saintant

Has he ever disagreed with a referee's decision?

Thought referees were being encouraged to let these minimal contacts go yet he gets a penalty for that. Very soft. Great, Ghana have just equalised - now go and win it against these cheats.

No pen. Absolute dive from the cheat and not even reviewed by VAR.

If we try to shackle them there will be only one result because eventually France will break us down and score. We will not hold them out by playing a negative game. How many times do we have to see that tactic fail before we realise it doesn't work? It's what cost us the Euro final when we went into our shell after scoring despite Italy fielding two geriatric centre backs.

Looks to be a clinical finisher and it would be nice to revive the Gabbiadini chant with Ohhh Gabi Barbosa.

If we play France the outcome will depend on how brave Southgate is. If he reverts to his normal timid self and sets out to try to defend and contain them we will undoubtedly lose in a dour game. However, if he is brave enough to shake off the fear and take the game to them we will have a good chance. I suspect he'll succumb to the fear and we'll lose narrowly.

I imagine it'll be Monday 28th as that'll be two weeks since the break began.

Massive upset that. Just seen the winning goal and what a cracker it was.

Wales need to bring on the big Bmuff lump and start getting it forward long and into the mixer. It's their only hope.

Looking at Mendy today maybe Chelsea should sign him 🙂

Andries Noppert. Think he's 28 and about 6'8". Plays for Heerenveen.

Gakpo scores a header. Nice goal - crap game.

Watching the slowest drying paint in the world would be far more interesting than this match.

Senegal ranked below Iran yet the Netherlands are struggling and it's still 0-0.

Superb display from England. Shows what we can do when the players are already tuned up due to being part way through a season rather than trying to get up and running after the end of a tough season. We looked like strong contenders today and Iran can't be that bad if they're ranked in the top 20 in the world. Well played lads.

Hypocrisy of the highest order - taking the knee while partaking in a tournament in a country like Qatar. You couldn't make it up yet they fail to see how ridiculous they make themselves look.

I think our U18s would beat them.

Exactly right

Bodes well for us under Nathan Jones 🙂

Surely they'll become the first home nation ever to lose the opening game.

Sorry to have to spell it out for you but I meant in the actual games.

So the corruption and cheating begins.

Yes, I am impressed by him so far and it seemed his half time words to the team made a difference at Liverpool which is encouraging. Let's hope, once he's had this period with the squad, he can get the team playing on the front foot from the first whistle. Aside from anything else I think we'd become very stale under Ralph so let's see if Nathan Jones can refresh and rejuvenate the players. We certainly need to get some wins and good performances under our belt sooner rather than later if we are to climb out of trouble.

You make fair points and, I guess the proof will be in the pudding. I'm sure Nathan Jones will give us an appraisal of how he feels the period until the Lincoln/Brighton games has been used and how happy he is so let's see the results when we take to the field in those and subsequent crucial games.

I'm slightly surprised that the players have apparently been given the last two weeks off even if they have been allocated certain 'tasks' to complete. Time is precious so I would have expected Nathan Jones and the two new coaches to be eager to spend every last minute possible with the squad. They need to get to know each other and Jones should be getting his ideas across and drilling what is clearly a disjointed group of players. I get that other teams may be doing the same thing but, if we'd bucked the trend, it might have given us the chance to steal a march on our rivals. It is only 5 weeks or so until we face Brighton so why waste these two weeks? The planned trip to America I kind of get as there will be a chance for more bonding although again we'll be losing two days travelling plus any jet lag issues. With a new manager and coaches to integrate I just think this down time due to the World Cup could have been better spent so that we are fit and ready to hit the ground running come the Lincoln game and then Brighton on Boxing Day. Just my take and I am sure others will disagree.