World Cup 2018 | Page 100 | Vital Football

World Cup 2018

Which we did when we played Colombia - we scored a goal (1 bloody goal!) and then the only pass we could make was back to our headless chicken of a goalie!

France in the final as stated by someone else would’ve been embarrassing.

Listening to Southgate now saying we’ve given it all just shows we’ll never win anything in the next 15 years with these players. We are just about better than the likes of Sweden and Tunisia. When it comes to the real big boys, we’re 20-25 years of grass roots coaching of players away and in that time the game will have changed ten fold again.
Pickford's impressed me to be fair.

Agree on France but long term may have actually been more useful - a proper embarrassment instead of the old line of gutsy losers.

Disagree on last bit even knowing Southgate was just trying to avoid a quote in headline. They did give everything. But there's a difference between giving everything and doing everything. We didn't do everything, we gave everything running around like idiots with no discipline and structure by the end.

I can't fault the effort - I can fault how they used that effort. But it blinds out game. Player runs around forever fans love him. Player stands still choosing his time, he's a lazy fucker taking his wage not trying. Can't have it both ways and this country tries to that's why expectation has always been off with England.
 
I’m not disagreeing we didn’t give it all in terms of effort, but we were hardly dominating games where we were putting games to bed comfortably through our quality.

That’s my worry!
 
I've never understood why we need a defensive midfielder when we supposedly have 3 ball playing Centre Backs ?
Sterling 2 goals in 45 england games a striker in the mould of Gabby .
Shame Southgate isn't as harsh as me , we might have at least had a bloody go at them rather than hoping to hang onto a 1;0
 
Pickford has a few shady moments tonight’s he flapped on at least 3 balls that I can recall. It only takes one game for two flaps to be goals - just ask Klarius.

Not that impressed with his distribution either. A top goalie has quality distribution, Pickford is OK but nothing special.
 
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2018 has been a testing year for me and so it continues .
Tonight I thought we effectively bottled it. Inexperienced and legs turned to lead weights. Not surprisingly though.
Thought maguire and Pickford were superb all tournament. As was Trippier.
 
This isn't a wise after event post but I was never convinced that the hype matched what was on offer. Yes you can only beat what's in front of you but it's a fact that we have not played anyone of quality until tonight and we were beaten and well beaten in the end in my view.
We went into this world cup with low expectations from fans and media
Since the Columbia game it's been embarrassing again listening to fans and media with this "It's coming home" thing again. I said how irritated I was by 5 live coverage today. Talking about the final ffs !!!. This fevour was only based on the way the route panned out and not how we were playing. So naive because we were going to face someone of quality sooner or later. Then we can judge. Beat Croatia and I think it's a sign that England have made progress. Even if we lost the final. As it is now I don't think we can euligise and say England are back because of who we played .
Remember that team called Wales who got to a euro semi final 2 years ago. Where are they in this tournament?. Cautionary tale there.

For me the excitement was how far we progressed not how we were playing. I was never convinced.
 
I miss understood, my point was with the effort we were putting in, had we continued putting it in correctly we would've dominated this one at least as we had them beat comfortably but stepped off.
 
The are several reasons why England lost.
One, Southgate changed the way of play, instead of keeping the ball, as in previous games, he had them hitting long balls 'because the Croats were scared of Sterlings pace'.
I think he forgets, that along with pace you have to have control and be able to make a decision inside of 30 minutes. Sterling only has one of those qualities.
Two, the defenders and midfielders were over-hitting the long ball by 30 yards.
Three, we could have and should have been 4 goals up by halftime. A case of things coming back to bite you on the arse.
Four, the Croatian manager made a simple tactical change at half-time by pulling Brozovic back to play in front of the back four, allowing Rakitic and Modric to play further up the field.
Maybe now the hoopla about Marcus Rashford, Delle Ali and Jesse Lingaard will stop and they will be judged on what they actually do.
Ali just has no end product, he creates nothing. OK he scored a goal but that's all he contributed.
Lingaard scored a cracker of a goal and supplied one cross for a goal, other than that, he did a lot of running.
Rashford did nothing apart from a lot of running around like a headless chicken.
It says a lot when your right wingback ends a tournament as your most creative player.
I wouldn't get too excited about England's chances in future tournements either, in this tournament they were lucky to come up against four very poor teams.
 
