FIFA World Cup 2018 - Semi-finals [10/11 July] **spoilers**
- Thread starter Cosimo
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Soldato
Just had a rather large row with mates of mine who watched the game going "if people like you got behind the team we would win"
It doesn't matter how many ******* morons in a pub scream "come on ingurland!!!" It matters more that you're the have a spine and a plan and, ultimately, this year displayed neither.
Beating your chest don't mean **** when as soon as your team gets under pressure they think the bad habits of 50 years is the solution.
Complete bull **** performance and I think an honest assessment of the tournament will show that nothing had really changed for England despite how much we wish it has.
It doesn't matter how many ******* morons in a pub scream "come on ingurland!!!" It matters more that you're the have a spine and a plan and, ultimately, this year displayed neither.
Beating your chest don't mean **** when as soon as your team gets under pressure they think the bad habits of 50 years is the solution.
Complete bull **** performance and I think an honest assessment of the tournament will show that nothing had really changed for England despite how much we wish it has.
I dunno - the first few games was a departure from England of late - more creative, more indepth strategy and understanding of the opponent and better responsiveness to what was happening on the pitch rather than desperate last minute changes etc. - it faltered a bit with Belgium with players like Vardy on it turned into the same old tired performance and then again against Colombia when some of the players who were trying harder became tired.
The last half of this game had a lot of echoes of England of late though
with only a small handful of players who seemed to be really in the game and a far more passive management.Kane, Alli, Lingard, and Rashford were bad, but imagine Jonjo pinging balls to them, even as a sub in ET. Henderson's forward passing is horrific.
Ref was also awful. Never seen someone let so much go before. Rebic and Lovren had free reign to do whatever they wanted.
Ref was also awful. Never seen someone let so much go before. Rebic and Lovren had free reign to do whatever they wanted.
Well other teams seem to do well with good solid captains, although I don't think one man could do the job of managing to rally the English squad and wipe out their bad habits.
Do agree that midfield is in desperate need of some creative players who can deliver those killer balls and create open play opportunities. It's just a painfully direct football that they produce and while nothing wrong with getting the results with set pieces, you do want to be dangerous in more than one area.
I didn't think any of them did particularly bad - some had some bad moments that undid some of the good work they did do - what soured it for me was those players that completely fell short of the hype, while you had some relatively lesser known players who were putting in quality performances but could only carry the team so far.
Soldato
Plays for Toon, no chance.
Ref was a disgrace but I think that's about par for course this tournament.
Soldato
I think England did very well overall, only the third time they've been past the quarter finals since 1950.
Unfortunate thing is, England were as good as Croatia or better. Missed goals tonight would probably have been executed on a different day. Had we played Croatia when we played Sweden, I think we would also have won, it's all about how the chips fall on the day.
I'll get on my soapbox now. What I fail to understand is how all these players that get hundreds of thousands per week because they're some of the best in the world, can't keep the same level of pressure, urgency, domination and control beyond the first 25 minutes. Surely they must be fit and hungry enough to sustain that level of energy for 90 minutes. Why do they get complacent? And when I hear that a player wasn't awake and missed something, again, there is no excuse for players at this level. Those are schoolboy errors, surely. They should be playing every second of the match as though they still haven't scored yet and desperately need a goal, even when they have already scored and are ahead.
We keep hearing about them as young players who lack experience and will learn from this. I don't buy that. They have plenty of experience playing in the premiere league every week.
They knew how to play well in half of the first half. It's not rocket science, all they have to do is keep doing that until the match is over. In my mind, it's all about pace and maintaining it. They seem to run out of steam for some reason. I don't think anyone would knock England if they weren't visibly seen to be slowing down and just hanging on instead of actually taking control. As good as they were this world cup, someone needs to buy them a new metronome that teaches them to keep good tempo, because ultimately it's always the same ending to the story.
Unfortunate thing is, England were as good as Croatia or better. Missed goals tonight would probably have been executed on a different day. Had we played Croatia when we played Sweden, I think we would also have won, it's all about how the chips fall on the day.
I'll get on my soapbox now. What I fail to understand is how all these players that get hundreds of thousands per week because they're some of the best in the world, can't keep the same level of pressure, urgency, domination and control beyond the first 25 minutes. Surely they must be fit and hungry enough to sustain that level of energy for 90 minutes. Why do they get complacent? And when I hear that a player wasn't awake and missed something, again, there is no excuse for players at this level. Those are schoolboy errors, surely. They should be playing every second of the match as though they still haven't scored yet and desperately need a goal, even when they have already scored and are ahead.
