England v San Marino tonight

[LowMoorBoro]

Without being disrespectful to them, it's San Marino.

Scotland beat them 6-0 at home in the Euros qualifiers, and Scotland have far less quality in their side.

Even with their keeper playing a blinder, we should have scored far more.

How few defenders could you get away with against them. 1 centre back, 2 full backs and a centre mid playing deep? They offer nothing going forward and just sit deep, so just push most players forward.

 

[MFP]

Mings there again at the end with his trademark stupidity. Are we so lacking in left-footed CBs right now that this clown keeps getting picked?

85% possession
93% passing success
NINE-HUNDRED AND NINE Passes
15 shots on target

They were very lucky to come out of it with a 5-0 defeat, their keeper kept the score down and Lingaards greed probably stopped us getting a couple more goals.

This kind of technical ability would never have happened even 5 years ago, and this team was arguably our reserves, with Kane, Grealish, Rashford, Sako, Sancho, Alexander-Arnold, Maguire, Maddison, Shaw, Henderson, Walker, Barnes, Gomez, Keane, and Barkley not on the pitch.

And many of those you've mentioned are reserves too. What's the point?

 

[Randy]

Nope.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1375149639628886024

Some weird selections there.

No start for Shaw who's in brilliant form.

 

[MFP]

Some weird selections there.

No start for Shaw who's in brilliant form.

As has Chilwell, who I thought was our best player tonight and would have had a great goal to his name if not for an oustansing save. I reckon he'll probably be first choice LB going forward.

 

[BoroMart]

How few defenders could you get away with against them. 1 centre back, 2 full backs and a centre mid playing deep? They offer nothing going forward and just sit deep, so just push most players forward.

We effectively played 2 defenders and a CDM, because both FBs were high up the pitch. We probably didn't need the CDM to be fair.

Even with their keeper playing a blinder, we should have scored far more.

It doesn't always work like that, you can batter teams and through no ones fault as such not get the rub of the green. We created chances at will and beat them comfortably with our reserve team, that's all you can ask for

 

[Boro_Legend]

Joy to watch tonight.

 

[Laughing]

Joy to watch tonight.

Not for me I lost 2 pound. Didn't even get a chance to trade out for 500 quid.

 

[TheBoroBuzzard]

Albania away won’t be easy on Sunday, they are a lot better than they used to be

 

[Cambsred]

That's the first England game i've watched in ages. I thought it was pedestrian and we really didn't create as many good chances as I was expecting. We played with the ball a lot outside the box which looks good on the stats and possession.

Always hard to get goals when 21 players are in the same half- was very crowded at times, but Scotland managed more than us.

I look forward to a better opposition to see where we are up to as a Nation, as on paper we have a really great squad but gelling that many good midfielders/ attacking players may be a challenge.

 

[BoroMart]

Always hard to get goals when 21 players are in the same half- was very crowded at times, but Scotland managed more than us.

I don't think you can read a lot into that, you still get three points for battering San Marino 5-0 or 10-0, it's how you do against the better sides that matter, and we are far more capable than most at that. Yes an extremely talented Belgium side seem to have our number right now, but it won't last and they're probably the only team that would be heavy favourites against us in a match right now

 

[bear66]

I thought Chilwell, Mount, Lingard and Sterling provided some energy in the first half and played some nice football getting players free in the penalty area. Second half was utter dross.

 

[BoroMart]

I thought Chilwell, Mount, Lingard and Sterling provided some energy in the first half and played some nice football getting players free in the penalty area. Second half was utter dross.

second half was largely a training session with a few players given minutes that would normally be nowhere near the squad.

I thought Lingard was poor, made the wrong decision repeatedly, trying to shoot through players all the time or shoot when a better pass was on. If we had a smarter footballer like Maddison on the pitch I reckon we would have scored at least 2 more.

 

[bear66]

second half was largely a training session with a few players given minutes that would normally be nowhere near the squad.

I thought Lingard was poor, made the wrong decision repeatedly, trying to shoot through players all the time or shoot when a better pass was on. If we had a smarter footballer like Maddison on the pitch I reckon we would have scored at least 2 more.

He clearly wanted a goal and agree made wrong decisions, but he was also the outlet for Chilwell and Mount if they ran out of ideas.

 

[Cambsred]

He clearly wanted a goal and agree made wrong decisions, but he was also the outlet for Chilwell and Mount if they ran out of ideas.

I agree. Lingard's movement and positioning was good to get the chances he had. He just wanted that goal too much, leading to the poor decision making.