World Cup 2022 - Team and Match Discussion

lloris was the difference in the end

Wellity Wellity Wellity ;) Turns out I was still right with the round they were going out.

Does that mean Santos got his team selection wrong?

Anyway, people have really been sleeping on Morocco this tournament since the start, I don't know if they go any further because they seem to be getting worn down with injury now in the backline particularly and they are running themselves into the ground each game but jesus they can be proud of themselves.

Super effort this world cup

I'm not sure what Leao needed to do to get a start tbh, he should have been starting in my eyes. Cancelo I probably would have started yeah even though he hasn't exactly been on top form.

Its hard to know, I think he probably set his midfield up wrong, Bruno plays better with Ronaldo, Bruno plays better without Ronaldo aside, Bruno is kinda wasted from the right. I thought he was probably one of Portugals better players on the night in fairness to him, just feel like he would have been better if he had been central most of the game. He is far more creative through the middle.

Sa I would have gone into the tournament starting, have no mass on the keeper they did play.

I think he missed a trick in the second half by not bringing on Willy Carvalho to sit and use 2 up top with Ronaldo and Ramos, Bruno in behind them and Bernardo Silva and Neves in midfield. Plenty of creativity there and a partnership to play off each other, looking to use Ronaldo as the target man.

They were more than likely going to be playing attach v defence so leaving Carvalho watching the back gate would have made more sense to me.

The biggest changes I'd have made to the starting line up (assuming Sa would have been in goal, as he should have been from the start) is Leao over Felix, or maybe even Otavio and play Felix off the right, Leao from the left and have Bruno central behind Ramos.

I would have been tempted then I guess to start with the added protection of Carvalho over Neves as Neves isn't starting over Bernardo.

Fair amount of gaslighting here. So anyone who questions Southgate is just bitter or "playing to the gallery" for retweets and likes and actually jokingly compared to anti-vaxxers.

Also France now have the best player in the world (he might be but wait till that narrative changes fast when Man City play). It seems to be the fault of the booers and naysayers that England lost.

Articles like this should really not be written so soon after a loss when the journalist is clearly just being childish and sour.

For 70% of the match I watched they bossed the midfield - Saka and Rice in particular

Ifs, buts and maybes.

So FIFA just launched the official semi & final match ball 🤮

Could you be anymore negative if you tried?

Kane is the England captain and had just equalled the England goal scoring record with his previous penalty in that game there was no way in hell he was going to let anyone else take that penalty as he would have become Englands greatest ever goalscorer if he scored it.

Southgate got his tactics spot on for that game and anyone blaming Southgate for Kane taking that penalty and missing and costing England the game really is just wrong.

Southgate seems like a decent bloke but England will never really progress with him imho.

Beating Wales, Iran and Senegal and drawing with USA is hardly anything to get excited about.

France didn't play anywhere remotely near their best, barely broke sweat, yet I never thought the result was in doubt.

Sure an equaliser might have made it interesting but England would have found a way to sh1t the bed before the night was out

The whole problem with Southgate is how conservative he is.

so yes, England played fine. but the French were there for the taking and England, in reality, were ponderous. Lloris made one save of note. England didn't score an open play goal. France kept England at largely arms length, with England generally pot-shotting it from distance.

these are the games where elite managers actually make their money. Southgate has to beat a team that's pretty evenly matched with his own - can he do it, or will he lose? And he lost. Again. Because of tactical inadequacies. Again. He never adjusted to the Griezmann problem, which is an obvious problem from the middle of the first half, but he was allowed to continue to roam while 2 or 3 sat on Mbappe.

France simply contained England from distance, created the clear cut chances, and won.

England haven’t beaten anyone of note in a WC in quite some time and Qatar was no exception. Their media writing a narrative of a good tournament is laughable. Yes they played well against France but they really relied on set pieces, let’s be honest. France deserved to win and on another day it could have gone England’s way but it didn’t as France scored more goals, end of.

As for Southgate I see similarities with Belgium’s Martinez. A golden generation wasted while waiting for the nice guy to finally get it right. England have time to fix that.

Those defenders are not good enough on the ball either. On Saturday they were shocking, Maguire slowly to Henderson slowly to Shaw who either gave it away, or else hit another slow pass to Maguire to start again, and on the other side Stones offered nothing while Walker was the best of a bad lot. Add in an ultra defensive anchor man in midfield in Rice and they have half the team out of the picture when they have the ball that offers them nothing.