New International Football thread

[bigfluffylemon]

The group for England is pitiful.

indeed

Yep. Win's a win, and England should top the group easily, but it won't tell us anything about their progress (or lack thereof).

[Durhamfootman]

Reece James, take a boo, son, take a boo

a free kick of the highest quality

[Durhamfootman]

Rashford has been tasked with getting behind the defence, which he has done, but not enough quality in any of the passes/crosses. Bellingham has headed over 3 times from good positions. He seems to be getting a bit ratty and has been booked, so I think he's getting a bit frustrated.

Lots of pinball stuff in the box and a couple of brilliant reaction saves from the Latvian keeper

[Durhamfootman]

generally much more positive and a bit more direct from England compared to Friday

[Durhamfootman]

routine 3-0 win

a tap in for Kane and a nice first goal for Eze who made a difference when he came on. Foden replaced Bellingham who skirted quite close to a second yellow and Unsurprisingly Foden was much better in his preferred central role than he ever is when he's pushed out wide

Tuchel got Bowen and Rashford to swap wings in the second half, but it was Eze who stretched the defence when he came on for Bowen and played in Rashford's position.... confused? you will be

Lewis-Skelly was nominally selected as part of a back four, but actually played as a DM and when he was replaced by Walker, James moved into midfield, so it was a back 3 really for England

Konsa was impressive again, Guehi did okay, but got in a pickle early doors in a nearly catastrophic mix up with Pickford. Rice did well, Rogers did okay, as did Kane

Jones came on for Rashford with 15 mins to go, but immediately disappeared

[bigfluffylemon]

Nothing but bitching for 90 minutes on the BBC Sport coverage. A 3-0 win isn't good enough, apparently.

Was it a vintage performance? Clearly not, but job done, and England were never threatened. When a team comes to Wembley with the sole plan to park the bus (Latvia had one shot inside the box all night, off target) it can take a while and some patience to break them down if you don't get an early goal.

But it's not enough these days for England to win comfortably. They have to play 90 scintillating minutes every time they get on the pitch. Grinding out a win? Heaven forbid any England fan might be bored for a few minutes...

[Durhamfootman]

I noticed the paper aeroplanes are still making an appearance, but there you go, it's become a thing, perhaps one for Sir Gareth to add to his list of achievements

Wembley crowds have long been fickle. I thought Latvia did pretty well, tbh. They came with a game plan, albeit very negative, and largely kept their shape throughout, frustrating England and certainly frustrating Bellingham. If England produced a few more quality crosses from the wingers, then it could have been a much bigger scoreline, but they did well enough whilst getting used to the new manager.

The days of endless back passing seem to have gone, so I take that as progress

[Durhamfootman]

dull old game today.

England beat Andorra 1-0

I expected that Andorra would park the bus and England would have to find a way to open them up, which we all know they often struggle with. By and large this was the case, but Andorra actually pressed quite high, so there were lots of opportunities for England to play the ball long behind them, but almost to a man they didn't bother. I say almost, because Madueke was a handful and kept getting in behind the defenders, but no-one else even tried to do that. It came as no surprise that Kane's goal and the best opportunities came through him. Hence when Andorra did come out, the rest of the England boys gave them every opportunity to get back into shape by the time we got the ball anywhere near the final third..... which was pretty sporting of them.... very British

Plenty to work on for Tuchel

[Durhamfootman]

I guess at some point the penny will drop with these England players that Southgate isn't the manager anymore

2 turgid performances from England and they thoroughly deserved to lose tonight against Senegal. England were awful. We are back to the days of centre back ping pong and own half triangles, with the occasional use of the keeper for the billiard cannon. No urgency to get forward, no-one spotting the attacking runs and opting to choose the sideways pass instead. 2-1 down and into stoppage time, England got a free kick which nobody seemed to want and they literally wasted a minute of the 3 remaining deciding who to take it, before failing to clear the first defender sparking a counter attack that saw Senegal 4 on 1 and scoring.

I wonder what the excuse will be tonight. I think we've had 4 games now since Southgate ssiped off and it's hard to spot anything different. Even Jordan Henderson is still there.... I mean, I ask you

[bigfluffylemon]

I mean, it's almost as if Southgate wasn't entirely to blame for the team's limitations. Heresy, I know.

[GarlicJam]

I think it worth while noting that Australia has now qualified for the world cup, with their 3-1 defeat of Saudi Arabia, following on from their (very rare) victory over Japan last week.

[sussexpob]

I mean, it's almost as if Southgate wasn't entirely to blame for the team's limitations. Heresy, I know.

The last time Southgate oversaw this pointless end of season international break in a year without a major tournament, England lost to Hungary twice including a 4-0 battering a home which was labelled one of their worst ever performances, and did not win any of their 4 matches.

[sussexpob]

The PL season ended its latest ever date, save for the Covid year with a 3.5 month gap for players. The international break was scheduled 1-2 weeks earlier to account for the Club World Cup, which a significant amount of the squad will take part in and for which they will get almost no holiday this year. The players went from a long season pretty much straight into the national team squad. Worth noting the CL was extended by one round/2 group stages as well this year. Not sure we can particularly bash the players for not being champing at the bit to play an absolutely needless friendly, and playing one of Europe's worst teams during a record breaking heatwave in Spain.

With the CWC scheduled this year, it should have been done away with.

[Arthur Crabtree]

I think it worth while noting that Australia has now qualified for the world cup, with their 3-1 defeat of Saudi Arabia, following on from their (very rare) victory over Japan last week.

Well done you Aussies!

[GarlicJam]

I think it worth while noting that Australia has now qualified for the world cup, with their 3-1 defeat of Saudi Arabia, following on from their (very rare) victory over Japan last week.

Well done you Aussies!

I think I can take most of the credit for this.

Something I read this morning was that this now makes 6 WC's in a row that Aus have qualified for - making them only the 11th team to achieve this