Mr Tibbs

Hopefully that will wake us up. 

Midfield completely AWOL. Newports midget midfielder won about 3 second balls before the freekick. Got to start competing because we're sleep walking through this game. 

51 minutes ago, Gerry Daly said:

I'm not sure why he would suit Warne's style of play? I bet whoever we sign will be around 6 feet tall

Based on a stereotype that I’m not sure is quite true. Can probably add that to the list of myths that have arrived with him. 

Barlaser and Lindsay (Rovrums CM’s) aren’t the tall bruisers you’re expecting. Mobile, box to box battlers who contribute at both ends.

Still don’t think Holmes is what we need but beggars can’t be choosers. 

Disappointing night, a really flat and unimaginative performance. USA were very organised and were the better team on the night. How Mason Mount played 90 minutes and Phil Foden played 0 is beyond me, we can't afford to carry passengers at this level. 

No point tearing the whole thing apart, this feels exactly like the Scotland game at the last Euro's. We will easily qualify but it would be nice to see a performance on Tuesday night. 

These "favourable draws" churning out some belting results. 

Solid point. 
 

If Fozzy had his shooting boots on it could have been 3. 
 

Rest up chaps, you deserve a bit of time off. Didn’t stop tonight. 

I can’t believe how easy this lot go down. It’s comical, pure panto. 

Energy levels don’t even look that bad IMO, we’re still pressing really well. It’s just the zero composure on the ball. We get out then someone manes a mistake and we’re back to square one. Need to be better in midfield.

Midfields stopped showing, time for a change please. Coming straight back at us. 

Loves a shank our Fozzy. 

Decent first half. Two pretty competent teams, despite the injuries on both sides. Lots of ratting from the two teams, we look up for the battle which is nice to see. 

Be more than happy with a point after the past 10 days. 

A nice, well earned rest after this. 

Ukrainian batch of S-300 missiles from the pics I've seen on Twitter, just a really unfortunate accident. 

Happy for Dobbin, screamer. Just start putting the sitters away pleaaaaase. 

Should be good from here on surely. Only real criticism is we should have had more, so not a bad night so far. Sibley is desperate to do well but he's had a bad half. Couple of square balls were on from him and he made the wrong decision on both accounts. Oulsa on fire. Dobbin electric apart from the end product. Should be an entertaining second half, doubt Torquay will give up. 

Lovely counter. 

Aimed for the keeper.. not sure thats the way to go Lewis. 

He'll score tonight though, they all should. 

8 hours ago, Bris Vegas said:

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not a huge Sven fan or anything. 

But ultimately in 2002 we lost to eventual winners Brazil who were simply better than us while in 2004 we lost to hosts Portugal on penalties and again in 2006 where we played a large chunk of the game with 10 men.

Did they really underachieve considering the circumstances?

Also, what is the difference between losing to eventual winners at the last 16 stage or in the final? Ultimately it’s the same isn’t it? 

England have a lot of good players. But would you say any of our current players are among the best players for their respective clubs?

I think only Harry Kane fits in to that category. 

I often thinK of English players as the water carriers in their respective clubs. I’m probably being harsh. 

 

 

In those specific games vs Brazil/Portugal I don't think they underachieved but when you look at the tournament finish overall for the groups of players involved in those squads, it was below what was expected. Especially when Greece won one of those tournaments, beating Portugal along the way. Those three games had it all to be fair, from the Ronnie lob, Campbell's disallowed goal, the Ronaldo wink etc - there's a lot to cipher through. All those games could have gone either way but none of them ever went our way, include Romania, Algeria, USA and Iceland in this category too. I think that's where we're better under Southgate, the fine margins. 

Agree on the players we currently have. I think they are over-rated and we have few world class players. We haven't got one English player in the top 20 of the Ballon d'Or this year which is a reflection of where our squad is at. I do think we have four or 5 players who are destined to reach that bracket though and that's why there will be extra judgement on our performance this winter. 

I think if Sven managed to get a tune out of the same sort of average players then maybe I'd agree to the sentiments being echo'ed in here but he had an absolute luxury of talent at his disposal IMO. He could hardly get a tune out of world class ones. That and he was a supposed top rated manager, he had pedigree. Maybe all those circumstances made his job harder but he inherited a team full of aging Premier League greats that underachieved which were then displaced by the greatest set of players the team has had in my lifetime, which also underachieved. 

Southgate, who's never done anything at club level and probably never will, took a team of players who have never been fancied and turned them into something greater than the sum of its parts. I think it's easy to be critical because of our finishes in the last two tournaments but in 2018 we had a midfield three of Lingard, Henderson and Ashley Young... that was not a great team. 

I'd argue this is his best squad so far so the jury's really out this winter, of course. I think the way we've played the last two tournaments have been to our strengths, albeit the final vs Italy we missed an opportunity to get after them more I admit. Not sure he'll get away with playing the same this tournament when players like Rice, Bellingham, Mount, Foden and Grealish are all coming to a prime age.

It's time to let them play. 

Great win considering the make-shift team and after the massive effort on Wednesday night from the same players. Could really do without the Torquay replay but hopefully we can progress whilst resting some key players. 

I thought he did really well, in a position he was quite clearly uncomfortable in. 

2 minutes ago, Millenniumram said:

Can’t wait for the World Cup to start as a distraction for our utter dross.

Maybe the club should have just died eh? 
 

Top half in league one and still in all cups… could be worse me owd. Chin up. 

2 minutes ago, Rammy03 said:

Ultimately I think the game management in the second half cost us, not the inability to take chances

It’s a tougher gig vs 10 on that pitch in front of their fans. Why not just put the game to bed when we were cruising? Makes it so much harder when Derby County do Derby County things. 
 

We say it every week. Creating chances aren’t the problem anymore, it’s putting them way. 

4 minutes ago, Ramarena said:

Thought it was Birds clearance, but whichever, the clearance was utterly appalling and it deserved to be punished.

Worst of both worlds now with the replay

Oh was it? 
That doesn’t surprise me tbh. Shocking. 

Probably should have had that game wrapped at HT. Dobbins inability to take his chances again costing us.
 

What happened after the card was embarrassing though. We just didn’t compete in midfield. Defenders could only hold them at bay for so long, we needed Hourihane, Bird and then Thompson to get a foothold. (Heard that before haven’t we?). 
 

Roll on January.