We keep hearing about them as young players who lack experience and will learn from this. I don't buy that. They have plenty of experience playing in the premiere league every week.
They knew how to play well in half of the first half. It's not rocket science, all they have to do is keep doing that until the match is over. In my mind, it's all about pace and maintaining it. They seem to run out of steam for some reason. I don't think anyone would knock England if they weren't visibly seen to be slowing down and just hanging on instead of actually taking control. As good as they were this world cup, someone needs to buy them a new metronome that teaches them to keep good tempo, because ultimately it's always the same ending to the story.
The match was disappointing, but over the moon with how the overall tournament has gone. Pre world cup Southgate was seen as a very underwhelming appointment and there were very little expectations on the team. To then reach the semi finals and bring the country together has been a fantastic experience. England have been so dull to watch over the last 8 years, this very much feels like a big step in the right direction.
It will be very interesting to see if any teams in the PL adopt England's love train setup from corners, because it was very effective.
It will be very interesting to see if any teams in the PL adopt England's love train setup from corners, because it was very effective.
Watched every single game in this tournament and this was by far the worst performance by a referee by a long shot. Actually been really impressed by the standard of the officials so far, letting the game flow etc, but this guy was a joke. We were clearly the second best team but there were several key points where the momentum could have started to swing in our favour, but the referee consistantly gave fouls in Cro favour when there was no contact, fail to book Cro players for professional fouls when players e.g. Kane had them beat. Also seemed like he was at the beck and call of the Cro team, checking VAR whenever asked. Have to take responsibility for the loss but I the referee stacked the odds slightly too high for this inexperienced team to surmount.
Caporegime
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Ref's don't want to give out yellows when it means missing a final and I can understand that. Doesn't help that Kane was absolutely launching himself in the air every time. Lovren certainly stepped across him but it was mostly with an arm, Kane threw himself sides and jumped both feet in the air and landed a couple metres away, it was embarrassing and he's been doing that more and more as the tournament progresses. It's hard to give a card when you combine those situations, massive over acting and final in the offing. Only when players did something truly and utterly stupid for 100% no reason at all did he give cards.
For Walker there is a world of difference between picking up the ball and throwing it to a defender or not getting up off the ground and picking up the ball, putting your arm out to push an opposition player away while you pull the ball out of their grasp.
There was a foul on Young that looked bad in real time but on the replay you see it's a very marginal touch and he clearly got his leg in front of Young's and was going for the ball. Only the speed he closed at Young made it look like a kinda nasty tackle but on replay it really wasn't at all.
I still think in any other game Lovren would have gotten a card but I can absolutely understand refs being stingy before a cup final.
I dunno - the first few games was a departure from England of late - more creative, more indepth strategy and understanding of the opponent and better responsiveness to what was happening on the pitch rather than desperate last minute changes etc. - it faltered a bit with Belgium with players like Vardy on it turned into the same old tired performance and then again against Colombia when some of the players who were trying harder became tired.
The last half of this game had a lot of echoes of England of late though
Any team in the world is more creative against worse opposition, that's just how quality works. Against lesser teams even Mourinho or Pulis attack more and commit more players forward. Honestly considering the level of the opposition there wasn't really any need to react. We weren't particularly trying to win against Belgium though neither were they. Colombia were dire, came into the game and we did nothing about it at all. Being creative against Tunisia and Saudi Arabia well, honestly, it just doesn't count. Some lower half championship side could have looked great against those two and lets be honest, we still didn't look great against Tunisia.
I think the biggest difference under southgate is dropping Rooney who the team was focused on for years despite him being bad, and simply having some better faster players around right now combined with easier sides and you get a semi final. There wasn't much that was magic going on.
My comparison was against previous England teams - with the likes of Rooney they never looked creative even against much lesser sides.
England are fine physically, technically and tactically. It's the psychology that goes, they get fearful of failure and you can see the decline in decision making and concentration, not to mention it starts to slow them down as they doubt themselves. They'll never admit it, but it was clear to see tonight when they were 45 minutes away from a World Cup final.
Caporegime
Soldato
Blame Sterling. Boy should have been an athlete, not a footballer.
Man of Honour
This is where we failed imo
He’s our front man but he was playing too deep in midfield every game. When Croatia crossed, there were three or four of them in the box. When we crossed we were lucky to have one.
We just don’t seem to get enough people in the box. No wonder we rarely score from open play.
Caporegime
Just disappointment this morning:/