England v Sweden Match Thread

England are unchanged from the side that started against Colombia last time out.

Starting XI: Pickford; Walker, Stones, Maguire; Trippier, Henderson, Lingard, Alli, Young; Sterling, Kane

Would have dropped Sterling and Alli myself. But I am not a professional manager so what do I know? Come on boys 🦁🦁🦁

Nerves kicking in, beer kicking in, voice gone already. Not felt like this since 15th May 2016.

Quoted from GtfcGarner

Would have dropped Sterling and Alli myself. But I am not a professional manager so what do I know? Come on boys 🦁🦁🦁

They are Southgate's boys clearly. He'll never drop them even if they have both been pretty ineffective in every game.

Shall we get all the rubbish out of the way early?
Henderson, dier, Sterling, Young, walker and stones are all rubbish, AND we can’t score from open play
Now come on England, mash the turnips

Just for goodness sake play positive attacking football. Stop doing these idiotic back passes and sideways one twos. Go forwards and not back.

I'm hiding behind the settee.....anyone scored yet.

Get in.......it's coming home

Set piece kings!

GTFI

What a header from Harry Maguire

Always liked the ex Mudrat 😉

Sweden are rubbish.

Sterling is so excrement. Missed two one on ones with their keeper.

Can't believe we are playing this lot for a place in the world cup semis. Southgate has the Midas touch.

Love the scenes from around the country when we scored....a lot of beer was lost.

At least sterling puts himself in the position to intercourse up, Alli might as well not be on the pitch. That aside, we look solid and capable of another goal.

Sterling been the best of the attacking players so far, great movement and pace. Shame he coukdnt finish his clear chance

Quoted from Cloudy

Sterling been the best of the attacking players so far, great movement and pace. Shame he coukdnt finish his clear chance

Couldn't agree more

Lazio........ 2-0  

To coin a phrase, just need good game management for these latter stages and then semi finals it is

Two good goals & some good defending.....we’re on our way, we’re on our way! 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿

Bloody hell......we could win the whole thing now......nose bleed coming on.

Oi oi!

Absolutely bloody marvelous.

And before that old girl private comes on moaning again - do us all a favour and stick your head in the oven and turn the gas on.

Quoted from promotion plaice

Love the scenes from around the country when we scored....a lot of beer was lost.

Except in Leeds. Tight-fisted buggers  

Quoted from realist

Absolutely bloody marvelous.

And before that old girl private comes on moaning again - do us all a favour and stick your head in the oven and turn the gas on.

Cannot think who you mean Realist  

Fantastic! Arrived home from my holibobs just in time to see England win comfortably. Think they have already surpassed most people's expectations and are now in a winnable semi final. Whatever they do from here, they have restored a bit of faith in the national side. We have waited patiently for something to get behind.

Weeks of sunshine and England doing well at a tournament. The world has gone mad.  

Hi Ginny, I'm not afraid to say they've exceeded my expectations by a long chalk.

I think Les has already pointed this out, but the scary fact is it's longer between now and 1990 than 1990 and 1966.

I can see us making the final, though Croatia are a dangerous side*, but I can't see beyond France and Belgium holding the trophy at the moment.

* amazing achievement for such a small population to get to a second semi-final.

Agreed KM. Croatia have some wonderful players, but i think we may have a little bit too much energy for them. Will be a good game with two teams trying to play football and score goals. Also feel, like you, that the tournament winner will come from the other semi, but you just never know.....

Aye, You never know.

Just remember, if it had all gone the way we all expected, rather than the way it has gone, we would have been playing Germany and not Sweden.

That's the beauty of football.

The amazing thing is that we've not really got that many players performing really well - among the attackers, at least. Midfield and defence are doing well.

Kane has looked good, taken his chances, retained possession and won free-kicks very well, but you can't really say that Sterling, Alli, Vardy or Rashford has really done anything too threatening when they've played other than against Panama who were really poor. Sterling has occupied the opposition defenders without ever looking like he was going to score, Alli finally did something with his goal but has been terrible (looking nowhere near fitness) except for that.

Obviously, the draw has been incredibly kind to us, but I still can't quite believe that this team is on the brink of a World Cup Final. I think we'll need to show a lot more in attack in the next two games to have a chance to win.

Playing in the role he is, goals are a big factor.  I get that.

But if Sterling (and I appreciate the big IF here) had put a few of his chances away this tournament we would be all be raving about how well he's played and how good he is.  He was absolutely top drawer on Saturday, until it came to his finishing.  His movement was a joy to watch, a classic example to any young lad on how to find space, how to draw defenders out and how to create space for others.

I don't really agree that the draw has been kind either.  We haven't met any big names because they don't deserve to have progressed.  It's odd because so many big name sides have fallen by the wayside at the same time.  This isn't coincidence.  

