Hope we don't play as Slow.

[Pinchy]

And Belgium isn't Tippy Tappy football..

Hoping for a tiny little bit of hoof...

 

[boo radley]

Just finished watching England, And for a brief second, I thought it was David Weir as England manager.
Never seen a team make it so hard to go forward, and not just this game.
On the other hand, Belgium ( Lukaku the only exception) were like a speeding bullet compared to our National team. Fourth in the world cup, some might say isn't a bad effort. Like the Olympics where we win a Bronze or Finish Fourth. There should be quite a few Players that need to take a good look at themselves - Could I have done better.
So I'll now sit back and wait for the patriotic hoards to tear a strip off me. But bear in mind it would only be the same for United when we finished

2010 - 11 - 23rd relegated
2011 - 12 - Play-off defeated in the final - Huddersfield
2012 - 13 - 5th - defeated by the Mighty Yeovil
2013 - 14 - 7th
2014 - 15 - 5th - defeated by the Mighty Swindon
2015 - 16 - 11th
2016 - 17 - 1ST Finally

How Many Blades thought it's a young team or useless Ba****ds especially under the influential Adkins.

I remember how quickly the ground emptied after the Scunthorpe debacle.

Shows how much you know about the Olympics.

 

[coolhandluke]

He took walker off for vardy at one all

As has already been pointed out, walker for Hardy was a change actioned in the 112th minute . Southgates other changes were all ' like for like ' and weren't intended to change formation to counter Croatias dominance . Rashford replaced sterling in the 74th minute, Rose replaced Young on 90 and Dier replaced Henderson on 97. Southgates response to the game slipping away was ' fresh legs ' in the same set up .

 

[mattbianco1]

How Many Blades thought it's a young team or useless Ba****ds especially under the influential Adkins.

Yes, but England can't have their youngsters taken away from them can they. They'll still always be English.

 

[snootyfenooty]

When you look at England's WC campaign in the cold light of day, they played 7, W3, L3 and D1. It was a bit like starting your league campaign and being in mid table after 7 games without playing any of the big boys yet. England were very lucky to get where they did, none of it was due to performance and herein lies the problem; getting to the semis glossed over the fact that they are a pretty shit team.

 

[Harrisblade]

Yeh, he's got to be injured.......he's virtually had no movement up front for the last 3 games.
No wonder we slowed down in midfield with the lack of movement up top.

Didn't he get a flying body-slam in the Panama game ???

 

[Fanny magnet]

You can focus on the negatives that England lacked quality in midfield and had an easy run in or you can focus on the positives that Southgate has changed the culture of picking names from the top 6 sides and cramming then Into a formation ,instead having a system and picking the best players for it based on their attitude and teamwork

There has been a vast difference between this e gland squad and those of the previous decade
Anyone who can't see that is missing the point

There is real cause for optimism but you can't make someone optimistic I suppose

 

[FinchleyBlade]

England got an extremely fortunate draw and lost to every decent side they played.

Simple as that really.

 

[GrayBlade]

Just finished watching England, And for a brief second, I thought it was David Weir as England manager.
Never seen a team make it so hard to go forward, and not just this game.
On the other hand, Belgium ( Lukaku the only exception) were like a speeding bullet compared to our National team. Fourth in the world cup, some might say isn't a bad effort. Like the Olympics where we win a Bronze or Finish Fourth. There should be quite a few Players that need to take a good look at themselves - Could I have done better.
So I'll now sit back and wait for the patriotic hoards to tear a strip off me. But bear in mind it would only be the same for United when we finished

2010 - 11 - 23rd relegated
2011 - 12 - Play-off defeated in the final - Huddersfield
2012 - 13 - 5th - defeated by the Mighty Yeovil
2013 - 14 - 7th
2014 - 15 - 5th - defeated by the Mighty Swindon
2015 - 16 - 11th
2016 - 17 - 1ST Finally

How Many Blades thought it's a young team or useless Ba****ds especially under the influential Adkins.

I remember how quickly the ground emptied after the Scunthorpe debacle.

I’m not sure of the need to list all United’s crap seasons to make the point, it’d apply to any team in the country who’d not had succes or struggled, but anyway... usless Bastards maybe, but I bet not many thought it was a young team for the future with the likes of Hammond, Woodford, Baptiste, McEveley, Edgar, Sammon, Sharp and Done figuring regularly at the back end of Adkins’s tenure.

