England v Croatia

Even post match I agree.

Crowbarring in a right footed player at left back with Shaw and Chilwell in the squad is a nonsense. Regardless of the result.

I hope its something never too be be repeated.

 

The Mings one was a belter as well-
Interviewer “Was that a typical tournament match?”
Mings “ I’ve no idea I’ve never played in a tournament before”

 

Decent result, decent enough performance. Hope Southgate proves me wrong I just feel we are capable of so much more. Test will be Spain, France, Portugal etc

One thing I learnt is Phillips is now a shoe in. Mount superb too.

 

Nearly as good as when mike gatting had his nose all over his face, both eyes blacked and nearly closed.The interviewer asked where did the ball exactly hit you?

 

Bit of a weird game really. Croatia were really poor which meant we didn't need to be anywhere near our best to beat them and beat them pretty comfortably too.

Hopefully over the next two games we'll take it up a few gears.

 

It's hard to know exactly how 'poor' Croatia were today. Maybe they looked ineffective because we were really good at nullifying them. Our defence - Mings and Walker in particular - played well. They are a technically good passing team, but our midfield largely contained them and kept Modric very quiet - causing him to drop ever deeper and curtailing his threat.
Let's see if Scotland or the Czech Republic are able to stifle them so comfortably.

 

Scotland and the Czechs aren't a gauge of where we should be? That's a terrible comparison.

Yes it was a good result but did we play well? Not really. Do we have to improve? Almost certainly. But was it a good result? Absolutely.

And we move on.

 

I'm not suggesting that Scotland and the Czechs are the best comparison and I accept that we will need to improve against the serious contenders. But if Croatia stick three on Scotland or the Czechs then our performance may look a bit better than it did today. Alternatively, if they lose to either of them then it decidedly won't.

 

The weird format means we're pretty much through already.

But these games against Scotland and Czech Republic need to see England put a marker down and show what we're all about. These next two performances will dictate whether sides are wary of us in the knock out stages or not.

On today's evidence, I don't think any of the decent teams will be more worried about England than they were last month - that needs to change IMO.

 

Croatia as always look well balanced in midfield but are missing a centre forward since Mandzukic retired and seem to depend heavily on Perisic. If he has a quiet game, they don't look threatening.

 

If England win the group they will face the second team from France Germany Portugal. And Hungary stiff tests ahead

 

And if they finish second they'll likely play France in the quarter finals. No easy route to the later stages.