benjii

Just saw him down Millbrook Goals. Played well. Think he's off to Superbowl for some Questing and a Fosters this evening. Good lad.

Did you do the one with the funny cat?

Urgh!

Agreed. They will see we have conceded in every match and that if they don't foul us in the box there's a good chance we won't score a goal.

There's a difference between playing as a striker for England and lurking at the back post for tap ins at Man City. Sterling's game is about movement and speed. At City, they create chaos in the final third and carve open a lot of straightforward finishes. It suits him. For England, his poor touch and technique gets shown up as he ends up crowded out by opposition defenders quite easily. If we were playing a different system he'd be more effective. As a second "striker" I'd much sooner have Rashford. Against Sweden, I'd be tempted to change the midfield shape slightly from one pivot and two runners behind a front two to a platform of two midfielders (Henderson and RLC) and two runners (Rashford, Lingard) behind Kane. Last night the link between midfield and attack wasn't there. I'd also bring Rose or Delph (paternity leave FFS, why is he in the squad?) in for Young as we got much more penetration down the right via Trippget than we are getting witj Young down the left.

Bad miss.

We need to get Rashford on to produce something from nothing but we won't be taking Kane off. I'd sub Rashford for Vardy or switch to a back 4.

Yeah, we can't claim to be hard done. We've been massively lucky that other teams keep insisting on fouling us in the box.

Try to commit them to the challenge to create space, I guess.

Lol. Clutching at straws.

Low on the headbutt spectrum.

In fairness, he did say their economy was propped up by US corporate tax dodgers and in the case of "computer hardware and software" that is certainly the case.

It's a hard match to call. I think we will play at our level (I think this group is relatively unencumbered mentally), which is ok but not great, so it depends whether Colombia turn up or not. If the Colombian attackers play to their potential I would expect them to score at least twice against our poor backline.

I've always thought Redmond would be decent playing centrally behind a striker. He's not the best crosser and he doesn't naturally get to the by-line but he can accelerate enough to open up pockets of space, he has a decent first touch and he has a powerful shot with minimum backlift.

I'd love to see penalty without a keeper. Someone would miss one one day. Shane Long, perhaps

A lot of the refs in the World Cup are quite stacked. Fit guys who can handle themselves. Our refs are usually fat or weedy little spaccos. I would like to see more athletic refs.

Wonder if VAR will ever be used to check if the keeper is on their line when the pen is taken. One of the least-enforced rules in football.

Drama.

Second from the left?

What is your condition called?

Falcao hat trick.

Yeah, can't wait to see the free flowing Russians in the next round.

My first thought too. It's got our name on it.

Explosive diarrhoea.

What's funny about that? If you review any corner or free kick into the box you'll see some sort of physical contact which is technically a foul.