The Big Shiny World Cup thread

[KeyserSoze]

Shite.

If you can't beat that basic of a press you are fecked. They just basically stood in a line at the edge of our third and we couldn't beat that.

[Hoboh]

90 mins of my life I'll never get back!

[BWFC_Insane]

I’ve never seen a player in midfield have as little influence on a game of football as Mason Mount there. How did he not get hooked?

Lucky to get a point.

I’ve not seen a player as nothing as Mount get as far as he has. A complete fraud. Absolutely rubbish and should be nowhere near any World Cup side.

Foden plays for the best club side in England week in week out. He should be one of the first names on the team sheet.

Saka is a bag of wank too.

Sterling too.

[Mar]

Pathetic outing from England tonight. Perhaps that's as a result of playing at 10 at night or something. Either way it seemed like they couldn't care, back to the pre world cup crap we were fed. Maybe we draw with the US and the decision as to which side of the tournament we go into is in our own hands. However it now means we can get knocked out of the tournament by Wales of all teams.

Can't see it happening but it's not like we're on fire. And now all it takes is one bad game. Fk

[officer_dibble]

I’ve never seen a player in midfield have as little influence on a game of football as Mason Mount there. How did he not get hooked?

Lucky to get a point.

I’ve not seen a player as nothing as Mount get as far as he has. A complete fraud. Absolutely rubbish and should be nowhere near any World Cup side.

Foden plays for the best club side in England week in week out. He should be one of the first names on the team sheet.

Saka is a bag of wank too.

Sterling too.

I don’t watch enough premier league football to comment but I get the principle of the front three, and I doubt Saka is that bad usually. But Mount…Narr not getting how that was considered a performance he couldn’t be subbed for! I think I saw him first in about the 40th minute!

[Mar]

I’ve never seen a player in midfield have as little influence on a game of football as Mason Mount there. How did he not get hooked?

Lucky to get a point.

I’ve not seen a player as nothing as Mount get as far as he has. A complete fraud. Absolutely rubbish and should be nowhere near any World Cup side.

Foden plays for the best club side in England week in week out. He should be one of the first names on the team sheet.

Saka is a bag of wank too.

Sterling too.

I don’t watch enough premier league football to comment but I get the principle of the front three, and I doubt Saka is that bad usually. But Mount…Narr not getting how that was considered a performance he couldn’t be subbed for! I think I saw him first in about the 40th minute!

The whole midfield could've been swapped out, and the left and right back. It just felt like Southgate got rid of the most creative players in the side rather than tweaking the system to use the more effectively.

Kane looked like he could be carrying an injury, and he can and should be replaced. We persisted again with a system and players that wasn't working. No plan B again for Southgate is looking like his achilles heel.

Not mad. Just disappointed.

England almost got the fans onside to cover up their inadequacies of the previous set of international fixtures but have seemingly reverted to type

[BWFC_Insane]

Southgate channels his inner Dougie Freedman…

"I thought we controlled the game really well. Our two centre backs were absolutely outstanding with the ball. Yes, we lacked a bit of zip and quality in the final third.

"But we had to show another sign of ourselves without the ball. To be a successful team in the tournament you have to show a lot of faces.

FFS mate. They are the USA. They have ream at centre half. And we’ve made them look like 1990’s Germany or 1980’s Argentina.

They are a useful side but Christ Gareth. You’ve lost the plot. Find a midfield. Drop Mount and Sterling. Try and find out why Kane is running in treacle again. Built a side round Foden. It’s not rocket science.

[Mar]

Ream and Robinson were made to look well above their quality today. Both are top end championship players at best and not sustainable premiership quality. How a front three of those can't break down Ream and Robinson is laughable. They'll have a harder time against Iran than they will against us

[TANGODANCER]

Only get out of jail card we have is beating Wales soundly. Even beating them badly will give us a chance to re-group Losing is not an option and they will fight like tigers to prevent that. Do managers actually learn lessons from bad displays? We really have to hope so.

