Lionesses thread.

[TANGODANCER]

Decided they needed a thread as they are England after all. Just a few comments (you don't have to agree"):

Women's football has changed drastically in 5the last few years, and Brittania no longer rules the waves. Two scappy 1-0 wins against Haiti and Denmark showed quite a few less than perfect performances and I'm hoping Sarina Weigman agrees and makes a few points. "Best right back in the world" Lucy Bronze has grown a bit "too cool for school" for me and far too many of her passes are wayward or intercepted. She is also being found wanted for pace. Two real bright spark performances came from Keeper Mary Earps and Newcomer Lauren James (sister of the England men's player) , the lattter a real talent.

Granted we've had quite a few retirements :Ellen White, Jill Scott, Karen Bardsley etc, and injuries to key players like Steph Houghton, Fran Kirby, Nikita Paris and a few more, but as a team, we are no longer perfectionesses. The core players like captain Milly Bright, Hemp and Daley etc are still there, but the world has caught us up and 1-0 is no longer a safe cushion. We need to change and move on from where we were. The resatt play pack-attack in defence, whilst we retreat far too often.

[Mar]

Appreciate the thread. I've caught most of both matches and neither game has looked entirely convincing. I suspect when we come up against a decent side we're either going to wake up and perform or we're going to bow out not being able to create chances. I would imagine the latter is likely to be the case.

I suspect the changes since the last tournament have made us a bit disjointed and lacking in confidence. We're not going trying to kill teams off and be ruthless, we just seem to be hopeful. I suspect Williamson is a big loss.

[Prufrock]

Haven't watched any so far. Going to be a hell of an ask with so many big players out. Especially losing Walsh as well.

Lauren James is a special player though. Saw her at the Emirates in the winter and she looked like she was playing against kids.

[boltonboris]

A strong showing against China and an utterly bizarre offside call preventing Lauren James her hat-trick and possibly the goal of the tournament

[TANGODANCER]

A strong showing against China and an utterly bizarre offside call preventing Lauren James her hat-trick and possibly the goal of the tournament

Aye, and an equally bizarre penalty. Deliberate handball is supposed to bring penalties. This was a joke, and the Chinese are no innocents at hair-pulling and fouling etc.

[TANGODANCER]

Crazy results: Panama stick 3 past France but go out losing 6-3. Brazil go out and Jamaica march on,

[TANGODANCER]

Now Argentina out first round,

[Prufrock]

Oh Lauren.

[Mar]

Nigeria were the better side and yet somehow we scraped through.

James' red card didn't cost us thankfully. Seemed she was frustrated throughout. When she's tightly marked like that she needs to contribute with off the ball runs. She was just static and frustrated which probably led to her heads gone moment. Space for others.

Not convinced the lionesses have enough to win this tournament but providing they keep grinding out results we've got a chance

[boltonboris]

If you can't play well, be resolute.

Restricted them to half chances and Nigeria only registered 1 shot on target in the second half and extra time - Despite the BBC talking them up as 'utterly dominant'. They were incredibly athletic though and Englands positional discipline was the difference

When countries like Nigeria, Jamaica, South Africa invest more into their game and mix some professionalism into the history they have for developing explosive and powerful female athletes, there's no way European women will be able to cope with them

[BWFC_Insane]

If you can't play well, be resolute.

Restricted them to half chances and Nigeria only registered 1 shot on target in the second half and extra time - Despite the BBC talking them up as 'utterly dominant'. They were incredibly athletic though and Englands positional discipline was the difference

When countries like Nigeria, Jamaica, South Africa invest more into their game and mix some professionalism into the history they have for developing explosive and powerful female athletes, there's no way European women will be able to cope with them

Don’t watch much women’s football but I also thought it was a pretty even game that maybe the bbc skewed towards Nigeria simply because they as underdogs performed better than expected.

[TANGODANCER]

Comes as no surprise that Nigeria played so well; there was this guy J.J.Okocha.....

England (like a few more, (U.S.A., Argentina, Brazil etc) need to move on from "as it was" football, to "how it is". Women's league or no, it's a rough old world and Britannia and co no longer rule. We have to adapt to a faster more physical approach. It was actually like a few Bolton games last season where we were hassled and bullied out of it, all our possession counting for little against a sheer will-to-win, attitude.

A shame Lauren James had to learn the hard way, she's young and was frustrated at the countless fouls that got ignored (say as you like, nothing or no one will convince me that wasn't a penalty on Rachel Daly) and her ball skills just weren't working against a fast, determined side with no small skills. Learning how to win counts for everything in the long run over learning how to play. As a team we gave a very creditable defensive display.

Oh, and I'd drop (best right back in the world) Lucy Bronze. She offers little or nothing on the right, rarely challenges and can't seem to realise showing shadows counts for nothing. She made lots of errors, got left for dead for pace, made quite a few bad passes and is too fond of passing backwards. If she's fit, Man City full back Demi Stokes is a better option and we really miss Nikita Paris down the right..

Fortune smiled on us today...let's hope it continues. Well done girls. After Georgia Stanway missed the first penalty, my heart sank..

[Mar]

My biggest takeaway is that there isn't enough movement off the ball to make any serious dent in the opposition. England move well enough to pass the ball to a player and know the system well but ultimately look to fail to create pockets of space. Given how close Nigeria were marking our players it would've been an ideal opportunity to draw players out of position before threading a ball through the middle.

