Group G: England, Belgium, Tunisia, Panama

Time to be controversial not because I'm doing it intentionally, but because there's almost no way you'll agree:


Pickford: 6

Trippier: 8

Walker: 6

Stones: 6

Maguire: 5

Young: 5

Henderson: 7

Lingard: 6

Alli: 6

Sterling: 5

Kane: 7


Loftus-Cheek: 8

Rashford: 7


Let's see your scores guys....
 
Pickford 6 - Didn’t do anything wrong just bar the penalty had nothing to do

Trippier 8 - MOTM from the 70th minute onwards the only one who wanted to win

Walker 7 - Played some dangerous balls

Stones 6 - Didn’t offer anything and was caught out 3 times

Maguire 5 - Drop him. Too shaky and caused a lack of confidence

Henderson 7 - Neat and tidy but needs to take command/risk more often. Too many backwards/sideways passes

Lingard 5 - Could have had a Hatrick didn’t score

Alli 5 - We should have been 1 up inside 2 mins but he delayed playing the ball. Can only assume he lied to medical staff about his injury or wouldn’t have stayed on

Sterling 5 - Lost possession too much

Kane 6 - Other than the two goals he actually contributed nothing to our play and constantly lost the ball

Rashford 6 - Looked lively when he came on and dangerous but didn’t create anything

RLC 7 - Good cameo but deserved longer
 
Can’t edit my post for some reason

Young 6 - Played in some wonderful balls but kept making it easy for their right back to hit the deck. And I just get frustrated watching him cut back on to his right time and time again.
 
Yeh I find that lately, you can't edit your posts. Odd.

It's just the story of his season isn't it, us lot as Utd supporters know all too well the cut back he does but that's what you get when you play a guy on the left who only has a right foot. Stupid thing is, his right foor is actually quite good at crossing and neither Utd or England can utilise it.

I would be using Rose there instead.
 
I think it’s just the new area for the World Cup that we can’t edit post on as I can still on the United board.

I would definitely be playing Rose. Though to give Young his dues he should have had at least one assist and ends up getting credited with none.

Also worth pointing out Kane’s header for the second was actually quality.
 
From what I saw...

Pickford - 6

Trippier - 8
Walker - 6
Stones - 4
Maguire - 5
Young - 6

Henderson - 6
Alli - 3
Lingard - 7

Sterling - 4
Kane - 7

Subs:

RLC - 8
Rashford - 7
 
Pickford 6
Trippier 8
Walker 6
Stones 6
Maguire 6
Young 5
Henderson 6
Alli 7 before injury 5 after
Lingard 5
Sterling 5
Kane 8

RLC 7
Rashford 7

I agree about the second header, top drawer, showed his quality. Levy must be laughing he signed him up before the WC. I must be the only person who thought Henderson was poor.
 
looks like we are on the same wavelength on the points really.

I think Rashford should start over Sterling, he was terrible. RLC cheek did enough to warrant a start too but I get the feeling Southgate will know how they changed the game and keep them as subs to do the same again if needed
 
also I think Walker is completely wasted as a cb, his attacking instinct makes him better as a fb/wb but Trippier did so well there is no way I'd change him
 
also I think Walker is completely wasted as a cb, his attacking instinct makes him better as a fb/wb but Trippier did so well there is no way I'd change him

I guess the problem is as well... If you don't play Walker at RCB then what does your defense look like? Because actually for me Maguire needs to be dropped and Stones isn't far behind. But then we are looking at Cahill and Jones? Hmm no thanks.
 
Finally someone agrees with me that Maguire was awful last night!
 
I thought he was too. The Daily Mail said he was one of our most creative outlets!!!

It's strange that I have read and spoke to people who think such varied things. The difference of opinion on Alli, Young, Lingard, Sterling, Maguire, Stones... Everyone is saying different.

At the end of the day we got the result, let's move on and beat mighty Panama and get into the knockouts
 
I thought I was the negative guy on here can't believe some of those ratings.

