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The Road to Russia 2018

Germany fans respect our National Anthem. First note of their anthem starts and all you can hear is a chorus of boos from the England fans.

There really is so many things I hate about International football.
 
Germanys tactics are quite obviously let the 3 CBs have it. Resulting in them, Dier and Livermore passing sideways and backwards
 
Big surprise England fans belting out the German bombers song, just embarrassing.
 
Playing pretty well if not as good as Clive and Glenda are making out. Livermore is shit though.
 
Playing pretty well if not as good as Clive and Glenda are making out. Livermore is $#@! though.

I do feel for Livermore, he's trying his best he's just not good enough. He's Southgate's Carlton Palmer moment.
 
Really poor game this, didn't expect anything else with a friendly at such a pivotal part of a season England the better of the two.
 
Deli Ali needs to be scoring there.

Don't think Livermore has done too badly - he's made a couple of decent tackles winning the ball back in good areas. Moot point as he'll literally never be a first choice England international moving forward.
 
Terrible miss from Alli. Opens up giving him the whole goal to aim at, near or far post. Then get it all wrong hitting straight at keeper
 
England could easily be 3-0 up with the chances missed. All about performance's really results are a side issue in these friendly games.
 
Fair play, that's just a great strike.
 
Yeah but Cahill tucking his arms in making himself as thin a target as possible... Just let it hit you FFS.
 
Really poor game this, didn't expect anything else with a friendly at such a pivotal part of a season England the better of the two.

These games are just a waste of time. Last year we England came from two down to beat Germany, yet come the real business, they won the European championships and we lost to Iceland.
 
These games are just a waste of time. Last year we England came from two down to beat Germany, yet come the real business, they won the European championships and we lost to Iceland.

I thought Portugal won....?
 
Some of the football was pretty decent. The pressing was exactly what I'd be looking for from an England team, we created more than enough chances (got to take them of course) and while I'm not sold on a back three it worked ok, Keane looked very comfortable even when pulled into the channels, if we replace Cahill with Stones then we might have the basis of something there.

Concerns would be:

1) Vardy and to a lesser extent Rashford only ever look for the ball in behind, always trying to play on the shoulder. Nothing wrong with that being the general thrust of how they play but there are plenty of times where they need to be showing for the ball when the AMs have it and they just don't. Leaves us nowhere to go other than back out to the wing backs.

2) If you're playing three centre halves, two wing backs who are genuine full backs in their own right and Dier as a DM, you really could and should be going for someone more expansive than Livermore in midfield. He tried hard, he was disciplined enough but his use of the ball is really poor. You could go with Barkley in there and give him licence to play, almost like an old Brazilian style of five defending, five attacking. Of course we'll stick bloody Henderson there when he's fit again.

3) It's laudable to try new tactical ideas but realistically in our set of qualifiers...when are we ever going to need three centre halves? Are we really going to set up that way at home to Lithuania on Sunday? They're going to play one isolated striker who'll be lucky to have 20 touches in the game. So we either stick with the shape even though it's not really suitable for the opposition...or we have to switch back and forth and only really go with this formation in friendlies against good teams for the next 14 months or so, and we don't have that many of them.

I'd rather watch that kind of performance than BFS' shite, mind.
 
----------------Kane-----------------
----Sterling---------------Alli-------
---------Lallana-----Barkley--------
-----------------Dier-----------------
Shaw---Stones---Smalling--Walker
-----------------Hart----------------

With all players fit and 100%, I would be pushing this starting 11. Difficult to write it out on a 'screen'. It's basically a flexible 4-3-3 (Dier, Lallana, Barkley the midfielders - Sterling, Kane, Alli the 'forwards').

Lallana and Barkley are both creative enough to hurt players as they move forward when we have the ball, but are also both disciplined enough to sit if they need to, or to drop in alongside Dier when we don't have the ball.

Shaw needs to prove himself fit and reliable long term, but we have Rose to step in if required. I've never massively rated Bertrand at international level. For Southampton he takes players on, gets in behind and whips crosses in. For England I've never seen him attack a full back - he seems to always pass the ball back to a centre half. So hopefully Shaw can step up in the long term.

But the 11 above allows Sterling and Alli to pull the strings behind Kane. Lallana has been playing in a deeper role at Liverpool this season and he's been excellent - he can play that role for England and is also creative enough to drop in to pockets of space and open teams up with his skill and passing.

I don't want to see players like Henderson, Carrick, Livermore (although he did ok last night) & Milner near the starting 11 moving forward.
 
Barkley can't play there yet.

I'm OK to stick with this 3-4-3 style.

It is a system that Walker, Rose, Alli and Kane are hugely comfortable in and has seen them excel.

It negates our true lack of wide options and allows the likes of Alli, Sterling, Barkley etc to play where they play at club level.

Henderson has been good for Liverpool this season whenever I've seen him in the 'deeper' role. I'd have him in there over Dier who should be considered as an option at the back. I'd like to see Lallana alongside him against the weaker teams.

Not overly fussed who plays at centre half as none of them stand out. Cahill, Smalling, Stones, Keane, Jones, Dier is OK if nothing outstanding.

---------------------Hart------------------

--------Dier-----Stones-----Cahill------

Walker----Henderson-----Lallana---Rose

-----------Alli------------Sterling--------

------------------Kane------------------
 
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