England Vs Lithuania     

Have to say that Alli was a problem today. Just too slow to move it on and dwelt on the ball much too often rather than letting the ball do the work.

That said, though it was a dull, dull game, the performance and result was generally acceptable.

I'd imagine the next match against the Jocks ought to be a more interesting affair!

England players seem to impress so much more in the Premier League where games are open and they have spaces to move into when playing more counter-attacking football.

So when it comes to playing the likes of Lithuania it's almost literally a whole different ball game.

We're doing enough to win these games, so can't complain too much. But I agree with what's been said about going more direct - or at least having a more direct option on the bench.

These minnows have really stepped it up defensively, so the one thing they wouldn't expect is if we rolled out someone like Carroll and lumped it to him.

It won't happen, but it made me wonder the same thing this afternoon.

When we played direct, everyone complained we were miles behind the leading nations. Now we are trying a different, more mobile game plan, folk are suggesting we hit it long to a target man.

I'm quite happy with what Southgate is trying to do. We may not have quite enough technical excellence to achieve it, but at least we don't start games with players like Milner nowadays. The team, the manager and the direction shows some promise for me and none of the leading lights in Europe had emphatic wins this weekend against some mediocre opposition, apart from maybe Germany but thy are well, Germany.

Quoted from ginnywings

When we played direct, everyone complained we were miles behind the leading nations. Now we are trying a different, more mobile game plan, folk are suggesting we hit it long to a target man.

I'm quite happy with what Southgate is trying to do. We may not have quite enough technical excellence to achieve it, but at least we don't start games with players like Milner nowadays. The team, the manager and the direction shows some promise for me and none of the leading lights in Europe had emphatic wins this weekend against some mediocre opposition , apart from maybe Germany but thy are well, Germany.

Holland even sacked their manager.........we are going to win tournaments now though, the Germans are going to tell us how to do it.

It'll all come together post-Brexit.

Never won 'owt while we've been a member of the EU..

Was at the game yesterday. Not sure if it's always like that but the atmosphere was dreadful. You get glared at for raising your voice and got daggers from the bloke in front for me not standing up for Lithuanias national anthem.

Good weekend away in London though. Alot harder than you'd think to find a weatherspoons haha

I wonder what the team selection and the result would have been if Allardyce was still manager?

I seem to be confused over the Rooney situation, at 31 England's top goal scorer and can play more than one position he is being cast as past it, whereas Defoe at 34 is only a striker( I know he scored yesterday!) is now our saviour.

Quoted from Gaffer58

I seem to be confused over the Rooney situation, at 31 England's top goal scorer and can play more than one position he is being cast as past it, whereas Defoe at 34 is only a striker( I know he scored yesterday!) is now our saviour.

Leading "fit" English goalscorer in our domestic League i believe.....its qualification, we need to win the games to progress. Defoe does one thing, shoots on sight and by and large hits the target, virtually every time ,which is alot more than can be said for the 100's of millions pounds worth of "talent" playing around him last night.

He may not be the long term future of England but what we all crave is some sort of competition success...and for that you need someone to score goals.....last tournament we had Kane as our leading hope going into it and he was fking awful under the spotlight. Rooney has not consistently produced at any big tournament despite his so called "world class striker" tag so lets not go down that route, he doesnt stay in threatening positions and ends up taking the ball off the back four 20 yards in our own half...not what we need from a striker.

Quoted from Gaffer58

I seem to be confused over the Rooney situation, at 31 England's top goal scorer and can play more than one position he is being cast as past it, whereas Defoe at 34 is only a striker( I know he scored yesterday!) is now our saviour.

Age should not be a measure of value of contribution. Defoe has scored more than half of a struggling Sunderland side's goals in the past two seasons. I'm struggling to think what Rooney has contributed to Manure or England in the same period.

Some players age quicker than others, some have injuries that draw their careers to end quicker than others.

A fit and in-form Defoe is a short term sticking plaster for England that may have to last until the World Cup. We also may not need him.

But, I can't for the life of me imagine how the Rooney of the past couple of seasons can offer more to the team than the wealth of talent we have in the number 10 role. Lallana has been awesome and blossoming as an international player being one example.

Time to move on and build for the future. Having said that, the present isn't too bad anyway. I really don't think we need to start shoehorning Rooney into the England team again. Look what happened at the Euros.

Two different scenarios. Defoe is a nice back up plan to have in a defined position. Including Rooney affects how the whole team plays.

A fresh start with a new manager should be exactly that..