Objectively, our performances make us one of the weakest remaining teams

We are one of the teams everyone will want to play. The main problem for me is that nobody is playing well. And that might be because the players are actually a bit s**t, but I think its mainly because Southgate has designed a system that is making every player deliver sub-par performances. This system is not letting any player excel.

- FBs are barely getting forward.
- CBs are too deep and are not linking up with MF.
- MFs and attackers are dropping deep to find space, but there isnt any.
- Because nobody is running in behind and stretching the opposition.
- the ball is moving too slow, so every player is receiving the ball tighly marked, and almost nobody then takes on and beats their marker.
- every player is playing in a position that makes them want to run into the middle to find a more natural position, meaning everything ends up going through the middle.
- playing out incredibly slowly from Pickford to CBs, to DCMs, to CBs, to FBs, to Saka/Foden who are always tighly marked on the halfway line so they pass it straight back.....rinse and repeat until the opposition press us and make us go long, where Kane loses his header. It's so toothless as a pattern of play, its mad.

At this stage the stats dont lie. We are creating almost nothing. We have almost no threat, other than some very very rare flashes.

The Swiss look absolutely excellent to me. I'm expecting us to be comfortably second best, a bit like when the Swiss played Italy. I dont think we'll get hammered, as I think the Swiss will go 2-0 up and then keep us at arms length to save energy.

Posted By: Under soil heating, Jul 1, 11:37:42