Third Place Playoff - Sunday 14th July - Belgium 2-0 England

[Happy Blue]

1 hour ago, Gunnersauraus said:

Is Phil foden gonna be world  class @Happy Blue

 

Yep! was the player of the U17 world cup too

[The Artful Dodger]

So was Iheanacho. Be interesting to see how well this crop do, a lot of has been made of this golden generation of youth coming through but I'm yet to see this great Nigerian team, a nation who have dominated under 17 tournaments.

[Guest]

3 minutes ago, The Artful Dodger said:

So was Iheanacho. Be interesting to see how well this crop do, a lot of has been made of this golden generation of youth coming through but I'm yet to see this great Nigerian team, a nation who have dominated under 17 tournaments.

Yeah but they have one of the world's best leagues and get lost in the system. England don't have that problem 

[Stan]

3 minutes ago, The Artful Dodger said:

So was Iheanacho. Be interesting to see how well this crop do, a lot of has been made of this golden generation of youth coming through but I'm yet to see this great Nigerian team, a nation who have dominated under 17 tournaments.

at national level, no. But there's a lot of them playing regularly at Premier League level. Not world-beaters at senior level but maybe they never thought they would be. Great for Nigeria that a lot of them have made it 'big' so to speak.

[Guest]

Right world cup over time for a beer detox. As much as I like tits I don't want a pair. 

[The Artful Dodger]

1 minute ago, Gunnersauraus said:

Right world cup over time for a beer detox. As much as I like tits I don't want a pair. 

Eh? It's the biggest one of all tomorrow. 

[The Artful Dodger]

Just now, Cannabis said:

England's out, the competition is over for most people in this country.

Meffs maybe. 

[Dan+]

Once again we got shown up to be quite ordinary I'm afraid.

[Guest]

4 hours ago, The Artful Dodger said:

Eh? It's the biggest one of all tomorrow. 

Yeah but England aren't in it so no beer 

[SirBalon]

I've gotten behind England as much as I could with friends and family especially even more so after Spain were knocked out.  But after it's all over I'm not going to bury my head in the sand regarding this squad and this World Cup.

England played two good sides in Belgium (twice) and Croatia, losing all three games and never looking the better or dominating side in any aspect other than set pieces (that last detail a product of the coaching staff and Southgate).  Nobody can win anything like that and not many get a ride to a semi-final like England did this time around because of the oddity concerning how the matching up worked out. We won't find that ocurring too many times and Infact it's rare that it happens.

In my honest opinion the midfield was below decent standards and it's only Gareth Southgate's management along with his staff that worked a path in conjunction with what I mention earlier in terms of how it all panned out.

It's great to get behind your national team and that's the way it should be because if we're going to call those from other countries glory hunters when they have sympathies with clubs with no connection to, then not getting behind your team because they've traditionally found it hard to compete at this level is pathetic!  But one must also be honest and take everything into account. A lot has to be done yet and there are great youngsters coming through that are much better than this particular group. Things are being done correctly but a midfield of quality HAS to be found.

[Cicero]

England for me, will always lack the 'elite' central midfielder. Imo, this is the blatant separation between them and the other top nations. 

[Harry]

Honestly i think England are better than croatia but need to work on the psychological aspects of their game around not flexing your approach when you get an early goal.

I wouldn't buy too much into this "We need to completely reinvent our style of play" piece other than definitely having midfielders more comfortable in  retaining the ball under a press.

Belgium are better but you look across the lineups and that's pretty obvious and fair enough given the current talent Belgium have.

[Stan]

If there's anything we can take from this World Cup is that we've got a spine of the team we can build around. This is why I think there's a lot of promise for future tournaments. 

Pickford, Stones, Maguire, Lingard, Kane. 

That's a good core to work with. The midfield could be stronger and hopefully Loftus-Cheek can become part of that core with more regular appearances as he's one player who should be playing more based on little but promising performances seen so far. I would also add Sterling due to his age but he has to start adding goals to his game (internationally) and being more consistent. Converting club form to international would be huge for us. It's all well and good getting in to good positions but you need to be better than that at times at least to reap rewards for it. 

 

[Inverted]

9 hours ago, Harry said:

Honestly i think England are better than croatia but need to work on the psychological aspects of their game around not flexing your approach when you get an early goal.

I wouldn't buy too much into this "We need to completely reinvent our style of play" piece other than definitely having midfielders more comfortable in  retaining the ball under a press.

Belgium are better but you look across the lineups and that's pretty obvious and fair enough given the current talent Belgium have.

Physically better, absolutely. The strength and pace of England's team is unbelievable. 

But if they don't have a gameplan against technically elite nations to break up the game and make the match a physical battle and use the team's strengths, then they'll always be at the mercy of the world-class technicians that all the serious contenders have.