saintant

Didn't make the fast start we needed then.

We'll see. I reckon it's a tad too early for him but we'll find out a lot today.

My thoughts exactly - surprised Ralph has picked him ahead of Perraud and Djenepo. Not sure he looks ready for the physical battle he'll encounter. Other than that, no complaints. Now we need a fast start and to be quick through the midfield - a sluggish start and we'll likely lose.

Don't see much creativity from us. I think it's more the way Ralph sets up now that stifles creativity and so we don't make many chances for the strikers.

Yes, they are very similar in my opinion. Southgate seemed surprised at the improvement in England when they finally took the shackles off and commented that the players would have learned a lot - shame he doesn't learn.

Good article and reinforces my belief that Ralph is so terrified of presiding over more hammerings, he'd rather risk creating nothing and losing a load of games 1-0 than try to press, attack and win games.

Southgate said the players would have learned a lot tonight. He is too dumb to realise that he's the one who should have learned a lot not least the fact that we are much better when we get on the front foot, players are willing to take a few risks and prepared to take on opponents and get the ball forward quickly rather than all the slow sideways and backwards negative passing. I can only imagine training sessions consist of just trying to keep the ball and taking no risks which is then taken into matches with the obvious sterile results. Wake up man, you've been in the job long enough yet you appear shocked when something fairly obvious produces an instant transformation.

Exactly right.The moment we finally decided to start running with the ball and making forward passes we tore Germany apart. Southgate needs to realise this and hopefully Ralph is watching too. Shame Pope couldn't hold a simple shot and Maguire is such a complete donkey who gave away two goals.

It only matters if you don't play for one of the big clubs.

Ralph's normal negative starting line up will likely result in us going 1-0 down at which point he'll introduce players who should have started but it'll be too little too late and another drab 1-0 loss. If this is how it pans out then he needs to be gone by a week from now. Prove the doubters wrong Ralph and do something unpredictable leading to a victory rather than the same old same old.

What the feck is Walker doing? 🙂

The players on the bench must be crap.

What a pathetic free kick from Reece James/

The bird on Channel 4 has just said England have played well...give me strength.

Nah, this is Southgate being Southgate.

The only difference between this and last Friday is the colour of the shirts.

It's a bit like rugby where you have to pass back.

Another Southgate masterclass so far.

This game is right up there with Villa Saints in terms of skill and entertainment. Has Southgate got hold of a copy of Ralph's famous playbook?

Everton have a much improved defence - just don't see where our goals are going to come from. Predicting 0-0 or a narrow defeat for this one probably yet another 0-1.

Got to blame that fairly and squarely on Ralph and his coaches.

I think we're looking at two different meanings of the word mobile. I accept that he covers a lot of ground and has a fantastic engine. However, I was meaning that he is not mobile in terms of the speed he gets about the pitch.

Che Adams only takes a battering in games like Villa where we constantly launch the ball forward from our own half and expect him to win aerial battles against huge centre backs. Play a bit of football with fast attacking build ups on the ground, getting between the lines, moving off the ball and he is just fine - his hold up play and passing when we do this is excellent. It's the tactics that are wrong not Che Adams getting battered because the latter is all down to Ralph.

Agree, Ralph has become far too obsessed with stopping the opposition scoring at the detriment to any attacking ideas we might have. We are not and probably never will be a side that can defend well - we have improved with the acquisition of AKB so let's be glad for that and start to be more offensive from kick-off.

Agree, the Villa game was an indicator of how poor Ralph has become. From start to finish we were abject and yet he was unable to do a thing to change the progression of the match. That spoke volumes for me as he should have been able to spot where he could make changes in tactics and personnel to turn the game around - maybe not to win it but at least to give us a chance of getting something from the game. As it was Villa were easily able to retain their lead without breaking sweat or enduring any pressure from us even though they played pretty poorly themselves. That is a telling indictment.