saintant

Rashford was poor in the first half against very poor opposition. He had a good spell in the second half until he was taken off. I still want to see him play well against better opponents and will be delighted if he does. My gut tells me it won't happen.

Well, I'm still to be convinced by Rashford so let's see how he does against better quality opponents. A decent enough free kick although maybe keeper should have done better and he certainly should have stopped Rashford's second goal. I'd just like to see Rashford a little more fired up to show that he actually cares - he seems to go through matches in a very passive manner but I guess he won't change now.

Much better second half against very limited opponents. Rashford improved but I won't get carried away just yet and would be delighted to see him shine against the teams with better quality. Still think we need to play more on the front foot, drive forward quicker and with more purpose and link defence to attack in a fluent way rather than there being such big gaps between the players. Bellingham was excellent today and we'll need him to maintain that level. Hard to say what our expectations should be as we've not been tested much in the group games. It just feels as though Southgate's natural inclination to keep things tight will be our undoing but let's see. So far so good.

That's more like it England!

Said he was brilliant 🙂

Why are people on tv claiming England have played well? Wales are shite and we can't break them down.

Jennas watching a different game to me.

Rashford is an apology for a footballer. Never looks 100% interested or committed.

Well, not for England.

It's all square straight lines, nobody makes angles.

Yeah once. Why don't they do it all the time?

When will someone attempt to inject some oomph and pace into this turgid shit! Nobody drops off to receive the ball, nobody gets between the lines. Rashford a waste of space.

Very poor against USA. Hardly got forward and constantly lost possession with poor control/passing. I think he confessed himself he didn't have the best of games.

This is such a cop out. In reality they should be taking the plaudits when playing well and winning so that they get the taste and incentive for victories. When they play badly they should be taken to task so that they appreciate they have let people down and need to strive to do better. No place for the wishy washy 'don't let them get too high when they win or too low when they lose. Tell it how it is and feed off it.

Exactly and it started in the first minute. As soon as you see that you pretty well know what sort of performance is coming and they did not disappoint.

If our midfield had functioned correctly then the defenders would have had options to slide shorter balls forward. Time and again they looked up, saw nothing and nobody moving to receive the ball short and were forced to hoof it. It was a totally disjointed, shapeless display and Southgate should have done something to put it right in the first twenty minutes by getting instruction onto the pitch.

Totally ignores the fact that teams park the bus against the likes of Brazil, France and Spain yet they still manage to get the job done thanks to their overall attacking intent and individual brilliance of key players. You don't win tournaments unless you attack. Anyway, who believes an article written in the Guardian 🙂

Midfield was our major problem. I felt sorry for Rice because he seemed to be the only one in midfield. I couldn't work out what Mount and Bellingham were trying to do but they left it wide open for USA to dictate the play.

Yeah right...since 1994 Brazil twice, France twice and Spain once. The other two were Germany and Italy.

My impression is that Southgate doesn't trust Foden and thinks he is a bit of a luxury who might sometimes give the ball away. Doesn't quite fit with his dour ambition which always seems to come across as wanting clean sheets above all else - as exemplified when he was so angry that we conceded two against Iran despite the fact that we scored six. He's a fairly joyless coach who will always opt for safety first so is unlikely ever to win either of the two big prizes in his remit.

Gary Neville talking a lot of sense.

He was pleased with the way we built from the back! What game was this idiot watching. We built nothing from the back and looked nervous on the ball leading to hoof ball. There was too much side to side between the two centre backs right from the first minute and that set the tone.

Harry avoiding the obvious - You're fooling nobody Kane.

Southgate will be over the moon with a clean sheet

Clueless from start to finish thanks to Southgate not being very bright.