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Football Discussion

Struggled to get that 1 nil win. Can't see us getting anything out of the better teams. We looked pretty poor. Foden and Kane were poor.
 
Struggled to get that 1 nil win. Can't see us getting anything out of the better teams. We looked pretty poor. Foden and Kane were poor.
It's a win at the end of the day. Never felt we were under the cosh, they had a couple of decent chances but nothing more than that.

I'd rather start with tempered expectations than some over flattering 5-1 mauling of an abysmal Scotland team. We will have to be better against Denmark but Denmark will actually want to play football rather than fouling and the dark arts.
 
A dour win but getting the job done is all that matters in these group games. We weren’t great but Serbia were hardly banging the door down, I always felt confident we’d see out the win.
 
Time will tell. Things look a bit bleak for me, with regards to getting deep into the competition. Think we'll most likely be gone by the quarters unless there's a vast improvement. Never been a Southgate fan though.
 
Beat Denmark and win the group.

Serbia were always going to be a difficult team to crack open. Was one point where 21 players were in their half.

Could've been 2-0 if not for a great save from the Kane header.


Left side was poor though, and a few final third passes just didn't connect. Could've been a lot worse.
 
Good to start off with the win. Serbia were more interested in disrupting the game than playing football. It did rattle us a little bit but thought we managed the game fairly well. I imagine that our tactics will be better suited to teams that want to attack us. It comes across as very negative, however there is not a lot you can do if a team decides they don't want to come at you. Better to remain patient and pick out those killer passes/crosses. If there is anything we need to improve on, we need to cut out the silly mistake. A lot of pass went stray at times, when they just needed to take the time and keep hold of the ball.
 
The constant refusal to sub Kane off is going to cost us, as it has done in previous years.

I don't know if he's fully fit but sometimes he looks so slow and cumbersome. Is it really worth keeping him on in hope of a tap in or penalty, when Ivan Toney can do the same thing but with fresher legs? Even Ollie Watkins.

Agree that left side is a concern, might be worth starting Eze for the next game.
 
You can’t play all three of Foden, Bellingham and Saka without one of them having to play out of position. Southgate hasn’t really replaced Sterling/Rashford on the left.
 
The sensible thing to do would be to start Anthony Gordon on the left to give us a proper option out there. He tried Foden over there, it didn't work. Bring Foden on as a sub if and when appropriate. It might be different if we had a proper left wing-back playing, but we havn't. You're not dropping Bellingham from that more central position as he was one of our best performers and has rightfully justified that place now. Saka was a positive who was good for most of the first half but struggled second half when their more tactically astute coach made sure that they made it harder for him. I was really impressed with Guehi in defence. Rice was absolutely fine and still one of the first names on the team-sheet. Trent isn't the answer in that experimental role that they subjected him to. Overall I was happy enough with Kyle Walker. With Kane, I think I'm starting to see how Bayern managed to not win the league for the first time in however many years. Yeah, sure his goal tally looks good, but to what cost of the rest of the performance/team?

What's really worrying though, is that some of the players and the manager speaking after the game thought that it was a good performance. We were good for 30 minutes and then poor for an hour. That's not good. The lack of being willing to make subs of certain players is also very worrying, as usual. It's just frustrating when we're not getting the best out of our options. I wish I could be more positive, but I can't deny what my eyes see.
 
For me the biggest issue against Serbia was the lack of chances in the second half. I'd drop Foden next game not because he's bad but there are better players in that position.

Defensively I thought we were decent, I don't buy the media narrative we were under the kosh, Serbia only had a couple of chances. Pickford only really made one proper save. Alot of work to do but it's important to remember we still won the game.
 
England were poor in the second half. We took our foot off the gas.
A win is a win and we do grow into tournaments. Something we have learnt to do.
Kane looks unfit - and Foden unbalances the team.
Be daring - but Jude up top with Kane - let him roam. And put Foden in the no.10 role.

Still - happy to win - shame the golf afterwards ended up in huge disappointment.
 
An improvement on the previous game, so far. A shame Ralston passed it to Shakiri to shoot for their goal. He won't sleep tonight unless you get a result now.
 
Need to get Billyesta on the ball as much as possible.

Been a frustrating watch, they can't even hoof it properly. If they're going to spam long balls at least do it with a degree of accuracy.
 
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