Printable View
3 1/2 weeks ago everyone would have laughed if you had said we would get to the semi,
overall they did really well but they were a first half team in most of the games.
I think the lack of experience in the team showed when they needed to manage the 2nd half
in games but lets hope it is a platform for the future.
Well done you did us proud.
Well done lads, you can certainly hold your heads up high.
R
So close, yet so far..
Disappointing tonight but they’re a young team and hopefully will be stronger in four years time.
Played Croatia off the pitch in the first half - an extra goal would have sealed it.
I feel like at half time Croatia were told to go all-out attack and England were told to sit on their lead, they really really wanted it in the second half and deserved the goal.
Pity no-one played in Sterling in the box that first half, three absolute sitters had Kane and Lingard passed the ball to him.
Harry Kane - I still think the least deserving Golden Boot in history (if he wins it). He was pretty poor tonight, never looked like he was working his way into a real attacking position, the only player not to break a sweat while everyone else worked their arses off. I'm probably just being negative but his open play was rubbish, just a set-piece specialist.
Great tournament from England, no shame in the semi-finals.
They’ve got a horrible match on Sat first!
Croatia deserved the win at the end there.
Can’t see them beating France though, and if I’m honest I couldn’t really see England doing so either had they made it.
This is just the beginning, real talent in the team which hopefully in a few years will come to fruition.
You're on the money here. England let Croatia play and get into it. They lacked the guile to suck Croatia out of position and counter as Croatia chased being one down. Kane didn't cut it. Maguire was the best player. He had the guts and composure. Not enough others did.Quote:
Originally Posted by Argee1977
What surprised me was that ENGLAND looked as if they weren’t the fitter team in the end and didn’t look as hungry as Croatia. Best team won. England throughout the tournament looked dangerous from set pieces and toothless in open play most of the time. Oh well there’s always the anticlimax of a third place play off v Belgium
England came out very negative in the second half. Croatia sensed it and went for it. I would love them to beat France but I very much doubt the French will allow Modric time and space as he got tonight.
Really sorry for all of you guys.
Any photos?Quote:
Originally Posted by sinner77
Just watched it in Croatia, looking forward to the final!
Well done for getting so far. Just not good enough today.
Still can’t figure out why Pickford insisted on simply hoofing every ball up the pitch.
Compared to Croatia, who had long periods of play in possession, England seemed a little bereft of ideas.
Croatia certainly deserved the win.
Well done England on getting so far.
It's France's cup Toulouse.....
I'll get me coat.
My next door neighbour is Croatian, Ive just left her something in her letterbox.
A congratulations note?Quote:
Originally Posted by Franky Four Fingers
Just lacked croativityQuote:
Originally Posted by dkpw
They totally wanted to win that game more than we did, they chased the ball, passed it and kept possession and took the chances, well most of them when they needed to.
Where was Kane tonight and I'm sorry but Sterling and Rashford might be fast but can't win or keep the ball or stay on their own two feet for toffee so what's the point.
The first proper test we've had and we just weren't good enough on the night!!
Can only agree cannot remember us testing their GK once and apart from the superb free kick we did nothing but all credit we went further than was predicted at the start.Quote:
Originally Posted by Cat7
Deleted
Keane v Wright. Least that was entertaining
There was a period in the first half when we were completely bypassing our midfield by just knocking it long. When we weren’t doing that we were going back to Pickford.
When we played our triangles and were patient we looked much better. Needed to score at that point and it felt almost inevitable once we didn’t.
Croatia came out like men possessed in the second half. Fair play to them, they just looked like they wanted every ball more.
No shame though. I think each and every one of them did us proud. I think it’s sooo disappointing because although it sounds sensible to say this team should get stronger and will do better at the next tournament we all know football doesn’t really work that way. It just felt in touching distance.
Sigh.
Really? England lost 33% of the games they played at Russia 2018. Every team they did beat England were clear favourites to win. England had a virtual bye on route to the semi final and still offered nothing, new manger, new players, same old England.Quote:
Originally Posted by ralphy
Long may it continue.
