England v Malta

[djg145]

Well that was a very impressive performance from England, NOT!!
In fact it was crap, shameful.
The FA should refund all the Supporters, who went to watch this shambles

 

[TaviGreen1990]

I don’t actually blame the players. Why would they go full tilt in a game which doesn’t matter that they were always going to win. UEFA and FIFA need to work out a way to get more meaningful games. Do they really expect any Man City or Liverpool players to really risk themselves before they play after the break.

 

[Cobi Budge]

Dreadful game, dreadful performance. But to be honest, that’s pretty normal for vast the majority of England games outside of a tournament, if you paid to attend tonight’s game you probably should have known what to expect.

 

[Guiri Green]

Already qualified, going through the motions and for the garaunteed squad members, doing enough to tick over and try to avoid injury.

Rubbish for the paying support though.

 

[unhinched]

I didn't watch to be fair - I expected the very worst but ..
What does Southgate learn from starting Maguire , Kane , Henderson etc v Malta ( who I'd like to think Argyle would beat comfortably) .
So then suppose Maguire or Kane get injured in or before a tournament- what will he know about Konsa or Watkins in an England shirt ?
England football is like England Rugby, but worse. Safety first at all times. Don't be fooled by tournament placings - we come up short whenever we play a good team ( or should we say a well managed good team) because we have a good squad of players.

 

[Quintrell Green]

I think England had well over 70% possession last night so they were not exactly rubbish. Where they fell short was goal attempts. I thought Alexander-Arnold showed fantastic passing skills but he needs to demonstrate them in playing against a top tier nation before being classed as a nailed-on midfielder selection in future England games..

 

[xmastree]

Well that was a very impressive performance from England, NOT!!
In fact it was crap, shameful.
The FA should refund all the Supporters, who went to watch this shambles

I never quite get this refund the supporters thing.

You buy your tickets, you're guaranteed a game, that's all. Everyone knew the opposition was a tiny island in the Med, so I imagine the expectations of most were a lot of goals and no serious contest. They got only 2 goals but a better contest than anticipated.

We all have expectations before any game, but it would be incredibly dull if those expectations were met every time. A big part of attending is NOT knowing what is going to happen. Should you get a refund because the game didn't meet your expectation?

Only way this could work would if some independent arbiter was called upon to decide that refunds would be paid for a poor performance - AND that a 100% surcharge be added if the performance was particularly good. Would everyone who attended the Norwich game be happy with this?

 

[mercedes]

What a turgid match. I won't be watching again until the actual finals.

 

[djg145]

Whatever the circumstances, whatever the game, they are overpaid PROFESSIONAL footballer's, playing for England.
They should go onto that pitch and perform to the best they can do.
In my opinion, they didn't try too hard, yes they had 70% of possession, but it's what you do with that possession that matters.
It would have been better if the Manager had played more of the squad players from the start, those with something to prove, those hopefully with the appetite for a game like this.
At the end of the day - Well played Malta.

 

[demportdave]

Didn't watch the game so I can't really comment on it but as an aside, it strikes me that if Southgate had played a side mainly made up of squad players it might have been more interesting and entertaining to watch and England might have won by a more comfortable margin.

 

[Rogue]

It was below par, yep. But Malta were actually really good at blocking passing lines and swarming the ball. They didn't show an awful lot going forward, but I would fancy Malta against the likes of San Marino.

Pretty hard to motivate yourself for a game like that though, and it doesn't help that Marcus Rashford started. I wouldn't even have him on the plane next summer.

Terrible watch in the end, but I'm sure they're just saving it all up to bring the Euros home.

 

[boletus edulis]

England were not very dynamic, but Malta were a lot better in terms of their individual technical ability than I was expecting. I note one of their players got past Walker which does not happen often.

 

[Brussels Bureaucrat]

International football is difficult to pitch isn't it. If we only played the other elite European nations that would probably get boring as well. And it's fair enough that when small countries produce the occasional brilliant player (Northern Ireland and George Best is the first example I thought of) that they get to play against the big countries.

But England fans, or more precisely English football fans (me included) seem so apathetic about the national team. For me the frustration is that we've never had such a collection of attacking riches, but we just play such boring football.

And continuing to pick Henderson is just ridiculous.

 

[Bernie Bernbaum]

Saw a stat that Southgate's England have won 36% of all the tournament knockout games England have played. And only Ramsay has a better tournament record.

 

[Daz]

Didn't watch the game so I can't really comment on it but as an aside, it strikes me that if Southgate had played a side mainly made up of squad players it might have been more interesting and entertaining to watch and England might have won by a more comfortable margin.

The side was mainly squad players. There’s no way Rashford, Gallagher, Henderson, Guehi, Tomori and even Trent start in a tournament game on current form.