England - Costa Rica

[adamtherover]

Just got back, great view but jeez  the leg room was awful..    match was good and atmosphere not bad at all.    Just stop the sideways or backwards and we will be ok...

[Glyn_Wigley]

I don't mind the sideways/backwards as long as we don't give the ball away.

[BillyStubbsTears]

I'd probably have got stage fright with that blonde lass at the front to be fair.

Here she is

https://goo.gl/images/UYMGpZ

Somebody needs to tell her to get her nipple hair plucked if she’s going to play the sex kitten

[roversdude]

Wow Leeds have done something right for once
England looked decent too

[drfchound]

Just got back, great view but jeez  the leg room was awful..    match was good and atmosphere not bad at all.    Just stop the sideways or backwards and we will be ok...

Sometimes the sideways and backwards is a positive move, creating an opportunity for a forward pass opening.

[Pancho Regan]

Just got back, great view but jeez  the leg room was awful..    match was good and atmosphere not bad at all.    Just stop the sideways or backwards and we will be ok...

Sometimes the sideways and backwards is a positive move, creating an opportunity for a forward pass opening.

But it worries me a little that on several occasions we almost lost the ball in a dangerous area by sideways / backwards passing. Against a better standard of opposition we could have been punished.
Also, a couple of times these sequences of passes simply ended up with a slightly nervy back-pass to the keeper who duly lumped the ball upfield only for it to be collected by Costa Rica.

Nothing wrong with keeping possession in order to re-group and re-build an attack, but you have to be confident and competent enough to do so without slipping up, because that's how you can get punished against a top side.

[GazLaz]

Henderson is streets ahead of Dier for me. Better range of passing, quicker in thought and execution. Fabien Delph did really well too.

The team looks balanced and fit. The young Lions have a great stage to show what they can do. As long as stage fright doesn't get the better of them, we can do very well.

And I agree, if only we could play in red as the norm!

I don’t know how that’s even a debate. Dier isn’t a central midfielder at international level. I’d rather see Delph in there than Dier. Henderson is a good player though so it has to be him.

[MachoMadness]

I think people are feeling positive because England seemed to show they had some ideas last night. The execution wasn't always there, but given how we went out of the Euros, I think just having ideas is a massive step forward. But England always look assured in these pre-tournament friendlies, maybe because they have a bit more freedom to experiment and try out all the ideas they work on in training. It never seems to carry over into a tournament though. We'll see I suppose, but last night was a good showing.

[Bezza]

Henderson, Kane ,Rashford, 1st 3 on the team sheet for me.

[bobbymax]

Got to admit, the last few performances has had me thinking that these youngsters can actually play a bit within the preferred system. The one worry for me is Stones. He's talented but not a top-notch defender and he gets brain-freeze at least twice every game.

[BillyStubbsTears]

It’s a pretty low bar but last night was a competent performance against a very limited side. Second half vs Nigeria where a slightly better side totally neutralised England with a bit of nous from the manager was more telling.

It shows how far we’ve sunk when we’re feeling chipper because we’ve managed to come up with one formation that makes the players look half decent against weak opposition. Granted, that IS an improvement on the past half-decade but the main contenders would chuckle to see us congratulating ourselves for that.

If these players were comfortable switching formations within and between matches, they might have a chance of surprising people. But it’s highly unlikely.

On the plus side, they are moving the ball more quickly when in possession. It’s still a million miles from the instinctive way that thebest sides do it, but at least it’s not the grinding embarrassment of watching England do that 3-4 years ago. That was like watching a hippo in a tutu doing ballet.   

[scawsby steve]

I'd probably have got stage fright with that blonde lass at the front to be fair.

Here she is

https://goo.gl/images/UYMGpZ

Somebody needs to tell her to get her nipple hair plucked if she’s going to play the sex kitten

By God, you're picky Billy; next you'll be telling us Bella Emberg wasn't sexy.

[drfchound]

Germany are going to the WC in poor form.
No wins in four going into tonight’s game with Saudi Arabia, a game probably arranged to send them off with a big win, and they managed a 2-1 victory.

[Pancho Regan]

Germany are going to the WC in poor form.
No wins in four going into tonight’s game with Saudi Arabia, a game probably arranged to send them off with a big win, and they managed a 2-1 victory.

That’s it then....we’re gonna win it!

[dickos1]

It’s a pretty low bar but last night was a competent performance against a very limited side. Second half vs Nigeria where a slightly better side totally neutralised England with a bit of nous from the manager was more telling.

