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(Group D) England 0-0 Scotland - Friday 18th June, 2021


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I can't give him any benefit of the doubt on tournament management. It's Scotland, at Wembley, in an international tournament. That's just not a game you accept anything other than a win in even if in the context of the tournament it hasn't really screwed us. It's a massive game, I'm not having anyone on the England side playing it down, it's our traditional rival.

I do think Scotland were well organised last night and I will give them some credit - for all I've done so far is moan about England. But ultimately I just think we've seen that game all too many times before, and this one's the most damaging because it's Scotland. They deserve all the shit they'll get after last night.

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This was awful. For me the most anticipated game of the championships and turned out to be probably the worst I've watched.

Scotland did well. I think with England, there's a lot of talk about formations and personnel. For me, mentality is a big factor in performances like this as well. Not brave enough to take the game by the scruff of the neck when it starts to drift. The manager and the players involved are obviously culpable on this occasion but it's something that is common across a lot of these tournament non-performances.

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If Southgate intended on having Phillips a little more advanced then why not put Mount there? That is where he excels best, as a box to box #8. This can at least have Foden more centrally and Sancho and Grealish on the wings. 

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I’m just disappointed in the lack of tactical nous from Southgate and then the admission that he’s happy with a draw and set up for such a result. It was abundantly clear that it wasn’t working in the first half and it wouldn’t have been knee-jerk or panicking to make a couple of changes at the break and the later it got, the less likely changes and formation changes were and if anything, the lack of those things were massive positives really for Scotland and only for a lack of a finisher, they only got a draw. 

Kane’s not fit. There’s people out there desperate for him to be shit, if they don’t already think he is and make all sorts of wild opinions about his goals and who he scores against. For as little as he moved last night, he was marked out of the game by Scotland’s back three and with that combined with England not playing through the middle and then struggling to deliver balls of any quality into the box, Kane was anonymous. It’s not looking good for England for many reasons but Kane not being fit is really bad for England’s chances. 

A part of me now feels like this; 

EBwgUnlXUAAdWBP.jpg

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I watched the highlights of that game back because I love depression apparently and one thing that sticks out like a sore thumb when you watch every chance we had in an 8 minute video is the lack of bodies we got in the box. Unless it was a set-piece attempt, every time we attacked with the ball we had around 3 men in the box outside of the ball carrier. Generally made up of Kane, Mount, Sterling/Shaw and Foden. And two things happened because of that, the first is that they would be too grouped together and would be surrounded by the Scotland defence leaving the ball carrier with nowhere to go. The second would be that they were spread across the area, forcing gaps within Scotland's defence and no one was there to run late into those gaps.

The full backs didn't commit properly and Phillips was constantly on the edge of the box and not inside it, which makes you wonder why do we have Rice in a holding role if we're not committing bodies forward. It then left Scotland with a consistent 1-2 man advantage when defending, we may as well have been attacking with ten men.

Aside from that having Mount, Sterling and Shaw all play on the left hand side is like having one player who only does one thing. Shaw had one or two moments where he overlapped and tried to cut the ball back, Sterling had a moment where Mount scuffed his touch as well. Outside of that it was very common for all 3 of the to draw defenders to the edge of the box and then play the ball to either one of them making a run or someone else making a run, meaning at the very least we're now left with two attacking players on the left who aren't driving forward with the new ball carrier. A large part of that is down to Sterling and Mount, more so Sterling as it's literally his job to run in behind but Mount needs to step up in those moments as well.

I think if we start with Grealish next on the left it'll create more space for Mount and Shaw to run into as he takes the ball down to the byline, potentially having Foden/Sancho on the otherside with Bellingham driving in from midfield as well.

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We were just far too conservative but this is a problem that frequently crops up with England. We did start quite well and if Stones scores, we probably do go on to win quite comfortably, but I think we demonstrated our biggest flaw in that second half - fear of losing.

Southgate makes some bizarre statements. I really don't get what it achieves. Young does not equal inexperienced.

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