Game 7: Serbia vs England from the Arena AufSchalke LIVE on BBC1 8pm

[Haguey]

1 minute ago, RTHerringbone said:

Where the hell is Mainoo playing?

Sad to see he's a fraud

[Baptista_8]

3 points despite Gareth

[Barnzy]

Felt like Foden didn’t realise we were trying to keep the ball last 10 mins

[Darren Moores Mum]

Can we do more of the first 30 minutes, please. 

Chore of a watch in the second half.

[JJ72]

Saved by Jude being class. 

[av3ry]

Phew. Relief. Rubbish second half but an important win. Well done.

[Haguey]

Easy enough innit, boring after the first 20 minutes but never really troubled, will take it.

[Heartwork]

Was not pretty but I guess we'll take it. Southgate needs a bollocking for his **** poor changes though

[Vynal Seven]

Proper Gareth’d that 2nd half, but job done and on to the next one. 

[Darren Moores Mum]

Just now, Barnzy said:

Felt like Foden didn’t realise we were trying to keep the ball last 10 mins

Only the last 10 mins? Poor performance from him.

[Bootador]

Coming home lads, get tweeting Keith for that holiday

[The Amazing Dale Watkins]

Really poor game by England, or in other words, probably the tournament favorites now.

[Baptista_8]

Just now, Barnzy said:

Felt like Foden didn’t realise we were trying to keep the ball last 10 mins

No-one comes close to his level though

[m_fenton]

Happy with that. Showed a flair followed by a steel, no major scares. Plenty to work on but 3 points in the bag.

[Rebs]

BANG

[aiston]

All this game has shown is Southgate hasn't learnt a ****ing thing in all his time managing England.

[Smallen]

3 minutes ago, Haguey said:

And the xG is all that matters imo

it matters when it backs up my opinion, and it doesn’t matter when it doesn’t. This is the internet.

[Goldy]

Knew i should have gone to bed at half time, so uninspiring, I mean why did Southgate not realise that Pavlovic has Saka in his pocket, Foden was non-existent and Kane was nowhere to be seen with the way they where playing.

[TalkSport]

3 minutes ago, Smallen said:

they’ve only managed 0.16xG from their 5 shots. We’ve been decent at keeping them out.

Mostly thanks to some awful passing from them when they’ve had the chances. Mitrovic and SMS both chipped balls to no-one when on edge of box, and Jovic miscontrolled a simple pass from Tadic when 6 yards out.

Job done based on first half and them sitting off though. Makes a change to all previous tournaments. Will be surprised if TAA plays again CM IMO.

[Robson 07]

Just now, RTHerringbone said:

Where the hell is Mainoo playing?

Doesn't play as q 10 so that substitution wasn't obvious.

Way too much angst and drama in the BBC commentary.  Didn't think it was that difficult a game and a comfortable win.  Performance could have been better but the win was all important. 

[georginho_juventusygr]

Serbia didn't have passion in the first half.

Typical Balkans. Must have been still sleepy from the vodka binge last night. 

[themadsheep2001]

Mainoo sent on to press up front, presumably because Kane was gassed. Maybe take him off to Watkins next time???

[Haguey]

Just now, Smallen said:

it matters when it backs up my opinion, and it doesn’t matter when it doesn’t. This is the internet.

We are very smart

[Constantine]

That was less awful and much less painful than I expected... 

[kopsy101]

0.17 vs 0.54 xG  

That was a tough watch all round. Everybody was decent, but Bellingham was unreal. Saka and Rice good too. I like Southgate, but I think they'd benefit from having more players to stretch play.

[Haguey]

Assuming Denmark play like they did today we should murder them, especially if they continue with Vestergaard

[arenaross]

Southgate loves this type of football, it’s painful. 

[Pukey]

Poor second half, but Serbia really didn't offer much at all. Two moments behind our right leading to decent balls in, but other than that what did they do? One pot shot that Pickford saved and nothing else.

Not good, but not one to panic about at all.

[skybluedave]

We are absolutely world class at winning free kicks. World champs at it

[Smallen]

Just now, arenaross said:

Southgate loves this type of football, it’s painful. 

winning?

[Rob1981]

Almost the perfect tribute to Sven Goran Eriksson, just couldn’t gift Serbia the equaliser.

[TalkSport]

1 minute ago, themadsheep2001 said:

Mainoo sent on to press up front, presumably because Kane was gassed. Maybe take him off to Watkins next time???

