14 Jul 2018 23:53:31
Very good world cup from England, you guys should feel optimistic about your future. I'm willing to bet you will be one of the protagonists in the next 2 world cups. If you guys bring a very creative player in the middle then you will be there (semis or final), too bad Scholes doesn't play anymore : ( but your future looks very bright i must say. You were crap before but the way you are playing footy and the age of your national team you make you optimistic about your future.


1.) 15 Jul 2018
15 Jul 2018 11:21:42
Based on what? Scraping past Tunisia, beating a terrible Panama, losing to belgium twice, scraping past Columbia on pens, beating Sweden and losing to Croatia? I really don’t see where all this nonsense of England being a top side again has come from. If they got belgiums side of the draw they would of been out first round after group stages. As soon as a half decent team came around they got dumped out. All this Southgate the saviour rubbish really is laughable. Bang average team and won’t win major honours with this squad.


2.) 15 Jul 2018
15 Jul 2018 11:55:27
The mis-placed hype is really grinding my gears, even people whose football opinions I have respect for in my private life are trotting out the line about being really impressed with Southgate and the England team.

Stand hits the nail on the head. The problem is you have a lot of people that don't know much about football harping on about how impressed they were with the performance all over the media, and that spreads to people that should know better as they are too afraid to call it out because we reached the Semi-Finals.

Southgate told the world he was not prepared to change formation before the tournament, so intelligent teams like Croatia knew exactly what to do and that we worked on nothing but that same system which has massive faults. He picked the same team each important game, irrespective of fitness levels or performance in prior match.

Media were non-stop about how dignified and calm he was during and before games, but i smell a rat there as well. Out of his depth and intelligent enough to realise that if things go ok that obvious weakness would be jumped on and twisted into supreme knowledge. I'm seeing pictures and comments about knighting him! it will be the same thing with Kane winning the golden boot, he must have been the worst performer ever to win it, that won't stop the media though!

Great we got to a Semi-Finals, but it felt just like our Europa League run a couple of years ago, stumbling past poor teams playing poor football, only Jose has a lot more nous than Southgate and got us over the line - Southgate fell at the first hurdle higher than his ankle!

Most of the players were below standard as well, attackers and central midfield in particular. I came away frustrated not buoyed, never again will we have such a great opportunity and it was ballsed up by inept management for me. How Alli, Kane, Lingard, Young played so many minutes I'll never know.


3.) 15 Jul 2018
15 Jul 2018 12:01:38
Exactly Stand, England had better teams in 96, 98, 02 and 04, still didn't mount a real challenge.


4.) 15 Jul 2018
15 Jul 2018 12:19:25
And the future aren't the German side the French, Italian, Brazil all the big sides are also going to improve so I don't buy this young side either.
Ireland will win the next euros, you heard it here first😀.

{Ed007's Note - I don't bother much with international football and have only watched about 6 games in the World Cup but I was giving an Arsenal supporter I used to work beside a bit of a ribbing when England went out and he came back with the usual answer about Scotland didn't even qualify so you've got a cheek to laugh - I said to him to just remember that when Celtic lose or get put out the CL next season :)


5.) 15 Jul 2018
15 Jul 2018 12:40:30
Wow, i just see things differently, someone said you had better "Teams" in 96,98,02 and 04, no you didnt. You had better players but no better team. Someone else questioned my enthusiasm about your future based on what? Well, i believe nothing comes from coincidence and you are Sub17, Sub 20 world champions, sub 19 european champions, your sub 21 made it to the euro semis, you are Toulouse champions (not an uefa or fifa tournament but very prestigious regardless), you finally have a plan on a formation of a footballer. I just read a very interesting article about your football's future and the project of "England's new ADN" and i share Lothar Matthaus sentiment when says the future is english and french. Sadly Southgate didn't have the player to do a better world cup but he will have them soon besides this have been a very good experience for your very young team. You are going to have a very good 2020 euros and a very good 2022 world cup, save this post.


6.) 15 Jul 2018
15 Jul 2018 13:16:02
You can only beat who is put in front of you and that’s something England have reguarly failed to do at tournaments. There is a feel good atmosphere around the squad, we have a Manager that has created a ‘team’ and who behaves in a dignified manner, the team did better than we thought. We didn’t put teams to bed when we were dominating the, which led to some squeaky bum times but generally this has been some of the better performances I have seen from England in a long while.

However, Southgate will have seen the game slipping away against Croatia and yet he did little to change things. Kane was picked continually even though he was either knackered or injured; I fear he is becoming Rooneyesque in that he gets picked irrespective of form. The final was within our grasp and yet once again we came up short. But, this was the youngest squad at the tournament, if they can develop and we bring a few more through than in 2 or 4 years who knows?


7.) 15 Jul 2018
15 Jul 2018 14:42:36
Beast you missed a bit. How did sterling get so many minutes.