My apologies - I didn't mean to upset the defenders of porridge. That was not my intention.
I suppose that's the thing though - we didn't need to make something of the game. A point last night has basically seen us qualify - as the only way we won't is if we lose by more than three goals to the Welsh, and let's be honest, that isn't going to happen. That's his, and the players main aim at this stage - qualify without taking too much out of themselves.
I admire your confidence that England were in such control, aware of the situation. On that basis, as soon as they play anyone decent, they'll be able to flick the switch and turn it on.
Yes, they will be lording it over us after that 0-0 win. Just like the Scotch did.
Mmm, nice optimism, ala Southgate, but at no point last night were we in control of the game and we could (and should) very easily have lost. Southgate basically did nothing to try and stop the US having control of the game till the last 15 minutes. He got very lucky in the end to come away with a point and be able to say he's pleased with everything we did, etc.
And if we play like we did against Iran we’ll win it on one leg
Tournament football needs a decent 90 mins in the knockouts but the group games need an element of game management, especially when it’s hot and there’s not much to do
Teams that grind out results, knowing that a draw is enough, do so by staying in control and dictating the pace of the game. That is not what we did yesterday. We were not control and could have quite easily conceded more than one.
Famous last words
Especially as if we’d managed the win, we could have rotated and rested a lot of the team for a dead rubber against Wales. Now we need a result, so aren’t really in the position to do that anymore.
I get that, and yes other nations usually have blips along the way in the WC, but we do have a pretty unique habit of for at least one game in a tournament being absolutely utterly horrendous, like last night. Laughably bad. You don't often see the top nations play as bad as what we're capable of, even when they do have a blip. For that reason we will never win anything as when we come against properly organised teams, including inferior on paper, we come unstuck, especially with someone like Southgate's risk averse mentality. It's such a shame because I feel if we play without fear we have the players to potentially hurt one of the big nations. How many times have we said that over the years though? Maybe, just maybe, we might hire a manager after this WC who actually believes in attack as a means of defence. I've found both Southgate's post match interviews utterly baffling yet typical of him so far: win 6-2 and he's negative about it (2 sloppy goals yes but come on - no need to only focus on that when we've been excellent in attack); draw 0-0 and he's seemingly delighted with how it played out despite the rest of the world knowing differently.
that’s not what happened against the Colonials, you could see by the players reaction that it had been a very very poor perfornance. Personally I don’t think it’s in our mentality to play like this. I thinks just asking for trouble.
Totally agree with you. I don't give a stuff about Ecuador, Belgium, Ghana etc, in fact I'd be very happy if all of them got knocked out in the group stage so our players can rest.
I’m not anti-English, I’m just very frustrated with the ineptitude of a clueless manager who is wasting the players at his disposal. His defensive, risk averse football was consigned to the bin three seasons ago, it’s now about quick passes and movement. He just hasn’t realised it.
How to the change the mentality though? It’s not like the players on the pitch were thinking “right lads, let’s be really shit, we only need to draw”.
