12 minutes ago, RMH said:

aMy impression is that England lost completely the midfield, with Lingard and Dele Alli being very much missing throughout the second half. Young and Trippier were being pressed but responded well. I thought Southgate should have changed first the midfield to regain possession, which could have relieved the wings.

I credit the Croatia coach at half-time whatever he did it switched the momentum.

I think our game was built around our front players being able to hold up the ball for midfield runners or win fouls for set pieces. The other part was the WBs getting down the wings to throw in set pieces.

Kane was poor yesterday he looked tired and wasn't able to hold the ball up - remember he doesn't score in August, perhaps it is starts mid-July!

Once Croatia switched momentum in the 2nd half pinning back our WBs and Kane not being able to hold up the ball we were struggling, perhaps RLC could have offered something here.

Footy 365 thinks Lovren was very lucky to stay on  the pitch.

 

 

14 minutes ago, Sexyfootball said:

Thought Luca Modric was fantastic. Really wish we'd been able to sign him a few years ago .. and even at age 32 he'd still be worth a punt. Also thought Perisic was excellent for them - a real threat from the wing. You can see why Man U were linked with him last year.

Perisic certainly became a lot more active in the second half and threatened to open us up several times.

2 hours ago, RMH said:

My impression is that England lost completely the midfield, with Lingard and Dele Alli being very much missing throughout the second half. Young and Trippier were being pressed but responded well. I thought Southgate should have changed first the midfield to regain possession, which could have relieved the wings.

The main reason England lost control of the midfield is in the 2nd half Croatia pushed a defender up into midfield and overloaded it, our midfield couldnt cope and it basically created space for Modric to do his thing. When alli was pushed inside to help he was exhausted and couldnt cover wide meaning Young was exposed and their right winger/wing back was able to put crosses in unchallenged. Southgate should have taken of lingard or sterling and brought on Dier to help the midfield.

12 minutes ago, dkw said:

The main reason England lost control of the midfield is in the 2nd half Croatia pushed a defender up into midfield and overloaded it, our midfield couldnt cope and it basically created space for Modric to do his thing. When alli was pushed inside to help he was exhausted and couldnt cover wide meaning Young was exposed and their right winger/wing back was able to put crosses in unchallenged. Southgate should have taken of lingard or sterling and brought on Dier to help the midfield.

That makes sense as reading footy 365 they said on the 2nd goal there were three mistakes, Alli not closing quickly enough, Trippier pushing his man instead of jumping to stop the header and Stones ball watching.

Their ultimate conclusion was fatigue despite us playing less minutes than Croatia on the run up to the match. 

IMO Southgate did not make the right subs at the right time.

8 minutes ago, dkw said:

The main reason England lost control of the midfield is

This pillock was playing 

7 minutes ago, Luca Vialli said:

This pillock was playing 

Yeah, and that too ha ha....

7 minutes ago, Luca Vialli said:

This pillock was playing 

To be fair to Ste he was expected to do a Kante, be an entire midfield, despite not being fit to lace Kantes boots. 

Henderson wasn't too bad yesterday, but the overall quality of the whole England side is just poor.

53 minutes ago, Zeta said:

Henderson wasn't too bad yesterday, but the overall quality of the whole England side is just poor.

He was terrible yesterday, after a very good game against Sweden where he played forward passes he resorted to type and played square or backwards. Any attacking passes he did play were massively over hit for some reason.

1 minute ago, dkw said:

He was terrible yesterday, after a very good game against Sweden where he played forward passes he resorted to type and played square or backwards. Any attacking passes he did play were massively over hit for some reason.

Another player that lacks the basic football skills, however he can muster up some good work in between, good blocks, shots etc...but it's all very rare and doesn't cover up the fact the lack of basic football skills, like being reliable in controlling the ball all of the time, reliable in ball retention every time, reliable in making the calculated correct choice for each pass and every pass. Not peaks and troughs. 

Loftus cheek for me is already a more reliable midfielder, with better football skills, but also without the peaks Henderson can sometimes reach. But i would be behind giving RLC the chance to show us at Chelsea he can provide the reliability our midfield (Kante) desperately needs.

Not only a comment on RLC but to English players in general. The style of play which has broken a bit during the years is that in England intelligent football is not kept in high regard. Players who can see the game as a whole and give the game a rhythm. I love Frankie but even he wasn't controlling games in an intelligent fashion. Same goes to Stevie (minus the love). 

I think Modric vs England you could see what this means. Modric is arguably one of the best midfielders of this 20th century but he was controlling everything on the pitch and made English players look like little boys. 