It shows how far we’ve sunk when we’re feeling chipper because we’ve managed to come up with one formation that makes the players look half decent against weak opposition. Granted, that IS an improvement on the past half-decade but the main contenders would chuckle to see us congratulating ourselves for that.

If these players were comfortable switching formations within and between matches, they might have a chance of surprising people. But it’s highly unlikely.

On the plus side, they are moving the ball more quickly when in possession. It’s still a million miles from the instinctive way that thebest sides do it, but at least it’s not the grinding embarrassment of watching England do that 3-4 years ago. That was like watching a hippo in a tutu doing ballet.   

We’re unbeaten in 10 games I think and we’ve played some good sides in that run.
Of the 4 halves of football we’ve played this week it seems odd that you’ve picked the one which was possible the poorest performance wise and said this was the most telling half.
For the first time in a long time we seem to have a shape and system that gets the best out of the players, if our best players play well I think we’ve got a good chance of making the semis at least

[godlike1]

Nope they will, or come close.  When was the last time they had a good pre word/Euro cup game.

[BillyStubbsTears]

Dickos
We’re in the final straight before the tournament. Matches from 12 months ago mean nowt. Coaches are fine tuning their approaches and perfecting their tactics. The second half vs Nigeria was not some ignorable poor performance by England. It was the result of a sharp coach making a change to his tactics and totally nullifying England’s set-up.

It’s a salutary reminder of how limited we are.

[Chris Black come back]

Don’t take any interest in England but was in pub when the game at Elland Road was on tv. Jesus that lad Loftus-Cheek is a big bugger. Doubt there will be many bigger than him in Russia. Gerrrim on!

[the vicar]

Just got back, great view but jeez  the leg room was awful..    match was good and atmosphere not bad at all.    Just stop the sideways or backwards and we will be ok...

that is world football im afraid

[dickos1]

Dickos
We’re in the final straight before the tournament. Matches from 12 months ago mean nowt. Coaches are fine tuning their approaches and perfecting their tactics. The second half vs Nigeria was not some ignorable poor performance by England. It was the result of a sharp coach making a change to his tactics and totally nullifying England’s set-up.

It’s a salutary reminder of how limited we are.

I’m not saying they do but I’m just not understanding what’s to be negative about.
At the end of the day we beat Nigeria regardless of if they were better for half an hour or so.

[BillyStubbsTears]

Dickos

I’m not sure how old you are, but I’ve been watching World Cups for over 40 years. In that time, I’ve once seen England exceed expectations, and that time only at what is commonly held to be the worst quality WC of modern times.
See, every four years we get this upwelling of expectation and optimism, built on the flimsiest of based. And after the inevitable deflation, we shrug our shoulders and move on. And nothing changes. Because it’s not in the interests of the people who make fortunes out of English football to make the restructuring that would be required to turn England into the truly great footballing force that it should be.

If you buy into the blind optimism thing, you’re not really supporting English football. You’re part of the problem. It won’t change until enough people decide that they’ve actually lost interest in being conned and bullshitted every four years.

I decided that I’d had enough a good while ago. And I find it somewhere between amusing and depressing to see the cycle going on again, when we’re as far from being actual contenders as we’ve been for the last generation.

If you want to go the optimism route, then grand. Just don’t make the mistake of thinking that those of us who don’t join you are any lesser supporters.

[dickos1]

The problem there is that the expectations haven’t been realistic,
Last two world cups have been dreadful, 2002 I thought we were very unlucky and if not for seaman dropping a clanger we could’ve beaten Brazil.
Losing on pens is obviously just unlucky and we could’ve easily reached expectations in 2006.
I went to South Africa and it was abysmal.

But this time it feels different to me, no billy big b*llocks, no manager just throwing all the best players in with no thought of what’s best for the formation or for the team, just throw them in and let them get on with it.
This time the expectation is low and we have a team that has players that look like they know precisely what their jobs are. And an attacking force probably as good as we’ve had since 96

[Glyn_Wigley]

I can see very well that England is limited, but from what I've seen there aren't that many teams in this tournament that this set of players ought to be afraid of not being able to give a good game. If they hold up mentally they could be a surprise package.

[BillyStubbsTears]

Dickos.

2002. We played 40 minutes against ten men and were unable to create one meaningful chance. That wasn’t bad luck. It was precisely the kind of limitations I’m talking about.

[dickos1]

We didn’t but the goal that knocked us out was one that wouldn’t happen 99 times out of 100.