Started pretty smartly, Sterling and Alli's movement was pulling them apart. Lingard is as average as they come, no patience for him. I like Maguire in theory, but he's inconsistent from minute to minute. If Stones or Lingard had managed to actually make contact with the ball properly...but this whole Cup so far has been full of terrible finishing and poor final balls, other than the opening game and Ronaldo vs Spain.
I guess Belgium got it together in the second half. Definitely have to play more than just Henderson in there against them, and I'm not sold on Walker as a CB in the 3, especially as Trippier is an annoying kid without much else but good delivery. I do appreciate Southgate's committment to playing 3 forward-thinking centre backs, though. I'd rather see Delph (maybe RL-C) next to Henderson, with Lingard making way, and maybe Dier at CB with Walker overlapping/covering.
-------------Pickford
------Stones--Dier--Maguire
Walker--Delph--Henderson--Young
------Sterling----------Alli
-----------------Kane
Give the 2 AMs free roles to run off Kane, who stays central. FBs provide the width, keep the center strong and release runners from deep, otherwise, just recycle. All 3 CBs are good with their feet so it will feel like a 5-man midfield sometimes. I like Loftus-Cheek as an impact sub, and I just wish Lingard and Rashford has a shred of...anything...between them. Very underwhelming. Rashford is capable of more, not sure Lingard is.
Welbeck is always good for an England goal, not a bad option off the bench. If you need a goal to break down a stubborn team, can take Delph off, have Ruben L-C start next to Henderson and drive forward.
The ball needs to move much, much quicker. Like Mexico/Spain/Portugal, or Brazil in their sporadic moments of decent play. You need passers in there for that to happen. For Lingard to play the 10 role he does at Manure, I don't think you can play 3 atb. It's one or the other for me.
Well, we'll see what Southgate does, but it seems to me he's gotta tweak things a bit. Hopefully these first-round games, in general, are just nerves.