As my 3 year old daughter says at the end of a book THE END!!!!
Well done Croatia, deserved the win.
Disappointment for us but way further than we expected.
Proud we got as far as we did but a more resilient team beat us on the night. Future bodes well under Southgate.
Cheers from Dubrovnik.https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...6f128546cf.jpg
Poslano sa mog SM-A530F koristeći Tapatalk
Attachment 14627
Sent from my iPhone using TZ-UK mobile app
Kane was obviously asked to sit deep after the group stages. Probably to help out Henderson who was hardly a midfield general. Alli also played out of position. Had they been deployed like they are at Spurs a more positive outcome could have arisen. Sadly Sterling needs more chances per goal than many other strikers and didn't have Sané and De Bruyne to help him walk it into the goal like he does at Citeh. He offered little. Hence why he goes home having scored buggerall (and nothing for England since 2015) whereas Kane could be Golden Boot.Quote:
Originally Posted by kevkojak
Kane was playing so deep but this was something seen in other games. Hard to score from there.Quote:
Originally Posted by kevkojak
To be fair I’ve not posted on this thread before but as I’ve discussed with friends and others here have said, it looks to me that we are suffering from a lack of final finish, if we can’t score goals in free play and the majority come from set pieces we’ll remain vulnerable.
That said we still played some great football and I’m proud of how the team performed and look forward to them in 2020.
Hard to captain a team from there too. Very disappointed with him anyway, whether thats a managerial issue, positional or simply will to win, he was lacking.Quote:
Originally Posted by mangoosian
The future does indeed bode well if you can get on the right side of the draw and the good teams get knocked out early.Quote:
Originally Posted by MintG
Unfortunately for Southgate I think the stars aligned for 1 world cup only.It will be full "The Sun" treatment after today.
Good luck.
Lets be honest about it too
England are not a World cup semi-final team; they are a last 16 team who got lucky in the draw.
The 1990 team had some real quality to scare teams but this one was a workmanlike bunch who were about equal to the sum of their parts.
Croatia in all honesty are a last 8 or semi team who would have been sent home by Belgium or Brazil.
Enjoy the memories.
England wasn't good enough.
1) This is the 1st world cup that I remember that many of the pedigree teams/previous winners did not perform i.e. Argentina, Brazil, Germany and Spain.
2) England got lucky with the draw/route to the semi-final, Colombia in the last 16 then Sweden in the Quarters, Croatia's (Denmark & Russia) was slightly harder IMO.
3) England only beat Tunisa, Panama and Sweden in 90 mins, drew or lost to better opposition Belgium, Colombia and of course Croatia.
4) England only score more than one goal in a game against the lesser opposition.
5) Harry Kane has only score 2 goals from open play (against Tunisia), the other 4 goals were from the penalty spot (3) and a deflection.
6) IMO Harry Kane should not be Captain as it is difficult to instruct or read the game when you are suppose to be at one end of the pitch most of the time - No World Cup winning team that I can recall has had an Striker/Front man as captain.
Heading to the Alps at the weekend to ride up some hills and follow some of Le Tour
The local nightclub is showing the final on a big screen.
Should be fun
Allez les Bleus
Croatia deserved to win, they just had the better players with more desire. None of the England team are on the level of modric. It was still frustrating, Kane played far to deep, midfield lacks creativity, in the whole tournament they scored so few goals from open play. Yes set pieces were excellent but you ain’t going to win without a actual threat in open play.
Still the second goal was terrible to concede just a flicked header and stones turned off, should never have let that happen in a World Cup semi.
People did get carried away, they would have been out ages ago if they were on the other side of the draw. The route to the final was very easy. The team lacks real star quality, how many England players would get into the France team for example? I can’t imagine it would be many. In a strange way prob better to lose today than get destroyed by France in the final.
They outplayed us, simple as that. We started well but switched off in the 2nd half, and only God knows why we kept playing back to the goalie instead of up field!.
