Re: Bamford for England
Posted: 06 Sep 2021, 07:58
Must have got fed up making runs for the ball that was never been played.
The sideways, backwards, across, back to the goalie, across, 10 yard pass backwards, etc, etc. bores the pants off me and I skip more matches than I watch TBH. These international weeks are like needless interruptions to proper footballCosty wrote:Bamford suffered from the common England malaise of every player taking too many touches on the ball and allowing any space they might have had to be shut down, leading to a lot of sideways and backwards passing. He was constantly looking to make runs and was just never picked out. When they do things quickly, with one and two touches, they make chances. I've never understood it. I do feel like reaching the semis and final of the last tournaments has made us look better than we actually are. We're hard working, determined and hard to beat but we are not very creative at all.
I lost count of the number of times England had the ball on the right or left of the Andorra penalty area. Three passes later it was with a back four player on the centre line.Tedbaker wrote:Mmm - I don’t understand the antipathy towards England.
They are the most successful team since the 66 team. And you can’t blame Southgate as it’s a results business. The game against Andorra was always going to be difficult because the way they defend. TBH the Burnley game was more frustrating to me because we kept losing the ball and we’re bereft of ideas. The football at Turf Moor was so poor. It is difficult to break down teams like this without lots of players breaking from midfield and I thought England did quite well in the first half considering it’s a second team and they haven’t had much time together. Andorra was never going to be a classic.
As for Paddy, he was on a loser to nothing. He was only employed to keep them busy whilst they tried to break them down from midfield. There was no chance of a quick transition with Andorra playing the way they did.
I think there’s a lot more to come from this England team and for the first time they have a number of real talented game changers. Bellingham I looks like he might be a real talent in the future and him and Saka are so young. So I don’t share this negative attitude personally.
I think you have, in a way. answered your own questions about the negativity - England are statistically one of the world's best teams, while Andorra are at the other end of the scale. Did England play like a great team? Was the entertainment level high? I say no to both, and I am an England fan (though I usually avoid friendlies because they are, to me, pointless, just like club friendlies too).Tedbaker wrote:Andorra make the best of what they’ve got. Yes they’re not good. But no-one has beaten them by 4 in the recent past because of the way they play. I’m not advocating that England were World beaters but they were tidy - for the most part - and professional. I am not sure throwing balls in the box would have yielded much, especially with Paddy who’s not that kind of target man.
I just don’t get the negativity. Most top teams take care of the ball now - Chelsea and City for instance.
Because usually it's not entertaining. More often than not it is dull/tedious and when we have a chance of achieving anything we fail.Tedbaker wrote:Mmm - I don’t understand the antipathy towards England.
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ThisCosty wrote:I love supporting England in tournaments, but I think you'd have to have serious rose tinted glasses on to try and claim we were as good as a World Cup semi final and Euros final would normally suggest a team were. Very fortunate with the routes in both. In all the matches from both tournaments there was only one where we beat a team that was anywhere near comparable to us, and that was Germany. Beating them was a great result. In the world cup Belgium beat us twice and we never looked like winning the Croatia game. Italy outclassed us in the final of the Euros, and in fact the way we beat Denmark left a bad taste in my mouth with the dodgy penalty. Like I said, England players always give it everything, we're hard to beat and we're too powerful for the minnows and average teams, but I never feel like we're at the top table. In my view if we'd met any of Italy, Belgium, France, Spain or probably even Portugal earlier in the tournament I think we'd have likely been knocked out.