bigdunk

There's a second contact on his hip from the other side too. It's not *masses* of contact, but it's more than enough to stop him getting to the ball and cutting it back. Definite pen for me. He's not going to ground already either - people lean forward when they run, he doesn't start actually going over until after the contact on his hip.

That first image is really quite deceptive, it makes it look like he slid in with his foot at that height. In reality, he's barely moving forward and his foot is only at that height because of the natural follow-through of his foot after kicking the ball. The Ukraine player basically runs onto his upraised foot. It's a bit like this one: Which was given a red card by VAR and then later rescinded on appeal. I'm not saying it's not necessarily a red card, but if it is, then basically you're saying it's against the rules to kick a bouncing ball if there's a player within ~5 yards.

Honestly feels like we’ve already decided we’ve lost the midfield battle, so we’re not even trying to compete there. Cling onto a clean sheet, and hope either Trippier drops a set piece on someone’s head or we manage to break with Sterling or Saka.

It seems bizarre to me that we've gone from being desperate to cram as many of Lampard/Gerrard/Scholes into the team as possible, to trying to find ways to fit as few of Foden/Mount/Grealish etc in. That team in the quoted post is a team full of players who run around a lot and not a whole lot else. The only player that can really pick a pass is Henderson, and I'm 99% sure he won't even be playing anyway.

Without digging through every game he's played I can't say for all of them, but there have definitely been England games where he's been given MOTM and I thought other players played better.

Trolling aside, MOTM is a really bad guide at how well players have played, especially if it's sponsor or fan picked. It always seems to go to the player who's done the one most flashy thing in the game (scored the best goal, did the best dribble etc), not the player who's actually played the best. Especially with someone like Grealish, who fans have been clamouring to play - he was always going to get MOTM if he did anything entertaining in the game. Plus what Rob said.

That a couple of half decent dribbles per game distracts people from the constant falling over and giving the ball away?

It’s a rule.

They're training away from the rest of the squad. But they'll presumably have missed any tactical sessions/meetings etc, so that might count against them.

So if my maths is right, if we finish top of the group, Mount and Chilwell can play in the round of 16 on the 29th. If we finish 2nd, they can't play on the 28th?

All he needs to say is something like "I prefer the balance of having a pacy threat in behind on one side and a clever player tucking in on the other, and I'm happy with how Sterling is filling the first role, Sancho will get his chance". You can disagree with his preference, or his rating of how Sterling has done, but at least it's a rational and coherent argument.

Sancho has more top-flight league appearances, and more Champions league appearances, than Phil Foden and Mason Mount, who've started both games. Baffling argument.

Saka wasn’t on the bench tonight. Him, White and Walker were the 3 to miss out.

Kane was garbage, Rice and Phillips spent the entire game trying to play the exact same position, net result was that we were trying to play possession football with about 9 men. Southgates solution was to put Rashford up front and play big diagonals to him. Baffled. Awful, awful performance.