joey_big_nose

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

Watched all the warm up games. Think the first xi will be ----------------------Pickford --------Walker----Stones----Maguire Trippier--------Henderson---------Rose ---------Lingard--------------------Alli ---------------Kane-------Rashford It's a big call to drop Sterling, but Rashford was superb. Harsh for Dier to be dropped but think Henderson has edged it, and the system doesn't really work with both of them in there. Rest of team picks itself I think. Stones at centre of defence worries me a bit, but I think Southgate will definitely go for it. Were nowhere near the level of France, Germany etc. talent-wise but I have admiration for how Southgate has pulled the team together with a smart system.

I'm echoing Hoddle on the commentary here, but he's right. Our system looked great and we totally dominated until Nigeria changed their formation at half time to match us one to one. Then it was like a brick wall - we couldn't create anything at all. Other teams will look at that and use it against us... Not sure if we have a plan B to be honest. As for who played well - I thought everyone was decent enough except for Young who killed many moves by having to switch to his right foot, and was also lazy defensively. I can't see what he brings at all. Lingard and Alli looked good first half. Sterling was frustrating. We could have scored four or five in the first half if his final ball was better. All in all standard sort of England pre tournament performance. Not convincing, but when is it ever?

Main difference between England and all other top teams (except maybe Italy atm) is they have loads of players playing abroad and we do not. British players just do not go abroad in numbers, partly because culturally we don't like it, and partly because English players are hugely overpriced so present very very poor value for foreign clubs to buy. There are three issues with this 1) it means English players get much less Champions League experience than other nations 2) English players also have a much narrower experience in styles of play 3) English players live too much "in the comfort zone" which I think impacts our resilience at tournaments. If he was Spanish or French Ben Foden would have buggered off abroad to a CL club by now. But instead he'll sit on the City bench. Or even if he is sold Crystal Palace for example would easily be able to outbid Sevilla or Marseille with their PL resources. And they would do it because, you know, he's a talented Englishman so a marquee signing. So instead if playing CL football he will play mid table and relegation dog fight. Sancho from City has gone to Germany now (but only as his contract ran out and he is unusually intrepid) so hopefully that is the start of more talent going overseas, but until we start have 10+ players abroad in CL clubs playing regularly we are always going to be at a serious disadvantage. Not sure that will ever happen with the huge TV deals the PL keeps signing though. If anything I expect it to get worse. I anticipate more and more top English players will get paid more by prem clubs not to play and they'll rot. Edit - I checked last squads and even Italy has four playing abroad compared to England's zero.... France have 14 of their wc squad, Germany 9, Belgium 20 (!!), Argentina 19, Brazil 20...

Funnily enough Id say in Lenihan we have a dominant centre half, and in Bennett and Nyambe decent right full back options. Obviously in a perfect world we'd want better, but I don't see them as the major issues at the moment. Raya, Mulgrew, Graham all good enough for next season imo. Not convinced with Smallwood. Think he's missing the required quality. So for me the big areas to strengthen are : 1) one quick goal scoring striker (Armstrong if we can get him) 2) two wide players with pace and quality delivery 3) one top holding midfielder. Be a bonus if he can pass well. Other than that need a more depth across the squad, but not starting roles.

Spain and Belgium both have vastly superior first XIs compared to England. Argentina's defence is not that great, but is it really any worse than ours? One thing I will agree on is that with both the Dutch and the Italians out it is a bit easier than previously. But still we're massive outsiders.