It did remind me of us last season. Lots of passing with little penetration.

Bit tired of the commentators praising England and not giving adequate critique. The worst criticism that Lauren James got was she'll go for this and she was just trying to get over the player. When in reality it's a stupid petulant move born out of frustration, totally different standard to what Beckham and Rooney received. I understand they're trying to raise the levels of the women's game and critique might not help that but jeez not everything needs to be sugar-coated, these are talented women that can and should be open to critique.

[boltonboris]

^^
Yes, there's a lot of patronising from commentators. Desperately poor play gets "It was a good try" treatment. Only Ian Wright and Jonathan Pears actually tell it like they see it. "She's a professional, she should be doing better" etc

[BWFC_Insane]

My biggest takeaway is that there isn't enough movement off the ball to make any serious dent in the opposition. England move well enough to pass the ball to a player and know the system well but ultimately look to fail to create pockets of space. Given how close Nigeria were marking our players it would've been an ideal opportunity to draw players out of position before threading a ball through the middle.

It did remind me of us last season. Lots of passing with little penetration.

Bit tired of the commentators praising England and not giving adequate critique. The worst criticism that Lauren James got was she'll go for this and she was just trying to get over the player. When in reality it's a stupid petulant move born out of frustration, totally different standard to what Beckham and Rooney received. I understand they're trying to raise the levels of the women's game and critique might not help that but jeez not everything needs to be sugar-coated, these are talented women that can and should be open to critique.

What she did was horrific and I was also shocked by the lack of ‘criticism’. I mean forget the professionalism aspect and her being a professional letting her country down….it was an absolutely horrendous thing to do, to stamp on an opponent on the ground like that is cowardly and dangerous.


And nobody can come along with the old line about the women’s game being less about cheating etc…it’s simply not true.

[TANGODANCER]

What she did was horrific and I was also shocked by the lack of ‘criticism’. I mean forget the professionalism aspect and her being a professional letting her country down….it was an absolutely horrendous thing to do, to stamp on an opponent on the ground like that is cowardly and dangerous.

And nobody can come along with the old line about the women’s game being less about cheating etc…it’s simply not true.

She stepped on an opponent, not "stamped" . Yes, it was stupid and disappointing, but the Nigerian girl said she couldn't understand what all the fuss was about (B.B.C comments) She did the crime, so she'll do the time, at a cost to us as an England team. Let's hope she learned the lesson. I do agree about cheating, like dragging a girl back by the hair out of the ref's sight. There were loads of incidents that at one time would have got players sent off. F.I.F.A. themselves are as much to blame a anyone for that. They make the rules.

Just as an aside, the two officials on V.A.R duty for our game were both ...American. Surprise surprise...

[Worthy4England]

What she did was horrific and I was also shocked by the lack of ‘criticism’. I mean forget the professionalism aspect and her being a professional letting her country down….it was an absolutely horrendous thing to do, to stamp on an opponent on the ground like that is cowardly and dangerous.

And nobody can come along with the old line about the women’s game being less about cheating etc…it’s simply not true.

She stepped on an opponent, not "stamped" . Yes, it was stupid and disappointing, but the Nigerian girl said she couldn't understand what all the fuss was about (B.B.C comments) She did the crime, so she'll do the time, at a cost to us as an England team. Let's hope she learned the lesson. I do agree about cheating, like dragging a girl back by the hair out of the ref's sight. There were loads of incidents that at one time would have got players sent off. F.I.F.A. themselves are as much to blame a anyone for that. They make the rules.

Just as an aside, the two officials on V.A.R duty for our game were both ...American. Surprise surprise...

Not sure of the FIFA and rules connection? FIFA can't stop (for example), the Franny Lee/Norman Hunter fight nor foul play, in general. That's down to individual participants. They can only determine what the sanction is, should it occur, so I'm not really sure what they're being blamed for (not that I have any great love of FIFA)...

[TANGODANCER]

I do agree about cheating, like dragging a girl back by the hair out of the ref's sight. There were loads of incidents that at one time would have got players sent off. F.I.F.A. themselves are as much to blame a anyone for that. They make the rules.

Just as an aside, the two officials on V.A.R duty for our game were both ...American. Surprise surprise...

Not sure of the FIFA and rules connection? FIFA can't stop (for example), the Franny Lee/Norman Hunter fight nor foul play, in general. That's down to individual participants. They can only determine what the sanction is, should it occur, so I'm not really sure what they're being blamed for (not that I have any great love of FIFA)...
[/quote]

" Although FIFA does not solely set the laws of the game, that being the responsibility of the International Football Association Board of which FIFA is a member, it applies and enforces the rules across all FIFA competitions."

I was relating it to unsporting conduct and that certainly falls under the governing bodies of sport in general. Perhaps I was being too definitive using F.I.F.A.

[Worthy4England]

There were loads of incidents that at one time would have got players sent off. F.I.F.A. themselves are as much to blame a anyone for that. They make the rules.

Sorry mate, I wasn't questioning which rules body it is, (FIFA or IFAB). I'm not sure what you're actually blaming them for?

[TANGODANCER]

There were loads of incidents that at one time would have got players sent off. F.I.F.A. themselves are as much to blame a anyone for that. They make the rules.

Sorry mate, I wasn't questioning which rules body it is, (FIFA or IFAB). I'm not sure what you're actually blaming them for?