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Don't we need some stronger arguments to counter-balance Goals Scored??
Mourinho didn't want Lukaku at his previous club, Chelsea, then he did want him when he went to Man Utd but not enough so as not to feel he needed to bring in an ancient Ibrahimovic the season before last. With the latter and Rooney gone, I doubt that they will just rely on Lukaku and Rashford. It is much the same as Guardiola with the Argentinian Aguero at Man City except that Aguero until quite recently frequently scored three or four in a match. Two is actually a fairly big number for Lukaku in a game although the smart money would always be on him scoring one. I'm not against him. When not injured, he is reliable unlike Hazard at Chelsea who has been known to spend a good half of a season achieveing comparatively little with more than a hint in some quarters that he isn't fully committed. Martinez, at the helm of Belgium now, was a manager I liked but ultimately I became persuaded that his teams were, weirdly given his own footballing positions, naïve defensively. That would have been Everton when under him. It meant that I changed my mind on him being suitable for Arsenal. With De Bruyne who is good, Belgium could go on to win it but then anyone could do. I think the letting in of two against Tunisia is as significant as the impressive five goals.
Good grief.... ever see a half quite like that one? Exhilarating team play and goals, mixed with anxiety for the physical safety of our own players...
Good to see that "holding player down by crudest means possible at corners" is no longer a legit means of defence...for this relief much thanks to VARFIFA...
Lingard fabulous, Kane two great pens....low tactics from the opposition - put to shame by our goals...phew.
Good grief.... ever see a half quite like that one? Exhilarating team play and goals, mixed with anxiety for the physical safety of our own players...
Good to see that "holding player down by crudest means possible at corners" is no longer a legit means of defence...for this relief much thanks to VARFIFA...
Lingard fabulous, Kane two great pens....low tactics from the opposition - put to shame by our goals...phew.
There is no doubt that the culture of humility is working in their favour. Partly it is character - in different ways, Kane, Lingard etc - and partly it is the Hodgson to Southgate era. The biggest problem with Hodgson was the ludicrous decision to have Kane taking corners. Gone are the bombast and player power in club cliques to which Ferdinand has alluded; the WAGs; the global brand managers; and to some extent the advertising. What I am noticing is that it is the ones who are a bit too at ease in promoting product who are having the most lapses - Walker for example. Some of the Panamanian hacking was atrocious - a mixture of cynicism and naivety - and the biggest plus is that we got three key players off the pitch relatively unscathed. This was perhaps counter-balanced by their fans who were a joy. Another plus was the way the mishaps during the week did not detract from England's mission.
Lingard has the wonderful balance that makes doing special things look easy. Won me over with a great goal right in front of us at the LC final, and todays was a lot better than that.
England should get valuable defensive practice against Belgium without too much pressure.
Still really enjoying this world cup. Managing to enjoy some Britten and a beer in the garden too.......
Shame about Panama’s tactics , but they aren’t the only team dishing it out. Refs have been way too lenient on over the top challenges IMO.
Saints CB Jan Bednarek starts for Poland tonight......
England did extremely well against Panama considering they were playing with only 10 men as Raheem Sterling was useless. Loftus-Cheek looked extremely nervous too and had a poor game. No problems at all with the other England players.
I would have liked Phil Jones to have had a run out. I guess he might be playing against Belgium and surely Rashford playing too.
Who would you prefer to avoid in the 2nd round? Probably Colombia after tonight's gift-exhibiting performance. G is a tight group, who knows, but best to try to win our group anyway...but Belgium looked very strong agains Tunisia didn't they? Hazard, Mertens, de Bruyne, Lukaku..talent-studded.... that one needs a very controlled performance, at least to start.
Lovely 2nd goal from Colombia... outside of right foot daisy-cutter... reminded me of Carlos Alberto, all-time classic 4th goal Brazil v Italy 1970...
Who would you prefer to avoid in the 2nd round? Probably Colombia after tonight's gift-exhibiting performance. G is a tight group, but best to try to win our group anyway...but Belgium looked very strong agains Tunisia did't they? Hazard, Mertens, de Bruyne, Lukaku... that one needs a very controlled performance, at least to start.
Lovely 2nd goal from Colombia... outside of right foot daisy-cutter... reminded me of Carlos Alberto, 4th goal Brazil v Italy 1970...
We’ll know what we have to do to try to avoid whoever we want to avoid. ( not sure why group G is in the afternoon.)
At present I’d probably try to avoid Columbia, but since they may well need to beat a decent Senegal team, we may avoid them anyway.
There must be a fair chance we will lose to Belgium and have to face Japan as group G winners, which would be a decent outcome.
Great performance by Columbia, certainly need tactics right against them.
Mind you ,Polands failure was mostly down to Bednarek apparently.....
I will not be pushed, filed, stamped, indexed, briefed, debriefed or numbered. My life is my own.
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