England vs Belgium

[Guest]

5 hours ago, Bannofan said:

 

Yep.

 

Always get the impression that England players would rather be on holiday that playing a tournament.  

 

They always seem knackered and nowhere near in the right place mentally. 

 

Dare I say, they don't seem as bothered about playing for their country as other nations players are, and that they dont have that pride that provides the determination and conviction needed to gain the ultimate success? 

 

We can beat anyone in friendlies and qualifying..comes to big summer tournaments and we get dicked due just not having enough cojones basically..Our players are good enough ability wise,  I genuinely believe that, but are they fit enough and mentally strong enough at tournament level? 

 

Last WC, we wouldn't have beaten Colombia if they had James in the team, and kept 11 men on the field. That's the kind of fortune that got us through to the semis. 

 

? They did keep 11 men on the field didn't they?

 

I agree in the past that the players have looked less intense than other nations at finals but don't think that was the case in the last tournament. 

I just don't think we are good enough in one or two positions compared with the very best. We play 3 at the back to cover because our CB's aren't world class, the hyperactive Pickford always has a mistake in him and if we persist on playing 2 holding midfielders then we don't have enough creativity to consistently unlock our attacking options.

 

[Guest]

21 hours ago, Ellis Rimmer said:

Good 2nd half performance today.

 

Belgium though-on the wane. A generation of players they'll never have again and they let Martinez in charge of it.

 

He took them to 3rd in the last tournament. Would have been 2nd if they'd had the easy side of the draw that the runners up in the group they topped got. 

[Guest]

20 hours ago, punkskaphil said:

Posted 20 hours ago

  On 11/10/2020 at 16:15, vulva said:

Henderson has got that personality for the top level. He will win a bag loads of caps. Fair point on CL, but Kane is a better centre forward, at the minute. Belgium have picked their best side. I don’t understand why we haven’t. 

 

  21 hours ago, scram said:

 

 Both played well below full strength teams Band both will qualify for the euros with ease

 

 

 

 

Anyone who thinks Belgium's strongest side omits Hazard and includes Minolet in goal, doesn't know as much about football as they think they do! 

 

[0wl18]

8 minutes ago, hirstyboywonder said:

 

Anyone who thinks Belgium's strongest side omits Hazard and includes Minolet in goal, doesn't know as much about football as they think they do! 

 

That was the strongest side available to them.

[Guest]

4 minutes ago, 0wl18 said:

That was the strongest side available to them.

 

Not what he was saying in that post though, he kept going on for 3 or 4 posts about wondering why we had not gone with Kane despite Southgate clearly saying he wasn't match fit to play much more than half an hour. 

[fudge27]

4 hours ago, hirstyboywonder said:

 

Southgate said he asked Trippier to do an unfamiliar job and trusted him to do so. Chilwell wasn't available because he was a covidiot last week and Saka wasn't great on his England debut and would have been a big ask defensively against Belgium.

 

Belgium beat us easily twice in the World Cup and it looked on the cards again, give Southgate credit for managing to address things at half-time as we were much better 2nd half. 

 

We were much much improved 2nd half, and credit that he rectified that, but that was partly due to poor selection, and this negative outlook from the start that meant the tweaks made which should have been employed from the start were successful 

[Guest]

15 minutes ago, fudge27 said:

We were much much improved 2nd half, and credit that he rectified that, but that was partly due to poor selection, and this negative outlook from the start that meant the tweaks made which should have been employed from the start were successful 

 

Fair point, we were lucky not to be a couple behind at the break and it would have been difficult to rescue it from that position. Not sure he could have done much else in terms of options at left wing-back but the shape and midfield selections could have been different. 

 

[fudge27]

Just now, hirstyboywonder said:

 

Fair point, we were lucky not to be a couple behind at the break and it would have been difficult to rescue it from that position. Not sure he could have done much else in terms of options at left wing-back but the shape and midfield selections could have been different. 

 

I think when he first came in he was a breath of fresh air with his selections and picking players on form and moulding style of play but it seems the longer managers are in jobs the more pragmatic they become. 

 

 

[Guest]

4 minutes ago, fudge27 said:

I think when he first came in he was a breath of fresh air with his selections and picking players on form and moulding style of play but it seems the longer managers are in jobs the more pragmatic they become. 

 

 

 

See how we set up against Denmark, I would hope we will have more attacking intent from the start against them. 

[eightbelow]

This thread is a great example of football fans opinions! First page Southgate is an idiot and the selection is useless, 90 minutes later we have beaten everybody's number 1 team!

[RockieOwl]

3 hours ago, eightbelow said:

This thread is a great example of football fans opinions! First page Southgate is an idiot and the selection is useless, 90 minutes later we have beaten everybody's number 1 team!

Not really. Everyone is trying to justify their initial opinions that he's an idiot. I'll hold my hands up I thought the first half was awful and I have my own opinions on the starting lineup, but it doesn't matter whether the penalty was soft and the second goal was deflected, that doesn't matter, we won, and after we managed to stop getting Belgium getting the ball to Lukaku, Belgium weren't much of a threat.

 

I've seen comments about Belgium playing a weakened team (they didn't) and on the wane. They are no#1 in the world after 13 unbeaten before Sunday and had won 12 in a row before drawing last week, so any win against them is a great achievement. Tomorrow will of course be important, and we need to win, but the job was done on Sunday

[eightbelow]

It seems to me that Southgate has a much better idea of what he is doing that anyone else. All that matters in international football is winning and he has managed to do that against the World number 1.

 

[fudge27]

Yea all's good, nothing to see here.