The Fallout Thread

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dholliday said:
If you look at the quality of opposition where Kane appeared to be more present in working opposition defences harder: it was Tunisia & Panama.

He's an expert goal-getter and needs to stay in the team, but I don't think he's good enough to do a Giroud-type job. And as Sterling doesn't do it either England will have to re-think here. I'd go for a proper 2nd-striker with busy-bee workrate, pressure can create chances and frees Kane to focus on being at the right place at the right time (Gerd Müller-style...or indeed Mandzukic-style).

Not sure who that 2nd-striker would be, tho'. Southgate has to focus on creating-chances from open-play if England want to challenge at the 2020 Euros.
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We need a player who can do that though as well.

You can't teach that. It's a skill that players either have or don't.

And it's why those players cost £50m, £60m, £70m in club football.

The likes of Dowell, Maddison, maybe they could be the next one. Winks at Spurs, although I think he's more of a dogged hassler, but he can certainly act as a 'metronome' in the middle. Barkley should have been the one in that role in this tournament. For a variety of reasons, he wasn't.
 
You guys have to be gutted. What an oppertunity, the path to get to the WC final will not be easier again. Fair play to Croatia though, for a country of barely 5 million they have some serious talent, imagine if it was still the same set up as the old Yugoslavia. That would be a tremendous side
 
BlueToff said:
We need a player who can do that though as well.

You can't teach that. It's a skill that players either have or don't.

And it's why those players cost £50m, £60m, £70m in club football.

The likes of Dowell, Maddison, maybe they could be the next one. Winks at Spurs, although I think he's more of a dogged hassler, but he can certainly act as a 'metronome' in the middle. Barkley should have been the one in that role in this tournament. For a variety of reasons, he wasn't.
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Good post, mate.

A dogged hassler is a vital cog for creating chances. It puts opposition defences/midfield under pressure: more mistakes, more loose balls to latch on to.

Yeah, shame about Ross. He's just another Jack Rodwell in the end.
 
Honestly I don't think there will be any 'fallout' for England. Expectations were super low and in most people's eyes expectations were exceeded by a lot.

While the sting of being close will hurt for a few days, I suspect the feel good factor will win out in the end.

Expectations will be at a fever pitch for the Euros though, which could really make things fun if they crash out early.
 
In short, a decent performance by an inexperienced team.

To me the 1990 side performed better, given the calibre of the opposition they met at that tournament (beating a good Belgian and Cameroon side, going toe-to-toe and at least not losing inside 90 minutes to very good German and Dutch teams).

The 2018 version were helped by a massively favorable draw. That said, as I say, a decent performance; certainly above average, but nothing exceptional.
 
Celtic Supporter said:
You guys have to be gutted. What an oppertunity, the path to get to the WC final will not be easier again. Fair play to Croatia though, for a country of barely 5 million they have some serious talent, imagine if it was still the same set up as the old Yugoslavia. That would be a tremendous side
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Agree. Seems unbelievable to think a side got to the semi-finals only having had to beat one team ranked in the world top 20 (Colombia, ranked 16th, and even then the win had to be done on penalties).
 
I don't get why there's also hate for the England carry on, though.

We were allowed to get carried away. The last time I cared about England was in 2006. I laughed when we got dumped out against Iceland.

Whatever their faults, this squad and manager made me care about the England team again, and that is the same for a lot of people.

It's gutting because the opportunity that presented itself was a one that doesn't come around often.

But anybody quoting World rankings needs to have a sit down. Switzerland are ranked 6th, ffs.

Croatia are a classy side. They are strong where England are weak and once England stopped imposing themselves (after the first 30/35 mins) Rakitic, Modric and Brozovic started to take control, and Perisic had a stormer.

They have World Class winners. Southgate rightly went with youth and it's got us further than any of the 'Golden Generation' teams managed in 28 years. Can't knock them.
 
davek said:
The brutal truth is England were dumped out by the first quality team they came up against.
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True.

England are however showing improvements that I thought beyond us. Unfortunately we lack a true world class talent (or 2 or 3) and have a couple of weak links and need some more experience and nous. The experience and know-how we can get. I don't know if the world class talent will arrive as some of these players mature.

Back to overhyping them in the next tournament is my only prediction.
 
England fans head falling off all over the place, its absolutely beautiful.
 
We were very lucky to have an easy route to the semi's. We only played two decent teams in the competition (Belgium and Croatia) and lost to them both. Our major problem is our very poor midfield. Alli and Lingard are lightweight, last night they were like boys against men. Alli is not up to international football. Kane has been very poor, the few chances he has had he has missed, though its not his fault that as games go on, he gets more and more isolated. In the second-half last night, as soon as the ball went forward we lost possession almost immediately. On one occasion, Lingard got away down the right and crossed into a penalty area that had no England players in it. Henderson has been the best midfielder but only because the others are so poor. We need a completely new midfield.

My man marks out of 10.

Pickford (8) Trippier (9) Walker (6) Stones (7) Maguire (8) Young (6) Henderson (7) Alli (4) Lingard (5) Sterling (7) Kane (4)

I know that some on here may be surprised that I have given Henderson (7) but have taken into account that he spent most of the game doing Alli's job as well.
 
Tubey said:
Honestly the future looks better for England than it did a few years ago.

Yeah, you have the odd dud like Alli and Sterling but they have a chance to come good as they come to their peak years.

The spine of that side is surprisingly good, but they lack a metronome in midfield that can make things tick and provide a bit of invention. A fit and firing Ross Barkley would make that a very dangerous side, or a Loftus-Cheek in a few years perhaps.

All in all, England fans should be delighted with this tournament. I expected them to embarrass themselves and go out in the group stages, so for me they've vastly exceeded expectations, even when you consider the 'easy' run they had.
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If England had a player like Modric the tide would have been turned. He was the difference between the teams. We have a number of players of that ilk within the junior teams but most are at Chelsea where they don't get the chance to progress. They need to be thrown in 19/21 to have a chance really, like they are in France and Germany. I think these kids are starting to realise that and I believe you'll see a lot more refusing contracts with the big clubs and going abroad.

I'd like us to become that team in the UK where the very top youth payers want to go to but I don't believe our fan base makes us the right place for them to develop.

As regards this tournament, the players got me back to being interested in the national team again. That's about the best compliment I can pay them.
 
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