Best team on the night won. Good fair game and OK ref so no excuses. Lots of positives to take from this tournament and this young team, but imo what caught up with us eventually was our inability to create and score from open Play.
Kind of pissing me off everyone saying they have room to grow, we can move on from this and better for it, they are young and will learn....
Make no mistake no matter how much they learned they will never get a chance like that again. It opened up - and we will have to get better as we won’t have a run to a Final ever again like it
The big winners were always going to be the team that came out the strong side of the bracket. This was great opportunity but reality is we are still a fair way from being a finished article
Probably not got much more to add than others have already said. Immensely proud and privileged to have seen that team give their all and although I would’ve dearly loved for us to get to the final, it was a step too far. Will admit to having a few tears in my eyes when that final whistle blew. First time I’ve been teary over a football game since the play off final in 98.
I was hanging on by a thread over my relationship with England given how hard it’s been to watch them over the last 10 years, and that is where I say hats off to any of you who have stuck with them through thick and thin. I’ve probably drifted off quite drastically in recent years, and it’s taken this tournament to restore my pride. On the whole I love what’s it’s done for the country over the last 3 weeks. The wins against Colombia and Sweden and the feeling after was quality.
That team and Southgate deserve a tremendous amount of admiration and respect. Honest, worked hard, played for one another and played for their country. Top, top class and I thank them for their efforts
Re: the game. We just don’t have players on the ball with the quality of Modric and Rakatic and overall, Croatia deserve to go through. I don’t quite know why we stopped putting them under the pressure in the second half in the same way we did the first half. We got sloppier in possession and yes, we did rue the missed chances in the first half. Croatia really move the ball well, and that second goal was so hard to concede.
Kind of pissing me off everyone saying they have room to grow, we can move on from this and better for it, they are young and will learn....
Make no mistake no matter how much they learned they will never get a chance like that again. It opened up - and we will have to get better as we won’t have a run to a Final ever again like it
I agree, but my counter to this is that hopefully with players improvement and some of the young, youth tournament winning players coming in, England will be able to compete with the better sides they'll inevitably need to beat in the future.
Kind of pissing me off everyone saying they have room to grow, we can move on from this and better for it, they are young and will learn....
Make no mistake no matter how much they learned they will never get a chance like that again. It opened up - and we will have to get better as we won’t have a run to a Final ever again like it
The big winners were always going to be the team that came out the strong side of the bracket. This was great opportunity but reality is we are still a fair way from being a finished article
I think Gareth needed to make some tactical changes in that second half. If the players lack the experience to push out past the press then we probably should have altered the formation and pushed players out wide to pin back their full backs who were driving the ball into our box. We had men spare in our back three but deep crosses were being played into the gaps and causing chaos. We could have used Sterling and Lingard to go wide as we weren't getting anywhere with two up top. Might have involved subbing one of the centre halves for Dier to close off Modric and Rakitic but if you take those rampaging full backs out of the equation for Croatia they suddenly become quite ordinary again. Just a reminder for us that Southgate will also grow in experience as much as the players will
Kind of pissing me off everyone saying they have room to grow, we can move on from this and better for it, they are young and will learn....
Make no mistake no matter how much they learned they will never get a chance like that again. It opened up - and we will have to get better as we won’t have a run to a Final ever again like it
The big winners were always going to be the team that came out the strong side of the bracket. This was great opportunity but reality is we are still a fair way from being a finished article
The Frogs are going to have their hands full with Croatia they have that never quit attitude right now.Hope they stuff them might make me feel better we lost out to the best team.
