Craigus89

That smoke is real bad!

Little bald man being angry, probably jealous of Declan’s hairdo. EEEAAAASSSSSAAAAYYYYYY

Watch no subs happen till 70 mins when he brings on Trent/Gallagher for Mainoo

Look like they don’t know how to build up, no runners. It’s beyond strange at this point. They all look like they don’t want to make a mistake so won’t take any risks.

We look better going forward, and at least this is exciting.

**** off ref

Suspension for two yellows feels very harsh.

I’m used to adverts these days as they are everywhere, but I am irrationally annoyed by the ad break after the anthems before kickoff. It just feels wrong.

Don't give a **** what the rules say, a penalty for that is beyond ridiculous.

Agree completely. Clearly there is mis-management of the squad/camp/games, us fans just want to watch a good game of football, then very few people would be moaning. Going out in the quarters or semi's would be fine if we were enjoyable to watch, that is all anyone ever wants from any team. Winning ugly is only tolerable for so long by the fans, see: Mourinho. Who never receives complaints even when lofty expectations aren't met? Exciting teams, see: Klopp.

It would become more of a 3 at the back, with TAA pushing up into midfield creating more of a 3-3-3-1. Walker is as good at LB as any of the other non-natural players who could go in there and it frees up the RB position to bring in someone who can offer something else.

I agree with most of what you said, except this. I'm not seeing anyone (apart from twitter morons) turning on the players. There is almost unanimous finger pointing at the manager, whether explicit or not, by pundits and everyone else. This hasn't happened before to the extent it is now. Even players who have played badly are on the whole being excused as there is understanding that they are being asked to play in positions or ways that they aren't used to.

This is absolutely turgid.

Couldn't agree more with this. The whole talk about Kane triggering the press etc is baffling to me, and I'm surprised it's coming from people who seem to know what they are talking about. It absolutely does not need to be the 9 who triggers the press, and actually more often than not it isn't the 9 who triggers it. There have been 9's who have been exceptionally helpful with pressing games like Firmino, but they are the exception generally. The clear problem with England's lack of press was all about the gap in midfield between the front 4 who were sometimes trying to press and Rice & TAA coupled with the very deep back line. It was too easy to play through with only 4 players doing it half-heartedly with a 25 yard gap behind them. It couldn't have had less to do with Kane. Pressing is a team task, the DM's need to come up to cut off passing options and the back line step up 10-15 yards. None of this was happening. Edit: The reason this wasn't happening was because they had clearly been instructed to stay further back. Nothing Gareth or anyone says in post game interviews would change my mind on that, none of these players are in teams who play in this manner regularly, they are all in teams who step up and press, so they wouldn't just decide among themselves to start doing that because they are in a tournament and the moment is getting to them. That is sheer BS.

I'd put money on the only change being Gallagher for Trent and everything else being the same. I have absolutely no reason to think things will look different after 4 tournaments of this style. Picking up on the post earlier about Portugal, the results honestly matter less to me than being excited by the spectacle. There is zero chance I will enjoy watching England while Southgate is in charge. Edit to add: And this criticism takes nothing away from past achievements. Both can be true at the same time, criticising him doesn't automatically = negating past success.