Third Placed Play-Off: Belgium v England, 14th July, 3pm(GMT)

[Nilsson]

Yes mate I was being real cocky.

Didn't say you were being cocky but you were saying England were the team you wanted and warning us against complacency. Beating Sweden so comfortably shouldn't be devalued imo.

 

[Bilo]

Didn't say you were being cocky but you were saying England were the team you wanted and warning us against complacency. Beating Sweden so comfortably shouldn't be devalued imo.

No mate it absolutely is an achievement considering the nations we knocked out, but in terms of a world cup quarter final it's the easiest match you could hope for. Because as good as we've been over the past two years you're likely up against a much more accomplished opponent should you make the 2022 quarter finals.

And I wanted you lot because A) I like England, I support Liverpool, I have many friends from England and B) you have a history of fucking up to put it nicely.

Also, we were shit.

 

[Leo]

Tbf England has all the signs of a typical small nation that fluked its way to the semis. Lost to all good sides, got lucky with the draw and turned out to be the easiest match en route to the final for Croatia.

I think winning this one really would've helped change that view.

They didn't fluke their way Bilo....they can only play against whomever they are matched...England had no say in how the match game plan panned out....they got through their group, beat Columbia (don't give a fuck whether it was penalties or not), beat Sweden and were done in the semis.... I really despair when people look for faults in the paths that were earned/afforded to the competing teams. England done well imo.....got to the 3rd/4th play off game.....a vast improvement on years gone by.

 

[SALTIRE]

Salty, I think you'll find if you dig deep enough that there was a hint of sarcasm in Carver's post (I think).....

Fair enough, knackered the day, not had much sleep due to some little bastards outside screaming on their trampoline for hours!

 

[Leo]

Fair enough, knackered the day, not had much sleep due to some little bastards outside screaming on their trampoline for hours!

Eh, why you needing sleep through the day mate (unless you do nightshifts) ? You'll need to move again mate.................................................or shoot the wee c*nts.....

 

[SALTIRE]

Eh, why you needing sleep through the day mate (unless you do nightshifts) ? You'll need to move again mate.................................................or shoot the wee c*nts.....

It was this morning for hours they were at it. Wore ear plugs for years to drown out noise from my flat neighbours, but since the move, been trying to stop wearing them, and I've had trouble with my ears lately so not wearing them. Been ok, except for today. May try some cotton wool for tonight though - that, and a shit load of whisky, enough to knock out an elephant!

 

[Leo]

It was this morning for hours they were at it. Wore ear plugs for years to drown out noise from my flat neighbours, but since the move, been trying to stop wearing them, and I've had trouble with my ears lately so not wearing them. Been ok, except for today. May try some cotton wool for tonight though - that, and a shit load of whisky, enough to knock out an elephant!

that's weans for you mate.....they have no concern regards neighbours' ear problems....whisky seems a good option Salty.

BTW....why were you in your kip this morning ? You should have been up enjoying the day my man!

 

[GTFCfish]

When Hazard did Jones I bet Jones was pulling that stupid face he pulls where his mouth is open wide.

Isn’t that the same face you pulled in the prison showers with those 3 blokes?

 

[Carver]

Isn’t that the same face you pulled in the prison showers with those 3 blokes?

Heh.

I've no idea what this bloke is talking about.

 

[SMH]

We really did strike gold with the draw you have to say it. Beat Panama and Sweden comfortably, need a last minute goal to beat Tunisia, needed pens against Colombia. The two good teams we ran into beat us. While Southgate has succeeded brilliantly in his first remit as boss which has been to restablish the connection between the team and the fans along with playing good football and sticking to a certain style of play. I’m not convinced by him tactically as of yet. I’ll be very interested to see how we do at the Euros because the bar has been set high now thanks to a generous bracket. Odds are that if we want to match that achievement in two years we’re going to have to beat at least one “top team”. Because the knives will be out if we go out any earlier.

