World Cup Discussion Thread - Day 28 (11 July)

[whitesocks]

Couldn’t understand the long ball tactic tonight?? We haven’t played it all tournament. It just meant we kept giving them the ball and stretched the team? Apart from that. Some kind of pride has been restored. We have some serious foundation to build on. Great young players coming through. Just feel we missed a real chance here tonight.

Our midfield had lost the ability to pass, so there was no choice but to cut them out.
They lost heart as they were getting kicked in the air, with the ref taking no action.
Modric is a genius, but I hope France put 6 past them.
I hope he doesn't find that disrespectful.

 

[freeeki]

Gutted we’re out, but I’m delighted that Luka Modric will get to lead his country out in to a World Cup final.

So, so deserved. It’s where a player of his calibre should be at least once in their career.

 

[Shadydan]

You know what annoyed me tonight, Arsenal supporting mate sends me some Spurs legends memes and saying Kane bottled it straight after the final whistle.

Luckily I was out with some Chelsea and Man Utd work colleagues who saw the messages and then replied with some What's app vm's and told him to sort himself out and stop being so fucking small time.

He stopped messaging after that lol

 

[Shadydan]

We beat Tunisia, Panama and Sweden. It’s the equivalent of our run to the FA cup semi final this year, please enlighten me as to where we’ve over achieved because I really can’t see it right now?

We lost against Iceland 2 years ago, that should tell you all you need to know.

 

[Bus-Conductor]

England can't grumble, Croatia were comfortably the better side, played nearly all the football, and in one form or another have been knocking on the door at tournaments for about 20 years now.

I said earlier on in the tournament that England just don't have an endemic footballing ethos to fall back on in tougher games, and though this Croatia side are far from perfect, but at least they do, and that's ultimately what told in this game. There wasn't loads in it in terms of individual quality, just the team with "football" more deeply ingrained into it's DNA just made it count.

It was pretty obvious before the game that England would struggle against that Croatian midfield, I don't really understand why Southgate didn't make an adjustment for this, and I don't understand why he left Lingard on there, he was piss poor tonight, and has been for much of the tournament. I seem to remember Southgate showing similar baffling loyalty to Lingard at the last U21 tournament he fucked up. Without the ball Alli wasn't great, but at least he was better on it than Lingard. That first sub should have to get a midfielder on for Lingard, not stick a headless chicken like Rashford on, that was the last thing England needed.
Southgate effectively threw out the white flag by bringing on Dier, who did very little but point at stuff, another pretty daft sub.

I really don't get the choice of Young throughout either. He offered absolutely fuck all, offensively, every game. And it's not like he's a brilliant defender. I'm not Rose's biggest fan, but he would have at least given England another offensive dimension, and they sorely needed it.

People will say Southgate has done brilliantly to get to a semi final, but when the only tams you beat in 90 mins are Tunisia, Panama and Sweden and the other victory is pens against a Hamsterless Columbia, most of your goals are set pieces, I think the praise needs to be tempered. He's got a young team doing honest enough things, but the only two decent teams he played he lost, and he lost playing some pretty insipid football, tonight resorting to humping long balls.

At least England didn't embarrass themselves, which made a refreshing change, and there are some promising kids coming through that will bring some more chutzpah to this team, if they get the chance.

 

[coy-spurs1882]

the gap between england's defensive line and attacking front is just like the Red Sea split by Moses

 

[LexingtonSpurs]

People will say Southgate has done brilliantly to get to a semi final, but when the only tams you beat in 90 mins are Tunisia, Panama and Sweden and the other victory is pens against a Hamsterless Columbia, most of your goals are set pieces, I think the praise needs to be tempered. He's got a young team doing honest enough things, but the only two decent teams he played he lost, and he lost playing some pretty insipid football, tonight resorting to humping long balls.

This is a pretty good observation.

In the harsh light of day, Southgate did not do a good job selecting nor setting up this team. Not selecting a CM who could pass the ball was a mistake, and no matter how much you like Sterling's runs, he simply does not linkup at all with Kane - Sterling singlehandedly took Kane out of most of the matches. I wish Rose had been a little more stable headed into the WC - he would have done much better than Young.

Still gutted for the Spurs lads, but better team won today.

 

[popstar7]

In the harsh light of day, Southgate did not do a good job selecting nor setting up this team.

I wouldn't agree with that. He's made the best of what he had available - there weren't any better options on the bench. Tonight's four subs surely showed that. And there weren't any better players left at home either. England beat the teams they should have beaten and narrowly lost to the first decent team they faced. Germany, Argentina and Spain blowing it maybe extended the run by a game or two but the same goes for Croatia who've been equally blessed.

Reality? Croatia, like England, had an easier group than it probably looked on paper, and winning their first two games eased their passage into an unexpectedly soft side of the draw. Croatia failed to beat either Denmark or Russia over 120 minutes in the last 16 and last 8, squeaking past both on penalties. Then edged a tight game against SF novices. But we'll now endure weeks (if not months or years) of how Croatia are the measure of what England must achieve and how much we have to learn etc.

 

[allatsea]

England are a workman like team nothing more. Just how Sterling stayed on so long I'll never know. How many good chances has he missed or mucked up in the World Cup. He is clueless in front of goal and I assume that is why Pep has bought Mahrez.

 

[Metalhead]

F*ck me there are some negative posts on here. Yeah, we're not world beaters and obviously all the fantasy football managers out there knew how to put out a better team but for me, as someone who had almost zero interest in the team prior to the world cup, it's got my interest again. We need more options in midfield and Southgate will have hopefully learned some lessons from the tournament but it's been a great team effort and I will look forward to some of the players from the younger England sides coming through as we move into qualification for the Euros.