[TANGODANCER]

I’ve not seen a player as nothing as Mount get as far as he has. A complete fraud. Absolutely rubbish and should be nowhere near any World Cup side.

Foden plays for the best club side in England week in week out. He should be one of the first names on the team sheet.

Saka is a bag of wank too.

Sterling too.

You'd better hope that having a bad night is what that was, because the ones you mention are the cornerstone of our chances. No way is Boss man going to drop em all. We'd better hope he really does have a plan B that involved some serious ass kicking or else singing "It's coming Home" will just mean our return flight. .

[Mar]

I’ve not seen a player as nothing as Mount get as far as he has. A complete fraud. Absolutely rubbish and should be nowhere near any World Cup side.

Foden plays for the best club side in England week in week out. He should be one of the first names on the team sheet.

Saka is a bag of wank too.

Sterling too.

You'd better hope that having a bad night is what that was, because the ones you mention are the cornerstone of our chances. No way is Boss man going to drop em all. We'd better hope he really does have a plan B that involved some serious ass kicking or else singing "It's coming Home" will just mean our return flight. .

I reckon it'll be the same lineup and same performance with a minor tweak late on in the game.

[Worthy4England]

Southgate channels his inner Dougie Freedman…

"I thought we controlled the game really well. Our two centre backs were absolutely outstanding with the ball. Yes, we lacked a bit of zip and quality in the final third.

"But we had to show another sign of ourselves without the ball. To be a successful team in the tournament you have to show a lot of faces.

FFS mate. They are the USA. They have ream at centre half. And we’ve made them look like 1990’s Germany or 1980’s Argentina.

They are a useful side but Christ Gareth. You’ve lost the plot. Find a midfield. Drop Mount and Sterling. Try and find out why Kane is running in treacle again. Built a side round Foden. It’s not rocket science.

I thought you weren't in the slightest bit interested, mate?

We made them look like neither. I'm struggling to place a Kempes, Ardiles or Villa anywhere.

We could change Stirling, for I guess, Grealish who you don't rate. Mount, I think I'm with you, he seems to be playing the Kachunga role. Kane, top scorer at so many comps - not sure who we pick in front...

Last time u advocated Foden, we scored 6 against a team who are second in the group...

I'm a long way from as optimistic as Pru, but I'm equally not as sure Foden is the answer v Sakas 2 goals one game ago (and I genuinely rate Foden)

Do you wanna go Grealish, Foden, Sancho, dunno...

[Hoboh]

Positives

We didn't lose

Negatives

Not enough time to type them being I'm at work.

[BWFC_Insane]

Southgate channels his inner Dougie Freedman…

"I thought we controlled the game really well. Our two centre backs were absolutely outstanding with the ball. Yes, we lacked a bit of zip and quality in the final third.

"But we had to show another sign of ourselves without the ball. To be a successful team in the tournament you have to show a lot of faces.

FFS mate. They are the USA. They have ream at centre half. And we’ve made them look like 1990’s Germany or 1980’s Argentina.

They are a useful side but Christ Gareth. You’ve lost the plot. Find a midfield. Drop Mount and Sterling. Try and find out why Kane is running in treacle again. Built a side round Foden. It’s not rocket science.

I thought you weren't in the slightest bit interested, mate?

We made them look like neither. I'm struggling to place a Kempes, Ardiles or Villa anywhere.

We could change Stirling, for I guess, Grealish who you don't rate. Mount, I think I'm with you, he seems to be playing the Kachunga role. Kane, top scorer at so many comps - not sure who we pick in front...

Last time u advocated Foden, we scored 6 against a team who are second in the group...

I'm a long way from as optimistic as Pru, but I'm equally not as sure Foden is the answer v Sakas 2 goals one game ago (and I genuinely rate Foden)

Do you wanna go Grealish, Foden, Sancho, dunno...

