Any top premier league side in need of a centre back, surely has to be looking at Maguire. The guy is a beast, decent on the ball, quick, brilliant in the air and a constant danger in both boxes.
After 15mins we settle into the match and allowed are ourselves the confidence to play some lovely football.
At times it looked like we were playing with an extra player because we were hunting in packs. Pickford made some great saves to keep a well deserved win.
Only downside is that Sterling confidence looks shot to pieces.
Seen a lot of people praising Sterling and others not. He has scored two international goals in 42 appearances. Yes...our striker has scored TWO international goals. For me, he quite clearly should not be in the team. His finishing and final ball are awful. Any number of players have the speed to run into open space, so why play the one that is incapable of producing when it matters.
Was desperate for him to score yesterday as he badly needs a goal for his confidence. His pathetic finish when through on goal towards the end of the first half sums it up. It was flagged offside but he didn't know that at the time. Simply can't afford to miss chances like that especially in a tight semi or final.
Seen a lot of people praising Sterling and others not. He has scored two international goals in 42 appearances. Yes...our striker has scored TWO international goals. For me, he quite clearly should not be in the team. His finishing and final ball are awful. Any number of players have the speed to run into open space, so why play the one that is incapable of producing when it matters.
We missed him when he went off against Colombia.
Yesterday his movement off the ball was superb. Dropping deep and out wide to maintain possession and keep moves going. He's clearly been asked to do a certain job by Southgate, it's not all about goals. Watch the game again and just watch Sterling when we have the ball.
Was desperate for him to score yesterday as he badly needs a goal for his confidence. His pathetic finish when through on goal towards the end of the first half sums it up. It was flagged offside but he didn't know that at the time. Simply can't afford to miss chances like that especially in a tight semi or final.
He clearly knew he was offside. He was staring at the linesman for a good few seconds.
Was desperate for him to score yesterday as he badly needs a goal for his confidence. His pathetic finish when through on goal towards the end of the first half sums it up. It was flagged offside but he didn't know that at the time. Simply can't afford to miss chances like that especially in a tight semi or final.
He clearly knew he was offside. He was staring at the linesman for a good few seconds.
He looked straight across at the linesman as soon as he received the ball. He knew he was offside.
We're in a World Cup semi-final, we don't need any scapegoats.
Woke up feeling like complete shit, watched the bbc video recap of yesterday and it’s made me an emotional wreck. Still can’t believe we are in a World Cup semi final
Woke up feeling like complete shit, watched the bbc video recap of yesterday and it’s made me an emotional wreck. Still can’t believe we are in a World Cup semi final
Exactly the same here.
Watched highlights trying to get some breakfast down me and got all emotional. Quite a moment on my own.
Looking back these Pickford saves were quite unreal, very important timings too. Well done one and all!!!
Yesterday was just fantastic. An England team bursting with effort, pride and no little skill. Then a night at our favourite restaurant celebrating my Welsh, England supporting, mate's 65th birthday, and today is the wife's birthday, so off out for a nice meal again tonight.
Yesterday was just fantastic. An England team bursting with effort, pride and no little skill. Then a night at our favourite restaurant celebrating my Welsh, England supporting, mate's 65th birthday, and today is the wife's birthday, so off out for a nice meal again tonight.
All the best to Karen for her birthday, enjoy the meal.
Whatever happens now, they have massively exceeded our expectations and deserve a heroes' welcome when they get home.
It's a whole new world when we have a team playing with confidence and a big dose of humility winning friends all over the globe with our football. Like many of our older lifers, I almost can't compute it when comparing with what I have been used to all my life. The effect that it's having on people up and down the country is fantastic. When you have people of all ages, backgrounds and ethnicities celebrating and hugging each other, you realise what a truly special and positive thing this is.
But my word, I don't half like it and I'm going to enjoy this ride for as long as it lasts and whatever happens, I will look back on it with pride. It's been over twenty years since I've been able to say that!
Thank you Gareth, the team, the squad, the staff and the fans. This is a special moment.
