New International Football thread

[bigfluffylemon]

The group for England is pitiful.

indeed

Yep. Win's a win, and England should top the group easily, but it won't tell us anything about their progress (or lack thereof).

[Durhamfootman]

Reece James, take a boo, son, take a boo

a free kick of the highest quality

[Durhamfootman]

Rashford has been tasked with getting behind the defence, which he has done, but not enough quality in any of the passes/crosses. Bellingham has headed over 3 times from good positions. He seems to be getting a bit ratty and has been booked, so I think he's getting a bit frustrated.

Lots of pinball stuff in the box and a couple of brilliant reaction saves from the Latvian keeper

[Durhamfootman]

generally much more positive and a bit more direct from England compared to Friday

[Durhamfootman]

routine 3-0 win

a tap in for Kane and a nice first goal for Eze who made a difference when he came on. Foden replaced Bellingham who skirted quite close to a second yellow and Unsurprisingly Foden was much better in his preferred central role than he ever is when he's pushed out wide

Tuchel got Bowen and Rashford to swap wings in the second half, but it was Eze who stretched the defence when he came on for Bowen and played in Rashford's position.... confused? you will be

Lewis-Skelly was nominally selected as part of a back four, but actually played as a DM and when he was replaced by Walker, James moved into midfield, so it was a back 3 really for England

Konsa was impressive again, Guehi did okay, but got in a pickle early doors in a nearly catastrophic mix up with Pickford. Rice did well, Rogers did okay, as did Kane

Jones came on for Rashford with 15 mins to go, but immediately disappeared

[bigfluffylemon]

Nothing but bitching for 90 minutes on the BBC Sport coverage. A 3-0 win isn't good enough, apparently.

Was it a vintage performance? Clearly not, but job done, and England were never threatened. When a team comes to Wembley with the sole plan to park the bus (Latvia had one shot inside the box all night, off target) it can take a while and some patience to break them down if you don't get an early goal.

But it's not enough these days for England to win comfortably. They have to play 90 scintillating minutes every time they get on the pitch. Grinding out a win? Heaven forbid any England fan might be bored for a few minutes...

[Durhamfootman]

I noticed the paper aeroplanes are still making an appearance, but there you go, it's become a thing, perhaps one for Sir Gareth to add to his list of achievements

Wembley crowds have long been fickle. I thought Latvia did pretty well, tbh. They came with a game plan, albeit very negative, and largely kept their shape throughout, frustrating England and certainly frustrating Bellingham. If England produced a few more quality crosses from the wingers, then it could have been a much bigger scoreline, but they did well enough whilst getting used to the new manager.

The days of endless back passing seem to have gone, so I take that as progress