Croatia V England | Page 4 | Vital Football

Croatia V England

I cant fathom why was Kane played so deep with Sterling ahead of him?



You've not been listening to all the experts on telly mate, they were laughing at people like you and me who said Sterling had no goals , no assists and had won no pens, dopes like us knew nothing about the game in wanting to play Europe's top striker up top instead.

The expert telly ***** also assured us that if it went to extra time, England would win because we are much younger and fresher , after not playing extra time in the quarter final like Croatia had to.

:wagging::wagging::wagging:Hitting
 
Huge condolences everyone! So sorry it didn’t come off for you. I was gutted in the second half. England played well first half. Started well in the 2nd and I thought we would win it. Trippier was brilliant. I couldn’t believe how we kept putting up the long ball, which kept getting taken off us. In the extra time, we started off by keeping the ball on the ground and did better. I felt we could have won it by a better passing game. But England did us proud (the British I mean), my congratulations to you all! You have a team that will grow for the future and a good manager I think (don’t go and sack him).
 
You've not been listening to all the experts on telly mate, they were laughing at people like you and me who said Sterling had no goals , no assists and had won no pens, dopes like us knew nothing about the game in wanting to play Europe's top striker up top instead.

The expert telly ***** also assured us that if it went to extra time, England would win because we are much younger and fresher , after not playing extra time in the quarter final like Croatia had to.

:wagging::wagging::wagging:Hitting

Been having that argument before the game with a few people. Madness.
 
A team that can't score from open play got much further than expected.

Very true...I will get to that in my next post. This was simply a comment on this game not the whole tourney of which England should be proud.
 
Ok my thoughts as a whole for the England team moving forward.

First off, England should be extremely proud of what this team did...exceeded all expectations. Some stand out players like Tripps make this young team a force for a while.

Now the issues I saw:

Forward play - England is a microcosm of Spurs. Can someone, anyone other than Kane please score. Kane had a solid tourney, wish he had more goals from open play but I think he tired as the tourney drug on. Rashford played pretty well but for some reason never got a good run alongside Kane...I honestly think this would have produced goals and allowed the two to gel. Sterling...all pace no finish...yep still his MO...just not a good pairing with Kane. Vardy...just a waste of a slot.

Midfield play - said it a few posts ago...England sorely lack a field general that can motor our attack and one that can shield our back line..like Mods and Kante. Instead we have two guys that simply disappear for large chunks of play...Dele and Henderson. In my opinion this hurt us more than anything and England won despite these deficiencies. (A credit to them)

Wing play - Tripps...England player of whole Tourney in my opinion...nuff said for him. Young had some good moments but overall I think Rose would have been better option at starter.

Defense - overall not bad, hell they didn’t have an effective DM shielding them. MacGuire had a solid run but Stones struggled some I think. I think England will improve and they form a good core to build off. Walker...you all know my thoughts on him. Great athlete but VERY prone to become stupid a make some absolutely brainless decisions. Lastly Dier...no idea where to put him...here or in the midfield...oh well didn’t really improve his stock for me so doesn’t matter.

Goalie - No serious problems.

Just my two cents...what do you guys think?
 
Young played like a very tired left back , wasn't in the game at all. Allowed them to attack down their right almost at will . He was ten seconds behind everyone else.
Walker was a liability all night . He was restricting Tripps in going forward cos Tripps couldn't trust him .
So we had both wing backs playing as full backs which left us with no penetration in attack so Harry had to come backwards to get the the ball. Ridiculous . How many times did Harry win the ball in the air from long punts upfield , flicked it on to our superior striker ,the one with the stupid tattoo , who failed to read any part of the game and we lost possession and the whole fiasco stared all over again . But ,if you listen to GS , they all knew what they were doing cos they had it drilled into them on the training ground .
Walker , Henderson , Young were all liabilities that should not have been in that team at all . They should not have been in that squad .
Rose and Bertrand were the perfect fit , Young isn't even left footed . Walker isn't a centre half , never will be . Just a mistake waiting to happen . Henderson hasn't a clue how to carry the ball past people and make telling , incisive movements happen . Not sure what he brought to the party . Even his penalty miss was all down to the pose. Watch me kick the ball and see how pretty I look .
Still we done well to reach the semi final . Surprised me . Onwards and upwards . Hope Harry is fit for our new season cos he wasn't fit for this World Cup . Tripps looks dodgy as well
 
Ok my thoughts as a whole for the England team moving forward.

First off, England should be extremely proud of what this team did...exceeded all expectations. Some stand out players like Tripps make this young team a force for a while.

Now the issues I saw:

Forward play - England is a microcosm of Spurs. Can someone, anyone other than Kane please score. Kane had a solid tourney, wish he had more goals from open play but I think he tired as the tourney drug on. Rashford played pretty well but for some reason never got a good run alongside Kane...I honestly think this would have produced goals and allowed the two to gel. Sterling...all pace no finish...yep still his MO...just not a good pairing with Kane. Vardy...just a waste of a slot.

Midfield play - said it a few posts ago...England sorely lack a field general that can motor our attack and one that can shield our back line..like Mods and Kante. Instead we have two guys that simply disappear for large chunks of play...Dele and Henderson. In my opinion this hurt us more than anything and England won despite these deficiencies. (A credit to them)

Wing play - Tripps...England player of whole Tourney in my opinion...nuff said for him. Young had some good moments but overall I think Rose would have been better option at starter.