 

[NorthernSoul]

Southgate definitely needs to sharpen up his tactics and be a bit less stubborn with his favoured 11. But he's the first England manager in recent times to suss out the best formation for this group of players, we were crying out for a back 3 with wing backs for the last 3 tournaments prior to this at least, due to a lack of wingers. We had no width at all the last few tournaments but using wing backs offered us great width, well at least from the right. We badly missed left footed players in this side, more so going forward, would have given us a lot more creativity.

Southgate definitely did the right thing in given the youth who had performed so well at youth level a chance. Not calling up Sessegnon was a huge mistake for me though, would have had nothing to lose and would have offered us a lot.

Trying to defend a 1-0 lead against a Croatian side all over the place every time we went at them with pace was a big error.

If he can make a few changes to our strongest 11, get more savvy tactically and get the group of players playing together regularly over the next 2 years then hopefully we can have a good 2020 tournament.

It's clear that whilst Kane is a very good player he is not a captain. Harry Maguire was by far the most vocal player each game and trying organise the team, I'd give him the armband.

 

[Leewilson]

We really did strike gold with the draw you have to say it. Beat Panama and Sweden comfortably, need a last minute goal to beat Tunisia, needed pens against Colombia. The two good teams we ran into beat us. While Southgate has succeeded brilliantly in his first remit as boss which has been to restablish the connection between the team and the fans along with playing good football and sticking to a certain style of play. I’m not convinced by him tactically as of yet. I’ll be very interested to see how we do at the Euros because the bar has been set high now thanks to a generous bracket. Odds are that if we want to match that achievement in two years we’re going to have to beat at least one “top team”. Because the knives will be out if we go out any earlier.

This. Even Southgate himself said we’re not a top4 team. Realistically, this England side in the World is probably somewhere between 8-12 in terms of proper ranking.

 

[Leewilson]

Southgate definitely needs to sharpen up his tactics and be a bit less stubborn with his favoured 11. But he's the first England manager in recent times to suss out the best formation for this group of players, we were crying out for a back 3 with wing backs for the last 3 tournaments prior to this at least, due to a lack of wingers. We had no width at all the last few tournaments but using wing backs offered us great width, well at least from the right. We badly missed left footed players in this side, more so going forward, would have given us a lot more creativity.

Southgate definitely did the right thing in given the youth who had performed so well at youth level a chance. Not calling up Sessegnon was a huge mistake for me though, would have had nothing to lose and would have offered us a lot.
.

Whilst I kind of agree, it wouldn’t have changed a thing. Alexander Arnold deserved to go but had no real impact on our progression. Sessegnon would have been the same. If he’s good enough, his time will come. He has to choose his next club carefully though to avoid being Luke Shaw’d.

And I have to say, it was a blessing in disguise Gomez got injured because I think Southgate initially favoured him over Maguire, despite him not being at all ready in my opinion. Very susceptible to a long ball

 

[Steve_Wafc]

I put this in the original Belgium game thread haha. It’s been a long day..
Apologies for the essay too. Anyway..
Disappointing to end it all on 2 defeats, but it doesn’t sour the tournament for me, it’s been great.
Croatia, we completely ripped them apart in the first half and should have at least doubled the lead. Then in the second half, they came more into it, but I felt we were comfortable still. Eventually they equalised (which I still feel was a high boot, although it doesn’t help when Walker is low on the ground) and it completely rattled us. Then for the rest of the 90, we looked mentally exhausted and resorted to sitting too deep. I also think this was down to Trippier’s injury too though, as he couldn’t get forward and give us an out ball. We recovered in the first half of extra time though and could have taken the lead. But then we switched off for a second and Stones’ only mistake of the tournament happened to be a crucial moment and there was no coming back after that.
Today was quite a dull affair for the first half. It looked like we’d made one too many changes again and like the other fixture we had no rhythm in our play. Gave away a real sloppy goal too, classic Danny Rose. Second half after making the changes, we looked much better though and were arguably the best side. Loftus Cheek was more involved and so was Trippier, who was again outstanding. We had to take the chances though, as Belgium looked threatening on the counter every time, and they eventually punished us. Pickford made a tremendous save to deny what would have been goal of the tournament also, what a move.
I said it after the Sweden win though and I’ll say it again, Kane looks injured. I think he was injured in the Colombia game and hasn’t fully recovered. He again lacked sharpness and looked a bit flat footed. A shadow of the player who looked so good in the group stages and against Colombia.
3rd place would have been nice, but it’s not a very memorable accolade, so I don’t think we’ll lose too much sleep over it. Great tournament overall though. We’ve shown we can compete, we have young talent in our ranks, we’ve played some excellent football, we’re inventive and we’ve got a manager who keeps it simple and puts the players in a system where they can flourish. Far from the finished article of course, but the future looks a lot brighter than it did a few months ago.

