Well that's that!

[Northstandboy]

Great start, scoring early, we played some nice football and hit the post, but that was that.

Second half we did an OUFC and fell asleep and conceded, then lost confidence. Rashford looked shattered 2 mins after he come on.

On that game, we didn't deserve to get to a final. 1 shot on target is nowhere near good enough.

Bring on the Euros!

 

[Big Ronaldo]

Alli, Sterling, Young, and Henderson all looked completely shattered after half-time. Croatia were the ones who looked the fittest. I didn’t think that we would be so ragged. But there ya go.
Still think that Alli was never fit for this game. Loftus cheek should have come in.

 

[tonto]

Agree about loftus cheek should have replaced alli. Still think we should give saturdays match a right go and us supporters get behind whatever team gareth puts out there.

 

[LondonRoader]

Great start, scoring early, we played some nice football and hit the post, but that was that.

Second half we did an OUFC and fell asleep and conceded, then lost confidence. Rashford looked shattered 2 mins after he come on.

On that game, we didn't deserve to get to a final. 1 shot on target is nowhere near good enough.

Bring on the Euros!

I agree, we played to a system that suited our best 11/12 players. Pretty inflexible tactics and personnel changes when Croatia put us under the cosh 2nd half, some players were out on their feet and the way they passed the ball around made us use a lot of energy, when we got the ball our ball retention was poor and gave it back to them too quick.
The team exceeded expectations, quite a weak inexperienced squad did a fantastic job of giving the country some hope, I hope they can now raise their game again and win Saturday to give the creditability their efforts deserve.

 

[uptheus]

Alli, Sterling, Young, and Henderson all looked completely shattered after half-time. Croatia were the ones who looked the fittest. I didn’t think that we would be so ragged. But there ya go.
Still think that Alli was never fit for this game. Loftus cheek should have come in.

Alli hasn’t been fit for 2 or 3 games. Kane looked injure too.

I think some fans got ahead of themselves, but that team was never good enough, especially our midfield. So having said that they exceeded my expectations.

Trippier was our best player.

 

[horseman]

we could have been 2 or 3 up by half time, they had a lot of the ball 2nd half but also created very little

The only difference between the sides was they had a poacher that reacted quickest to a miss directed header from one of theirs whilst our best striker missed a 1 on 1 with their keeper then hit the post from the follow up.

 

[uptheus]

we could have been 2 or 3 up by half time, they had a lot of the ball 2nd half but also created very little

The only difference between the sides was they had a poacher that reacted quickest to a miss directed header from one of theirs whilst our best striker missed a 1 on 1 with their keeper then hit the post from the follow up.

It’s generally fine margins, but their quality, decision making and attempts on target was a bit better than ours. They’ve hit the post, Pickford’s made some great saves and if their player squared it instead of shooting when they were 2-1 up it would truly have been game over. The better side won on the night.

If only Kane had scored ??

 

[horseman]

It’s generally fine margins, but their quality, decision making and attempts on target was a bit better than ours. They’ve hit the post, Pickford’s made some great saves and if their player squared it instead of shooting when they were 2-1 up it would truly have been game over. The better side won on the night.

If only Kane had scored ??

But theirs were towards the end of the game if we had taken our chances first half we would have been out of sight no?
let's not forget stones header cleared off the line also
cannot agree they were the better side, they were awful first half, they just edged it by that fine margin i mentioned above.

 

[tonyw]

Croatia had twice as many attempts at goal than we did, hitting the target much more often; they forced twice as many corners and had 56% possession.

Yes, we played well in the first half - but they were comfortably the better side from the 45th minute onwards. Which was very disappointing.

 

[ZeroTheHero]

I think if there was a (constructive?) criticism of the England team that would stand out for me is that the supply to the strikers in open play was very poor, leading to very few effective shots on target.

