England v Belgium thread

Let's hope RCL isn't dyslexic otherwise he'll be quite upset about these comments.

 

I was expecting him to be much more involved yesterday, particularly as captain, but he was practically invisible. In truth, apart from a couple of misplaced passes and not closing down a shot in the first half he didn't have a bad game. Just not good enough to influence the match and certainly not enough to shut up the pro-Henderson brigade. Every possible error was highlighted, but a great ball to release TAA not a mention.....
Unlike Henderson, he also didnt have the advantage of playing with the first team. Can't help thinking having Tripps available on the right would have helped - he looked for TAA to be available and make those runs but 9/10 times he was not there.
Oh well.......

 

If the cap fits......

 

Yesterday's game was definitely one to miss. There's nobody coming out well from playing in a scratch team against decent opponents. By contrast, Young's reputation is enhanced, as he did nothing wrong.

Colombia will be praying that Southgate picks Young, as Cuadrado will torture him defensively and he offers nothing as an attacking threat, lacking pace and a left foot. We'll just have to hope to get away with it and exploit Trippier's game on the other side. I just don't see Southgate going for it with Rose but we'll have to see.

 

Young is another Stirling and they both resemble Francis Lee, remember him? Most of their runs end up producing nothing they are literally a waste of space. We cannot afford players who have no end product. Rose has been poor since he came back from injury and newspaper fame but he offers a lot more than Young who has been out of his depth since he left Villa.

 

I agree on Rose over Young. Sterling is more of a problem. I really hoped Rashford would take that place away but he went from anonymous to poor (unless he was instructed to miss). Perhaps Dier to replace Henderson, Henderson to replace Alli and Alli to replace Sterling?

 

Rashford makes things happen so I would stick with him. Wouldn't Dier and Henderson just get in each others way? just like Lampard & Gerrard did.

 

I don't see Henderson as a defensive player, left alone he'd play further forward than Dier. In a midfield with Henderson, Alli and Lingard, I don't see anything defensive at all.

 

As much as Liverpool's central defenders are poor, there's little defensive nous in their midfield options, Henderson's very much part of that failure. He goes missing regularly, doesn't read the game very well and certainly doesn't know how to make those fouls that stop attacks before they get really dangerous.

Columbia's attack is based upon Falcao, who doesn't have the pace to get behind our central defence, so they're going to try and get at our full backs. I'd really rather that we went for 2 centre halves and put Dier and Henderson together to try and ensure we get enough ball to win the game but we won't. We'll need to rely on Lingard, Alli and Sterling's pace to hit them on the break, which may get us home.

If it does in that game, against Switzerland/Sweden it certainly won't. They'll sit back and play on the counter and 3 centre halves will definitely be one too many, then.

 

if rumours are to be believed his head was turned last summer with the prospect of a huge money move to United.
I agree that he was poor last season...had a mistake every game which gifted the opposition glorious chances.

 

Played too many games and hasn't had a real break, in my opinion.
Wanyama's injury meant that we had to keep playing him every week and he's put in about 170 appearances in three years.
The system that England are using doesn't suit him at all, either.

Dier's at his best now when he's used as a holding midfielder in a four man midfield and he's told to drop into the defence to let the fullbacks get forward.
It doesn't leave him isolated against pacy frontmen very often, which he struggles with at centre-half.
He can just concentrate on filling in gaps and giving possession to creative players.

 

You'd struggle, since they knocked it down to make way for a tube station

 

Praise be to Yevon for that. I hated going to gigs at that cramped hellhole with an abysmal sound system.

 

**** PA or not, I saw some of the best gigs of my life there. Guess we’ll have to agree to disagree.

 

Bastion of the Rave scene too.
Never cared for the bouncers with the rottweiler
though in the late 80s at the Hip-Hop gigs I went to.