My evaluation of players against Croatia

[witton8ter]

Pickford - 8 He's a rock, great determination, no chance with goals.

Walker - 8 Played his heart out. Yellow card was a joke.

Stones - 6 Played a steady game, but not at his best.

Maguire - 5 Tried but nothing came off in the box, played out of position a lot.

Trippier - 9 Ran himself into the ground, great goal.

Young - 5 Not really up to this level of competition, probably past his best.

Henderson - 5 Not at his best either, mediocre.

Lingard - 5 Out of his depth against this level of competition, too naive.

Alli - 4 He tries to be too flash and makes too many mistakes, not just in this game. 
Biggest disappointment of the tournament.

Kane - 5 Worked hard in the wrong places, best finisher we've got played more like a midfielder.

Sterling - 7 Biggest threat we had up front, really worried them but need Kane with him.


Croatia - Generally superior, Rakitic much better than Modric. A couple of players lucky not to be booked several times.
Ref very kind to them in first half.

Referee - Total plonker, some decisions terrible.

[bubba]

PICKFORD - 8 - exposed by poor defending for goals,  good distribution in the main and one great stop with his knee when he raced out to meet the attacker.

WALKER - 5 - not a CB and now and again it shows with positioning and decision making

STONES - 5 - some hairy passing at the back (goes for others too putting themselves under pressure)  threw himself into a few blocks, lost concentration for winner

MAGUIRE - 6 - a few typical runs with the ball forward,  just wide with one header,  defended well in the air,  like others not his best game

TRIPPIER - 7 - great goal, generally good 1st half,  no attacking threat after H/T and left exposed by formation defensively as Croatia loaded up in wide areas

YOUNG - 4 - his worst game,  not much going forward and offered little resistence to attacks down his side, again formation didn't help him,  looked all his 33 years

HENDERSON - 4 - even when England were on top was fairly annonymous,  possibly still carrying a knock but game passed him by, subbed fairly early.

LINGARD -6 - decent first half and some good runs,  after half time on the periphery and chasing shadows as Croatia upped their tempo and movement

ALLI - 6 - surprised he lasted,  clearly not 100% fit,  tried to make runs and knit things together,  again little resistence to Croatia midfield domination in 2nd half

STERLING - 8 - running at them especially 1st half terrified them and should have led to at least another goal for us,  influence diluted as Croatia got a grip

KANE - 5 - shooting boots left in dressing room,  too often drifting out wide,  only became less of a threat as he dropped deeper to accommodate Rashford

Rashford -5 - willing runner but lacked quality to make a difference

Rose - 6 - had to brought on to try and shore up the left which he did a little whilst made a couple of good surging runs and one good cross

Dier - 4 - made no difference replacing Henderson and game passed him by

Vardy N/A - only on a few minutes

SOUTHGATE - 9 - 1st half - surprised Croats with tactics pushing Sterling right up on defenders and some long forward passing getting the ball forward quicker

SOUTHGATE - 4 - 2nd half - slow to react to change in Croatian tactics and when he did he tinkered when he needed to be more radical, in fairness lack of options in reserve but a lot of the problems were caused by the space Croatia had in the middle of the pitch.  3-5-2 had served England well but a change to 4-5-1 or 4-4-1-1 before the hour mark would have stopped the wingbacks being doubled up on and the Croatian midfield dragging our midfield 3 all over the place and passing round them,  at least it could have slowed the momentum the Croats built up,  it was obvious the Croatian equaliser was coming.

[Deleted]

I think Walker shouldn't be diving to head the clearance and may have stood more chance standing his ground.

We had the first half hour but should have reacted to them stepping up that 15 before the break they were starting to dominate the middle and we could have brought on Loftus-Cheek for Alli. I have found it strange given what we saw of Loftus-Cheek that Alli for me not match fit and sharp enough should really have been the better option for most of the games.

It's harsh on Henderson because he was fighting a losing battle on his own as the only holding man.

I thoroughly believe that a change at half time albeit more defensive would have enabled us to get a stranglehold at the start of the second half.

Kane surely had to be carrying a knock because he literally went missing at half time never to be seen.

Rashford is heading down the road of becoming the next Darius Vassell, bags of pace but easy to snuff out.


Being harsh Rose and Alli would have perhaps been best not to take if they were trying to get fit. Dier seems a bit to plodder ish.

Thinking long term if you are looking to 2022 - You look to eventually push out Young, Henderson, Dier, Vardy, Welbeck, Cahill, Jones and maybe Rashford.

Then we need to hope Foden, Hudson-Odoi, Baker, Solanke, Sessegnon, Gomez, Maddison and Alexander-Arnold all step up well.

Southgate has been brilliant it's clear his previous relationship with players in the younger set up helped. Putting Walker at centre half was a great move and showed real courage to get Trippier heavily involved at set pieces. I do really think he missed the chance at half time today though.

[cotswoldblues]

I think most would agree that the team excelled and exceeded early expectations overall so a good tournament. As a team we have performed well against average competition with Croatia the first real quality team that we played.

I thought that teamwork was our greatest strength as well as being well organised and that gave us the confidence to really attack Croatia last night. The early goal boosted that confidence and clearly Croatia were all over the place in the first half and were lucky to only concede one goal.

However, 2nd half and extra time, the quality of Croatia midfield and forwards left us looking lost at times, and the lack of creativity in our midfield was evident for all to see. Not sure whether it was Croatia's quality or the ineffectiveness of Lingard, Alli or the combination of the two that was our downfall. Henderson is an honest workmanlike player but probably not good enough for a team competing in a world cup semi-final.

Not sure that anyone played badly, but against some very good technical players, some weaknesses were exposed. I thought Kane played too deep but as the service in the second half was poor I think he went looking for the ball. Personally, I would have left Sterling on and substituted Alli or Lingard. Although my opinion counts for nothing.

Disappointed in the result, but very proud that we finally competed when it mattered, not just in friendlies.

We need the FA to change junior grass roots football to really get the best from the English game.

[Deleted]

I am not keen on killing the quality in the english game but it's high time these big clubs stopped being so ridiculous about loans.

Liverpool currently fine clubs for not using players enough. Chelsea are apparently earning ridiculous sums for loans.

If anything the English game should be applying pressure to at least have subsidised loans for English players.

Still the biggest problem is youngsters sometimes hit 21 and have had only 20 or 30 games.

Kane is a perfect example, apparently he was nothing special and in danger of disappearing and he knuckled down and stuck with it but he was a late bloomer. He suddenly arrived by chance due to Europa League exploits and it spiralled from there. Bale was a whirlwind kid floundered a while then bang he is a world record signing. The players England had out there in the main the younger ones have probably less game time by aged 21 than any of their opponents.

Experience is key but I would rather have a 22 year old on 190 league games than a 26 year old on 100 games.

I don't really feel it matters at what level either.

Foden although only 18 has only 5 games for Man City but if he doesn't go out on loan he could end up reaching 21 with less than 40 games under his belt at this rate. The reality is he could play in the premier league right now. Worse case Man City should be loaning him to a championship club challenging for promotion where he could probably experience winning a title, then go to a premier league side for another year to experience roughing it to test his mentality.

But I would bet they would want £1m per year plus wages and fine a club £20k a week for not playing him enough.