Seen a lot of people praising Sterling and others not. He has scored two international goals in 42 appearances. Yes...our striker has scored TWO international goals. For me, he quite clearly should not be in the team. His finishing and final ball are awful. Any number of players have the speed to run into open space, so why play the one that is incapable of producing when it matters.
We missed him when he went off against Colombia.
Yesterday his movement off the ball was superb. Dropping deep and out wide to maintain possession and keep moves going. He's clearly been asked to do a certain job by Southgate, it's not all about goals. Watch the game again and just watch Sterling when we have the ball.
Spot on.
Defenders are running scared of him and double or treble up. Off the ball he pulls them all over the place making room for his team mates.
Just seen a video on instagram. England fans chanting "You're shit, but your birds are fit."
Sweden fans chanting "Go home, to your ugly wives."
Good banter
I think I'd rather be Swedish to be honest.
A friend of a friend from Luton posted a video of them and a bunch of yobs chanting "You're shit, but your birds are fit" while throwing around beer in their back garden. To paraphrase John Morton, "The scene was so typically Luton."
When Southgate was appointed I was not impressed. Thought it was an easy “yes man” choice.
Regardless of what’s happened or might happen at the World Cup I really can say that Southgate has conducted himself impeccably and has without doubt installed a belief and style to his England team. They might not be the best. In fact they are not but they have delivered us a football fans hope and some excitement to the nation.
Forget Gareth Southgate’s worthy, well trained and well organised warriors. Ignore Harry Kane’s super leadership and Harry Maguire’s goal. It was all down to me. And before you dismiss my claim consider this.
Two years ago (2016) we were in Vienna watching Austria play Iceland in a European championship. Austria needed a win to progress beyond the group stage. We joined the many hundreds of flag waving beer drinking Austrian supporters in a big Vienna park to watch the game on large screens. Iceland scored in the first half but Austria equalized in the second. The momentum certainly was with Austria until a breakaway goal by Iceland in the 94th minute sent the crowd from delirium to despair. The park quickly emptied as the crowd quietly dispersed leaving only empty beer glasses and a few half eaten burgers.
A few days later we had moved onto a small town in Germany called Ettlingen. We joined a group of German supporters in a large restaurant to watch on a big screen, Germany played France in the semi final of the competition. Alas it wasn't to be Germany’s night. The Germans watched in silence as they were comprehensively beaten by France 2-0. The restaurant quickly emptied leaving empty plates and tear soaked tissues.
So to the final of the competition. We had moved onto France. The final was France v Portugal played on a Sunday evening. “Looks as if we’re going to be kept awake long into the night if France win” I said to Jane as we watched cars racing around the French streets sounding their horns and waving their flags, hours before a ball had been kicked. The car horns were silenced and flags discarded as France lost in extra time to Portugal.
So, two years on we were in Norway for the start of the world cup. Germany were playing Mexico in their first game of the competition. I sat with a German bloke as his enthusiasm turned to despair as we watched Germany lose. “Its your fault” he pointed an accusing finger at me. What could I say?
Now, yesterday we were in Sweden to watch a famous victory by England and the locals were very gracious in their defeat and congratulated us on the victory.
So that is my contribution to England's victory. But, I have a dilemma. We have a ferry booked from Trellebourg (Sweden) to Rostock (Germany) on Wednesday, it leaves Sweden at 3.pm and arrives Germany at 9 pm. so I will be travelling during the semi final. Do I cancel my ferry? Looking forward our plan is to cross the channel from Holland do I need to reroute my journey home via Belgium and/or France.
It did occur to me that if we play Belgium in the final, we may travel to Belgium on our way back to the U.K. to see if the magic still works. Come on England.
When Southgate was appointed I was not impressed. Thought it was an easy “yes man” choice.
Regardless of what’s happened or might happen at the World Cup I really can say that Southgate has conducted himself impeccably and has without doubt installed a belief and style to his England team. They might not be the best. In fact they are not but they have delivered us a football fans hope and some excitement to the nation.
They deserve huge credit. All of them.