I think Gareth needed to make some tactical changes in that second half. If the players lack the experience to push out past the press then we probably should have altered the formation and pushed players out wide to pin back their full backs who were driving the ball into our box. We had men spare in our back three but deep crosses were being played into the gaps and causing chaos. We could have used Sterling and Lingard to go wide as we weren't getting anywhere with two up top. Might have involved subbing one of the centre halves for Dier to close off Modric and Rakitic but if you take those rampaging full backs out of the equation for Croatia they suddenly become quite ordinary again. Just a reminder for us that Southgate will also grow in experience as much as the players will
Agree with all of this. Said earlier I thought bringing off Sterling was the wrong decision. But he's done very well with this group, and unlike a lot of managers, I have faith in Southgate to improve as he gets older.
Best team on the night won. Good fair game and OK ref so no excuses. Lots of positives to take from this tournament and this young team, but imo what caught up with us eventually was our inability to create and score from open Play.
Oh but Sterling really scares defences with his running.....
What a wasted opportunity, the early goal was in many ways the worst thing that could have happened to us.
Rather than playing cool headed football as we had done against Sweden we reverted to survival mode hoofball and lost our thread completely.
Croatia got lucky from one long ball to equalise and we never really looked like getting our football back on track and getting our platform back.
Dreadful defensive errors from Stones and Walker for the goals but the real issue was nobody in the middle of the park urging us to get it down and play rather than hoofing it.
Still, we did way better than expected but Croatia are not a great side by any means and we blew a golden chance.
Best team on the night won. Good fair game and OK ref so no excuses. Lots of positives to take from this tournament and this young team, but imo what caught up with us eventually was our inability to create and score from open Play.
Oh but Sterling really scares defences with his running.....
It will be interesting to see how many tabloids manage to make him the scapegoat.
After all, the only team we beat in normal time in that tournament was Egypt.
I still don't understand how people communicated before the internet.
Those were the days, relying on landlines and phone boxes and word of mouth. Kids these days don’t know they’re born.......
Yes but what did you do with all your free time while you waited for your carrier pigeons to deliver their messages? Were you just...alone with your thoughts?
I've long been out of love with the England team tbh but the squad Southgate has pulled together and the way he had us playing for periods across the tournament has been massively encouraging. The team have represented us brilliantly, there's been nothing to complain about their behaviour off the pitch, no arrogance or petulance on it, great team spirit and no shortage of effort and commitment on show.
When push came to shove we just came up short in terms of quality and nounce but there's plenty of positives to be taken even for a pessimistic old sod like myself.
Comments
This was great opportunity but reality is we are still a fair way from being a finished article
I was hanging on by a thread over my relationship with England given how hard it’s been to watch them over the last 10 years, and that is where I say hats off to any of you who have stuck with them through thick and thin. I’ve probably drifted off quite drastically in recent years, and it’s taken this tournament to restore my pride. On the whole I love what’s it’s done for the country over the last 3 weeks. The wins against Colombia and Sweden and the feeling after was quality.
That team and Southgate deserve a tremendous amount of admiration and respect. Honest, worked hard, played for one another and played for their country. Top, top class and I thank them for their efforts
Re: the game. We just don’t have players on the ball with the quality of Modric and Rakatic and overall, Croatia deserve to go through. I don’t quite know why we stopped putting them under the pressure in the second half in the same way we did the first half. We got sloppier in possession and yes, we did rue the missed chances in the first half. Croatia really move the ball well, and that second goal was so hard to concede.
After all, the only team we beat in normal time in that tournament was Egypt.
Still in counselling for Turin and I was only 9. Can't even look at a mullet without having convulsions.
Rather than playing cool headed football as we had done against Sweden we reverted to survival mode hoofball and lost our thread completely.
Croatia got lucky from one long ball to equalise and we never really looked like getting our football back on track and getting our platform back.
Dreadful defensive errors from Stones and Walker for the goals but the real issue was nobody in the middle of the park urging us to get it down and play rather than hoofing it.
Still, we did way better than expected but Croatia are not a great side by any means and we blew a golden chance.
7-2 makes me feel much better...
When push came to shove we just came up short in terms of quality and nounce but there's plenty of positives to be taken even for a pessimistic old sod like myself.