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England and any other International Friendly weekend


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Oh no

 

 

Now I am starting to feel moderately excited and thinking we have some potential to do well this summer.

 

Remember, both the teams we've played in these friendlies aren't going to the World Cup for a reason. They might still have big reputations in the international game but it's been worth nothing for them during the qualifiers. Sweden beat both of them to the finals, Netherlands in the group on goal difference and Italy in the play-offs.

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I'm really proud of both of those friendlies. As an England fan, it's almost the expectancy that we moan and criticise our team. No guts. Not trying. No quality. Blah blah blah.

 

End of the day; the system suits the players we have, we have some youth with reasonable quality, we have great intensity and I genuinely respect what GS has done with that squad.

 

My only criticism before; stop playing Livermore. I don't think he got any game time this round of fixtures, thankfully. Problem solved.

 

My only criticism now; as much as I love the forward-thinking pacey passing approach, and as much as I don't think you should sit back too much to defend a lead, we have been a little too vulnerable last 20 mins or so in both games. Better teams will expose that more also. I think GS needs to stick on another DM. Ideally both Henderson and Dier. Just for the closing 15-20 mins. Sacrifice one of the front 4.

 

But I'm surprised at the lack of credit England are getting on this forum from both those games. Largely solid and fairly dangerous going forward; decent combo.

 

I'm both a realist and an optimist. We won't win it. And both teams we faced this week are ok at best, and shadows of their former glory. But our approach is what impressed me, I'm genuinely excited for the World Cup now.

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I'm really proud of both of those friendlies. As an England fan, it's almost the expectancy that we moan and criticise our team. No guts. Not trying. No quality. Blah blah blah.

 

End of the day; the system suits the players we have, we have some youth with reasonable quality, we have great intensity and I genuinely respect what GS has done with that squad.

 

My only criticism before; stop playing Livermore. I don't think he got any game time this round of fixtures, thankfully. Problem solved.

 

My only criticism now; as much as I love the forward-thinking pacey passing approach, and as much as I don't think you should sit back too much to defend a lead, we have been a little too vulnerable last 20 mins or so in both games. Better teams will expose that more also. I think GS needs to stick on another DM. Ideally both Henderson and Dier. Just for the closing 15-20 mins. Sacrifice one of the front 4.

 

But I'm surprised at the lack of credit England are getting on this forum from both those games. Largely solid and fairly dangerous going forward; decent combo.

 

I'm both a realist and an optimist. We won't win it. And both teams we faced this week are ok at best, and shadows of their former glory. But our approach is what impressed me, I'm genuinely excited for the World Cup now.

 

Yes!

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I find it hard to get excited about England, there have been too many false dawns over recent years for me to believe anything will be different this time. A bit negative I know but realistic, probably.

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The false dawns are often self-inflicted though. We're been a victim of our own hype. This time around i'd like to think that we've got a more suitable approach to games, which is often more important then just the personnel. That said, the personnel's not bad and it seems we're going into this World Cup with the attitude that they're somehow poor players. That's not to say that I think we'll get to the latter stages or win it. Just purely that our style is now easier on the eye and more effective, which is what so many have been asking for. Compared to previous years, that should breed more positivity.

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For the first time in a long time I can actually say I enjoyed those two games from England. We actually looked like we had a plan and all the players knew it.

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Think the reason no ones really raving about these friendlies os because we've played better and had bette rpakyers previously and still stumbled when it mattered. I actually think the lack of expectation is possibly a good thing for the squad... England have always buckled under the increased expectation.

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Yes, we have been under pressure previous tournaments. And yes, we have buckled. But I don't think it's purely the pressure that caused us to buckle. The tactics have been horribly wrong for decades now. GS was the unfashionable choice, I'm not not going to sit here and pretend I was hugely in favour of his appointment at the time. But he has taken advantage of his knowledge from the youth setup and we're now playing a brand of football that now suits us the players we have.

 

There are better teams in the tournament who will be expected to dominate us and, in all likelihood, will expose that difference in star quality. It's possible we might see that from Belgium in the group stages as well. But there difference to me is that I think for the first time in god knows how long I think we'll try to dominate the teams that will have that very same opinion of us. We may have wanted to do that in previous tournaments, but the setup hasn't been in place to realistically get that out of the team. Achieve that alongside a little luck against the better teams - of which there aren't that many for the record, you can go through an entire tournament and only face one or two of them - and who knows what could happen on any given game.

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Sorry 2plus2 but you're saying the same things as countless other England fans prior to other tournaments... Tactics have improved, utilising youth etc.

 

I'm not even 100% sure the current system does suit... There's a lack of creativity from the centre of the pitch, and the dynamism needs improving against better quality opposition. As someone else said before - there's a reason neither the Netherlands or Italy are going to the World Cup. Kyle Walker as a kind of inside RB/CB could work, but as we saw Italy looked to utilise those pockets of space between Trippier and Walker; better sides would almost certainly have made us pay for that - as you say. There's some positives, absolutely - but there's also considerable scope for improvement.

 

I'm not saying Southgate's doing a bad job. Personally I've said for several years we need to put a young manager in charge, give him a couple of tournaments to bed in the next enervation of young talent and then make a go of it after spending 4 years getting the house in order and bedding in the youth.

 

I think we'll et out of the group. Anything above the second round is a bonus for me; but regardless of what happens, I'd allow Southgate more time to sort out the mess the England side has become in recent years.

