My mind is exploding watching MotD. They're all saying "if we're honest we didn't see England getting past the quarter final, so getting all the way to the semi they've done us proud". Or a variation of that.
You can't completely disregard the opposition that England faced when making this statement. The two are inextricably linked.
When it came down to it, they couldn't beat a team that has 3 or 4 good players and no more, that had a considerable disadvantage in terms of fitness based on the previous round, that limped past Denmark and Russia, that has no real historic international pedigree and hasn't been near even a semi-final in 20 years.
The harsh reality is they've blown the best chance they'll almost certainly ever have to get to a World Cup final. If there weren't so many average players in the team you would be tempted to say they, erm, bottled it.
But they're young and they'll gain vital experience! I bet no more than 3 or 4--at an absolute best--of this team start at the next World Cup. Walker will be 30 at the Euros, Trippier and Henderson too--let alone the World Cup in 4 years. Young gone, Rose gone, Kane will have done a cruciate by then and he'll also be very very bald so Dula won't like him any more. On top of that Pickford, Trippier, Maguire, Dier, Lingard and Dele Alli aren't actually very good players either, although I know that's a wildly unpopular opinion in the current climate.
I'm fine with people being happy England did well, nothing wrong with that at all, but the reaction to this run to the semi is why England struggle--it's all so over the top (not really talking about here btw!). It's not rational and it's not balanced, in my humble opinion. And it's why they'll probably go to the next tournament under the crushing weight of irrationally high expectations. Rinse and repeat.
