by Vision »
17 Jun 2024 01:33
Royal Rother Snowflake Royal Yeah, sure they tried, but they approached the game all wrong.
They left huge gaps down each flank and between midfield and attack.
They went in thinking they had a chance, completely underestimating Germany. They were set up like 3-4-3 and they could take the game to Germany, but they barely had a kick. And they didn’t adapt.
England would have battered that performance too.
We probably could have if we played in the way Germany did, but we wouldn't have because the over-riding thoughts in some of the players' minds as the game kicked off would have been "if in doubt, recycle, let's not lose this game". And that comes from the manager.
I don’t think that’s England’s issue really . We’ve scored 4 goals and above in games under Southgate at major championships when we’ve faced inferior opposition who set up in a certain way. I would have backed up to put at least 4 past Scotland the way they set up today.
England’s issue is when tge opposition do lay a glove on us and look a threat , we panic and go into our shell. It happened again in today’s game. All Southgate’s talk about how important possession is goes out of the window . A spell of possession and recycling the ball was exactly what we needed at times today when Serbia were really pushing.
And whilst Southgate is ultimately responsible for that, some of his players clearly lack the character to overcome this because it’s becoming a common theme.
Just my opinion of course but whilst both Foden and Palmer have quick feet, neither of them do it at the pace that Musiala seems to. Eze within our squad and possibly Saka are probably the closest we have for that.