Germany - complacent and full of infighting.  Low tried to mix things up last year at the Confederations with a veiled threat to make wholesale changes.  He got shot down for that and had to revert to the old guard who let him down badly.
Spain - Awful.  Absolutely awful. Imploded from within.  Too many similar types in the squad, a manager/coach who didn't know how to open games up and they got what they deserved.
Argentina - Overhyped once again.  Controlled by one player who wants the whole team to operate to what suits him best, once again it resulted in failure.
Portugal - See Argentina but Ronaldo's slightly better at that role than Messi, i.e will at least grab the game by scruff when needed.
Brazil - See Argentina but add rolling about in theatrics for Neymar.

For the supposed easier side of the draw, Columbia are no pushovers and we made hard work of them.  Sweden were a side that had only previously conceded to the much feted Germany (when inviting pressure needlessly against ten men), yet we cut them open with relative ease on Saturday.  

Croatia are the only side I've seen in a major tournament who have got worse as the tournament goes on.  Denmark and Russia are both quite average sides yet they required penalties to beat both.  Modric is a wonderful player but he's one man.  They rely heavily on him and as both Russia and Denmark proved, you can shut him out.  Neither Belgium or France bother me either.  Belgium have the players that stand out but that defence looks sluggish, our movement would cause them no end of problems.  Same really for France, only impressed with them against a very poor Argentina (who still managed to score 3).

What England have is a togetherness, a shared objective and an acceptance that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.   In my opinion we have a single world class player in Harry Kane.  Head and shoulders above every other centre forward in the world at the minute.  But he's not like Messi, Ronaldo, Neymar etc. as he is prepared to be part of a team, which is why he's such a good choice as captain.    After Kane we've a lot of very good, but very disciplined and very hard-working players.  Southgate is lucky to a degree that he's been afforded those players but he also deserves credit for picking them, finding a system that works and getting those players to buy into what he's doing.

Whatever happens on Wednesday and then hopefully on Sunday, this England side is something to be proud of.  More importantly the future looks very bright.

For me Sterling lacks judgement. Some great runs but he more often than not he makes the wrong choice whether to go left or right (if there's a blind alley he'll take it), or whether to pass the ball or go for it himself. God knows how he is so successful with Man City with the options they must have.

I suppose a lot of top level football is about making the right decision at the right time. On Saturday, he made the right decision to try and round the keeper (who pulled off a great save to tip it away from him) but then the wrong decision in dallying on the second ball and attempting a shot when a pass to Kane or Alli at the back post would have led to a great chance. End result, nothing.

Problem is, his lack of goals and poor finishing at international level remains a real problem for us and could prove to be the difference between reaching a World Cup Final or not or even lifting the trophy or not. His goal return for a forward (or even a winger) is just dismal.

Edit:  Same goes for Alli as well when playing for England. Between the two of them, it's 5 goals in 70 caps which is pretty terrible for such attacking players who score for fun at their clubs. The goalscoring can't fall onto the shoulders of Kane alone because he's not always going to be able to do it himself.

I notice that the tv pundits all say how much running and making space Sterling does, this is fine but as I think it is quite obvious now that he is not a natural finisher, I even think he does not always have a good first touch, so if we're going to have a runner up front who cannot score it way as well be Brendon Foster, I know he's old now but I mean when he was 25.

Quoted from Gaffer58

I notice that the tv pundits all say how much running and making space Sterling does, this is fine but as I think it is quite obvious now that he is not a natural finisher, I even think he does not always have a good first touch, so if we're going to have a runner up front who cannot score it way as well be Brendon Foster, I know he's old now but I mean when he was 25.

First touch? Watch the highlights again and check out the first touch when Henderson plays the ball over the top for him. Brings it down with a great touch from a long looping and curling ball over the top coming out the sky.

I assume Sterling's position is as a striker, I do not know the exact figures so hopefully someone can put up his games played, starting and as a sub, goals scored and assists, I think the figures will back up my comments.

Noone's questioned your comments about his finishing, I just responded to the comment about his first touch, which I don't think can be questioned. Think that's just looking for things to hammer him for that don't exist.

Having a player who can get the opposition defenders panicking and backing off is a great asset at this level of football. He can single handedly drag us 30 yards further up the pitch, which gives the opportunity for other players to score.

Pep Guardiola, Gareth Southgate, David Beckham and Gary Neville all think he creates space for others, makes things happen and contributes strongly. But then Gaffer58, my father-in-law (who prefers Rugby) and some male private in the pub on Saturday night who thought Modric was playing for Russia think he's excrement so I just don't know who to listen to.

If Sterling was playing for Town with his goal scoring record everyone would be shouting for him to be dropped, international level not club, we had enough strikers last season who couldn't score, all the experts quote his running and pulling players out of position, so as I've mentioned in an earlier message play a marathon runner who can run for 90 minutes. Also I noticed in the match stats for the Sweden game there was only Maguire and Walker who actually covered fewer kilometres than Sterling.

