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mesmerised
24 Jun 26 00:30
Joined:
Date Joined: 10 Nov 10
| Topic/replies: 39,514 | Blogger: mesmerised's blog
Although Ghana had all 11 players behind the ball, they didn't even actually defend for their lives did they, they didn't need to, they just shuffled about from side to side following the slow, ponderous passing and moving of the England players, Declan Rice's corners were completely unimaginative, there was no pre-planned routine for them that you'd expect - it was old school out swinger into the mixer where's there 100 bodies all clambering for the same ball, time after time after time he did that.

Tuchel screaming at Djed Spence telling him what to do, it was reminiscent of Mourinho's comments on Luke Shaw, "his body, my brain" or even from that Graham Taylor documentary, yelling 'Carlton, CARLTON' every 5 seconds, he may run fast but when it comes to tactics, Spence has  an empty hard drive.

When we had the ball in our own halves, we were literally walking with it towards the half way line, that's because the England players knew there was going to be little to no pressing, has nobody told these Pros who've been in the game 10+ years at all levels, that speed kills, it took them 80 minutes to realise if you pass and move quicker you create more open spaces and cause problems.

I cannot believe Barca have signed Gordon for 70 million, even when factoring in potential given his age, when has he ever remotely looked liked a player that's worth that much ? he looks technically very poor, loses the ball more often than not when taking a man on with pace being the only thing he's really got going for him, that and a good penalty record. I'd take Rashford any day of the week. Barca don't realise it yet but they've signed a dud who's lack of technical ability will be shown up when stood up next to the likes of Yamal and Raphina week in and week out.

Madueke put in some good balls today into the box but nobody there to finish it off, yet I'm hearing people criticising him, what are they watching? at least he was creating something even if his own shooting ability is Championship standard, his crossing ability is Champions League level.

Konsa doesn't look good enough to be an England international, he was poor against Croatia, responsible for one of the goals and if that tackle in the box against Ghana was varred, he'd having given away a penalty as well as it wasn't in doubt. He's strictly Europa League level and a far cry from the players Terry and Rio were.

Having said all that, I think against certain top sides like Brazil and France we may do OK as they'll will allow for more attacking options and available space to run into. If we run into Spain or Argentina however it'll be a different story, nobody closes down, hurries and harasses players as well as the Argies, given how uncomfortable English players are on the ball for any length of time, wouldn't fancy our chances, the Spanish would just pass around and through us with consummate ease.


Kind Regards
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Report jasstardust June 24, 2026 12:45 AM BST
embarrassing
Report tobermory June 24, 2026 1:09 AM BST
Barca must be thinking they have spaffed £69M up the wall
Report tobermory June 24, 2026 1:11 AM BST
Apart from the stonewall penalty there was no pundits mention of Pickford wiping out the Ghana player. Looked like a straight red.

Very lucky to get a draw.
Report ----you-have-to-laugh--- June 24, 2026 7:17 AM BST
At first view I thought pickford had wiped him out.

But ref got it spot on, he lost control of ball and cleaned
out pickford.

Ponderous is kind, apparently Spence was picked for his
defensive capability, which seems an error by Tuchel against
a team with very limited attacking intent.
Report cool_hand_luke June 24, 2026 8:42 AM BST
England just need to use the information from that game properly. Nothing’s gone wrong yet — it’s about learning who’s actually performing and picking teams for each match, not one fixed XI. No one wins a World Cup in the second game, they only risk losing one. Spain and Portugal both reacted to poor draws with big performances, so the next match will tell us far more about England’s potential and whether the manager can interpret what’s happened. I’d expect Gordon to move into second choice and the back four to be adjusted even with the clean sheet. Truth is, this was just a return to their usual level — the Croatia game flattered them because Croatia chased it and England were younger and fitter.

The real takeaway from the match is that most England fans are only real Fans when they are winning. Happy to slag the same group off the minute it doesn't go 100% correct.
Report 1st time poster June 24, 2026 8:46 AM BST
ENGLAND and football MsM in a nutshell,pundits/presenter at HT almpot mocking the fact KONsA had more touches in 1st half than entire Ghana 11, unable to work out for themselves that Ghana/quiros had plenty 4 days coaching finding a way to play/defend that meant Konsa/guhie/Pickford had most touches of the ball for England,its like when teams park the bus against pep,s city and diaz as 300 touches in attacking half,its a sign of failure not success, one of rice or Elliot shouldnt have started but as they did 95% of konsa touche should have been touched/played by rice or Elliot
Report ----you-have-to-laugh--- June 24, 2026 8:51 AM BST
95% of konsa touche should have been touched/played by rice or Elliot


Spot on, preferably Anderson, with rice freed up, although
rice looked a bit tired.