 

[dabigfella]

Sadly the side is nowhere near as good as was being made out. We played six matches in Russia. Two against very inferior sides (which we won) one against an average side (which we struggled to a draw) and three against good sides (we lost all three). Of the 11(?) goals we scored only 3(?) were from open play. The rest from set pieces.
Still, for a while there was a distinctly feel good factor around.


The main real benefit was that the manager got the very best out of what he had available. He has all my admiration for it.

 

[Concretebob]

Sadly the side is nowhere near as good as was being made out. We played six matches in Russia. Two against very inferior sides (which we won) one against an average side (which we struggled to a draw) and three against good sides (we lost all three). Of the 11(?) goals we scored only 3(?) were from open play. The rest from set pieces.
Still, for a while there was a distinctly feel good factor around.


The main real benefit was that the manager got the very best out of what he had available. He has all my admiration for it.

Two of those defeats were in effective dead rubbers. The other was in extra time. Still impressive to get to a semi final and for it to go to extra time, remember this side wasn't expected to get anywhere. England should really be very exciting to watch in the next couple of tournaments, on paper of course.

Much rather have this group of (relatively) down to earth players than the WAG towing lot in 2006.

 

[Winchesterox]

Two of those defeats were in effective dead rubbers. The other was in extra time. Still impressive to get to a semi final and for it to go to extra time, remember this side wasn't expected to get anywhere. England should really be very exciting to watch in the next couple of tournaments, on paper of course.

Much rather have this group of (relatively) down to earth players than the WAG towing lot in 2006.

Two of the defeats were dead rubbers? Granted the first Belgium game was a B team lottery game, but today's Belgium game could have got them a bronze medal or something. Agree though that it was impressive to get to the semi-final and take it to ET.

Hope Croatia nick it tomorrow.

 

[Concretebob]

Two of the defeats were dead rubbers? Granted the first Belgium game was a B team lottery game, but today's Belgium game could have got them a bronze medal or something. Agree though that it was impressive to get to the semi-final and take it to ET.

Hope Croatia nick it tomorrow.

Who wants to play in a third place play off? Just let the players go home to their families.

 

[Gary Baldi]

England lack a presence in central midfield and a work ethic. We are slower than a Pep Clotet team in terms of passing and moving, and getting back, the urgency just is not there. The team has a ton of potential, but the next Euros and WC won't fall as this one did. We need to get a lot better

 

[tonto]

Couldnt understand why vardy and welbeck didnt get a chance today. Kane and sterling looked exhausted.

 

[Big Ronaldo]

One rampaging, ball carrying midfielder in the Gazza mould. One proper, organising centre-half, one tricky, aggressive striker and England are just about sorted.
I hope that these players come through, but, even if they are out there, will they get the chance to develop in the premiership?
In all likelihood, these players will probably cut their teeth in the championship for now so that is where we should expect to see them coming through.

 

[Marked Ox]

One rampaging, ball carrying midfielder in the Gazza mould. One proper, organising centre-half, one tricky, aggressive striker and England are just about sorted.
I hope that these players come through, but, even if they are out there, will they get the chance to develop in the premiership?
In all likelihood, these players will probably cut their teeth in the championship for now so that is where we should expect to see them coming through.

Bundesliga clubs have been buying young English players with real potential from the big Premier Lg sides Academies for a little while. The main example I can think of is Jadon Sancho who moved from Man City (because of a lack of opportunity) to Borussia Dortmund (for £7m iirc), and last season played 12 times in the Bundesliga. He was one of the stars in the u17 England team that were European Championship finalists and World Cup Champions.

There are others as well but I can't remember their names.

 

[Gary Baldi]

One lad moved to RB Leipzig from a premier league club recently. Clearly the young players are finally realising that game time is the only way to maximise your career - who'd have thought it?

 

[Corporate_Clive]

Alli, Sterling, Young, and Henderson all looked completely shattered after half-time. Croatia were the ones who looked the fittest. I didn’t think that we would be so ragged. But there ya go.
Still think that Alli was never fit for this game. Loftus cheek should have come in.

No-winter break?