It's a bit late for me to..er..check this, but I don't remember the Czech Republic losing by five goals in a major tournament since I moved out here, and that was in 1993.
Just checked; last night was the first time the Czech Republic have ever lost 5-0; their previous worst was 5-1 to Russia in September last year
Positives: Raheem Sterling. What a player he has developed into and still very young. Pep had to take huge credit of course, he is an incredible coach. But I think Southgate does too for sticking by him when the media was on his back. Sterling is a credit to himself. He is passionate and says what he believes in and is reaping the rewards from his hard work now.
Some exciting and fantastic young talent coming through and showing how good they are. This bodes very well for the future.
I am convinced Kane is going to bypass the scoring records for England. No doubt.
We now look as though we have many different parts to our team. We have flair, aggression, physicality, tactical awareness, skill, speed. There is so much this side can do.
We have many players out injured at the moment who would normally be playing. Gomez, Stones, Lingard, Rashford just for example.
It feels brilliant to be able to support our nation with pride once more. The World Cup has brought us together again and we have gone from strength to strength since. If we were to replay the tournament again this summer, I think we could probably go on and win it.
Negatives: We don’t need two of Henderson, Dier, Winks, Rice etc playing at home, against this type of opposition. It’s wasted and we are far better when we have one of them with two forward thinking players either side.
The lack of striker suitable for this role if Kane is out as he has been before with his ankle ligament problems.
Players being picked and played for England when they haven’t been playing or playing well for their clubs. - this isn’t aimed at Hudson-Odoi, more Dier for example.
Overall, very pleased and looking forward to the future. Next year could well be a very good one for the England team.
I'd have Calvert-Lewin as backup for Kane. He's an able deputy. Kane has turned into such a class, class footballer and I was so happy for Sterling he's playing the best football of his life at the moment and deserved his hat trick I just wish he'd have got one last summer to shut all the dickheads up who wanted him dropped without understanding what he did
I think Calvert-Lewin is getting better and potentially in future he can do a job for England but right now I don’t think he has enough to occupy the centre backs in international football, enough tactical awareness to know when to run in behind and come short against specific opposition, the way Kane has shown how good he is at time and time again.
Right now, I think the only one that can make sense to fill that position as best as possible is Wilson. He at least has the physicality and more of a natural striker for that number 9 role.
Rashford could work having done well for Man Utd up front on his own. His pace alongside Sterling and Sancho is frightening. But are they too similar to work together?
Of course any team without Kane is a weaker team. I just don’t want us having to rely on someone young and without the experience of playing up front on their own for England.
If we are winning fairly comfortable on Monday I would take off Kane for Wilson with a good half hour to go and see how he does.
Great performance from England. It's exciting to watch so many young players develop at the same time. The only thing missing is a world class playmaker. If we can upgrade the midfield we'll be right up there with the big boys.
This is exactly why Foden needs to be playing far more regularly from next season. Under the guidance of Pep, we could see him develop the same way as Sterling, but then a loan move the same way Loftus-Cheek did could also be the making of him. Either way he now needs to be involved far more often. He could be the key in future.
Great performance from England. It's exciting to watch so many young players develop at the same time. The only thing missing is a world class playmaker. If we can upgrade the midfield we'll be right up there with the big boys.
This is exactly why Foden needs to be playing far more regularly from next season. Under the guidance of Pep, we could see him develop the same way as Sterling, but then a loan move the same way Loftus-Cheek did could also be the making of him. Either way he now needs to be involved far more often. He could be the key in future.
Talking of which, a year or 2 ago Loftus-Cheek was the big thing coming out of Chelsea but injury and lack of game time have really affected his progress. He DESPERATELY needs proper game time
Score line might have been slightly flattering but we were far the better team against the 2nd highest ranked team in the group.
What is so pleasing is that perhaps other than Kane there are no guaranteed starters in that squad. Stirling must be close to it now but we have other options.
There is a pipeline of good young players coming through putting pressure on those in the squad.
Southgate has built a squad and team, not based everything on one or two "superstars" or aging pros as has happened so often in the past.
It's a bit late for me to..er..check this, but I don't remember the Czech Republic losing by five goals in a major tournament since I moved out here, and that was in 1993.
I assume you got steaming drunk, then ran naked through the streets screaming "have that you c***s" (in perfect Czech)
Nah mate, my citizenship application goes in on Friday, gotta keep my neck wound in :-)
To which I answered "No one know who you are mate. They've only ever heard of Dukla!" Felt a bit guilty when he said he'd wanted to have a quiet word with Roland. :-)
Bit of a random one, but watching the Czechs and the name of Milan Baros has popped into my mind.
I may be wrong but weren’t we reportedly close to signing him / scouting him before he went to Liverpool?
Kezman is the only Eastern European I remember us going after yet he of course ended up as a flop @ Chelsea
I'm still annoyed about that one. Kezman struggled with adapting to the expectations at Chelsea and I think he would have found it easier at Charlton, especially as we tended to have a number of strikers - I think we had Euell, Lisbie, Bartlett and JJ already - so he could have beeen rotated to help him adapt. Instead we got Francis bloody Jeffers which went exactly as well as everyone thought it would. Imagine if Kezman had worked out for us with less pressure on his shoulders and we could have had Bent and Kezman up front the next season.
Great performance, I agree we had the breaks (hope we have not used up all our luck in one game), but also agree that with the chances created we are going to get the benefit of more defensive errors. I would like to see A ) more shots from distance when playing against packed defences and B ) Sterling running into the box with the ball more, he'll be drawing penalties left right and centre (as he did last night).
When did we last thrash a Nation this high in the FIFA Rankings (they're 44th) - i.e. We can score this many against the likes of San Marino etc. but dont remember a scoreline against a non-minnow since our 5-1 win against Germany
That’s the big difference right there. We’d probably have won this game 3 or 4 years ago too, but it would have been laboured and probably by the odd goal.
That was very very comfortable tonight. They have confidence and a swagger.
It was comfortable but it was also one of those nights where literally everything went right for us. Penalty could've easily not been given, 1 goal had a huge deflection, the last goal was a comical own goal.
Tell me the last time you saw a team win 5-0 without having a lot of things go their way.
"The English team is of enormous quality. Bigger than I could imagine. I was optimistic before the game, I told myself we would be able to catch England...But they showed they were of such great quality they would not be taken aback."
Comments
I cant find anything about Czechoslovakia though
Right now, I think the only one that can make sense to fill that position as best as possible is Wilson. He at least has the physicality and more of a natural striker for that number 9 role.
Rashford could work having done well for Man Utd up front on his own. His pace alongside Sterling and Sancho is frightening. But are they too similar to work together?
Of course any team without Kane is a weaker team. I just don’t want us having to rely on someone young and without the experience of playing up front on their own for England.
If we are winning fairly comfortable on Monday I would take off Kane for Wilson with a good half hour to go and see how he does.
What is so pleasing is that perhaps other than Kane there are no guaranteed starters in that squad. Stirling must be close to it now but we have other options.
There is a pipeline of good young players coming through putting pressure on those in the squad.
Southgate has built a squad and team, not based everything on one or two "superstars" or aging pros as has happened so often in the past.
To which I answered "No one know who you are mate. They've only ever heard of Dukla!" Felt a bit guilty when he said he'd wanted to have a quiet word with Roland. :-)
"The English team is of enormous quality. Bigger than I could imagine. I was optimistic before the game, I told myself we would be able to catch England...But they showed they were of such great quality they would not be taken aback."