The England Thread

[TheHoddleWaddle]

Oooh. It's a bit salty in here tonight!

Does Southgate have a history with Grealish or something? Don't understand how he's not playing from the start.

It was an entertaining game, but I think Belgium will be wondering how they lost. Still, wins a win.

 

[ohtottenham!]

Why?
They had some chances but, on the balance of decent chances created, it was probably an even game.

I was kind of derisory about the selection, but sometimes you just have to hold your hands up and say well done.
He picked a team to get a job done. It wasn't pretty, but so what? We just beat the World No1 in a game that was, imo, fairly evenly matched. They were more fluid, but it wasn't a smash and grab by any stretch. Had Kane and Rashford finished what were pretty Gilt edged chances, we could have had 4, so we edged a fairly evenly fought contest.

Well done England and Gareth.

Yep. I agree. Think it was an even game, and we had some great chances we spurned.

Still think that a key improvement needs to be made in central defence and I agree with @Marty. Be great to have a young, English Vertonghen to replace Maguire.

 

[spursfan77]

We have good players in lots of areas. But not at centre back. But we don’t have a good enough coach to get it out of them. Careful what you wish for with replacing southgate though. The FA will have Aidy Boothroyd next on the list to replace him!

 

[Zippy1980]

Oooh. It's a bit salty in here tonight!

Does Southgate have a history with Grealish or something? Don't understand how he's not playing from the start.

It was an entertaining game, but I think Belgium will be wondering how they lost. Still, wins a win.

I agree. How Grealish didn’t start today instead of mount beggars believe. Gary sort it out.

 

[Westmorlandspur]

Before this season I was reasonably hopeful that we could do something in the euros. Now he has gone back to a back 3 which more often than not becomes a back 5. I just cannot see we can do @nything when playing with three CB’s with 2 defensive midfield players in front. No creation at all in the first half. We got the win but then again we got the win against Ajax despite being outclassed.
We are wasting possibly the best attacking full back n the world. TAA. He is nowhere near as good when playing wing back.
No 1 team in the world....shows that the ratings are utter garbage. We were 4 before today?
Dedrick Boyata and Denayer in their back 3. These are bang average players.
I had a look at Belgium results over past two years. They have beaten Russia and Scotland plus the likes of Kazakhstan and the usual fodder. Managed to get stuffed 5-2 by the Swiss.
If the Euros were tomorrow the only winner would be the best team in the world...France.

 

[Ionman34]

Whilst I understand, and even share, some of the trepidation about this England team and management, it really does stagger me how we can have an excellent result, yet have so many angrily looking for reasons to stick the boot in.

We won despite missing a number of key players and having a fairly poor first half against a very good Belgian side.

How often do we get the “we’re great against the fodder but always lose against a top side” rhetoric? Well, whilst this might not put that to bed, it does weaken the argument somewhat.

FFS, take pleasure in the successes and let the rest take care of itself.

 

[beats1]

They’ve got the same problem as us, incredibly talented players with a beyond average manager.

I would rather have their manager than ours tbh

They are picking players who play in their correct positions

I don't think they have the embarrassment of riches they had 2 years ago. Toby and Jan now near retirement hurts them alot

 

[chrissivad]

While we don't have an abundance of good cb's it is strange to try and play 3 at the back...

I didn't watch the game, but did see the pen (only once)
I thought it was harsh, so probably missed something. Looked like Dier was blocking the path of the ball rather than the player.
Lukaku went over Dier rather than Dier taking him out.

What did I miss?

 

[TheHoddleWaddle]

While we don't have an abundance of good cb's it is strange to try and play 3 at the back...

I didn't watch the game, but did see the pen (only once)
I thought it was harsh, so probably missed something. Looked like Dier was blocking the path of the ball rather than the player.
Lukaku went over Dier rather than Dier taking him out.

What did I miss?

I thought it was a straight forward penalty. Although granted i only saw it a few times. Dier was 2 steps off the pace and Lukaku had the edge. It was a matter of inches between a great last ditch tackle and catching the man, which he did. Although Lukaku made the most of it. Just my opinion though. I didn't see footage of where Dier got the ball.

He had a decent game though.

 

[chrissivad]

I thought it was a straight forward penalty. Although granted i only saw it a few times. Dier was 2 steps off the pace and Lukaku had the edge. It was a matter of inches between a great last ditch tackle and catching the man, which he did. Although Lukaku made the most of it. Just my opinion though. I didn't see footage of where Dier got the ball.

He had a decent game though.

I don't think he did.
But I didn't think it was him that took Lukaku out, rather than Lukaku trying to lean on Dier, but he was going to ground.

I will need to try and catch some highlight. But cheers for the reply.

 

[teok]

While we don't have an abundance of good cb's it is strange to try and play 3 at the back...

I didn't watch the game, but did see the pen (only once)
I thought it was harsh, so probably missed something. Looked like Dier was blocking the path of the ball rather than the player.
Lukaku went over Dier rather than Dier taking him out.

What did I miss?

You are being incredibly generous it was rookie stuff from dier. Lukaku was going nowhere and just baited a pen from him.

Dier is a "senior player" in both the spurs and england squads but he is a naive centre back who makes bad mistakes often. If I was an opposition coach I would notice this.

 

[Phomesy]

Kane's going to play full 90 on Wednesday isn't he?

 

[tiger666]

Kane's going to play full 90 on Wednesday isn't he?

Probably, but then he's the England captain and isn't injured so why wouldn't he?

 

[TheTanguy]

Better accept that Kane will start the vast majority of the matches for England in the coming years, it's naive to think that Gareth or any other national manager cares about what's best for us.

 

[Phomesy]

Probably, but then he's the England captain and isn't injured so why wouldn't he?

Selfishly because we need him fresh for West Ham?

To be honest I hadn't realised Wednesday was a qualifier rather than a friendly so I should have prepared myself expectation wise. Of course Kane starts a competitive match for England

 

[wirE]

Southgate taking the piss with his 3 RB lineup. Why not pick Chillwell, Dier, Maguire, TAA?

 

[THFCSPURS19]

Southgate taking the piss with his 3 RB lineup. Why not pick Chillwell, Dier, Maguire, TAA?

Ben Chilwell to miss England's game against Belgium with non-Covid related illness

Tammy Abraham and Jadon Sancho have coronavirus tests to determine whether they can join up with England squad

www.skysports.com

 

[The Opinionated Lurker]

This will be unpopular but Dier’s had a hell of a career for such an average player to be honest. The only thing it seems that would get him out of the England side is if he decided to be Portuguese one day, and he starts for us like he actually still has potential to improve. Fair play to him I guess

 

[Shanks]

I can’t see Kane playing, suspect another 30 mins, which would be handy to keep him ticking over enough ready for the weekend.

 

[nailsy]

Has anyone got a suggestion of who should be playing LB/LWB when Chilwell is out? Saka doesn't look ready to me and Luke Shaw hasn't been in good form for a while.