Could have played Henderson, who can pass the ball.
Report 1st time poster June 24, 2026 9:17 AM BST
it was actually painful to watch konsa and ghuie trying to pass the ball 5 yds to each other ,every pass took an age no snap,crisp passing at pace
Report DIE LINKE June 24, 2026 9:34 AM BST
At least it means we get a couple of days off from Rice creaming himself over Tuchel's team talks.
Report salmon spray June 24, 2026 9:41 AM BST
A major problem seems to be that we only have 3 specialist full-backs and 6 centre backs ( 3 of whom have yet to appear.) James and O'Reilly are OK ( not great ). Spence isn't even that. What happens if one or more get injured. We will have to put Burn or Quansah up against some of the exceptional wingers in the tournament. That's curtains.
Report elisjohn June 24, 2026 9:47 AM BST
what shocking really is that again weve gone through all the qualifying games and friendlies, and the manager still doesnt know his best team to put out
Report ----you-have-to-laugh--- June 24, 2026 9:48 AM BST
James is decent, but burn might be our best left back.
Report mesmerised June 24, 2026 9:49 AM BST
The real takeaway from the match is that most England fans are only real Fans when they are winning. Happy to slag the same group off the minute it doesn't go 100% correct.

What is you expect fans to do, get their pom poms out and start cheerleading wildly like some demented Justin Bieber fangirl, we're not Scotland, we have standards to set and a World Cup to win, you lot are riding around America on yellow buses honking at anything that moves in the hope you win FIFA's best fans award Laugh

Home before the post cards again, by the time we're home we'll probably have a new Prime Minister Laugh

Kind Regards.
Report morpteh mackem June 24, 2026 10:08 AM BST
1986 and 1990wc  teams that started weren't the teams that finished -  as long as necessary changes are made ( no Madueke, Gordon, Spence )  might still get to 1/4s or even semis.
Report SirNorbertClarke June 24, 2026 10:11 AM BST
Palmer, Foden.
Report tanglefoot June 24, 2026 10:22 AM BST
England looked very pedestrian and had no creative ideas how to break down the defence,corners were same old same old,no short corners.
Harry Kane looks jaded already,thought he had to do too much in the first game,striker,midfield,defending
Report 1st time poster June 24, 2026 10:42 AM BST
leat we forget.nor should we but 5 days ago Lee Dixon spent 90 mins telling us,repeatedly  and even said he wouldn't apologise for it,that DECLAN RICE is the best dead ball taker in the world, had 10 attempts with his banjo to hit a cows Arris last night and missed with  everyone
Report ALIEN SEX FIEND June 24, 2026 11:46 AM BST
Trying to be objective as I am not English, England have a pool of over 40 talented players. Swap them around and you always feel you will get the same result. It is easier to defend than attack. Going left, going right, going left again, England do it at such a slow pace the defence is constantly resetting.  England can look good against teams coming onto them, if they defend against England and they well organised, England cannot work it out. England has some great players in the EPL, on the international stage not so much. The difference is the EPL has the cream of the World playing alongside the best England players. They even struggled to score against Andorra in qualifying. Allowing for the fact some players maybe carrying injuries, Rice, Bellingham & Saka are hardly pulling up trees. Bellingham seems to have metaphorically not trained on, he cuts a frustrated figure that has carried over from Real Madrids season.  You could have brought Foden and Palmer in, however study their last 2 years of play, they have not been very good. TT on the sidelines is pulling his hair out.
Report ----you-have-to-laugh--- June 24, 2026 11:54 AM BST
Tuchel likes to hold teams in, or so it seems, which can
be counter productive against a low block.

Let them have ball a bit, get them out of position and hit them.

Anderson as a 6 plays quite advanced, so less space for us, and so
easy for them to hit a long ball over him into acres and they are at us.

Mbappés eyes would be lit up.