It’s not that I’m suggesting that Foden is ‘the answer’ it’s that a player who Guardiola picks regularly for Man City who are arguably the best side in Europe and certainly have been the best in England can’t get in a side where we are picking Mount who is useless and Sterling who Guardiola shipped out. Foden is technically much more able to keep the ball and play in tight spaces as is Grealish. There are times when Sterling and Saka being able to run helps you I agree. But last night was a time when we desperately needed the more technical ability on the pitch to help keep the ball and get us up it.

Southgate claiming we ‘controlled the game off the ball’ is a joke. The real issue and one Southgate doesn’t really have a solution for is when we hit the really good sides a midfield of Rice and Bellingham is way way off the standard. It’s why I’d like to see Foden in there somehow to just offer more ball retention and that technically ability.

All that said this time I’m sorta with Pru in that I look at the team we could put out and having watched a bit I’m not seeing any team who is significantly better on paper. And even on grass nobody looks way out of our reach. Our obvious weakness is midfield but I think that had we got a better manager we might find a solution for that. Not a magic one but a way of adding in some of our more technical players so we lose the ball less and maybe have a different third in the number ten who is a bit more clever and a bit more involved.

[Hoboh]

Personally after having all night to get wound up by that game I'd leave out Sterling, Mount, Bellingham (useful sub) and Kane.
Kane is of no use except for set pieces, all over the place and well off pace.
Mount is just nonexistent
Sterling, well! The only thing he's currently good for is grining when he screws up.
Bellingham has got talent but he is young and does he have the ability to dig in yet.
Replace with Foden, Grealish and much as I dislike him, Henderson. Up front either Wilson or give Rashford free rein to float about up top. Don't think there is much we can do at the back with Maguire but the mans a liability he sits so deep we concede almost 2/3 of the pitch to the opposition because of his lack of pace. We need some movement not players moulded into certain areas.
Yours sincerely
Mr bloody fuming.

Oh forgot to mention Tripper needs to go to specsavers so he can actually see players in front of him to pass to, either that or midfield/forwards need hi-viz jackets on.

[TANGODANCER]

Like I said earlier, like it or no, this is our squad, these are our players. They were picked on ability and of being the best we have. That isn't going to change and somewhere along the way Mr Southgate will awaken to the fact that the days of country lanes amble lifestyle is now fully replaced by high octane foot to the floor motorway madness. It doesn't take a team of experts to see or accept that Stones and McGuire playing ping-pong around our box is a recipe for disaster or that the adage of "best form of defence is attack" that even the least lights of world foot ball have learned has ever changed..In short, we take too long to do just about everything.

We're getting an early dose of "wake me-up before they score-score" and unless we sing a better song, "Wham" may be our swan song. Tunisia, Turkey, Senegal, Saudi Arabia, Ecuador etc,etc, are no longer just names on a map but nations who can play football and we no longer rule the world. Learn some rough house aggression and stop being bullied and do it now, starting with Wales.

Amen.

[Worthy4England]

Part of the problem this season is that last night's game wasn't the outlier. The Iran game was.

I don't think Rice + 1 offers enough in attack in a close game, because if the +1 doesn't fire, you're not left with much.

Agree Mount needs replacing.

The question for me, then is, would that be enough to create more holes for Stirling/Saka or Foden/Grealish.

I don't see Southgate dropping Kane...

[Prufrock]

May have got carried away having forgotten that the manager is a cowardly joy terrorist.

You've got a generational talent in Phil Foden who the best manager in the world picks regularly in one of the best club teams in the world. But Mason Mount. Actually laughed when they showed Jordan Henderson stripped off.

Spurs take plenty of the blame too. How they've allowed Harry Kane to turn himself from one of the best #9s in the world into a trendy #10 is criminal. Doubled his 5 assists while halving his 30 goals .

[Hoboh]

I have noticed watching a lot of other games that during open play a lot of goal keepers take up the position occupied by Maguire and Stones making 11 out field players, just a point mind you I sometimes think ours needs a sat nav to know where his goalposts are at times.

[TANGODANCER]

Oh, and we've made a fine art of hand waving and finger-pointing and we don't "win" throw ins, just an excuse to give the ball away, much the same as corners and set-pieces.