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strangely we seem to have had better performances (albeit in friendlies or lee important matches) when weve been forced to put out teams that were percieved to be weakened by missing key players . thinking back over the last half dozen or so tournaments weve maybe put too much expectation on the likes of Rooney,Beckham.Gerrard Lampard and then Kane in the last one, to make big impacts ,and pretty much all cases didnt come close to happening, Dele Alli is currently a victim of overhype and his form has dipped substantially.

if we dont single idividuals out expectation wise and concentrate as a collective unit ,then barring Germany Argentina and Spain we have as good a chance as anyone of getting to the quarter final stage which most would see as a reasonably good effort. 

hope we dont base our hope on Kane single handedly firing us through as we did with Rooney ,especially and similarly  to both rooney and beckham in past tournaments with the tournament arriving straight after a bad injury . 

btw with regard to the two recent games a special mention for Sterling who looked better than any other time in an england shirt he seemed to have matured massively hope it wasnt a one(two) off.

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Sorry 2plus2 but you're saying the same things as countless other England fans prior to other tournaments... Tactics have improved, utilising youth etc.

 

I'm not even 100% sure the current system does suit... There's a lack of creativity from the centre of the pitch, and the dynamism needs improving against better quality opposition. As someone else said before - there's a reason neither the Netherlands or Italy are going to the World Cup. Kyle Walker as a kind of inside RB/CB could work, but as we saw Italy looked to utilise those pockets of space between Trippier and Walker; better sides would almost certainly have made us pay for that - as you say. There's some positives, absolutely - but there's also considerable scope for improvement.

 

I'm not saying Southgate's doing a bad job. Personally I've said for several years we need to put a young manager in charge, give him a couple of tournaments to bed in the next enervation of young talent and then make a go of it after spending 4 years getting the house in order and bedding in the youth.

 

I think we'll et out of the group. Anything above the second round is a bonus for me; but regardless of what happens, I'd allow Southgate more time to sort out the mess the England side has become in recent years.

 

Countless other England fans say stuff for the sack of saying it. I'd like to think my judgement is based on a little more then that. In my view the difference is the tactics.

 

Absolutely agree that there is always scope for improvement, GS needs time and yes there's certainly reasons why Italy and Holland both failed to qualify. And that advancing past the second round would be a good outcome for where we're at.

 

But couldn't disagree more about lack of creativity in central positions however. This formation allows for more creativity. Wingbacks are there to get wide first and foremost and stretch the pitch, and our options have all played that role very well at their clubs. And we play with 2 creative midfielders behind 2 forwards. In turn they have more space and we attack in numbers. Albeit in different stages of their careers and differing seasons, they are all very capable players to attack from those central positions.

 

Lingard - standout season

Alli - standout previous season, reasonable this season - perhaps needs to up his intensity to fit the system.

Lallana - standout previous seasons, injury hit season this time around.

Ox - finally starting to excel in a slightly similar role for Liverpool.

Wilshere - injury prone, but at his peak can be fantastic, and has shown that on occasions lately.

Loftus-Cheek - great potential, but admittedly not yet backed by stats.

 

Not doubting there are questions marks over some. But essentially we need 2 from 6. And I especially think a few of those play with the high intensity required to close down and create in this formation.

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strangely we seem to have had better performances (albeit in friendlies or lee important matches) when weve been forced to put out teams that were percieved to be weakened by missing key players . thinking back over the last half dozen or so tournaments weve maybe put too much expectation on the likes of Rooney,Beckham.Gerrard Lampard and then Kane in the last one, to make big impacts ,and pretty much all cases didnt come close to happening, Dele Alli is currently a victim of overhype and his form has dipped substantially.

if we dont single idividuals out expectation wise and concentrate as a collective unit ,then barring Germany Argentina and Spain we have as good a chance as anyone of getting to the quarter final stage which most would see as a reasonably good effort. 

hope we dont base our hope on Kane single handedly firing us through as we did with Rooney ,especially and similarly  to both rooney and beckham in past tournaments with the tournament arriving straight after a bad injury . 

btw with regard to the two recent games a special mention for Sterling who looked better than any other time in an england shirt he seemed to have matured massively hope it wasnt a one(two) off.

 

Agree with a lot of this. Especially Sterling. And yes Alli might not have a starting role as it stands.

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I quite like what Southgate is doing. England now look like they have a system that is attempting to suit the strengths of what we have available. In previous world cups (maybe not last one so much) we have always had to figure out how to cram as many 'stars' in as possible. Plus he won't do anything completely stupid like Hodgson and put Kane on corners. Hodgson was experimenting with his line-up during the group stages... got super lucky against Wales by throwing all four strikers on (remind you of any recent Boro managers..?) Clueless.

 

We'll be a well organised pacy team with a world class striker. Not one of the top sides by any stretch, but also nowhere near as bad as some people make out. Getting out the groups will be a step forward and anything after that is a free hit - if Southgate can do that then he deserves another tournament cycle.

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2plus2 - the lack of creativity I meant purely based on the system we've seen in the last two games. Henderson and Dier as those two holding mids does stifle the creativity from the centre of the pitch. I'd personally rather see Dier brought back into that defensive three alongside Stones and Walker; three ball played CBs as a basis to build from.

I think if we're to continue with this system, one of Dele Alli (especially when Kane is up top) or Jack Wilshere simply has to be part of it with one of Sterling or Lingard adding the sort of anchoring creative dynamic Free Role too.

 

Ashley Young on the left balances it well; Trippier on the right I'm still reserving judgement about. Think Walker would be excellent down the right, but looks like he's been brought inside to encourage to build from the back. Reckon Antonio would be a good bet down that right flank, but seems he's not part of the thinking.

 

With this formation, I'd currently be looking at:

 

GK - Pickford

 

RCB - Walker

CB - Stones

LCB - Dier

 

RWB - Trippier

LWB - Young

 

CM - Henderson

CM - Alli/Wilshere

AM - Lingard

 

10 - Sterling

ST - Kane

 

Think that would keep the stability whilst also adding that little extra dynamic and creativity into the centre of the pitch.

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