I think there is no appreciation towards that kind of play for young midfielders. JT was an intelligent defender and Kane sure is an intelligent striker but no one is really controlling things. This is why Southgate picked only pace to his side. Players like Sterling and especially Walker are there because they are very gifted physically. Walker got extra tutoring from Pep during the season to make him more intelligent on the pitch. They should have ran Croatia to the ground and won it 1st half. 

I think Southgate did an incredibly good job with England. 

Now Ruben I think fits in the same category. He's been seen as a creative midfielder but for example Conte absolutely didn't see him as that. He saw him strong and fast. So clear limitations. I don't think he will play for us in a controlling role. Some other role perhaps and I'm also hoping so. 

I know the difference between Panama and Croatia is vast but our best game was against Panama where Ruben shored the midfield and made that right hand side rigid and sturdy 

9 minutes ago, zolawannabe25 said:

I know the difference between Panama and Croatia is vast but our best game was against Panama where Ruben shored the midfield and made that right hand side rigid and sturdy 

Yes he was good in that game. Absolutely did good to his future.

8 minutes ago, evissy said:

Not only a comment on RLC but to English players in general. The style of play which has broken a bit during the years is that in England intelligent football is not kept in high regard. Players who can see the game as a whole and give the game a rhythm. I love Frankie but even he wasn't controlling games in an intelligent fashion. Same goes to Stevie (minus the love). 

I think Modric vs England you could see what this means. Modric is arguably one of the best midfielders of this 20th century but he was controlling everything on the pitch and made English players look like little boys. 

I think there is no appreciation towards that kind of play for young midfielders. JT was an intelligent defender and Kane sure is an intelligent striker but no one is really controlling things. This is why Southgate picked only pace to his side. Players like Sterling and especially Walker are there because they are very gifted physically. Walker got extra tutoring from Pep during the season to make him more intelligent on the pitch. They should have ran Croatia to the ground and won it 1st half. 

I think Southgate did an incredibly good job with England. 

Now Ruben I think fits in the same category. He's been seen as a creative midfielder but for example Conte absolutely didn't see him as that. He saw him strong and fast. So clear limitations. I don't think he will play for us in a controlling role. Some other role perhaps and I'm also hoping so. 

I thought Modric was quiet first half and in the second was given a free role by Croatia moving a defender into midfield. In the second half he did very well yet our midfield players run out of steam.

Southgate appeared to make errors here instead of shoring up our midfield he swapped Henderson for Dier. 

I agree England lacks a good controlling midfielder and Henderson is probably our best.

I thought Southgate did well to get us to the semis. 

 

If this is his level then I just don’t think he offers us enough creativity. Shame, I’m desperate for us to have a goal scoring/assist making Englishman in the side.

He’s been England’s best player in this game I thought, doesn’t say much as they’ve been pretty poor but still he’s played really well.

He isn't good enough to play for Chelsea.

3 minutes ago, EdinburghBlue said:

He’s been England’s best player in this game I thought, doesn’t say much as they’ve been pretty poor but still he’s played really well.

I don't think he has, he's had 2 decent runs but been so static and negative at times, seems scared to shoot for some reason. 

I'm still not convinced by him, but we should wait until Sarri works with him to see how much improvement he has in him. With Jorginho and Kante, and if we switch to a midfield of three, then maybe he has what it takes to make it at Chelsea. If we continue with the 343, I'm not sure he will play much time this season (unless we sell William, Pedro or Hazard).

2 minutes ago, dkw said:

I don't think he has, he's had 2 decent runs but been so static and negative at times, seems scared to shoot for some reason. 

Fair point but the rest of the team have been awful so when I say he’s been the best player, I don’t mean to say he’s had a steller game but I think he’s done well under the circumstances. ‘Really well’ was probably a bit strong! 

He actually grew into the game but he definitely needs to become more clinical in the final third, dare I say, like Ali

He was definitely our best player today but that means absolutely nothing when your second best player is Dier.

For me it was only him and Lingard that showed anything positive, but as with the last time we played belgium its extremely hard to judge a player in a team so stale.

1 hour ago, Adamrb said:

I’m desperate for us to have a goal scoring/assist making Englishman in the side.

Mason Mount, I have faith he’ll be a very good player, not that I’ve given up on RLC. 

RLC was decent today, a shame some of the other players weren’t on the same page, a few things he tried weren’t read at all by players around him imo.

36 minutes ago, Adamrb said:

He actually grew into the game but he definitely needs to become more clinical in the final third, dare I say, like Ali

Alli doesn’t contribute anything else if he isn’t scoring, he has been poor this World Cup.