When Watkins/Toney can’t come on for him in that game, not sure when they will apart from when we’re 3+  

[aiston]

Just now, skybluedave said:

We are absolutely world class at winning free kicks. World champs at it

Proper **** at using them effectively when we get them though

 

[Vynal Seven]

Just now, kopsy101 said:

0.17 vs 0.54 xG  

That was a tough watch all round. Everybody was decent, but Bellingham was unreal. Saka and Rice good too.

Thought Guehi done well too. 

[Baptista_8]

Southgate still no idea how to control a game like that

[Craigus89]

2 minutes ago, themadsheep2001 said:

Mainoo sent on to press up front, presumably because Kane was gassed. Maybe take him off to Watkins next time???

Exactly what I was saying, he

never takes him off and it’s infuriating, imagine Watkins tearing round for the last 10 mins, could have looked quite different. 

[Marc Albrighton]

As i said in the other thread i find the surprise at the performances as absolutely baffling, this game is exactly what Southgate has done at every tournament. Suck all life out of games and win by the odd goal or set piece by being pretty solid. He's not going to turn into a positive good manager randomly overnight  

[Haguey]

1 minute ago, Rob1981 said:

Almost the perfect tribute to Sven Goran Eriksson, just couldn’t gift Serbia the equaliser.

I bet you were fuming when we were needing some midfield control and Jordan Henderson is sat on his sofa in Amsterdam 

[Bootador]

1 minute ago, TalkSport said:

When Watkins/Toney can’t come on for him in that game, not sure when they will apart from when we’re 3+  

And we brought both and yet have 1 1/2 left backs.

Edited June 16 by Bootador

[themadsheep2001]

1 minute ago, Craigus89 said:

Exactly what I was saying, he

never takes him off and it’s infuriating, imagine Watkins tearing round for the last 10 mins, could have looked quite different. 

As a United fan, nice to see Mainoo get on. But never should have been subbed on in that scenario 

[Smaldini]

Jude was great. Saka, Rice, Pickford and Guehi good. All the other starters were poor. 

[Vynal Seven]

Just now, Marc Albrighton said:

As i said in the other thread i find the surprise at the performances as absolutely baffling, this game is exactly what Southgate has done at every tournament. Suck all life out of games and win by the odd goal or set piece by being pretty solid. He's not going to turn into a positive good manager randomly overnight  

Yeah, we thought he’d turned into sexy Gareth but it turns out he was fuming after 30 minutes.  

[RTHerringbone]

Great first 15-30 minutes, pretty horrible thereafter.

We all knew that Trippier and Foden left wasn't ideal and that proved to be the case. TAA didn't work.

But we do have some fantastic footballers. Hopefully Shaw is back ASAP and Southgate recognises that we need to drop Foden to avoid creating a load of systemic issues.

I was excited early in the first half by how well Stones, Walker and TAA flowed because they're so used to funky defensive positioning dynamics. but it all got sketchy when pressure cranked up.

[Bootador]

Kane wins so many free kicks, there's no way you can ever take him off defending a lead.

And if you're chasing a lead you can't take him off either.

Southgate is right here.

[Bigwig]

Think we look better playing on the counter. Build up play is pretty bad. 

[The_jagster]

I think that was a bit like the Euro 2020 Croatia match, competent side isn't interested in going for it against England and we got a goal.

Foden was disappointing

[Haguey]

Jude, Guehi, Rice, Walker excellent, Saka excellent first half, Kane mostly good second half

Everyone else good or okay apart from Foden who was a bit disappointing.

[skybluedave]

Just now, Baptista_8 said:

Southgate still no idea how to control a game like that

What would you have done? I think Gallagher for Trent was fine to add energy in midfield. Mainoo coming on for Bellingham as a 10 was odd but pretty late on game

I know everyone will say Gordon or Palmer for Foden but I actually think Foden did well 2nd half in being an outlet to keep the ball. Yeah he gave it away once or twice and did a silly freekick at the end but we needed him on pitch IMO

[Astafjevs]

You can spin then that game both ways really. Serbia didn't have a shot until after 80 mins, and then it was a speculative effort from 20+ yards.

On the other hand, Serbia have absolutely zero quality, which is probably why they couldn't get a shot off before 80 mins. A better team than Serbia in the second half probably scores at least once.

[Pukey]

2 minutes ago, Baptista_8 said:

Southgate still no idea how to control a game like that

Tbf depends what you mean by control, because limiting your opponents to absolutely nothing the way we did is perfectly fine. 

Definitely not ideal performance for me, and we had very little threat ourselves, but still. I wouldn't describe it as out of control either.