That’ll ding dang do for us

comment by Darren The String Fletcher (U10026)
posted 10 hours, 46 minutes ago
We’re talking about international football not club football.
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Do... Do you think full backs aren't allowed to invert in international football...?

Thing is he’s already fallen into that trap with who he’s selected for the squad (well, who he’s left out) and I get why some people think it has but I’d argue it hasn’t worked doing it how he has been doing it either.

It’s not that they aren’t allowed, it’s that nobody will use it as an effective tactic.

comment by meltonblue (U10617)
posted 22 minutes ago
Thing is he’s already fallen into that trap with who he’s selected for the squad (well, who he’s left out) and I get why some people think it has but I’d argue it hasn’t worked doing it how he has been doing it either.
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To an extent, yes. Guess we’ll have to wait and see if he changes things that are necessary.

Whilst we looked okay defensively, we appeared limp and lacked aggression especially in the second half.

I am sorry but I do not see Foden as a quality international player. At City they play a baiting game, with passing to death rituals to tire opponents out. This requires months and years of indoctrination into Pep’s style of play with little or no deviation.
Take a player out of that environment and then ask them to play a completely different style with players you play with infrequently is a stretch.
Look at Walker, great speed style but watch how many of his passes are either backwards or sideways. Why does he not use his speed to take on defenders?
We used to call Ray Wilkins “The Crab” because of his reluctance to play any passes forward.

Kane had a very quiet game, but is it any surprise really? He has obviously been told to stay up top to allow Bellingham freedom of the pitch. However, if you restrict your top scorer to this then you need to supply the service accordingly, which England did not do.
We need more energy and Bellingham cannot do it all on his own.
I liked Bowen when he came on, and I would have brought Gordon on as well in the second half and possibly either Toney or Watkins. Eze is another potential game changer too.

We have to lose this mentality of just hanging on to what we have got and go to close the game out.

comment by Darren The String Fletcher (U10026)
posted 2 hours, 4 minutes ago
It’s not that they aren’t allowed, it’s that nobody will use it as an effective tactic.
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Why not?

Because it requires a lot of work on the training pitch that teams don’t get at international level. Which is why they don’t use it.

Disagree strongly with that. It's not a complicated instruction. No more difficult than what England did on Sunday, which was having Walker invert to RCB and Trippier basically playing as a left winger. We're not talking about intricate interplay or passing patterns here, it's just a basic positional shift when in possession.

And if Trippier found it too complicated, Southgate could just ask Gomez to invert from LB considering he's done that for Liverpool this season too.

It really is, because it relies on the principles of positional play. It would leave England massively exposed in the wide areas in defensive transition, which wasn’t the case with how we set up against Serbia. Gomez wasn’t doing this for Liverpool it was Trent that was stepping into the midfield, and it left them hugely exposed in the wide channels defensively this season. City don’t even bother using it that much nowadays, and that’s with the best squad in England at Pep Guardiola.

You can disagree if you like, but there’s a reason international coaches have not looked to replicate this set up, it’s too risky for tournament football.

Rewatched most of the game earlier today, wouldn’t be surprised if Southgate doesn’t make any changes or if he does they’re minimal. The first half performance was pretty good, it was decision making that let us down. Could and should have had half a dozen very very good chances.