What you have to do as England manager is accept that you don't have the best players overall. If you start at that point and then ask the question, how can we maximise our chances of winning a world cup? You will have done what Southgate has done. A lot of time and effort has been clearly spent developing a system based on statistics. The system comes before the players and it is a credit to Southgate that they all buy into it. Whereas previous England managers have told us plebs that you can't practice penalties, their arrogance has been shoved up their backsides by Southgate. of course you can and you should!
It takes a lot of time to learn set pieces, boring time as overlearning - which is effectively what he is doing - is the sort of thing your big egos will rebel against. But we have seen the results. It takes time for defences to get used to each other and is one of the weaknesses of international sides. Set pieces will bring you more joy because of this. But Southgate has looked at the number of goals scored in different ways and developed his tactics around that.
You can't give the bloke too much credit. Lastly, one thing I noticed is that Ronaldo will take the penalties for Portugal even if he is not their best penalty taker. Messi was telling the Argentinian manager who to play and again, he takes the penalties. Modric has scored two of his three penalties, but all three have been awful. England don't have this dynamic. Yes Kane is our main star and takes our pens, but if he wasn't the best at it, somebody else would, England are Southgate's team and he deserves every success.
When Southgate was appointed I was not impressed. Thought it was an easy “yes man” choice.
Regardless of what’s happened or might happen at the World Cup I really can say that Southgate has conducted himself impeccably and has without doubt installed a belief and style to his England team. They might not be the best. In fact they are not but they have delivered us a football fans hope and some excitement to the nation.
They deserve huge credit. All of them.
What you have to do as England manager is accept that you don't have the best players overall. If you start at that point and then ask the question, how can we maximise our chances of winning a world cup? You will have done what Southgate has done. A lot of time and effort has been clearly spent developing a system based on statistics. The system comes before the players and it is a credit to Southgate that they all buy into it. Whereas previous England managers have told us plebs that you can't practice penalties, their arrogance has been shoved up their backsides by Southgate. of course you can and you should!
It takes a lot of time to learn set pieces, boring time as overlearning - which is effectively what he is doing - is the sort of thing your big egos will rebel against. But we have seen the results. It takes time for defences to get used to each other and is one of the weaknesses of international sides. Set pieces will bring you more joy because of this. But Southgate has looked at the number of goals scored in different ways and developed his tactics around that.
You can't give the bloke too much credit. Lastly, one thing I noticed is that Ronaldo will take the penalties for Portugal even if he is not their best penalty taker. Messi was telling the Argentinian manager who to play and again, he takes the penalties. Modric has scored two of his three penalties, but all three have been awful. England don't have this dynamic. Yes Kane is our main star and takes our pens, but if he wasn't the best at it, somebody else would, England are Southgate's team and he deserves every success.
Heard Gary Lineker and Alan Shearer both talk about how they practiced penalties before World Cup games so that’s wrong for a start.
When Southgate was appointed I was not impressed. Thought it was an easy “yes man” choice.
Regardless of what’s happened or might happen at the World Cup I really can say that Southgate has conducted himself impeccably and has without doubt installed a belief and style to his England team. They might not be the best. In fact they are not but they have delivered us a football fans hope and some excitement to the nation.
They deserve huge credit. All of them.
What you have to do as England manager is accept that you don't have the best players overall. If you start at that point and then ask the question, how can we maximise our chances of winning a world cup? You will have done what Southgate has done. A lot of time and effort has been clearly spent developing a system based on statistics. The system comes before the players and it is a credit to Southgate that they all buy into it. Whereas previous England managers have told us plebs that you can't practice penalties, their arrogance has been shoved up their backsides by Southgate. of course you can and you should!
It takes a lot of time to learn set pieces, boring time as overlearning - which is effectively what he is doing - is the sort of thing your big egos will rebel against. But we have seen the results. It takes time for defences to get used to each other and is one of the weaknesses of international sides. Set pieces will bring you more joy because of this. But Southgate has looked at the number of goals scored in different ways and developed his tactics around that.
You can't give the bloke too much credit. Lastly, one thing I noticed is that Ronaldo will take the penalties for Portugal even if he is not their best penalty taker. Messi was telling the Argentinian manager who to play and again, he takes the penalties. Modric has scored two of his three penalties, but all three have been awful. England don't have this dynamic. Yes Kane is our main star and takes our pens, but if he wasn't the best at it, somebody else would, England are Southgate's team and he deserves every success.
