Czech Republic v England

We (England) can seal qualification to Euro 2020 with a victory over the Czech Republic tonight.


Team to play Czech Republic: Pickford, Trippier, Keane, Maguire, Rose, Rice, Henderson, Mount, Sterling, Sancho, Kane

Subs: Pope, Alexander-Arnold, Chilwell, Gomez, Mings, Timori, Winks, Barkley, Rashford, D.Henderson, Abraham.

Come on ENGLAND  

Would liked to see have seen Chilwell instead of Rose but should be a routine win regardless

Penalty England  

Kane scores

Quoted from Abdul19

Would liked to see have seen Chilwell instead of Rose but should be a routine win regardless

Not on this showing so far.

Gosh, this is tedious,

As well researched a prediction as my prediction league ones  

England look she...ite so far, really not impressed

And this is international/ premiership football, I've seen more excitement whatching two hedgehogs race across my back lawn.

Quoted from Northbank Mariner

England look she...ite so far, really not impressed

You have a Sunni outlook

Quoted from Gaffer58

And this is international/ premiership football, I've seen more excitement whatching two hedgehogs race across my back lawn.

I would happily watch that!

Quoted from KingstonMariner

I would happily watch that!

Could be a spiky affair!!

On that first half showing we won’t be winning anything in the foreseeable future ,even if we improve in the second half Southgate doesn’t convince me one bit

England are 12-1 to win Euro 2020  For those of you who don't understand betting... If you bet £100, you will lose £100..

Quoted from Bigdog

England are 12-1 to win Euro 2020  For those of you who don't understand betting... If you bet £100, you will lose £100!

Like it  

I might put 50p on England though  

Noticed a Town flag behind the goal, hope they get back in time for Stevanage,

England got lucky in the World Cup with other strong nations having an exceptionally poor tournament. We were always going to have a hangover of sorts because we overachieved. While I’m on a rant ‘the three lions’ is the worst nickname in international football.

We play with 2 defensive midfielders. We must fear being attacked more than our ability to go forward and score goals.  This is strange as we cannot defend anyway (certainly not tonight) and yet we are good moving forward at pace, creating chances and scoring.

Its all going to be good, Rashford has come on.

This Czech team could be a team of football lookalikes put together by Paddy Power for all I know. ‘David Luiz‘ just won a corner and I’m sure I just saw ‘Martin Skrtel’.

2-1 to the Czech Republic   ....Fenty out.

The Czechs were shite at Wemberlee but fair play, they deserve that

Czechs outplayed up and England deserved to lose, spent the whole first half being negative, second half they were better but not much, but you can't spend the whole game defending like that and not expect to lose.

Didn't look interested or committed in the slightest. Outplayed by a hard working team that defended well and took their chances. It was depressing watching players stand there when we had throw ins. No movement, no desire.

It’s the first really poor performance for quite a while , calm down

So the Sun headline will be Bohemian Crapsody

No great surprise that a defence comprised mostly of mid to low table Premiership players should struggle a bit. That said, Rice might as well have not been playing and Henderson wasn't much better. If you've got two defensive midfielders on the pitch, you'd sort of hope they would do a bit more defending. Central midfield definitely still our main weakness. Just no balance there.

Surprised it has been 10 years since we last lost a qualifier because I remember some really bad performances (worse than tonight) during that time. We just didn't take any of the few other chances we created when in past qualifiers we've nicked one.

Southgate fanny’s around with the defence game in game out keeps the front 3 relatively stable so (other than tonight) we score a few but leak more.

He’s an intelligent bloke so I can’t understand why he picks Keane who for club and country looks nothing like international class.

Keane is an old fashioned centre half but that's not really enough in the present day. Reminds me of a slightly sub-par Cahill. Both looked very awkward when they had the ball at their feet.

Maguire was a bit below the required level last night as well. His big money move certainly hasn't improved his game and Rose was out of sorts as well. Real issues in defence at present.

That said, Southgate shouldn't have played around with the formation and it would have been much better with Barkley starting as one of the middle two.

Got to be said, Sancho has ability, but he struck me as a bit lightweight and, well, lazy, last night.

That was hard work, watching that last night!

Definitely need to get that defence sorted. A shame Ludvig isn't English!  

Having seen enough decent England performances over the last 18 months I am going to cut them some slack and put it down to 'an off day'. I know the pundits referred to this but the tempo was too slow. Easy options were taken rather than risking passes which would have broken through their midfield. I genuinely think Maddison is the real deal and think he will add to the team.

How old is Jimmy now?

Keane ball watching on both goals, the second goal the striker hardly moved yet Keane ran away from him and left him in acres of space. If its clever movement from a striker to lose the defender then fair enough but it was hardly that.

Quoted from supertown

It’s the first really poor performance for quite a while , calm down

Maybe the first “really” poor one but not the first poor one. The same pattern over again. Plan A works for 10 minutes and gets a goal. The athletes and the scurriers up front look dangerous. Opposition susses out the tactic and marks up putting pressure on England midfield and defence. No answer, no partnerships, no cohesion, no defensive tactics, no basic marking, no distribution. Any international coach worth his salt who has watched England for the last 12 months knows how to win and the England coach doesn’t.

Our problems last night came from out wide. Our full backs were poor and had no cover in front of them. This meant that the centre halves were pulled out wide. Every attack came from out wide.

We have the best full back in Europe in Alexander Trent Arnold but pick Rose ahead of him (unless he was injured?).

Echoes of Jolleys tactics in not using or defending the wings?

To be fair that does sound more like a name

Quoted from mimma

Our problems last night came from out wide. Our full backs were poor and had no cover in front of them. This meant that the centre halves were pulled out wide. Every attack came from out wide.

We have the best full back in Europe in Alexander Trent Arnold but pick Rose ahead of him (unless he was injured?).

Echoes of Jolleys tactics in not using or defending the wings?

Trent Alexander-Arnold is a right-back, whereas Rose is a left-back?

We had no movement either.  This makes life harder for ourselves.  Maybe the team were too complacent and with the players selected, could not raise their game?

The majority of the players selected are either out of form or out of favour with their club sides. Why not pick players in form.
As soon as I saw both Henderson & Rice selected I new it would be a waste of time watching

I think Rice ('Up the R.A.!') looks like he could potentially be a good defensive midfielder but his touch and passing was well below-par last night. Same can be said for most of our defensive players in fact.

Sorry for confusing left and right back!

Point is Rose is struggling in a poor Spurs side but still makes the England squad. I stand by what I say about Trent Alexander Arnold.  He's played in pressure matches all season and was unlucky not to get a premier winner's medal, played in two Champuons League finals, yet isn't a regular for England. Keane struggles at centre half, ok in the league, but not an international IMHO.