Robson 07

That header was fantastic. That aside he should have been replaced. For me, he's been so, so poor.

Kane off. TAA off. Replace with Mainoo and Watkins.

Send Watkins out to run up and down the touchline...

Milenkovic has owned Kane.

Lovely tackle that by Rice just inside our box.

Good half really, I think England have played pretty well. Get to 60-70 mins and consider changes then.

Has Southgate been shopping at M&S?

Top boy JB10

3 seasons approximately.

I suspect England are going to win the possession battle. Heavily.

Not a single Man Utd player in the starting lineup. Wonder the last time that happened in a major tournament?

FFS. The BBC coverage have gone with Moyes & Murphy as the studio pundits, and the idiot that is Martin Keown as co-commentator. It's a round up of all the dullards for this one.

The Plan was terrible. A 5-4-1 with no width, so Germany could go down the sides and pull central players out. Then no one to hold up the ball, literally no one when Adams was subbed. Honestly, an orthodox 4-4-2 with two targets up top would have worked better. May not have won but there would at least have been some coverage and threat.

Clarke's furious and demanding players to get back in shape behind the ball. Readies another defender to come on.

Tbf he was playing tougher opposition back then as well.

Clarke has a go a set-piece coach ignoring other key match facts, such as, he himself has stuck 10 men behind the ball and subbed off the only striker.

Clarke doubling down on not planning to attack by removing the striker to go along with the missing wingers.

Scotland setting a solid low bar early in the tourney here.

That's another goal that wee Jimmy Krankie has to pick out of his net.

As a Utd fan, I know what a bad setup looks like, and Steve Clarke has delivered here. Needs to reassemble this pronto.

I've seen more difficult back passes for keepers to pick up.

That pass map. It's heavily weighted bottom left and much thinner top right. Then overlay your roles against it. The top right half of your formation MCR, AMR, CF. They are selfish attack-duty roles, no cohesion, individuals making runs, shooting or dribbling, no interplay. I also like to balance more attacking mentalities with a couple of roles that hardcode 'take less risks', and vice versa on defensive mentalities.

Nice thread if I may so. Looking back I can definitely see some commonality now between Paisley's Liverpool setup and that of Clough (Forest) and maybe even Fergie and Wenger, Utd and Arsenal respectively. It was that reference to the right side of the (442 / 4411) formation being configured slightly differently to the left. E.g. John Robertson left (winger); Martin O'Neill right (tucked in); Giggs left (winger), Beckham right (tucked in); Overmars left (advanced), Parlour right (tucked in). Plus the opening post to this thread Barnes left (winger), Houghton right (tucked in). All of those successful sides defying the myth that all 442's were equal and that English sides always had an archetypal winger both sides and a big no.9 target man up top. Of course some teams did but as is being shown, many of the better ones were always far more nuanced and tactically aware than are given credit for. Also I would like to give @irish kopite a huge shout out. His longer reply 3 or 4 posts above mine is absolute quality.

Care. It's the age of pressing. Low tempo can increases touches and slow decision making.

Without seeing a tactic it's hard to comment but I would suggest dialling down aggressive formations and duties. A good role, just to try, is Wingback-Defend. Even on highlights only, just watch that single player on that role for a 2 or 3 games, that's easy to do, right. Notice how much they contribute to the build up. Do they time their run? How high do they get? Do they overlap? Take mental notes. Then consider the Support & Attack duty variants. Might a Wingback on Attack Duty actually be too aggressive, too committed to attacking, playing too high and getting exposed on the counter. Try that one simple tip. It might become a building block for the rest.