I have t watched any premiership football last couple of years and few internationals. When we I see Hart play I wonder how he is Man City's first choice.
Croatia been the most impressive side so far, although England's performance wasn't far off.
We all know Germany and France will grow stronger and already have 3 points on the board, it's whether England can go on from last night and get the job done.
Pretty sure if England had been gifted a 5-on-2 by a terrible punt forward with almost every Russian in the box then they'd have made a decent fist of it. But the Russian ball into the box was pinpoint and the Ukrainian one was rubbish.
Oh, and Ukraine created far more chances against Germany than Russia did against England. But there are easy narratives to sound clever with I guess
Pretty sure if England had been gifted a 5-on-2 by a terrible punt forward with almost every Russian in the box then they'd have made a decent fist of it. But the Russian ball into the box was pinpoint and the Ukrainian one was rubbish.
Oh, and Ukraine created far more chances against Germany than Russia did against England. But there are easy narratives to sound clever with I guess
Ah, Leuth right on time with his condescension I see.
England actually were gifted with a lucky punt wide towards the end, and Raheem Sterling literally ran it off the pitch. What Low did well was make the right substitutions at the right times. They brought off a tired Draxler for Schurrle, a player who always pops up in front of goal, and then Schweinsteiger on 90 mins for an exhausted Gotze. We subbed Rooney who was controlling the midfield for Wilshere even though Alli had been totally anonymous in the second half, left on the ineffectual Kane who wasn't holding the ball up and subbed our fastest outlet Sterling for our slowest midfielder in Milner. Lallana was blowing early in the second half after a good first and he remained on the pitch for the full 90 despite us having a sub left. On the bench we left our pacy and ball carrying outlets like Vardy, Sturridge, Barkley and Rashford when we knew the Russians would have to attack and we could exploit the gaps with pace to finish them off. Instead we dropped deeper and invited them to put a decent ball in, which unluckily they did.
Germany rode their luck at times today but Low managed the game far better than Hodgson did and the difference is evident in the result.
Pretty sure if England had been gifted a 5-on-2 by a terrible punt forward with almost every Russian in the box then they'd have made a decent fist of it. But the Russian ball into the box was pinpoint and the Ukrainian one was rubbish.
Oh, and Ukraine created far more chances against Germany than Russia did against England. But there are easy narratives to sound clever with I guess
And yet Germany didn't concede and won the game. You seem to be under the misguided notion that negative comments are based on one drawn game. They're not, they're based on years of tournaments and the same failures over and over again. Whether it's a mental problem or whatever, we repeatedly fail to be successful even when we play well, create chances and are the better team. Compared to successful teams such as Germany who repeatedly find a way to get results even when they're not playing well.
We played really well against Russia, some of the best football we've played for a long long time It was great to watch and there were many positives. And it was our first game so getting into the stride of things. However Russia were also poor.
It's just frustrating, and oh so predictable, that time and time again the England team fails to turn having an advantage into a result, or fails to take that 1 chance when it arrives when it's needed most, especially in tournaments. Maybe this tournament will be different? Maybe we will go on to win it? But if the age old problems repeat themselves as they did against Russia, then we'll just do what we do and bimble along until we meet one of the better teams in the knockout stage and then either lose because the other team were better and took advantage of it, or lose because we were better but couldn't take advantage of it.
Folks, England limited Russia to a couple of crosses in injury time and could have scored 4. England controlled the game and the substitutions were sound enough - Wilshere looked good when he came on and Milner can in theory do a good game-breaking job. Germany were all over the place for parts of their game. Don't let the results fool you - it was a far better performance from England than from Germany, and with easy groups to escape, that is much more important at this stage. I get the sense that the knives are already being sharpened for England's exit by many of you. Why? If it happens it happens, and barring an obvious tactical aberration we will just have to accept it.
Dont forget as well... England have also played the hardest game in their Groups, our start would have been the equìvalent of Germany v Poland or France v Switzerland!!
Comments
We all know Germany and France will grow stronger and already have 3 points on the board, it's whether England can go on from last night and get the job done.
He can't store his chewing gum down his bum crack can he?
Oh, and Ukraine created far more chances against Germany than Russia did against England. But there are easy narratives to sound clever with I guess
England actually were gifted with a lucky punt wide towards the end, and Raheem Sterling literally ran it off the pitch. What Low did well was make the right substitutions at the right times. They brought off a tired Draxler for Schurrle, a player who always pops up in front of goal, and then Schweinsteiger on 90 mins for an exhausted Gotze. We subbed Rooney who was controlling the midfield for Wilshere even though Alli had been totally anonymous in the second half, left on the ineffectual Kane who wasn't holding the ball up and subbed our fastest outlet Sterling for our slowest midfielder in Milner. Lallana was blowing early in the second half after a good first and he remained on the pitch for the full 90 despite us having a sub left. On the bench we left our pacy and ball carrying outlets like Vardy, Sturridge, Barkley and Rashford when we knew the Russians would have to attack and we could exploit the gaps with pace to finish them off. Instead we dropped deeper and invited them to put a decent ball in, which unluckily they did.
Germany rode their luck at times today but Low managed the game far better than Hodgson did and the difference is evident in the result.
You seem to be under the misguided notion that negative comments are based on one drawn game. They're not, they're based on years of tournaments and the same failures over and over again. Whether it's a mental problem or whatever, we repeatedly fail to be successful even when we play well, create chances and are the better team. Compared to successful teams such as Germany who repeatedly find a way to get results even when they're not playing well.
We played really well against Russia, some of the best football we've played for a long long time It was great to watch and there were many positives. And it was our first game so getting into the stride of things. However Russia were also poor.
It's just frustrating, and oh so predictable, that time and time again the England team fails to turn having an advantage into a result, or fails to take that 1 chance when it arrives when it's needed most, especially in tournaments.
Maybe this tournament will be different? Maybe we will go on to win it? But if the age old problems repeat themselves as they did against Russia, then we'll just do what we do and bimble along until we meet one of the better teams in the knockout stage and then either lose because the other team were better and took advantage of it, or lose because we were better but couldn't take advantage of it.