Southgate has to reinvent himself quickly.
Starting tonight.
Because Croatia 0 England 0 was pitiful and inept and annoying.
A big opportunity was wasted.
Croatia are in tatters after retirements and controversies and a 6-0 thrashing from Spain, the worst result in their history. And they had no crowd to cheer them on in Rijeka on Friday night.
Unfortunately, Southgate didn’t realise they were there for the taking!
Because was too scared of losing, as most England managers are.
Henderson-Dier-Barclay is not a midfield, not in a million years.
We needed a smaller, nippier guy like Harry Winks to buzz around, get the ball, move it, stay available, get it again, keep a move going, give us some fluency and more variation.
This was our starting eleven: Pickford/ Walker, Stones, Maguire, Chilwell/ Barkley, Henderson, Dier/ Kane, Sterling, Rashford.
I knew before kick-off that eleven would not function. Not tonight, not ever
After six minutes, Henderson tugged Rakitic in the centre circle and was booked by German ref Felix Brych. So he’s out of tonight’s game against Spain.
I was in Brac when England lost 2-1 to Spain but recorded the game and watched it when we came back from holiday.
With Luis Enrique now in charge, the new Spain is young, fiery, energetic and very aggressive, just like their manager.
We can’t win this game, it will be Jordan Pickford against Spain in front of a 60,000 crowd in Seville. Therefore we should put Jadon Sancho in the starting line up and give us somebody new to talk about.
Joe Gomez and Harry Winks will start, adding speed to the defence and mobility to the midfield, and Jadon Sancho deserves his second senior cap.
His age is irrelevant.If they’re good enough, they’re old enough to start matches. Another cameo will not help Jadon because when he comes on for the last 20 minutes the game will already be over.
In tonight’s game, a 4-2 defeat will be a good result.
The mistakes in Rejika are ancient history now, so we have to look forward
On Friday night in Croatia we did everything wrong. After 11 minutes we were playing keep-ball in our own penalty area. We couldn’t pass, we couldn’t shoot, we missed chance after chance. Kane and Rashford could not hit a barn door and as Raheem dithered in the box, looking for support that never arrived, I was shouting, “Make up your mind!”
Rashford, still only 20, has been fast, powerful and promising for years but hasn’t really delivered for England.
It was soul-destroying because we had had lost the tempo and momentum we had in Russia and not replaced it with fluency or intelligence or professional finishing
I sat there thinking: We’re too thick and clumsy to play football! And we miss Trippier, big time!
At 8.12 pm, after 27 minutes of this farcical “match” behind closed doors, I switched off the pictures and went over to the BBC radio commentary on my Samsung TV.
I’VE NEVER DONE THAT BEFORE.
All through Alf Ramsey and Ron Greenwood and Don Revie and Bobby Robson and Graham Taylor and Terry Venables and Glenn Hoddle, I never switched off the TV pictures during a game. Even under Kevin Keegan, who should never have had the job, I never switched off England on my TV.
But I did that on Friday night because Southgate’s England were unbearable to watch.
Switching over to radio, I felt disloyal to Martin Tyler and my old mate Alan Smith. In the circumstances, their commentary had been exemplary.
On Radio 5 Live, Chris Waddle said, “It’s boring, John. It’s terrible to watch.”
No TV commentator can ever admit a match is that bad.
But Waddle tells it like it is. He talks sense and always has. I’m glad he’s a pundit now. I used to call Chris up and do pieces with him. Enjoyed our chats hugely.
Well said, Chris!
That was a memorable moment: “It’s boring John. It’s terrible to watch.”
Nice to know we’re still on the same page.
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