Heard Gary Lineker and Alan Shearer both talk about how they practiced penalties before World Cup games so that’s wrong for a start.
It isn't wrong - it wasn't practised to the same level. It is the weaker penalty takers that benefit from this most. Of course both Shearer and Lineker practised penalties a lot. They were both great penalty takers - but that is credit to them rather than the managers.
When Southgate was appointed I was not impressed. Thought it was an easy “yes man” choice.
Regardless of what’s happened or might happen at the World Cup I really can say that Southgate has conducted himself impeccably and has without doubt installed a belief and style to his England team. They might not be the best. In fact they are not but they have delivered us a football fans hope and some excitement to the nation.
They deserve huge credit. All of them.
What you have to do as England manager is accept that you don't have the best players overall. If you start at that point and then ask the question, how can we maximise our chances of winning a world cup? You will have done what Southgate has done. A lot of time and effort has been clearly spent developing a system based on statistics. The system comes before the players and it is a credit to Southgate that they all buy into it. Whereas previous England managers have told us plebs that you can't practice penalties, their arrogance has been shoved up their backsides by Southgate. of course you can and you should!
It takes a lot of time to learn set pieces, boring time as overlearning - which is effectively what he is doing - is the sort of thing your big egos will rebel against. But we have seen the results. It takes time for defences to get used to each other and is one of the weaknesses of international sides. Set pieces will bring you more joy because of this. But Southgate has looked at the number of goals scored in different ways and developed his tactics around that.
You can't give the bloke too much credit. Lastly, one thing I noticed is that Ronaldo will take the penalties for Portugal even if he is not their best penalty taker. Messi was telling the Argentinian manager who to play and again, he takes the penalties. Modric has scored two of his three penalties, but all three have been awful. England don't have this dynamic. Yes Kane is our main star and takes our pens, but if he wasn't the best at it, somebody else would, England are Southgate's team and he deserves every success.
Heard Gary Lineker and Alan Shearer both talk about how they practiced penalties before World Cup games so that’s wrong for a start.
But they were the designated penalty takers. All the players need to practise them.
Sports scientists have not been listened too enough because old school managers tend to be stubborn. Southgate listens to them. Over learning is what people like Beckham did off his own bat with free-kicks. We don't see that and put it all down to god given talent. It may be part of it, but boring, boring repetition and hard work is teh other part.
You don't ask players who fancy it in terms of penalties at the end of a game - the players are on a list and the weaker ones know where they are putting it before the game starts. When Dier stepped up against Colombia - he was simply next on the list in relation to available players!
Comments
Bacon sizzling in the frying pan as I write this!
Reckon there was a celebration here
At times it looked like we were playing with an extra player because we were hunting in packs. Pickford made some great saves to keep a well deserved win.
Only downside is that Sterling confidence looks shot to pieces.
He has scored two international goals in 42 appearances. Yes...our striker has scored TWO international goals. For me, he quite clearly should not be in the team. His finishing and final ball are awful. Any number of players have the speed to run into open space, so why play the one that is incapable of producing when it matters.
Yesterday his movement off the ball was superb. Dropping deep and out wide to maintain possession and keep moves going. He's clearly been asked to do a certain job by Southgate, it's not all about goals. Watch the game again and just watch Sterling when we have the ball.
We're in a World Cup semi-final, we don't need any scapegoats.
Watched highlights trying to get some breakfast down me and got all emotional. Quite a moment on my own.
Looking back these Pickford saves were quite unreal, very important timings too. Well done one and all!!!
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/44751785
It's a whole new world when we have a team playing with confidence and a big dose of humility winning friends all over the globe with our football. Like many of our older lifers, I almost can't compute it when comparing with what I have been used to all my life. The effect that it's having on people up and down the country is fantastic. When you have people of all ages, backgrounds and ethnicities celebrating and hugging each other, you realise what a truly special and positive thing this is.