Why even criticise at all.  I just don't get it, semi finals of the WC and someones not happy.    They have far exceeded my expectations (getting out the group stage).  I can see Sterling scoring the winner in the semi's maybe even in the final.  

Quoted from Gaffer58

all the experts quote his running and pulling players out of position, so as I've mentioned in an earlier message play a marathon runner who can run for 90 minutes. Also I noticed in the match stats for the Sweden game there was only Maguire and Walker who actually covered fewer kilometres than Sterling.

Clever runs that pull opponents out of position aren't just running around aimlessly!

I hope Sterling gets the winner on Wednesday, then I will realise I know nothing about football.

Quoted from Meza

Why even criticise at all.

Erm, because it's a discussion forum so discussion about both the good and bad is the whole point of posting here?

It's amazing to me that people are getting precious about discussion of the pluses and minuses of some of our players when, despite reaching a semi-final, we've hardly set the tournament on fire. Most of our goals have come from set pieces/penalties and we've hardly peppered the opposition goal.

We're a capable enough side which is well-organised, well-prepared and playing competently, but I don't think we've played particularly well much of the time and think some of the attacking players are capable of a lot more. I want to see us win, regardless of how it happens, but it would be nice to see a bit more of a threat from open play with us turning more of our breaks into good goalscoring opportunities.

Sterling is an enigma for me. He does move well, gets himself in some great positions but to often there is no end product (for City as well as England, he just gets more opportunities for City). Some say he doesn't have first touch but his chance against Sweden required an excellent touch to control the ball coming over the shoulder but his second touch was awful. Even if the keep hadn't touched it I think the ball would have gone too wide for him to score. That is Sterling, even with a good first touch he never quite looks in control of the ball.

Sweden was his best game, once we'd taken the lead, I though against Columbia most of our attacks broke down on him. He is the type of player who is obviously better facing the goal rather than his back to it.

He is not as good as some are making out IMO but neither is he as bad as some of the over the top criticism he gets. He probably deserves to be the England setup because we have nobody better there atm. I don't think Rashford has the same game although he looks a better finisher.

At the end of the day we are in a semi-final so it's not as if we can be carrying any passengers. All the players have contributed positively so far. So not sure why people need to single out a single player, as frustrating as he can be at times.

Quoted from Gaffer58

If Sterling was playing for Town with his goal scoring record everyone would be shouting for him to be dropped, international level not club, we had enough strikers last season who couldn't score, all the experts quote his running and pulling players out of position, so as I've mentioned in an earlier message play a marathon runner who can run for 90 minutes. Also I noticed in the match stats for the Sweden game there was only Maguire and Walker who actually covered fewer kilometres than Sterling.

A marathon runner would spend the game running at a relatively similar pace, in a straight line.   Sterling comes short, goes long, drops out wide, goes beyond the striker, drops in front of the striker....all at varying paces and at different angles.

His finishing, for England, is disappointing.  But his movement is not.

I like Sterling, I really don't get the hammering of him.  The lad is clearly trying and just needs a bit of luck.  The question I would ask is who would you play instead of him?  Vardy can't play that role.  Alli is already playing deeper and (in my opinion) isn't effective as a No 10. for England.  Rashford, like Vardy, isn't that type of player.  This system is working with the players we've got in, why on earth anyone would want to change it I can't fathom.

I'd certainly keep Sterling in the team for his nuisance factor alone. He's very quick and surprisingly strong for somebody with a relatively slight frame and defenders won't like playing against him. He needs to learn to try and stay on his feet in the box, however, because he's apt to go down too easily and has a reputation for it already. If he tries to stay on his feet he'll win more penalties as defenders make more efforts to tackle him. Rashford is potentially a much more threatening player with the ball at his feet but he blows hot and cold and presently isn't capable of holding up and linking play in the way that Sterling can.

On the other hand, I wouldn't have Alli in the team given his form for England when he's rarely had a good game and certainly never reproduces his Spurs form. He got the goal the other day but has been a passenger up to that point this tournament and Loftus-Cheek has shown me he has more to offer at the moment. He also retains possession much better than Alli who attempts to flick the ball on too quickly and gives away possession much too often at international level.

Sterling has always been picked by all his different
managers with England, Man City and Liverpool.

Oliver Kay,   Chief Football writer for the Times, wrote a 2 page article yesterday strongly supporting Sterling.  He highlighted 3 moments of class against Sweden in the 29th min, 45th min and 88th min.

“Energetic Sterling crucial for England”.  Sterling had the most touches in the opposition box (11)and the most sprints (46).  

I think that England lack some creativity in midfield.  Sterling makes up for that for the team with his pace, runs, movement and presence in frightening defenders.  He creates space and opportunities for others - such as Kane.