integrity.

Its been a great world cup in general and England getting to the semi's has kept the casual fan interested.

 

[brendanb50]

If Spurs played like England played yesterday (not looking after the ball) the team would have been slaughtered.
Croatia looked after the ball (no hoofing from the goalie) so that was the main difference for me.
I really hope Southgate doesnt miss that point for the good of the team longer term.

100% this - you could see it happening towards the end of the first half and then pretty much for the rest of the game. The midfield was being bypassed and we wound up chasing the ball far too often.

Needed an earlier change in my view.

 

[Kingellesar]

I think we have had a good tournament in terms of mentality and inspiring everyone and gone further than anyone expected but the way the draw fell it was a huge chance to get to the final. But the hype around the team and Southgate has perhaps overshadowed the lackluster performances...

We are struggling to create anything from open play, we literally have zero creativity in the team. For me, Sterling, Lingard and Alli are all too similar in what they were trying to do, we couldn't afford to carry all 3 through each game, Kane was dropping too deep in order to try and create or get passes out to the flanks. Henderson whilst he worked his socks off every game, he isn't a creative midfielder, he needs someone to sit next to him who can take the ball forward/find that killer pass.

Having said all that, I think the Colombia game could be a huge turning point for this squad, to come through a penalty shootout like they did will hopefully give this squad the confidence they need in future tournaments, this team can easily get another 2 world cups together and 2 euros. We have some great talent to come into this squad, the likes of Sessegnon, Winks, Sancho. I am optimistic for the future and can really get behind this team but a lot of work is needed, we are nowhere near a finish article or a team that can come into a tournament as one of the favourites yet but we can certainly head towards that.

I also think we need to beat Belgium to finish on a high and not take another blow, I know it is a dead rubber game but I think the players will want to go out and prove a point.

 

[nicdic]

Hard to be anything other than proud of the team's achievements. No one thought we'd get this far, and we'd far rather be doing a post-mortem of a semi-final exit than another group stage exit.

However, in the cold light of day, when the dust settles, there should be a lot of questions for Southgate to look at. I don't for a second want this to detract from the amazing work he has done. Much like with Poch, the biggest task for him was to re-create an identity in the team which he has succeeded with. But tactically, there are some big question marks.

His misuse of the world's best striker, in a tournament where there were no really strong defences is borderline criminal. Having Kane drop deep to look to create spaces in behind for Sterling and Lingard would be a great plan if either of those two players had even one clinical bone in their bodies.

Wasting Dele in a floating left role, again to look to get Sterling and Lingard into goal scoring positions is madness. Our two most effective goalscorers were sacrificed for pace in behind, but for players who's finishing and decision making in and around the box is seriously lacking. Was notable how much more composed Kane and Alli were on the ball around the box than the others.

Playing a system with only one central midfielder was always going to be an issue when we came up against a strong team. I get that we were lacking a pure passer like Winks, or someone in the Eriksen mould, but even so the balance was so wrong when it came to it.

Lots to learn from and build upon though.

 

[michaelden]

It’s a WC semi final, you’re not going to get loads and loads of chances like you’re playing Stoke at home. The Kane chance, and Lingard’s shot on the edge of the box were good chances for that calibre of game. Similarly both France and Belgium created very little the night before either.

Croatia 7 on target to England's 2

 

[dagraham]

I feel weirdly philosophical after last night. After the way we played from the second half onwards, it didn't feel like a missed opportunity, 'what could have been moment' like previous major tournament defeats.

Instead, it felt like a minor miracle that we reached the semis in the first place, because this is not a World Cup winning team by any stretch of the imagination.

I'm just thankful that the team gave us three or four good days and nights to enjoy, because that's more than we've had for a long time.

I said before the tournament that talent wise this England squad is the weakest I can remember.

For once though we actually extracted close to the maximum out of our players, rather than under achieving yet again.

Our biggest problem is we can’t keep the ball and can’t really create. Kane is our best striker and also our best passer rolled into one, but he can’t be everywhere.

 

[Gassin's finest]

What exactly should we be proud of??? Beating the mighty Tunisia, Panama and Sweden. Jesus wept, no wonder this country is seen as a bunch of soft pussies

Have a word you miserable bugger.

 

[King of Otters]

I said before the tournament that talent wise this England squad is the weakest I can remember.

For once though we actually extracted close to the maximum out of our players, rather than under achieving yet again.

Our biggest problem is we can’t keep the ball and can’t really create. Kane is our best striker and also our best passer rolled into one, but he can’t be everywhere.

Which was abundantly clear last night. The contrast in technical ability cost us a World Cup final place.

 

[Gb160]

Have a word you miserable bugger.

Lashing out is some people's coping mechanism of choice.
You see it on here after every disappointing Spurs result.