England v Costa Rica

England entertain Costa Rica at Elland Road in their final warm-up game before the World Cup  (20:00 ITV)

4-1 to England  

ENGLAND XI: Butland, Alexander-Arnold, Stones, Maguire, Jones, Rose, Henderson, Loftus-Cheek, Delph, Vardy, Rashford

SUBS: Pickford, Walker, Dier, Lingard, Kane, Sterling, Trippier, Welbeck, Cahill, Young, Alli, Pope

Im sure people will be scared to be optimistic and take the easy option as usual but I like alot of our squad, like southgate and how he interviews and how hes been sticking up for his players, and I liked the way we played in the first half against nigeria, so hopefully do it for 90 minutes, stop people moaning, can get blindly excited for a world cup and never know maybe its time we did a bit better again heres hoping

Also how much better is the atmosphere than at wembley already, national anthem reminiscent of euro 96 at old wembley

Wembley has gotten stale in my mind, makes sense to travel ENGLAND and player their. Can see lots of goals coming.

Fabulous goal from Rashford.

Marcus Rashford you filthy illegitimate

Unbeleivable, we have to play him, he looks hungry, probably sick of playing boring football under mourinho

Quoted from WHYWONTYOULETMESIGNUP

Also how much better is the atmosphere than at wembley already, national anthem reminiscent of euro 96 at old wembley

The crowd being two minutes ahead of the music you mean  

All debate aside on whether England are any good, at least they are a lot more attractive to watch than they have been for most of the last 4 or 5 decades I've been watching them. Defence still tend to go to sleep now and again though, and the better sides will punish that.

First England game I have watched in ages. I’m impressed. Play nice football and got exciting players.

Iceland take an early lead against Ghana in Reykjavík.

Wonder if the fans are all wearing their new World Cup tops.

Two decent goals, but for a team with two-thirds of the possession, I don't think we got nearly enough efforts on goal tonight.

I do wonder if Rashford is going to be another of those players who is a scorer of great goals rather than a great goalscorer?

Quoted from promotion plaice

Iceland take an early lead against Ghana in Reykjavík.

Wonder if the fans are all wearing their new World Cup tops.

The bastatds

We seem to have 20 odd decent players but not many who stand out like your Pele or Di Stefano or Messi-we are mainly team players but I've got fingers crossed we might do some good this year.

The big difference is that we don't have 'big timers'

Whilst we had a good squad with Terry, Gerrard, Lampard, Beckham etc, they didn't like playing with each other.

This team is total different, and full of players that are excited to play

Quoted from golfer

We seem to have 20 odd decent players but not many who stand out like your Pele or Di Stefano or Messi-we are mainly team players but I've got fingers crossed we might do some good this year.

Don’t often disagree with  you football-wise golfer, but I don’t think England have a hope. Too many who play with no awareness, heads down, flat footed when they get the ball and no idea what to do with it before it comes to them. Look how many of those triangle moves down the wings just fall apart for lack of movement and awareness.

If the opposition sits back and lets us have 70% possession but we only get 3 shots in like in the first half last night, we get nice football and no end product, that is no good. If the opposition steps up and crowds us in midfield like Nigeria did, we revert to type, passing the ball sideways and backwards in midfield till we end up with a hoof over the top in desperation.

No, there are no Messi, Pele substitutes, they try hard and look pretty but they never look like a team that can grind out results in a competition unless the standard of opposition is going to be incredibly poor.

Impossible to say from friendly games if we're a force to be reckoned with or not.

But it's difficult to not hold some hope, if not for this tournament for future ones.   We appear to be getting better as we get more confident with this system and in a tournament once you're past the group stages, which you would expect England to achieve, anything can happen.  

The defence still worries me and I think we lack a real leader at the back.  The obvious one is Cahill but I'm not sure he will start.  There's an error in there, especially with Stones and Maguire bringing the ball out, but to an extent that's probably mitigated a bit by putting Walker in there for his pace to cover.

I'm pleased Southgate has decided he only wants one 'pivot' as he calls it, playing both Henderson and Dier is too negative, regardless of who the opposition is.   In that position it's a no brainer for me to go with Henderson.  The far better footballer, not really a fan of Dier at all if I'm honest.  

In midfield, last night was encouraging but presented more questions than answers for Southgate.  Both Rose and Alexander-Arnold arguably played their way into the starting eleven.  Loftus-Cheek should start for me, he's an absolute beast in there and should be the type of player England build themselves around.    It's a shame Oxlade-Chamberlian is injured as he would have been ideal in a high energy midfield but I wouldn't object to Lingard sitting in that role.  

Kane's a shoe-in up top which just leaves that support role.  I can't see beyond Sterling but Rashford certainly made a strong case for himself last night.  I think the one thing that will go against him more than anything will be that he can make an impact from the bench.  