Same at forest, pretty sure maresca will fix him if they end up together.
Report lurka June 24, 2026 11:55 AM BST
They assumed Ghana would defend higher and made their gameplan based on that and stopping Ghana's counters (Tuchel said this on pitch afterwards). Didn't change it until very late despite Ghana offering zero space in behind from the start and not offering much on the counter.

Should have allowed Ghana out a bit more and hit them quickly before they sat in again but with both Rice and Anderson in midfield that was never going to happen. No need for both of them.
Report differentdrum June 24, 2026 12:38 PM BST
Perhaps they are just not that good? Perhaps football in general isn't that good? Old age pensioners are still getting in on the act. More money swilling into the game doesn't mean the actual game is any better. Two ways to break a team down, other than set pieces - dribbling and passing. Dribbling has disappeared from the game as defences have become more organised. Speed has become the number one factor in beating players. No real trickery, or new inventions. Slow passing is never going to work, or at least it shouldn't. Are England unable to produce a much higher tempo, or just too lazy. Even if they had the ability, do they really care enough? If we really did have some dominant sides, would anyone be putting England in the mix? Chances are talked up purely because of a general level of mediocrity. I was watching a few clips of Tony Yeboah last night. He used to top the Bundesliga charts with around 20 goals a season. Kane scores bags more, but is he anywhere near as good a player? I don't think so.
Report ----you-have-to-laugh--- June 24, 2026 12:48 PM BST
Err, yeah, some good points, and dominant teams
can afford to carry a finisher, whereas non dominant
teams need more tactical nouce to create chances.

Domination of possession does not always lead to
domination of a match result, and a top striker helps convert
domination into results.

Yeboah probably scores more for bayern than he did
at frankfurt, but not as many as kane at bayern.

Yeboah was far more dynamic than kane, but it's a trade off
in a top team.
Report brentford June 24, 2026 12:48 PM BST
Not always Shearer's biggest fan but considering conditions meant you could play with decent tempo - first half everything was way too slow and safe..

2nd half was a bit better but should have made a sub a bit earlier as a wake up call to the rest of the team and could have tried switching the wide players over to allow them to get on the outside of defenders instead of always cutting in which whilst the norm these days wasn't working...one of Madueke's best moments was an excellent cross from the left when he was briefly moved there..

all that said - every team in the tournament will have at least one bang average game and no real damage done, so try and learn from it and move on..
Report 1st time poster June 24, 2026 1:17 PM BST
more worried about what others learn about us, like pep did against ARSENAL in LG cup final no team needs to play the high press against eng and risk getting caught on break/transition,like pep did to arsenal CB, and quiro did last night ,teams will just play the 4 man screen leaving Pickford/konsa/gheui on the ball to find the spaces/midfielder behind the screen,stones has more ability on the ball than konsa/quehi so will return
Report penzance June 24, 2026 3:29 PM BST
I did think that Watkins would've got 10 min's at least last night.
Something different for the Ghana defence to think about.Kane was
more or less non existent last night although he didn't get the
greatest of service saying that.
Report brians June 24, 2026 4:26 PM BST
We will leave this world either on penalties or a horrendous Pickford mistake. Just my opinion
Report brians June 24, 2026 4:26 PM BST
That read wrong . Cup after World !!
Report salmon spray June 24, 2026 6:59 PM BST
An horrendous Trump mistake and you could have been right the first time.
Report FATTIEWHITEYSLOVEADRINK June 24, 2026 9:50 PM BST
Can’t believe it’s same old mistakes
Why didn’t we take Rio ???
Do we need to play rice and Anderson together
For such a Match

Both full backs where poor too
Report lurka June 24, 2026 10:12 PM BST
I'd say Toney might have been a better option than Watkins
Report mesmerised June 24, 2026 10:37 PM BST
He should bench Kane, Rice, Bellingham etc, don't need them for Panama still.

Start Toney, Rashford, Henderson, Burn etc, give the second string a run  out as it's the only chance he'll have all tournament.
Report kincsem June 25, 2026 6:14 PM BST
What actually went wrong for England tonight

England always go into the World Cup as near-favourites (UK market).
It is patriotic money that has them near the top of the betting.
More realistically England are a team that should reach the quarter-finals but not get to the semi-finals.
It is the usual story: great qualifying campaign; good WC group performance; not so easy afterwards.

Harry Kane and Jordan Pickford may be weaknesses.
But it is great TV viewing, the merchandise has been sold, and there may be a few more games.
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