The World Cup 2018

[Kenneth]

Lallana could have made a difference.

[Pablo]

Tonight I officially jump on the England bandwagon, want the team to do it, to give us an amazing memory and achieve what I truly believed was unachievable.....come on England!!!

That worked out well. Thanks Tee.

[Buzzo]

The hype was encapsulated by the narrative that Sterling was doing great. Poor control, could't beat a man, couldn't pass to a teammate and with a weaker shot than my toddler, but he apparently caused chaos by running alone. Showed a complete lack of awareness of what is actually required of players at this level.

Yeah, that was weird. He had a poor tournament by any standard. The Raheem is a players player hype began even before the England are awesome hype which started at half time v Panama. He missed some trademark sitters and looked totally indecisive all tournament. Literally cant think of a thing he did last night.

[The_weatherman]

Lallana could have made a difference.

I thought England really missed him and Ox tbh.

But as well as that went for England, they really didn't do anything unexpected?

They won Panama and Tunis, got beaten by Belgium, just about beat a James less Colombia after penalites, beat a limited Sweden team and then were put out be a decent side.

I think the tactics aren't really special, this three at the back has more weaknesses than strengths IMO and like has been mentioned, there is no cover for Henderson and Alli was ****, so there was no creativity at all, which was pointed out before the tournament.

[Kenneth]

Alli, Lingard and Sterling just don't have the quality to compete at this level, although Alli is probably just out of form. Willing runners but not the creativity or goal threat of top players. The lack of chances created shows it clear as day. The rest of the team could have been a decent basis if there was an English Coutinho/Modric/De Bruyne making things tick around the final third. England's problem isn't the fans, media, manager at the moment, it's just a lack of top quality players.

[Buzzo]

Alli, Lingard and Sterling just don't have the quality to compete at this level, although Alli is probably just out of form. Willing runners but not the creativity or goal threat of top players. The lack of chances created shows it clear as day. The rest of the team could have been a decent basis if there was an English Coutinho/Modric/De Bruyne making things tick around the final third. England's problem isn't the fans, media, manager at the moment, it's just a lack of top quality players.

Agree. The problem is though, having to listen to the media and ex players telling you something is happening that clearly isn't. The team did well taking into account the level of opposition. Basically they won against all of the teams they should have beaten which is an improvement on previous tournaments for England. When it came to a good team and a big game they were miles off.

Though I thought he spoke fantastically throughout, I will add the eulogising of Southgate as a genius to the mix of mistruths. He did not have the tactical nouse to figure out what to do last night when the game was swinging towards Croatia (who in reality won with a degree of ease). Instead making pre-set substitutions (Danny Rose on, Rashford on as more attacking wing back etc) it was in the midfield that England were losing the game and he didn't have the tactics or players to make a difference.

Chris Coleman got Wales to the semi finals of the Euro Championships in much the same way, and look at him now.

Hope Southgate enjoys his Knighthood though.

[Venton]

That worked out well. Thanks Tee.

[Tee]

That worked out well. Thanks Tee.

It’s not my fault Kane misses an open goal tbf

[baitman]

could you not swap clubism for nationalism though?

he doesnt even do clubism. he likes headphones though

[Buzzo]

Meanwhile back in Scotland

[ame]https://twitter.com/carlmellor/status/1017161970313760769[/ame]

[RichC]

[Fosterbloke]

I'll be cheering on Derek Godren!

[Lecter]

Totally agree with Roy Keane.

The ‘it’s coming home’ stuff started a game too early. Looking to the final before they’ve won the semi.

Roy Keane v Wright kicking off now.

The Coming Home stuff started during the group stages, its laughable

It just snowballed from there

Load of ****ing nonsense and frankly its typical of the whole English fan mentality, they get carried away nearly every tournament after they see a good result

Anyway they had as good a chance as they have had in a long long time, dont see them getting as good a chance as this anytime soon

[Lecter]

The hype was encapsulated by the narrative that Sterling was doing great. Poor control, could't beat a man, couldn't pass to a teammate and with a weaker shot than my toddler, but he apparently caused chaos by running alone. Showed a complete lack of awareness of what is actually required of players at this level.

I still think the hype was encouraged by the goal scored tally which is great until you actually look at how many of them were scored from set pieces and pens. England didnt score anywhere near enough from open play (2 or 3 was it? one of which was a deflection )

I said very early on in the tournament to a mate that 5 at the back would get us so far and then a team that was good in possession would expose it

Also a midfield of Henderson, Ali and Lingard is nowhere near good enough

[Lecter]

Agree. The problem is though, having to listen to the media and ex players telling you something is happening that clearly isn't. The team did well taking into account the level of opposition. Basically they won against all of the teams they should have beaten which is an improvement on previous tournaments for England. When it came to a good team and a big game they were miles off.

Though I thought he spoke fantastically throughout, I will add the eulogising of Southgate as a genius to the mix of mistruths. He did not have the tactical nouse to figure out what to do last night when the game was swinging towards Croatia (who in reality won with a degree of ease). Instead making pre-set substitutions (Danny Rose on, Rashford on as more attacking wing back etc) it was in the midfield that England were losing the game and he didn't have the tactics or players to make a difference.

Chris Coleman got Wales to the semi finals of the Euro Championships in much the same way, and look at him now.

Hope Southgate enjoys his Knighthood though.

Listening to Bilic destroying Hoddles tactical analysis was amusing