I've never understood why we need a defensive midfielder when we supposedly have 3 ball playing Centre Backs ?
Sterling 2 goals in 45 england games a striker in the mould of Gabby .
Shame Southgate isn't as harsh as me , we might have at least had a bloody go at them rather than hoping to hang onto a 1;0
100% - third centre-back even if it's a fullback? means midfield don't track, you already have sweeper cover in effect in used right. Midfield should only come back if 8 of the fuckers run forward.

Christ if we could find an English De Bruyne!
 
Pickford has a few shady moments tonight’s he clapped on at least 3 balls that I can recall. It only takes one game for two flaps to be goals - just ask Klarius.

Not that impressed with his distribution either. A top goalie has quality distribution, Pickford is OK but nothing special.
Harsh recurring concussion mate. Let's not make this medical!

I like him, you all think I'm batshit, but he reminds me of Bozzie!
 
Yes Melon it has to be said we were well beaten by a better footballing side with a top class midfield .
We can't argue really they could have had a few more really
 
This isn't a wise after event post but I was never convinced that the hype matched what was on offer. Yes you can only beat what's in front of you but it's a fact that we have not played anyone of quality until tonight and we were beaten and well beaten in the end in my view.
We went into this world cup with low expectations from fans and media
Since the Columbia game it's been embarrassing again listening to fans and media with this "It's coming home" thing again. I said how irritated I was by 5 live coverage today. Talking about the final ffs !!!. This fevour was only based on the way the route panned out and not how we were playing. So naive because we were going to face someone of quality sooner or later. Then we can judge. Beat Croatia and I think it's a sign that England have made progress. Even if we lost the final. As it is now I don't think we can euligise and say England are back because of who we played .
Remember that team called Wales who got to a euro semi final 2 years ago. Where are they in this tournament?. Cautionary tale there.

For me the excitement was how far we progressed not how we were playing. I was never convinced.
There's reason for hope - but it's down to the players and whether they are happy being 'nearly's' or whether they take a step others haven't and now fight for it. Problem we have now is next tournament media will be back to their best building them up before we've even kicked a ball and we have potential, not proof.
 
I think what's most annoying is, we could easily be sat here now and facing a final v France on Sunday. Then it's just a case of get overly physical with them for the opening 20 mins and the white flags would be raised by the spineless ungrateful wankers .
I now hope Croatia occupy them for the entire game and lift the trophy.
 
The are several reasons why England lost.
One, Southgate changed the way of play, instead of keeping the ball, as in previous games, he had them hitting long balls 'because the Croats were scared of Sterlings pace'.
I think he forgets, that along with pace you have to have control and be able to make a decision inside of 30 minutes. Sterling only has one of those qualities.
Two, the defenders and midfielders were over-hitting the long ball by 30 yards.
Three, we could have and should have been 4 goals up by halftime. A case of things coming back to bite you on the arse.
Four, the Croatian manager made a simple tactical change at half-time by pulling Brozovic back to play in front of the back four, allowing Rakitic and Modric to play further up the field.
Maybe now the hoopla about Marcus Rashford, Delle Ali and Jesse Lingaard will stop and they will be judged on what they actually do.
Ali just has no end product, he creates nothing. OK he scored a goal but that's all he contributed.
Lingaard scored a cracker of a goal and supplied one cross for a goal, other than that, he did a lot of running.
Rashford did nothing apart from a lot of running around like a headless chicken.
It says a lot when your right wingback ends a tournament as your most creative player.
I wouldn't get too excited about England's chances in future tournements either, in this tournament they were lucky to come up against four very poor teams.
Agree - to one dimensional, once they clocked it was just pace they could deal and added to us getting complacent it allowed them in. You need a mix so you create the opposition misjudging and that's where the opening comes from - something Villa haven't had for longer than I remember!

Yup out of three lingard wins for pure effort and yards, so play Bolt then to hassle and harry.
 
I think what's most annoying is, we could easily be sat here now and facing a final v France on Sunday. Then it's just a case of get overly physical with them for the opening 20 mins and the white flags would be raised by the spineless ungrateful wankers .
I now hope Croatia occupy them for the entire game and lift the trophy.
Nope, France for me now - the spectacle.