Defense - overall not bad, hell they didn’t have an effective DM shielding them. MacGuire had a solid run but Stones struggled some I think. I think England will improve and they form a good core to build off. Walker...you all know my thoughts on him. Great athlete but VERY prone to become stupid a make some absolutely brainless decisions. Lastly Dier...no idea where to put him...here or in the midfield...oh well didn’t really improve his stock for me so doesn’t matter.

Goalie - No serious problems.

Just my two cents...what do you guys think?

Great post US . Agree with all of it . 100%. Thanks mate . Still a lot of work to be done
 
Although there were some disappointing individual performances they were highlighted by the mansger’s lack Of tactical awareness. Everyone could see that Croatia’s plan was simple...exploit the wide open space on our left and put crosses into the box. We should have changed shape and plugged that gaping hole. Not the lads fault imo, but the manager’s. Still did ok overall though...best WC for ages.
 
Last night we were outmanaged. In the second half, southgate didnt recognize that croatia were dominating and the game was changing. He didnt react. Actually started to do like for like changes, instead of adjusting the system. In my opinion he has failed last night. But he deseves another chance.

Sterling. I still dont get why he is on the pitch. He has 0 Assists and 0 Goals in this tournament. Probably the worst striker of the whole tournament. I dont get that thing with he is bothering defenders and makes runs. All his runs result in ball losses. Is there anywhere a striker who has a worse rate than 2 goals in 43 games. I actually dont want to see him on the pitch since the euros in france. But somehow he always manages to start. I discuss this with a lot of neutral friends and they also dont understand why we play a player like him. 5min in to every game I am already screaming and asking for a substitution of that guy, I mean everytime he had the ball in dangerous areas I knew before it ended it will result in nothing whatsoever. He is so useless. As long as Gary cant recognize that he is no good manager for me. Sterling has to be removed. He is just not good enough. He doesnt desever another chance
 
I saw Young was being exposed 10min in and so did Hoddle. The guys a plum but can the FA/ Southgate not stick him in the stand far away from the players with a mobile,? USAF'spurs assessment is so spot on I'd only be repeating him. We exceeded expectation but lord know we need five better players than we have. Great world cup restored some pride in the team. Left we more than a bit concerned for our boys mental and physical health
 
We rode our luck, got the best draw we could ever imagine, and fell short.

Southgate got so much praise so he was blind to his systems' shortcomings. These shortcomings did not stop us from getting to the semi, and full credit to the team for finally winning games we 'should win', unlike before.

Unfortunately, as soon as we met a good side, we were exposed.

3 at the back - Walker is not a RCB, and while Trippier gave the tournament of his life (and I stand by my comments from last year that he is a better RB), Walker's pace is better suited for the system and would have been better utilised in the RWB position.

Maguire is too slow and right footed to play as a LCB, and together with Young their flank was exposed time after time again, while offering no attacking option or pace that Rose could have given.

When you look at the Chavs who utilised this system when they won they league, they had Matic & Kante in the middle. We had Dembo & Wana - that's one defensive beast and a box to box mid that is superb defensively.

Henderson & whoever played next to him really didnt cut it. Henderson is great in Pool's 3 in the middle, so perhaps he should have been a dedicated CM, but he needed help. Why England can not produce a world class box to box CM is beyond me.

We need to be able to score from open play, so the only player for me that should deserve some criticism is Sterling. He is a hard worker, but no end product, like Lennon on Steroids.

Hopefully we can build and improve.
 
For 45 mins, we were on top and were playing well, we looked by far the better team.

We then got 'Spursy' and tried to sit back and let them come at us after the break, and of course they then quickly started exposing our lack of that 'midfield general'...

Second half we resorted to type and started playing one long ball after another - it made my stomach churn to see the difference in how we went from a pressing team to a pressed team and capitulated .

As for Sterling; I don't want to scapegoat him, but for me he was an expression of Southgate's blindness and tactical naivety.

The ref was general appalling we were the victims of some real nastiness again and again - and he simply did act or react until the Croatians had kicked/upended us numerous times.

Overall, well done to them all - but our reverting to hoiking the ball when put under pressure, left me bitterly disappointed - I really did actually believe we'd left that desperate, long ball, one dimensional play (that's so easy to deal with) behind.

I hope when the FA review our performance, they don't just gloss over the manner in which we went out.
 
Nice to see some sanity. This whole Kane playing deeper to provide for Sterling thing has bothered me every game it's been apparent. Was shouted down when I expressed it to mates who said Sterling was integral to how we played and his runs were scaring defenders.


And that's the deal, you don't win games by scaring defenders, you win games by scoring goals.
For all Sterling's speed and stamina, not one single run or pass of his resulted in anything remotely resembling a goal.
 
Some good points on the tactics etc. My own is a little more shallow. Walker failed to defend well for both goals and Kane missed two good chances.
 
Some good points on the tactics etc. My own is a little more shallow. Walker failed to defend well for both goals and Kane missed two good chances.

Said after the game, that if Harry had taken his chances the way he does/can - we would have been out of sight.

As it is, I now see that (unsurprisingly) Croatia are basically now all saying we 'reverted to type' as I did and all we are is a long-ball team.

That hurts me more than losing, because in the second half it was dead true.