England v Scotland....Match Thread

I've noticed a fair few players in recent years being seen as being able to 'turn a game' for England. Joe Cole, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Deli Ali and now seemingly Jack Grealish. Personally I don't see being able to 'draw a foul' as being something massively beneficial especially when faced with a well disciplined side like Scotland tonight. He's no Matt Le Tissier.

Kane was embarrassingly bad. He's barely ever in the penalty area and there aren't many runs or much penetration from deeper. Going to find scoring goals very difficult if we continue like this.

Mason Mount was fooking dreadful. His corners were shocking.

I also don't know why we persist with two holding midfielders. Kante does more than both combined.

Quoted from heppy88

Where is the passion, grit, determination? Who is the motivator, Southgate, Kane? Kane frankly looked like he couldn’t be arsed and Southgate stood motionless the entire game. I’m sure people will say it’s worth it for the point, conceded none, but it’s tedious to watch and against Italy, France, Belgium I believe our arses will be well and truly kicked.

Southgate just said he took Kane off to give the team more energy. Captain, leader and main forward with no energy???????

Foden comes off, who had a decent game, and Grealish comes on. No improvement.

Southgate also said that if you're not going to win (were not good enough ) then make sure you don't lose!

I think England were very lucky and didn't seem comforable.

When you start a game with 6 defensive outfield players against a team 40 places below you in the world rankings, it shows there is something wrong with your whole setup. Especially when said defensive players don't exactly snuff out the opposition threat! If I was a Scot tonight, I'd be disappointed on missing out on 3 points as they were certainly there with a bit more luck.

Absolutely no point in putting Kane on the teamsheet with the way we're playing at the moment (and the way he is playing to a degree). Southgate has developed a style of play (such as it is) which doesn't play to any of the strengths of our best striker, so we'd be better off leaving him on the bench and putting someone else in the team who suits it better. One-twos from midfield and chips over the top to players running on is what we aim to do so stick Rashford or Sancho in the team instead and leave Kane on the bench as a plan B when we're chasing games.

In the last World Cup, we scored lots of goals from set piece, did little from open play but defended quite well in general. This tournament, we're not scoring goals from set pieces and are doing little from open play. Defended averagely tonight after replacing defensively capable full-backs with players less capable. Quality of most of the set pieces today was dismal, other than the one from which Stones missed his chance. Without a big improvement, we won't even be knocked out in the quarter-finals.

Lots of ability in this squad but no apparent plan as to how it should be used. Absolutely no chance of winning this tournament that I can see.

Quoted from LH

If you don’t like watching players a level or two below the level your team is at playing in an organised set up to frustrate then I’d highly recommend giving at least the next season at BP a pass.

Idiot

Quoted from mariner91

Kane was embarrassingly bad. He's barely ever in the penalty area and there aren't many runs or much penetration from deeper. Going to find scoring goals very difficult if we continue like this.

Must've touched the ball 20 times in 2 games.

As per Sunday - what a bag of shyte. I had a think about this today....here is my reaction to all the tournaments I can remember:

1982: Bewildered...too young
1986: Heart broken when Maradonna stole the game from England (even though with hind sight we kicked the crap out of him for 90 mins)
1990: Still burns
1996: I was at all the games - heartbroken when Gazza missed that tap in
1998: I was in France - distraught
2000: Too violent - avoided - England under Kegan were a joke - got over it
2002: Was at the tournament - England were terrible - Not that bothered when we lost
2004: Gutted - really thought England had a great team and unlucky against Portugal - went to all England games
2006: Avoided all England games - disgraceful Peak Gerrard and John Terry - happy to see them eliminated
2010: Didn't really care - accepted our fate
2012: Hilariously retarted football
2014: Hilariously retarded football
2016: Hilariously retarded football
2018: Not a bunch of male masturbators - mildly surprised - bit not heartbroken when eliminated (its the hope that kills you)
2020/21: Distanced sense of "why am I not that excited about this anymore"

Win tonight = we'll urine this tinpot tournament.

Draw tonight = angsty over analysis of everything.

Being generous, felt like a team that didn't want to lose (and be embarrassed); Being extra generous felt like a plan to navigate an easier route through the next few stages. Being honest, thought we just had a bad day at the office. Being critical, not good enough to beat the top teams in the competition.