 

[SALTIRE]

that's weans for you mate.....they have no concern regards neighbours' ear problems....whisky seems a good option Salty.

BTW....why were you in your kip this morning ? You should have been up enjoying the day my man!

Oh no, hate the Sun (well not the Sun itself since I studied it for my dissertation! ), and its too feckin' warm. Hurry up and gimme snow and dark days/nights ffs.

 

[Stevencc]

"Page three and its potential use as a propaganda tool for the Scottish National Party."

 

[Railway Blue]

"Page three and its potential use as a propaganda tool for the Scottish National Party."

I can't work out whether that's a joke I don't get or he's serious, haha.

 

[Abertawe]

This. Even Southgate himself said we’re not a top4 team. Realistically, this England side in the World is probably somewhere between 8-12 in terms of proper ranking.

He spent the whole tournament running down the quality of the players when it's himself who's the weak link, he's such a shithouse.

England have a balance of physical attributes over nearly every nation on earth - a squad where the majority of players have performed at the highest level of club football under the world best managers and an unexpectant fan base that treated a penalty victory over Colombia like it was '66.

 

[Steve_Wafc]

He spent the whole tournament running down the quality of the players when it's himself who's the weak link, he's such a shithouse.

England have a balance of physical attributes over nearly every nation on earth - a squad where the majority of players have performed at the highest level of club football under the world best managers and an unexpectant fan base that treated a penalty victory over Colombia like it was '66.

When you lose penalty shootout after penalty shootout, it’s natural for your expectations to be low on them. It’s nothing towards the quality of the players taking them, it’s just the feeling of “we’re going to mess up again”. Winning against Colombia was more relief for me. Relief because we came close to messing it up and also relief because people can stop talking about it now in negative terms. If we’d lost that shootout, the papers would be all over it “Same old, same old” etc. Individual players like Henderson would get slated, like it’s so easy to score a penalty. This set of players did not deserve that kind of treatment, so I was relieved that we got through it and they avoided that in the process.

 

[Carver]

From what I've seen of England in this tournament is that our play and passing has been too slow and we fanny around so much in the final third instead of just crossing the bloody ball into the box from the wing, but instead we just slow down and try to cut inside or find another pass and we end up losing the ball.

Also we don't have enough shots on goal, there is that old saying if you don't shoot you don't score and it's right. I know it looks difficult sometimes with defenders in the way but you can always get deflected goals and corners and the keeper parrying it back out to someone if you shoot. We did it in the first half against Tunisia and Panama but apart from that we had done fuck all.

Our play upfront has just been so weak and ineffective, we've relied heavily on set pieces which is good that we've worked on them, but against the better teams we need to be a threat from open play as well.

This is very basic stuff that we've struggled with.

 

[Abertawe]

Move Henderson to CM & let Stones become the DM when in possession England would've been a lot better offensively than what they were. Simple stuff. The game plan was so flawed I cannot believe Southgate has not come in for an ounce of flak.

 

[Laker]

Ok we get you don’t like Southgate. Move on....!

 

[Carver]

Move Henderson to CM & let Stones become the DM when in possession England would've been a lot better offensively than what they were. Simple stuff. The game plan was so flawed I cannot believe Southgate has not come in for an ounce of flak.

He didn't get any flak because we luckily got to the semis with that easy run and people buy into it oh and don't forget he's a nice pleasant guy who says all the right things. lol

 

[T.A]

Football came Home

The End.