Until he came on and set the second goal up, I would have thought Alli's the biggest name with his place under threat.  I don't really think he's done enough in an England shirt and whilst the lad clearly has a lot of talent, he doesn't fit in with the ethos of high pressing and a high tempo for me.   Not mobile enough to play the support striker role nor is he disciplined enough to play a bit deeper.  It'll be a bold move but I hope Southgate doesn't start him.

Working on the assumption of Southgate's preferred formation, I would go with the following line-up: Pickford; Walker, Stones, Maguire; Trippier, Rose, Henderson, Loftus-Cheek, Lingard; Sterling; Kane.

Quoted from TheRonRaffertyFanClub

Don’t often disagree with  you football-wise golfer, but I don’t think England have a hope. Too many who play with no awareness, heads down, flat footed when they get the ball and no idea what to do with it before it comes to them. Look how many of those triangle moves down the wings just fall apart for lack of movement and awareness.

If the opposition sits back and lets us have 70% possession but we only get 3 shots in like in the first half last night, we get nice football and no end product, that is no good. If the opposition steps up and crowds us in midfield like Nigeria did, we revert to type, passing the ball sideways and backwards in midfield till we end up with a hoof over the top in desperation.

No, there are no Messi, Pele substitutes, they try hard and look pretty but they never look like a team that can grind out results in a competition unless the standard of opposition is going to be incredibly poor.

When I said I have got fingers crossed I meant "fingers and toes and arms and legs"

Regarding Dier, I think he's a better central defender than a central midfielder. Not that he should be playing central defence necessarily, but it says a lot that our defensive midfield options are so limited that he's one of the favourites for the role. I don't rate Henderson in the role particularly highly for that matter, either.

I agree that Alli should be worrying about his place. He's had another good season for Spurs, but not nearly as impressive as the previous year and, though he's fit and reasonably pacy and can get around the pitch, you'd never accuse him of being a grafter. In the absence of any really brilliant players, I think that's what Southgate is generally going to go for.

I also think that Alli's penchant for tricks and flicks probably doesn't work as well at international level where the defenders tend to be good enough not to be caught out.

I think Sterling will play because of his pace and strength and we just have to hope he somehow finds his shooting boots during the tournament. Oh, and stops attempting to chuck himself down in the box, not least because he's really not very good at it.

Quoted from diehardmariner

Impossible to say from friendly games if we're a force to be reckoned with or not.

But it's difficult to not hold some hope, if not for this tournament for future ones.   We appear to be getting better as we get more confident with this system and in a tournament once you're past the group stages, which you would expect England to achieve, anything can happen.  

The defence still worries me and I think we lack a real leader at the back.  The obvious one is Cahill but I'm not sure he will start.  There's an error in there, especially with Stones and Maguire bringing the ball out, but to an extent that's probably mitigated a bit by putting Walker in there for his pace to cover.

I'm pleased Southgate has decided he only wants one 'pivot' as he calls it, playing both Henderson and Dier is too negative, regardless of who the opposition is.   In that position it's a no brainer for me to go with Henderson.  The far better footballer, not really a fan of Dier at all if I'm honest.  

In midfield, last night was encouraging but presented more questions than answers for Southgate.  Both Rose and Alexander-Arnold arguably played their way into the starting eleven.  Loftus-Cheek should start for me, he's an absolute beast in there and should be the type of player England build themselves around.    It's a shame Oxlade-Chamberlian is injured as he would have been ideal in a high energy midfield but I wouldn't object to Lingard sitting in that role.  

Kane's a shoe-in up top which just leaves that support role.  I can't see beyond Sterling but Rashford certainly made a strong case for himself last night.  I think the one thing that will go against him more than anything will be that he can make an impact from the bench.  

Until he came on and set the second goal up, I would have thought Alli's the biggest name with his place under threat.  I don't really think he's done enough in an England shirt and whilst the lad clearly has a lot of talent, he doesn't fit in with the ethos of high pressing and a high tempo for me.   Not mobile enough to play the support striker role nor is he disciplined enough to play a bit deeper.  It'll be a bold move but I hope Southgate doesn't start him.

Working on the assumption of Southgate's preferred formation, I would go with the following line-up: Pickford; Walker, Stones, Maguire; Trippier, Rose, Henderson, Loftus-Cheek, Lingard; Sterling; Kane.

Everything you say is probably right, formations, choices etc.. None of that matters though if your players are like Donald Duck when they get the ball. They consistently are unaware of the options until they gat the ball and that is the first time they look up to see who to pass to or what to do. This is the Southgate version of the Euro passing game. They never move until they have the ball tied to their bootlace. Watch the Germans, the French, The Italians .... their midfielders are on the move almost before the ball arrives so they are hard to tackle and mark and they force defenders to come out and leave space behind.  Our lot are like statues. Watch Henderson (or Dyer or .... ) get the ball standing flat footed, walk a pace, stand still, look around then pass it square or back. How many times in a game does he do this? The only ones who don’t do it are Ali and Rashford when they just flick the ball on in hope.