 

[Maidenhead]

For England to have a chance in the Euros we need...

1. A favourable draw
2. A midfield
3. Southgate to improve

We have to qualify first.

 

[fuerstenberger]

Second half against Belgium, England played well. They worked harder, chased and harried and played some nice football. They need to do that for 90 mins. No doubt they need 3 or 4 players, preferably in midfield and attack. Had Walker been on against Belgium I doubt their goals happen. Don't be too down on the national side, most Germans thought we were good for the most part and exciting to watch. Our games had some of the largest TV audiences here.
Hopefully Englamd will learn. Personally I still think we lag behind technically, both mentally and physically.

 

[BladeFisher]

For England to have a chance in the Euros we need...

1. A favourable draw
2. A midfield
3. Southgate to improve

You missed the obvious ingredient. Forwards who can shoot at the goal. Our total inability to do this is why England remain in the second tier of better teams. Lindguard and Sterling missed so many chances against Tunisia I wondered if they were playing Gaelic football.

 

[oldblade]

England have played 2 good teams over 3 matches and lost them all. I don't get this Southgate love in.

True, and we shouldn't get carried away. Southgate was quite realistic in saying that we are not a top 4 side.

However, it is also possible to be overly negative. There were a few highs in this world cup that we have not experienced for some time.

In the group stage we looked very good against Tunisia for about half an hour. Gave away a silly penalty, then struggled to put them away. But we won. I'm not sure that a lot of previous England sides would have done so.

We beat Panama 6-1. They weren't very good. But they were ranked higher than Russia. And Belgium struggled for quite a while against them and didn't score 6. We were the only country in the competition to score that many goals in one game.

We played quite well in spells against a pretty reasonable Colombian side. Previous England sides may well have lost that match before it got as far as penalties. And we showed a lot of character in winning the penalty shootout after going behind in it.

Sweden are not a top class team, but they are no mugs either. They were responsible for Italy failing to qualify. They beat a good Mexico team 3-0 and really should not have lost to Germany. But we looked very comfortable against them and they are the type of side that we have struggled to put away in the past.

Croatia beat us and over the 120 minutes deserved to do so. But had we taken our chances when we had them on the rack in the first half we would have been comfortably ahead at half time. On another day we could have won that game. We were not outclassed.

I agree with Southgate. We are not the 4th best side in the world. But we're not a bad side either and unlike a lot of England sides in the last quarter of a century or so, we did not under perform.

 

[oldblade]

Hoping for a tiny little bit of hoof...

Not hoof, but Belgium were very direct and got the ball forward with the minimum number of passes possible.

I haven't seen the figures, but I would guess that England had more possession than Belgium and probably completed more passes.

The difference between the two sides in terms of how fast they got the ball forward was like night and day.

 

[IMABLADE]

watching England made me miss Sheffield United even more

 

[Blend-it-like-Harris]

The performance Croatia put in for the final begs some serious questions about England I'm afraid to say. For me they were brilliant, and but for 2 shocking decisions leading to the 1st two goals may well have won the trophy. They played with a "Shit or Bust" approach that scared the wits out of the French, and their fitness levels were way, way ahead of ours. We were the youngest squad in the competition yet looked very "leggy". Our midfield looked pedestrian at times and no-one looked capable or willing to drive at the oppostion defences. Harry Maguire looks more capable with the ball at his feet, and it's a shame he stops at the invisible line to release the ball instead of driving on. Harry though still doesn't turn his head to check up on players running off him and often fails to pick up strikers he could easily mark if he knew where they were. He could easily have prevented Belgium's 1st goal, but not once did he look around to check where oppostion strikers were - he was ball-watching. He did it with us; he did it at Hull; he's doing it at Leicester, and now in the World Cup with England. He's a cracking player, but he could be a great player if only he'd be much more alert.

 

[Jim Chimmerney]

I've said for years how similar the paths of England and the Blades seem to have been, losing the big games, reasonable success not followed up etc etc and the last couple of years have been no different. Southgate seems to have done to England what Wilder has done to us, brought the pride back (not to mention playing exactly the same system).

And yes, what happened this Summer, we fell ultimately short because we are one or two players short in the creativity and pace front. If we go up this year or next, get your money on England for the Euros

People compare us to Belgium and I think the comparison is good in terms of most of the players, the difference is, we have Lingard and Sterling, they have De Bruyne and Hazard.