Really enjoyed that performance, should've killed them off first half with the chances we created and probably should've been given 2 penalties for the holding on Kane on set pieces but got the win so that's all that really matters. Going forward I think we've looked like one of it not the best teams so far very shakey at the back and that's always been an area of concern because of the way we ask our defenders to play and the fact we've put Walker in as a 3rd centre back.

In terms of changes I'd leave the team as is for the next game don't see any reason to change it but we might need something a bit different for knockout games.
 
We were good attacking for about 20 minutes. After their pen we offered very little especially second half.
 
We were good attacking for about 20 minutes. After their pen we offered very little especially second half.

Was the Lingard one vs one before or after the penalty?

We certainly struggled second half I was a few pints in at that point but I assume Tunisia changed something tactically they certainly seemed to go a bit deeper and midfield tightened up the space a bit making it harder to play through them. I also think our heads went a bit lazy passes crept in hopeful balls in behind rather than the quick passing moves we saw early on maybe a bit of panic but also maybe some fatigue from that early effort.

That's where I thought RLC made a big difference when he came on really calmed us down as that whole second half we seemed to be playing like there was 5 minutes left trying to force it rather than take time to open them up, he seemed to bring that calmness back.
 
The Lingard 1 v 1 was just after but other than that what did we really create? We just played so slowly and boring side to side. The first 20 minutes was probably performance of the world cup so far but after the penalty we lacked any confidence at all.
 
That said we should have been 3/4-0 up before the penalty incident. I definitely don't think Sterling deserves to keep his place.
 
Sterling is the definitely the guy who's shirt is on the line after that game he was poor, just didn't really get himself in the game but I think you need to give him a second chance, if he's poor vs Panama I think at that point you probably make the change. He's a bit of a square peg in this system and later in the tournament I think we'll want a second striker with Kane as the midfield won't be able to support I would love to see Vardy right up top with Kane almost playing off him. Think the two of them together would be a nightmare for defences or you could put Alli up alongside Kane like he plays in club football they've been a devestating partnership in the past.

Sterling could be a useful player on the bench if we need more width but playing 3-5-2 doesn't really give him a natural position.

I think for the first two games he will pick the same side but can see Belguim being a bit of an experiment for the knockout games because better teams are going to exploit the gaps/weaknesses in defence so we either gamble that we can outgun them with the attack with an attack that's very creative but not very clinical or we will look to be a bit more defensive.

One thing I saw yesterday which is something we've seen all season is Young makes you very narrow on the left because he can't go outside and I also think when it got to 60 minutes his legs start to go and he drops a bit deeper which means the crosses go in from deeper. If he's fit I think Rose will need to come in for the knockout games.
 
I thought our style changed when Alli got injured, he stopped getting so far forward and we were easier to defend against. One of the England players said Tunisia changed formation at half time which might be why the second half it was harder to break them down. I think they went 3 5 2 too, I didn't notice to be honest. It felt like the ball was in the Tunisia half for all the second 45.
 
I thought our style changed when Alli got injured, he stopped getting so far forward and we were easier to defend against. One of the England players said Tunisia changed formation at half time which might be why the second half it was harder to break them down. I think they went 3 5 2 too, I didn't notice to be honest. It felt like the ball was in the Tunisia half for all the second 45.

Nigeria did the same to us in one of the warm up games and we didn't really react well to it might be that this team struggles to change in game when the opposition change tactics we aren't quick to adapt to what they're now doing and find the weaknesses in that system.

I think Tunisia went deep to play for the 1-1 draw they knew the problems they had first half when they tried to push out a bit and take us on.
 
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2 lovely goals by Red Rom feed the big man and he will score and created a great chance for Hazard.

Joint top scorer as it stands.
 
Belgium look ruthless when they get going did it in qualifying as well think they were top scorers.

Win tomorrow and we are through I think both sides will rotate a bit for the final game.
 
Surely we can smash a few past this lot today and go into the Belgium game full of confidence
 
When was the last time we went in to a 3rd game in the group stages without needing a result?
 

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