70% possession and pretty passing in front of the opposition with only 3 shots in 45 minutes gets you nowhere in friendlies or competitions.

Rashford taking a lot of the headlines but I thought Delph was a huge plus point last night.

Particularly when he moved to play as the holding midfielder, where he played quicker and with more awareness than Henderson or Dier do in that role.

Thought despite his goal, Welbeck was terrible when he came on. He often does a decent job for England to be fair to him but several times he received the ball facing our goal, controlled it and carried on running towards our own goal before laying it back to someone, when there was no-one behind him and he could've just turned.

Quoted from TheRonRaffertyFanClub

70% possession and pretty passing in front of the opposition with only 3 shots in 45 minutes gets you nowhere in friendlies or competitions.

Yet that's surely a more successful model than less possession and lots of opportunities from the opposition side? Too much is made of stats like possession and efforts at goal.  The only stat that matters is the score.  

I understand what you're saying, we have a general lack of real quality.at the minute. But rather than try to shoe-horn a player into the side just so it looks like we've got that traditional creative force who pings passes and plays through balls (Shelvely, Wilshere etc.) Southgate has built a side that works to its strength, which as you say is pace and power.  It makes it more of a war of attrition but if we don't have the players to unlock defences with pinpoint passing, nor a defence that is particularly watertight then it makes perfect sense to hold onto the ball 40/50 yards out from the opposition goal until an opening presents itself.  

It's a bit like Paul Hurst of the international game!

Quoted from Tommy

Rashford taking a lot of the headlines but I thought Delph was a huge plus point last night.

Particularly when he moved to play as the holding midfielder, where he played quicker and with more awareness than Henderson or Dier do in that role.

Thought despite his goal, Welbeck was terrible when he came on. He often does a decent job for England to be fair to him but several times he received the ball facing our goal, controlled it and carried on running towards our own goal before laying it back to someone, when there was no-one behind him and he could've just turned.

Forgot about Delph to be honest, even though I was impressed with him last night.  I agree, he's far better as the holding midfielder but I can't see him starting games in that role.  I wouldn't want him as one of more advanced two either as I think we've got better options going forward.  In that holding role though he's ideal, as close as we've got to a Kante type figure.

Thing is with Welbeck he's just got that knack of scoring for England.  A bit like Darius Vassell was, probably not good enough for international football but he just comes alive in front of goal wearing that shirt.  Not sure who else could have been called up either really.

Quoted from diehardmariner

Yet that's surely a more successful model than less possession and lots of opportunities from the opposition side? Too much is made of stats like possession and efforts at goal.  The only stat that matters is the score.  

I understand what you're saying, we have a general lack of real quality.at the minute. But rather than try to shoe-horn a player into the side just so it looks like we've got that traditional creative force who pings passes and plays through balls (Shelvely, Wilshere etc.) Southgate has built a side that works to its strength, which as you say is pace and power.  It makes it more of a war of attrition but if we don't have the players to unlock defences with pinpoint passing, nor a defence that is particularly watertight then it makes perfect sense to hold onto the ball 40/50 yards out from the opposition goal until an opening presents itself.  

It's a bit like Paul Hurst of the international game!

Oh yes, that's fine - if you can do it. But we can't. That was my point.  The sides that can play like Southgate wants do more with the ball and they have players to do that. They probe and look for openings, we shove it through and hope for a break. As soon as the opposition cottons on they step up 10 - 15 yards and close down the midfield. Our control, vision and especially awareness is so poor that we just cannot cope with that either, the defence gets panicky and we revert to whack it types.

I don't like it but you are stuck for class players then cut your cloth accordingly. Make your first priority to run the other side ragged like Ireland did to Italy. Make them play an unnatural game.

I know friendlies are no guide and all that, but honestly, watching the game last night, we had pundits saying how well some players had played when I thought they would struggle to get into the Costa Rica team!

Welleck is the leading scorer in the current England squad.

Then again Jimmy Greaves is one of the all time leading scorers and Sir Alf Ramsey left him out when we won the World Cup.

What do we know eh?

Quoted from mimma

Welleck is the leading scorer in the current England squad.

Then again Jimmy Greaves is one of the all time leading scorers and Sir Alf Ramsey left him out when we won the World Cup.

What do we know eh?

The mark of a great manager.

Greavsie was one of my all time favourites but had been badly injured and there were no subs in those days, so playing him might have been a risk, especially if the game went to extra time as it did. The other thing was that Greavsie had not played all that well in the early games and he hadn't looked like getting goals either. That made the decision not quite so shocking to most of us at the time and certainly not as surprising as it has become to people since Jim kicked off a bit about it.