 

[ohtottenham!]

This is a pretty good observation.

In the harsh light of day, Southgate did not do a good job selecting nor setting up this team.

I had no problem with the intial set up. It worked. The adjustments, or lack thereof, were the problem.

We got an early goal, and had plenty of good opportunities to put the game away first half. But, even during those periods of dominance, in the first half, the signs were there of the midfield advantage and threat of Croatia.

Jordan Henderson was overly-reactive and panicked in possession because he realized the threat of Modric and Rakitic when Croatia had a transition, and he couldn’t fully trust he’d get the defensive support from Alli, Lingard running back to give defensive cover.

I really thought at HT, Southgate would put on Delph/RLC or even Dier to support Henderson, and not replace him, to actually give us a solid midfield, and take off Lingard or Alli.

I think we played into their hands, and let them use the one clear advantage they had over us, which was their MF. They used it to take control of the game and they took their chances. Sure they have more experienced players, but I’d take both our attack and defence over theirs. We shot ourselves in the foot.

Still, a great campaign by our boys. Exceeded everyone's expectations.

Re the final, the way I see it, Croatia doesn’t have any advantages over France, including MF, and barring a silly sending off, I just can’t see anything other than a comprehensive French victory.

 

[Col_M]

Yep and watching Rakitic and Modric v Henderson was painful, can’t believe Southgate didn’t see or react to this. Perisic was fantastic, we had equally dangerous players but by not playing a central midfield they were cut off. Sterling, Alli, Lingard and Kane had to feed off scraps. Whereas Perisic, Mandzukic and Rebic had Rakitic and Modric tearing our midfield and defence a new one. It didn’t help that Henderson kept hoofing the ball up field and Walker not having a clue what planet he was on.

Quite naive really and amazing we’d hit away with it this far through the tournament. That’s what happens when you face the first quality side.

 

[Spurs 1961]

England did well with what they have. Southgate like all of us know this. They badly lack creative or even solid quality midfielders. Going ahead was great but not getting the second goal left them trying to do what they are not able to to and that is sitting back and trying to hold the ball.

I was surprised that Southgate didn't change things. The midfield and front players were operating so far away from each other we needed a tactical switch. I wanted us to go to a 4-4-2 or 4-3-3 around the hour mark with Dier for Henderson (who looked out of sorts), RLC alongside to drive through a bit and had him on instead of Lingard. Not perfect but would have made us a little more solid and maybe allowed Harry to play further forward with Dele linking with him.

In the end though we need to find one or two players who can pass, hold the ball and control a game

 

[Gassin's finest]

I think the biggest achievement from this tournament has been restoring pride in our national team, and overcoming the disappointment of the last 20 years. Getting to the world cup semi final, to be one of the 4 best teams in the world, is an incredible display.

Southgate has got a team together that, while not of the highest quality, has an excellent team spirit, will play and fight for each other... And show respect and love for the game and who they represent.

Like the German team that developed into world champions with Joachim Low, this is an eager start for this team... With players like Winks, lallana and sessengon coming into the fold, they will only get better.

The trophy may not be on the plane, but football most certainly came home this last few weeks.

 

[Always Offside]

England may be better for the experience but they really missed a golden opportunity. Yes (maybe) they'll be a better side in 4 years time but there's no way the draw will part like the red sea again surely ? Personally from what I saw they really were not that great. The English media is such a powerful beast that if they write that England were fantastic & played teams off the park then that is what is generally believed by most punters it seems. Yes they played well, very well at times but look who they played against. When they came up against 2 good teams (Belgium & Croatia) they lost both times. Sorry to rain on the we're proud as punch brigade but while reaching the semi finals is a great result on paper let's not get carried away.

In saying all that there are certainly encouraging signs for the future and if the majority of the group can remain together then it bodes well for Euro 2020 and World Cup 2022.

Feel free to smash me with the neg reps if so desired but just calling it as I saw it.

 

[14/04/91]

Both teams will pick players who haven't had a chance to play yet in that match. Unless Kane and Lukaku are desperate for the golden boot

Just like the group game!

 

[Gilzeanking]

Its easy to look at the result and form far reaching conclusions about the teams involved...but as always chance is given short shrift .
I've just looked at the highlights (bit pissed for the match) and there were plenty of England chances that could have gone in and led to
different outcomes .
The Kane one , for me , showed his drop in form . He didn't trust the obvious move of striking the ball with his left foot and sweeping the ball home .Instead he awkwardly turned his body to get the ball on his favoured right foot and so the shot was limp .
Confidence problem imo.

Anyway he's bound to play in the 3rd place match and knacker himself further ...Lukaku could possibly take his golden boot from him and he won't like that idea .

 

[spursfan77]

Couldn’t understand the long ball tactic tonight?? We haven’t played it all tournament. It just meant we kept giving them the ball and stretched the team? Apart from that. Some kind of pride has been restored. We have some serious foundation to build on. Great young players coming through. Just feel we missed a real chance here tonight.

It was the only way we could play because we have no midfield. We’d of just ended up giving them the bell closer to our goal had we tried to play through them.

 

[spursfan77]

I’m strangely ambivalent about the result today. I guess I’m just used to disappointments like this now.

 

[teok]

the offense looked like it was built around Sterling which boggles the mind

How does it "boggle the mind" exactly? He was keeping the defence honest and pushing them back at every opportunity. We were bossing the game until he came off.

Honestly it was harry's open goal miss that would have put us 2-0 up that made me think "I really hope we don't regret this".