I thought the fact we had 7 shots on target In our last 4 games of which 2 where from a dead ball situation showed we didn't create enough from open play.
Brazil had 2 more in just the Belgium game.
I think Pickford and the back 3 or 5 have been pretty good.
England’s midfield has been weak. Over reliance on Henderson to win the ball and provide. He’s okay, but not good enough.
Lingard, Alli and Sterling just didn’t produce enough the whole tournament.
I think England have potential if they can sort out midfield. A tough ball winner and a creator/passer.
Last night, when Henderson was knackered, Modric ran things.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Am I the only one who doesn’t think Harry Kane is that good? Didn’t really play that well in the tournament tbh. Remove the penalties and his return was mediocre for a main striker getting to the semis against mostly perceived weaker teams en route. Not slating the guy. He’s a good player but the fawning over him was a bit misplaced I thought.
Henderson is ok but no way world class.Quote:
Originally Posted by BillyCasper
Ali has never impressed me, the most overrated player in the premiership. And why does Dier always seem to play? Poor season last year yet often picked.
We needed a player in the team who could pass the ball a bit, oh wait Shelvey..
I have to say I’m not sure if we have enough to make an impact for 2020. We got this far because of the draw opened not because we played really well.
His job is to stick it in. I just don’t think he was getting sufficient from RS, JL or DA.Quote:
Originally Posted by RustyBin5
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Refreshing to read all the realistic views of your team and your journey to the semi finals. As a Scotsman I found Pickford frustratingly good to watch, especially last night. The rest of the team never did anything spectacular and I have no idea what all the fuss about Kane was.
Sent from my moto g(6) using Tapatalk
I’ve got to agree about Pickford, he’s had an excellent tournament. I don’t know what happened to Kane though, he was everywhere in the first two games but hardly in it during the knockout matches.Quote:
Originally Posted by mowflow
I felt that our strikes just don’t want to shoot at goal and you can’t score unless you do. They need to be more aggressive and let fly at every half chance rather than trying to make a better opening which never comes.
I do think the team has potential but there are certainly areas that need strengthening. And we do need a world class centre half.
In a very real way it is better this way than have English ´fan´ destroy cars and such in several continental cities after that.Quote:
Originally Posted by NikGixer750
England have nothing to be ashamed of. They are a young team and we're not expected to do that well...the fact that we reached the semi final is an achievement to be applauded. As this team grows in age/experience it will be interesting to see what happens.
I think Croatia deserved the win last night as,in the end,they kept it together and we didn't. England seemed to resort to hoofing it up the pitch a bit too much last night plus Croatia's experience definitely told.
I do wonder what might have been if the referee hadn't been so extremely lenient to Croatia regards the obvious professional fouls but there you go.
I think Pickford and Trippier have been the stand out players in the squad with Sterling the biggest disappointment.....he really needs to do something other than run really,really fast and then come to a grinding halt because he doesn't know what to do next.
Anyhow...well done England...no shame in coming home now.
No!....let's see what England can do in 2 years time.Quote:
Originally Posted by Andyg
I'd agree with that.Quote:
Originally Posted by Dave+63
I'd been saying for a while that our finishing would let us down in the end and, sure enough, it did.
There were two clear 'should have been' goals in the first half and that would have kept Croatia at bay, but coulda-woulda-shoulda never changed anything.
As a young team they did well - They looked like a team who wanted to play for each other and their manager and, honestly, looking at the lineup, would anyone have predicted a strong semi-final performance rather than an early bath?
I was glad to see Tripier score last night. For me, he (along with Pickford) was the stand out player in the team.
Personally I hope England and Belgium field a full team on Saturday and we see how that game would have gone if anyone had really wanted to win it!
For Sunday, Allez Les Bleus!
M
Was just going back to the page because I wanted to share it with somebody after we spoke about it yesterday. It has been deleted. Wow.Quote:
Originally Posted by MrSmith