But my word, I don't half like it and I'm going to enjoy this ride for as long as it lasts and whatever happens, I will look back on it with pride. It's been over twenty years since I've been able to say that!
Thank you Gareth, the team, the squad, the staff and the fans. This is a special moment.
Defenders are running scared of him and double or treble up. Off the ball he pulls them all over the place making room for his team mates.
He starts every game.
A friend of a friend from Luton posted a video of them and a bunch of yobs chanting "You're shit, but your birds are fit" while throwing around beer in their back garden. To paraphrase John Morton, "The scene was so typically Luton."
Regardless of what’s happened or might happen at the World Cup I really can say that Southgate has conducted himself impeccably and has without doubt installed a belief and style to his England team. They might not be the best. In fact they are not but they have delivered us a football fans hope and some excitement to the nation.
They deserve huge credit. All of them.
Forget Gareth Southgate’s worthy, well trained and well organised warriors.
Ignore Harry Kane’s super leadership and Harry Maguire’s goal.
It was all down to me.
And before you dismiss my claim consider this.
Two years ago (2016) we were in Vienna watching Austria play Iceland in a European championship.
Austria needed a win to progress beyond the group stage.
We joined the many hundreds of flag waving beer drinking Austrian supporters in a big Vienna park to watch the game on large screens.
Iceland scored in the first half but Austria equalized in the second.
The momentum certainly was with Austria until a breakaway goal by Iceland in the 94th minute sent the crowd from delirium to despair.
The park quickly emptied as the crowd quietly dispersed leaving only empty beer glasses and a few half eaten burgers.
A few days later we had moved onto a small town in Germany called Ettlingen.
We joined a group of German supporters in a large restaurant to watch on a big screen, Germany played France in the semi final of the competition.
Alas it wasn't to be Germany’s night.
The Germans watched in silence as they were comprehensively beaten by France 2-0.
The restaurant quickly emptied leaving empty plates and tear soaked tissues.
So to the final of the competition.
We had moved onto France.
The final was France v Portugal played on a Sunday evening.
“Looks as if we’re going to be kept awake long into the night if France win” I said to Jane as we watched cars racing around the French streets sounding their horns and waving their flags, hours before a ball had been kicked.
The car horns were silenced and flags discarded as France lost in extra time to Portugal.
So, two years on we were in Norway for the start of the world cup.
Germany were playing Mexico in their first game of the competition.
I sat with a German bloke as his enthusiasm turned to despair as we watched Germany lose.
“Its your fault” he pointed an accusing finger at me.
What could I say?
Now, yesterday we were in Sweden to watch a famous victory by England and the locals were very gracious in their defeat and congratulated us on the victory.
So that is my contribution to England's victory.
But, I have a dilemma.
We have a ferry booked from Trellebourg (Sweden) to Rostock (Germany) on Wednesday, it leaves Sweden at 3.pm and arrives Germany at 9 pm. so I will be travelling during the semi final. Do I cancel my ferry?
Looking forward our plan is to cross the channel from Holland do I need to reroute my journey home via Belgium and/or France.
It did occur to me that if we play Belgium in the final, we may travel to Belgium on our way back to the U.K. to see if the magic still works.
Come on England.
It takes a lot of time to learn set pieces, boring time as overlearning - which is effectively what he is doing - is the sort of thing your big egos will rebel against. But we have seen the results. It takes time for defences to get used to each other and is one of the weaknesses of international sides. Set pieces will bring you more joy because of this. But Southgate has looked at the number of goals scored in different ways and developed his tactics around that.
You can't give the bloke too much credit. Lastly, one thing I noticed is that Ronaldo will take the penalties for Portugal even if he is not their best penalty taker. Messi was telling the Argentinian manager who to play and again, he takes the penalties. Modric has scored two of his three penalties, but all three have been awful. England don't have this dynamic. Yes Kane is our main star and takes our pens, but if he wasn't the best at it, somebody else would, England are Southgate's team and he deserves every success.
You don't ask players who fancy it in terms of penalties at the end of a game - the players are on a list and the weaker ones know where they are putting it before the game starts. When Dier stepped up against Colombia - he was simply next on the list in relation to available players!