Mails: England are like supermarket brand Germany…

Sarah Winterburn

Keep those mails coming to theeditor@football365.com

 

Don’t be fooled…that was sh*te
Don’t let anyone tell you that this was a classic England performance because of a lucky Lingard knock down. If this game had finished 0-0 England would have been absolutely lambasted but I don’t think in a friendly the result should be subject to criticism so much as the performance.

We created no real chances other than the penalty not given and the goal and most importantly we played like a team without a plan. We had Rashford, Sterling, Lingard and at least one other cm/wing back at any one time trying to play in the gap between defence and midfield with no one going in behind. If anyone is going to play in that role, they can’t be as static as they were today and when they get the ball it’s all about keeping it in that dangerous area in front of the box until the killer pass can be played. Our forward players just tried to take on four players or play a pass Messi wouldn’t try.

Our main source of attacking play because of this breakdown in the middle came from crosses except Trippier and Rose’s distribution was awful and Rashford and Sterling aren’t the strikers you need in the box for crosses. If we are going to try and play this way, and I sincerely hope we don’t, Vardy would have been a better option as he’s more likely to put away a knock down or get behind his defender, or even (God help us all) Andy Carroll.

This isn’t a criticism of the players or of Southgate and is an issue that’s been around with the England style for years, it’s that there’s no identity in terms of playing style, we just decide whether we’ll try and be Barcelona, Germany or Stoke from game to game. Tactics can be tweaked but changes this radical can’t be made that regularly. Against the Netherlands it looked like we were trying to play like Germany but the difference was like those tins of supermarket brand tomato sauces which they tell you are as good as Dolmio but taste like arse.

This has gotten wildly longer than anticipated so I’ll wrap it up and apologise for moaning so much, whilst I wish I could say I’m an old curmudgeon I’m only 18.
Ben (by 30 I’ll be ringing bells and shouting the end is nigh) MCFC

 

Quietly liking Southgate
Southgate will never be universally loved until he wins every game by at least three goals but he is surprising me and starting to win quite a few people over.

As he’s bright he has noticed that City, Spurs and Liverpool are pretty decent teams and that picking players who have been coached by Pep, Poch and Klopp could be a recipe for success. Complete the team with players with raw talent (Rashford, Lingard, Pickford) from teams with less talented coaches and you’ve got a chance of progressing in Russia.

We’re not going to win the tournament but could we get out of the group and beat someone like Poland in the second round? I can’t see why not.

Final thought, as a Liverpool fan I shouldn’t really like Lingard but I do. For a start he looks like he loves playing the game, he never stops running – not in a headless chicken way either – and he has a knack of finding space. The goal came from not charging into the box because other players were already doing that. Instead he held his position which left him with a relatively easy chance.
Josh (We’re gonna win the Wor…nah) LFC

 

England’s early winners
One friendly down but already we have some early winners.

Danny Rose’s defending was outstanding all night against the Dutch and will be nailed on England left-wing-back if stays fit.

Lingard looks like a starter with his overall performance and first goal. Going from strength to strength.

Maguire came on and looked like a man bullying the Dutch kids. Very good.

We might have a team yet…
@ToonBano (Need Shelvey in there though)

 

Stop the international moaning, England fans
Each and every international break we have the same old rubbish mailed in from the likes of Gregory Whitehead. In it they state that internationals should be done away with because the standard is so low compared to club football and so on.

Now as a Manchester United and Ireland fan I can disagree. Right now the standard of both my teams is fairly low. So going by his standard we should get rid of clubs such as United or West Brom who serve dire football each and every week. It is a nonsense argument. The best club sides in the world can play brutal football one week and then turn around a few days later and play football from the Gods. They train day in day out with each other, know each other closely. Club football is our meat and potatoes. We see it all the time so we remember the best parts more than the worst because we do not have to wait as long.

Internationals are every few months. The players meet for a week. We cannot expect the quality of club football and if the two or so games together go badly, as it normally does for all the nations on these two islands, we remember it for longer. It sours because we know that those results stick with us for six months until we get a chance to right that wrong. Club football you wait a week, internationals nearly a year. Thing is I am an Ireland fan. We have a bunch of honest, but mainly useless, pros who give their all and are the best my country has to offer. We have an OK league here which is underfunded and under publicised. It means that I love my international team because it’s the best football I can witness take place in my country.

I notice it’s always English fans, so called fans, who hate international football. It’s weird. Ye have some potentially wonderful players who you say lack passion. No I don’t think that’s the problem. It’s fans with your view. The pressure put on them to over perform is immense. England fans take for granted that ye do in fact have success. It’s just relative. The “Golden generation” used often make the quarters. That’s the last eight. The best eight in Europe or indeed the World. And still ye’d complain.

We outside of England who read and watch yere media, love and support the clubs in yere country, watch on in bemusement as ye strip down a very decent side. While the English fans go and rip apart another European city due to “bants”. That is horrible to see and thankfully not the issue it once was but obviously still just beneath the surface. To the team who will either be ripped apart as failures tomorrow or if ye win it will be derided as just a friendly. To the injuries you so worry about. The solution is easy. Disband the English team. The players will be a bit of a loss to the world stage but the fans will not be. The rest of us win cause we still get to see our rubbish countries go out and play to their very limited limits. Backed by fans who live in hope rather than expectation and dream not of our previous failures but achieving as much as we can. Maybe if England were disbanded you’d miss it. Till then just back your country and start dreaming.
Ricky, (unsurprisingly Irish) Ireland

 

F365 got it wrong on mental health and Sanchez
Football365 on mental health issues and football’s attitude to them: We should encourage people to be more open about their emotions and not bottle everything up or be nasty to each other.

Football365 on Alexis Sanchez admitting he is feeling emotionally and physically exhausted:

Aw he’s a brave little soldier for admitting he’s a little bit tired. Aw diddums, poor footballer.

Be the change you want to see in the world.
John-Paul, Armagh

 

…Just wanted to say I was slightly disappointed in the ‘brave little soldier’ comment accompanying your article on Sanchez being psychologically and emotionally exhausted. Not sure whether it was sarcastic or patronising or both, but it didn’t seem like a fair or useful comment, nor one that fits with the recent (welcome) trend of getting people to talk more openly about their mental health.

When people talk about not feeling able to talk about mental health, I think it’s often in these contexts. Very few people would openly ridicule a mate who felt able to say clearly ‘I’m depressed’, but it’s the initial subtle conversations that I fear often get dismissed or mocked. A person saying ‘I’m emotionally exhausted’ for example.

I don’t think for a second the intent was malicious, and I may be being overly sensitive – but I do think with stuff as damaging as this it’s better to be over sensitive than under sensitive.
Aaron (still a fan on all but this and your awful opinions on Milner and Henderson) London

 

(For what it’s worth, we did get it wrong with this. I am a little bit disappointed and will amend said article. Apologies to anybody offended – Ed)