It's coming home till we play someone decent. Think to be brutally honest it's a 50-50 against Colombia. Player for player they are a similar team to us in terms of quality. Theyve got one world class player like us, three or four genuinely decent players like us, and a lot of triers like us. Can't really see how we go in expecting to win. Should be a good game though.

Pickford, Stones, Cahill, Jones, Alexander-Arnold, Rose, Dier, Delph, Loftus-Cheek, Vardy, Rashford Big game for Rose and Radford to stake a claim. Everyone else probably won't retain their place even if they have stormers.

Disappointed by that. Who stays in? Sterling to get a goal, Pickford as he's the keeper and maybe Stones?

Have to agree. It should be a draw. You could still have first seeds and seconds seeds based on finishing position to mean that there is an advantage to finishing first in the group, but just not have it all mapped out. Also means extra excitement for a draw each round.

I know mathematically it's not complicated, but team spirit, self respect, the respect of the supporters and momentum will all take a significant hit if we deliberately throw the game. Also Belgium are the first really decent team Southgates side has played competitively. Probably first England have played full stop since Uruguay in 2014. They need to establish their credentials to themselves, let alone anyone else. Not really the time to bugger about. I'll be very surprised if we don't go to try and win the game.

Is it unkind of me to suggest the reaction of the German players ,and the thousands of German fans in the stands, was a third superb reason? I'll never say a bad word about VAR again.

We have to play to win. We need to build a head of steam, and I could see anyone knocking us out, so I wouldn't get too clever in trying to pick which half of the draw we are in.

Although they are dull as dishwasher France look a good bet to me. Very very difficult to score against, probably the physically strongest team at the tournament, and have half a dozen players who can score goals out of nothing. They could grind it out I think.

I think the key is the referee has to be strong. The guy in the Iran Spain game got overwhelmed and it turned into a mess. In Argentina Nigeria referee was strong and nipped the dissent and calling for VAR etc in the bud and it worked reasonably well.

Nope it's two way at the moment. Ref can request a review as well as be advised to review by the VAR team. I'm suggesting the option for the ref to request is removed to make the ref more decisive and remove the incentive for the players and managers to demand VAR from him.

Well yes if the four blokes in a room are biased we have a problem. But then isn't that just as valid with 1 bloke on a pitch? Why would that be any less biased?

I think potentially the best route out of this is to set out a clear rule that says the referee cannot request VAR, he only gets notified and has to review. Any players who asks him to go to VAR gets booked. That should stop the players following him around, and also kill off this issue of he ref beginning to doubt himself and requesting to go to VAR all the time. It's up to the full kit VAR room guys to buzz the ref immediately if something is clearly and obviously incorrect. Then the ref is obliged to review the video and remake the call. Bosh done. If you take it out of the refs hands it cleans a lot of the indecision out. But absolutely key is the VAR room can only invoke it for something clearly incorrect.

Thought VAR was doing okay till saw that Iran vs Portugal game. It was utterly utterly farcical.

Lingard does look excellent, particularly in the system that Southgate has created. It's ideal for him. From his perspective he will need to watch what happens at Man Utd next year. I think he may not be a first team starter if they make all their signings - if they get a top level partner for Pogba he won't play. If that turns out to be the case he should be moving elsewhere - even if he has to go abroad. Suspect he will suck it up and sit on the bench though, like far too many English players. Plus United will probably ask for ridiculous money for him which no interested party can afford. The trials of being a decent English player.

That's a bit of a rose tinted perspective in my view. Player for player they are on our level. James is a better player than anyone we have. They've got a lot of pace and skill across the side. Sort of team who could easily knock us out. That just reality, no point getting carried away at the moment.

Agree with that. Poland did remind me of previous England performances. Slow, isolated, unimaginative, direct. For England Southgate has done a great job of rebuilding the system from the ground up to make sure we work as a team. You could see that in how well drilled and joined up we were. Anyhow, sensational score line and great performance today but you have to say it wasn't really much of a test as Panama are by any measure an abysmal side. Belgium will be be first indicator of if we really are in with a shout. Southgate is likely in my estimation to stick with his attacking system with only one holding player. Pretty bold when you consider the outrageous talent Belgium have. But he wants to play it his way which is admirable. If our inexperienced back three can live with the fabulous trio of Lukaku, Hazard and De Bruyne then we can look forwards with hope. That said Hazard running at Maguire, and Lukaku bullying Stones does fill me with a certain amount of dread. Walkers recovery pace is going to be key I feel... It should be a good game I think. I can't see us going looking for a draw. Can swe us winning well or getting utterly spanked.

Nigeria v Argentina and Brazil v Serbia are going to be absolute crackers I think.

Croatia look a very very good team. It's amazing a country smaller than Scotland keeps on turning out such great players. Didn't quite realise the level of quality they have right through the side. Argentina are gonnas, absolutely shambolic. Player for player they have a great side, probably the best set of attacking players at the tournament. To perform like that was inexcusable. France were boring and flat yesterday, but ultimately effective. Look like they are going to grind their way through which is a shame considering their talent.

Agree with all that except Lingard. He was excellent in every department apart from finishing. Surely a guaranteed start for him. I think next game Rose and Rashford both might get the nod, with Young and Sterling dropped. Both offer more for me. Rose offers better width and counter attacking than Young, and Rashford has similar pace, trickery and ability to drop off as Sterling, but he also scores goals.

Strange game tonight - for the first thirty mins we looked great then we dropped off severely. Second half we were abject till the substitutions. On balance still a better performance than Germany or Argentina have put in. Similar sort of level as France. Despite his terrible finishing Lingards running was superb, Trippier and Stones had strong games, and Kane did little but scored two goals. Any other player you could swap out no complaints. I can see Southgate giving Rashford a start in the next game. One point... If the two wide centre backs are going to get such a huge amount the ball why not play Dier in there? Hes arguably our best long passed and perhaps also more reliable in defence than Maguire who seemed to have quite a few mistakes in him...? ..

World cup is looking very promising so far. The big teams seem to be tactically at odds with themselves and not gelling. The only professional unit I've seen so far have been Spain who were tremendous and only ended up drawing due to some heroics from Ronaldo. Long way to go obviously - surely at least one of Brazil, Germany and Argentina will get their tactics sorted, while Belgium and England still to play - but nothing really to fear so far except for Ronaldo and Spain's outrageously silky midfield.

Brazil and Germany. Though both of them started poorly...

Watching Spain it was terrifying how much talent they have. Absolutely unbelievable. And theyre probably the third best team at the tournament.

The 2 players who in my lifetime should have been great players for England but were criminally underused/ misused were Scholes and Le Tissier. Both victims of being sidelined for supposedly better players who weren't actually better.

I feel the same way, but then I felt the same way a week before the tournament every time England have qualified. Always seems like things are looking up going into the finals then you get kicked in the nuts! I will say this though, much as I think Allardyce is a very very good manager and gets too much stick, I am happy he got the boot so we could adopt an attacking setup. If Sam was in charge we would be grinding it out with 451. At least we should - win or lose - be entertaining to watch under Southgate