S-Clarke

So, a 'fresh start' and 21mins and the same issues are apparent. Powderpuff in the 10's with Elyounoussi. Terrible up front with Adam Armstrong offering no threat. Adams missing his trademark sitter. Terrible in midfield with no protection or cover for JWP, leaving us horribly exposed. None of this is any real surprise to be honest. 75% of this team is beyond horrific.

What has happened to AMN in the last few years? He doesn't even look like a footballer anymore.

I wouldn't have called this back in November after Saudi Arabia beat Argentina. It's been a great world cup to be fair, obviously lots of controversy and crap around it, but from a pure footballing point of view the final summed it up for me. A great watch the last month, even the groups were entertaining until the death.

Agreed, they have been refreshing to watch in the Semi Final. They seem like a really inteligent team as they know when to sink back, but then they can attack and pen teams in if they want. They've kind of come out of nowhere, but if you look at their 11 they do have a group of some top level/CL level players in their makeup. Amrabat, Ziech, Hakimi, Mazraoui, En-Nesyri

He hasn't really ripped it up at club level for whatever reason. The guy has always had such good technical ability but there is just something else missing from his makeup which means he's never consistent. Like Gaston in many ways. It wasn't the wrong decision to let him go, we just didn't replace him with anyone else who could impact our team.

Excellent, now a chance to forget the crushing disappointment of the World Cup with even more disappointment!

Exactly, I remember Mbappe missing a crucial pen at the Euro's as well. Ditto Lewandowski in a game this tournament, but he had a chance to re-take. Pens are a lottery, no one is immune to missing. There's more to it than just technical ability. 90% is in the head. I don't hold anything against Kane, nor should any sane football fan.

I think that's a bit harsh based on the 2nd half. We had the better chances, played the most football in that 2nd half and were once again 'glorious' losers. There was a fair bit of crab football in the first half for sure, but we pushed 2nd half and had them on the ropes.

The whole build up to this game was about Mbappe, how do we stop him etc. Just our luck that he has an absolute disaster of a game and we STILL contrive lose. Didn't take our chances in that period in the second half, you cannot miss penalties like that in a top level game. We played well enough without doubt, but it's yet another tournament gone with nothing to show for it. As someone said above, to be English and support Southampton is totally taking the short-straw in football life. Bellingham has come out of this a star, he had a bit of a sloppy game tonight but he's full of energy. Saka has got better too, but that's probably the end of Maguires, Shaws and Hendersons international careers - weak links at the top, top level imo. (Maguire done on the goal) Bit neutral on Southgate, he hasn't done badly for us - certainly not in tournaments, but it's got to the stage now where I think he's done as much as he can and we need a bit of a reset and build around the likes of Saka, Bellingham, Foden etc.

I fully expect some club PR fluff to come out after the World Cup, proclaiming our interest in them shows how good our 'scouting' is.

Why are they still signing players? Not that it bothers me given that we're competing with them, but surely they have enough now and it's about integrating them all into a 'team'.

Oh yeah absolutely, lots of time to mature and he can still turn into a top player - but my complaint is that as a club we can't keep going on this sole path of signing young kids and expecting them to impact the first team straight away, as shown with Small sometimes it takes a little longer. Tino and Lavia and to an extent ABK are more exceptions to the rule in terms of their immediate impact, the majority of young 18/19-year-olds take a little longer to evolve.

He's actually back with us now, his loan at Port Vale was terminated. I think he played in the match against Colchester last week. I guess the results we have so far had from Small highlight the risk of just signing 'talented' young kids. At the time he was rated as one of the most exciting full backs in the country, a left sided Tino I guess, but he has shown to be nowhere near ready - if that's mental I don't know. Signing anyone is a risk but signing kids with potential is an even bigger risk if you're looking for results 'tomorrow'. Some come to the fore straight away, but others can take a fair amount of time to acclimatise to first team football. We signed kids in the summer like Larios, Edozie, Mara etc - who knows how they will pan out, but they certainly haven't as yet provided us with the results we needed 'today'.

They're our only two at the WC aren't they? I know Bednarek is there, but I don't really count him (unless Villa decides to send him back)

It was great entertainment. 100% a pen though, but feels a bit karma-esque after Suarezs antics the last time those two met in the WC.

I remember him saying that when he was at Spurs, something a long the lines ''Why didn't you come to me when I wanted you before???'' - sounds like he turned us down in the hope of something better, which did happen.

The last round of these groups have been great entertainment.

Just 10 more points out of that lot will probably have us relegated by April. We'd need to get wins against Spurs, Man City, Arsenal, Liverpool, Newcastle away, Brighton away etc if we were sat on 22 points by the end of March. In my opinion we need to be sat on 27 points at the very least by the end of the Leicester game to still be within the realms of safety, anything less and we're a bit fucked.

2nd half was everything the 1st half wasn't, started the 2nd half pressing high, moving the ball quick and look what happens. Rashford had a shocker first half, but different player 2nd half. Really like Bellingham, not sure I'd swap him for another player - for 19 years old he's on a different level. We're good to watch when the attack press and move it quickly, they're capable of doing it so hopefully we see more of it. Senegal will pose much more of a threat than a truly dreadful Welsh, but if we play it quick then I'd hope we'll have too much for them.

Have we really played well...? What are they on about? This is a terrible, terrible Wales team and it's 0-0 because we've played it safe 9 times out of 10. Rashford has games like this where he doesn't look like a professional footballer, so he needs to be dumped for the 2nd half. Henderson needs to go as well, you don't need his sort in a game where you know you'll be trying to score goals. A very safety first game from us so far, against a truly terrible welsh outfit.

Seems like this has worked out perfectly for Gakpo and PSV really, got to say they both played this spot on. His value has gone through the roof now, so PSV can get even more $$. And Gakpo will have his pick of elite clubs without having to make a middling step to a club like us to get there.

All of those potential teams and we get Crystal flaming Palace. Bore fest.

Great to see Salisu score, but some of his defending in that 2nd half was comical.

I think France will show up our weaknesses if I'm honest. They have a very mobile attack with Dembele, Mbappe and Coman in there. Our weakness is getting caught in behind as our CB's are relatively slow, they could exploit that for fun if we’re not careful. I think being 'brave' and throwing all-out attack at them is the wrong way to approach it, the best way we can do anything against France is to defend deeper so the space to exploit in behind isn't there. I'd argue that our recent runs to the Final/Semi-final have coincided with us playing teams not blessed with that pace and mobility up top, so France would

They are moving over the hill now yep, that's why the previous years have been a huge, wasted opportunity in my opinion. They've never really 'clicked' and Martinez overseeing their golden generation was a pretty bad idea.