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class finish
Moderator: Phil
All that assumes we wanted to win, which I am fairly confident we did not.redandwhitemike wrote: ↑Thu Jun 28, 2018 8:57 pmSomething of a non event in which the only point proved was that Belgium's second eleven are better than ours - but I think we knew that already.
Not sure any of the England players really made a case for being promoted to start against Colombia - Rashford was very disappointing.
Remains to be seen how the result will affect the psyche of the squad going forward.
spitalfields wrote: ↑Fri Jun 29, 2018 2:44 pmWhoever it was who said that yesterday's game will ultimately be evaluated in light of the result against Colombia had it spot on. Personally I never like intentionally weakening teams as I think the subtle consequences for motivation and psychology are difficult to control and, more often than not, pretty destructive. Sensible protection of players on yellow cards is one thing; putting out the reserves something else altogether.
I thought it was a mistake not to see off BPA at the first attempt, and so it proved when the 'rested' players seemed lethargic in the game that mattered, probably as a result of the lost momentum. I know that these cossetted Premiership darlings are more used to squad rotation, but the struggles they had against a pretty poor Tunisia side suggested to me that they desperately needed game time to develop a rhythm and cohesion- and the confidence they could have got from playing well against a weakened Belgium team would have been invaluable. The Panama result does not make them world-beaters by any stretch of the imagination. And Colombia play in a way that is likely to expose England's embarrassing defensive frailties.
I hope I'm wrong, but I'm expecting to look enviously at Belgium cruise past Japan to meet a triumphant but exhausted Mexico, as we go out with a whimper against an underrated Colombia...
Come on Garth - lets think positivegarthrockett wrote: ↑Mon Jul 02, 2018 12:34 pmWe are a long way from considerations on how to play against Russia......Columbia stand in the way first; an difficult -but not insurmountable- obstacle.