Worrying signs when Tunisia scored
Worrying signs when Tunisia scored
 |
| Kane scores the winner against Tunisia |
Tunisia 1 England 2
An Arsenal fan saying they can't celebrate Harry Kane scoring two goals for England and suggesting everyone has forgotten loyalty. That pathetic attitude demonstrates why England never get anywhere in tournaments.You have to be one, all pulling in the same direction, all 100% committed. Raheem Sterling not being bothered to turn up on time for a flight to England training demonstrates playing for England simply doesn't mean enough to him and we saw yet another poor performance from him again yesterday.
Your experts in the studio once again talked about mentality and belief being crucial, something I have banged on about for 5 years. Players should be prepared to do whatever it takes, whatever the manager asks them to do, but players like Sterling don't and aren't prepared to.
That is the difference between winning and losing when you come up against decent sides. Being an unlucky loser isn't enough, it isn't unlucky usually anyway, it's a wrong mentality.
At Tottenham Maurisio Pochettino has created the right atmosphere, the right environment, where everyone is happy, enjoying themselves, where everything is taken care of for them so they can just concentrate on improving themselves and working together as a team.
I am no fan of Gareth Southgate, but he appears to be taking what Pochettino has done at Spurs and be mirroring it almost. The atmosphere is apparently different and happier than previous squads.
Improving is about looking at what you could have done better, even when you win. I used to talk about clinical finishing when we were 2-0, 3-0 up. Clinical finishing isn't something you can just turn on and off.
England were not clinical. You learn to be clinical by finishing when you are 2-0, 3-0 up,you are training yourself to take chances, not having the attitude it doesn' matter if I score or not as we are winning, it does, it is vital for when the score is 0-0 or 1-0 or you are behind, critical that you are trained to be clinical when that chance arrives.
Kane scored with his first ever touch in a World Cup Finals, is he the first player ever to do that? He rescued us at the end when we were bereft of ideas. We scored and were coasting, then a silly penalty and we were suddenly fearful, the confidence was gone.
We struggled to create space, we didn't use the channels well in the second half, we didn't build from the back very well. Walker is not a centre-back, we can't use his pace there, did he make any runs at all, I can't remember one. He was our most defensive player.
 |
| KEY: 1. Pickford 2. Walker 5 Stones 6 Maguire 8 Henderson 18 Young 12 Trippier 20 Alli 7 (under 9) Lingard 9 Kane 10 Sterling |
He played balls too early and gave away possession. It was only whn he drifted into midfield that he picked out a decent pass in behind the full-back for the best player on the pitch, Kieran Trippier.
Walker should have been playing the ball into midfield and the midfielders trying to pick the pass behind the defence to open them up, or travel into midfield with the ball, but would Jordan Henderson have covered?
With only one defensive midfielder he was dragged wide even with Walker there in the second half and the centre was empty. Do that against quality opposition and you are in trouble. Again in the second half, with pressure on Henderson was playing sideways balls that gave the receiver no options.
He was passing for the sake of passing, where he had time to turn and look forward. Part of his role is to play the ball quickly to beat the first line of Tunisian players, giving us time and space between the lines, but that rarely happened. So much more is needed playing that role. he needs to step up a gear if he is to continue there
As soon as we had a bit of pressure we went into our shell and played slow ponderous football, the team, not just Henderson, were passing the ball for the sake of passing. the three behind Kane are there to play the final pass, as well as combine to create or get into scoring positions.
In the first half, 67 of the 93 passes in the final third were successful (72%), in the second half 28 of 43 were successful (65%). A stark difference. Whoscored stats say we had 2 through balls and 62 long balls. We needed through balls from the players immediately behind Kane through the defence. Allof our chances in the second half were from corners.
The final ball was not there, did Sterling take on anyone with his pace or did he just stop and wait, negative instead of positive, he didn't really try to make anything happen. More will be needed from these three and Jesse Lingard can't be missing sitters like he did at this level.
He called for Rashford to leave the ball when he was marked and Rashford had a free shot so you have to question his decision making. Rashford should have been selfish and shot himself.
We had no shots from the left channel at all in 90 minutes. Only 22% of our shots were from outside the area, which suggests we need to shoot more often when around the box. Statistics will tell you the more shots you have the more goals you score.
You have to draw a packed defence out to create space between the lines or go round them on the outside. Playing a right-footed player on the left side stops that so we were playing into their hands in that respect and better teams will appreciate us cutting off an angle of attack in such a way.
If we have that fear against a stronger opposition we'll not create much and we'll be relying on Kane, who Liam Brady says doesn't create chances on his own, to rescue us again.
Overall it was a decent enough performance, we got the win, but there is still plenty to work on. As I said prior to the competition, it is difficult to change the system and expect players to know how to operate it together when the pressure is on.
They will by default do the basics, stay in their shell and pass the buck to someone else. In such circumstances, you are relying on an individual to produce something special like Dries Mertens did for Belgium to open the gates.
We got the start we needed, plenty to work on though.
Post a Comment