England v Croatia..............

[IsleofWightYellow]

How long do we give Kane though?

More than one game?

 

[bazzer9461]

His England record:
Overall -
55 games (including subbed & as a sub)
34 goals
13 Assists
Under Southgate:
38 games
29 goals
Don't know the assists though.
So I would expect him to start the group games at least (if fit of course) based on his record under Southgate alone. He has a game in his legs now as well.

Same performance against Scotland and then what

 

[Followtheox1]

There's no point pretending something's brilliant when it isn't. Got the job done today against an ok Croatia side but they're nothing special. Very negative set up and struggled to create anything. Trippier at left back is unnecessarily cautious and hampers us going forward, there were a couple of times when he had a chance to overlap that Shaw or Chilwell would have taken but he didn't want to go on his left. Leaving Sancho out the squad completely is baffling, we we really more likely to need Coady AND White than some extra creativity from Sancho?

We needed two goal keepers on the bench you know!

 

[tonyw]

Very conservative from Southgate today. That's OK as long as we win (and plenty of teams have won the Euros playing hyper-conservative - Portugal & Greece chief amongst them). But if we lose playing that way, then he's going to get crucified.

Like many, I'd like to see us use our exciting full back options rather than the experienced but dull Walker & Trippier.
And then I'd like to find space for a little more creativity in the midfield three. I do think that Rice is crucial - he's our water carrier, and he's going to be needed given that central defense is our weakest position. But while Philips and Mount are both fine, energetic players.....I think we could find room for a little more magic in there.

Also, Sterling gets tons of stick from England fans and the media - but the comparison between him and Foden today was night and day. He gave the Croatian defenders kittens for the whole game, scored and was at the centre of just about everything we created. Foden hit the post early on (having been set up by Sterling), and took one long ball out of the air like Pele at his peak......but otherwise was pretty invisible.

I get it - Sterling can sometimes be like an international version of Mark Sykes; bags of skill and energy but always choosing the wrong option. But he is always dangerous, and you need that at the international level.

 

[tonyw]

We needed two goal keepers on the bench you know!

Don't think we have any choice in that - believe 23 man squads by rule have to include three keepers.

 

[IsleofWightYellow]

I do think that Rice is crucial - he's our water carrier, and he's going to be needed given that central defense is our weakest position. But while Philips and Mount are both fine, energetic players.....I think we could find room for a little more magic in there.

Phillips and Mount were two of our best players today though. Would be exceptionally harsh to drop one of them after that performance

 

[LeftSideBoy]

Very conservative from Southgate today. That's OK as long as we win (and plenty of teams have won the Euros playing hyper-conservative - Portugal & Greece chief amongst them). But if we lose playing that way, then he's going to get crucified.

Like many, I'd like to see us use our exciting full back options rather than the experienced but dull Walker & Trippier.
And then I'd like to find space for a little more creativity in the midfield three. I do think that Rice is crucial - he's our water carrier, and he's going to be needed given that central defense is our weakest position. But while Philips and Mount are both fine, energetic players.....I think we could find room for a little more magic in there.

Also, Sterling gets tons of stick from England fans and the media - but the comparison between him and Foden today was night and day. He gave the Croatian defenders kittens for the whole game, scored and was at the centre of just about everything we created. Foden hit the post early on (having been set up by Sterling), and took one long ball out of the air like Pele at his peak......but otherwise was pretty invisible.

I get it - Sterling can sometimes be like an international version of Mark Sykes; bags of skill and energy but always choosing the wrong option. But he is always dangerous, and you need that at the international level.

How can you compare Sterling and Foden? They’re completely different players…

 

[Followtheox1]

Don't think we have any choice in that - believe 23 man squads by rule have to include three keepers.

Fair enough. Didn't know that. Seems like a silly rule to me.

 

[tonto]

Philips was a. revelation that assist was absolutely top drawer and plenty of other good contributions. Rashford was disappointing

 

[tonyw]

How can you compare Sterling and Foden? They’re completely different players…

They were playing in essentially the same position - just on different flanks - so I think absolutely fair game, even if their styles are polar opposites.

One (the one who tends to get constant stick in the media, and constantly gets his selection questioned) was dangerous today, the other (the golden boy) was MIA.

 

[tonyw]

Phillips and Mount were two of our best players today though. Would be exceptionally harsh to drop one of them after that performance

Don't disagree - Phillips in particular was the best player on the pitch today - but if you want to win major tournaments, you've got to make some harsh decisions.

I'm just doubting that the two of them together in the more advanced midfield roles give us enough creativity to beat the very best sides in this competition.......

Having slagged him off in my other posts, I wonder whether pulling Foden back into the midfield three, and then getting Sancho or Grealish in to play in the more forward role, would make us more threatening going forwards.

I should note though that I'm really not particularly qualified to talk about international football any more! I've watched almost zero football these past few seasons that didn't involve the yellows so frankly I know very little about any of England's younger players!

 

[Oxford57]

What I find a bit tedious is that the first instinct of a player receiving a ball is to play it straight back, sterling has the pace to have a effect but he needs to be going forward ,the goal came from direct forward running and passing, not the from me to you stuff

 

[Bath Yellow]

As long as we need to, because he’s the best striker in the world?

Specksavers .

 

[Followtheox1]

Specksavers .

To be fair his record demonstrates he is one of the best strikers in the world.

 

[QR]

Fair enough. Didn't know that. Seems like a silly rule to me.

Agreed. I can understand having cover for each player/position but more on the bench than on the pitch?

 

[Scotchegg]

I quite a few are not pretending or trying to be cool... far too old for that. It's just that they (we) no longer watch hardly any football apart from oufc.

I'm far from cool, but I didn't know half of those playing in the friendly last week!

 

[werthersoriginal]

I'm far from cool, but I didn't know half of those playing in the friendly last week!

Who the f is Jude Bellingham??

 

[SteMerritt]

I'm far from cool, but I didn't know half of those playing in the friendly last week!

I didn't know the clubs for a few of the team today. That's not being 'cool' either, it's from only watching OUFC for a year. Can't remember the last Premier League game I sat through...

 

[SteMerritt]

Who the f is Jude Bellingham??

Apparently as he was about to come on, Southgate's instructions were...

So let it out and let it in, hey Jude, begin,
You're waiting for someone to perform with.And don't you know that it's just you.

 

[Scotchegg]

I didn't know the clubs for a few of the team today. That's not being 'cool' either, it's from only watching OUFC for a year. Can't remember the last Premier League game I sat through...

Oxford v Man Utd 2nd May 1988!!