Sterling

[ageing hammer]

Cometh the hour.................

[DasNutNock]

Boy’s got some greasy speed.

[Bend it like Repka]

Saving his goal for the final.

Going to be more famous than Geoff Hurst. :lol:

[wolf359]

Vida is going to have Sterling chasing him in his nightmares.

[Cuenca 'ammer]

Erm.....................................................................

[westham,eggyandchips]

Erm................................

Yeah. Less said about him the better.

Its like the Croats said "let him run himself ragged for 45min like a Duracell bunny, then we'll capitalise in the second half when he's knackered"

Still no goal and never looked like scoring either.

[Clacton-ammer]

I thought he was superb for 60 odd minutes, making some very intelligent runs, what has stopped him becoming a match winner are two things:-

- Finishing, yes I give you he couldn't finish a bath at the moment, but he was still getting in positions, fair play to him for that.

- His teammates, we all know we lack a little bit of creativity from midfield, if we had that Sterling would have been given lots more opportunities as the "right" ball would have been played to him.

[Patito]

Agree with all that Clacton

[simon hammer]

I get that it isn't his job to score, but when in a position to do so he should be doing much better. Definitely a part of his game that he can work on, and Southgate would do well to get him making the runs into the same positions as he does for Man City. I would stick with him, he clearly has the talent and ability to be a thorn in the side of most teams.

Let's see how he does in our Euro 2020 qualifying campaign.

[Coops]

I thought that Kane should have been taken off for Rashford instead of Sterling. Sterling was causing them problems while Kane was missing all game. The pace of Rashford and Sterling charging at a tired defence was what was needed IMO.

[Denzil]

Probably right there Coops but a tough call to make given Kane is our main penalty taker and it looked to be going that way.

[Cuenca 'ammer]

People forget...

he has David Silva, Aguero, Jesus making space for him...De Bruyne pinging balls left right and centre and has had Fernandinho and/Toure playing through balls....

With the England set up we have no creative outlet at all. None. Alli, Lingard and Sterling are all similar players, or at least players who bring similar things to the team.

Work ethic. That's it.

You need water carriers and we have them in abundance but no one who can unlock a stacked defence consistently or beat 2-3 players at one time. Hell beating one player would be a bonus.

I am so very happy with our progress and with Suthgate. We exceeded my dreams (but supporting West Ham all this time, I know my limitations).

Kane was ineffective but again he got bugger all service. None. That would be zero.

I do think Gareth could have made changes a bit sooner and think perhaps, RLC would have offered something different. But any sub is needed at times just to change things up, break up the opponents rhythm.

But well done lads. You made the whole country proud and the team is young enough to win something in the not too distant future.

[The Old Mile End]

I thought that the Rashford substitution was good management.

Sterling had given them a good run around and was very effective as the front outlet in the first half. They were very uneasy at the back - even though he never really looked like scoring.

But in the second half it was a different ball game and it looked like they had him sussed and he was totally ineffective and probably had run his course.

Bringing on Rashford meant Croatia had to change their gameplan defensively as they now had a different type of player to deal with. The switch broke up the pattern a bit and they had to deal with Rashford holding the ball and willing to take them on.

What was missing though, as has been said a lot of times, was that creative someone who could change play with a ball to feed Rashford or Kane and bring them into the game. Also someone capable of shooting from distance and prepared to have a dig.

[sendô]

I thought that Kane should have been taken off for Rashford instead of Sterling. Sterling was causing them problems while Kane was missing all game. The pace of Rashford and Sterling charging at a tired defence was what was needed IMO.

Agreed, and I said the same when Sterling went off - Kane was anonymous second half, not necessarily his fault but there it was. When Sterling went off we lost our out ball.

[smuts]

It doesn't help that we play a bloke behind the main striker who didn't pass a ball 5 yards in the whole tournament. Alli gave the front 3 practically nothing.

[Cuenca 'ammer]

Erm...


taken off at half time ..did piss all.............except lose the ball too many times early doors, played one pass to Kane for a fluffed attempt by Harry..

Sum total of his contributions this tournament imvho..........

Bit of a one trick pony, which doesn't work at the very highest level..

I hope he can prove me wrong and go on and make things happen, but to me he looks so short of confidence and his actual lack of a football brain is alarming.....he will need other creative players around him, which I am not sure we possess currently........

anyone remember him missing from 4 yards out for Citeh, throwing a temper tantrum, getting taken off and throwing his gloves at Pep ? Who promptly threw them back at him............

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@ 2:20

:lol:

[Faithless]

It doesn't help that we play a bloke behind the main striker who didn't pass a ball 5 yards in the whole tournament. Alli gave the front 3 practically nothing.

Thing was we didn't play him behind the main striker we played him wide left and Sterling down the middle and very rarely let them rotate.

As for Sterling I've said all I can say on him. Was Listening to one of the world cup shows on 5Live and Dion Dublin summed it up and I'm paraphrasing here "He doesn't have the footballing brain to play No 10/False 9 and he lacks the technique to properly strike a football" there might be a little Pat Nevin in there can't remember.

[carnage]

We were a worse team when Sterling wasn’t on the pitch. Held the ball up, brought others in to play and got us up the pitch.

[Faithless]

We were a worse team when Sterling wasn’t on the pitch. Held the ball up, brought others in to play and got us up the pitch.

I do agree with that we might not agree on the definition of bringing others into play, but he didn't need to play at number 10 to do that. Alli (who was poor and playing wide left) is a number 10 was and that's where he plays with Kane at Spurs so i did find it a little odd that we never switched that up really. Probably a result of the change in formation coming late like it did. Hopefully it'll evolve into a more fluid 3 over time.

[Cuenca 'ammer]

We were a worse team when Sterling wasn’t on the pitch. Held the ball up, brought others in to play and got us up the pitch.

Sorry to disagree mate, the only people he brought into play today were the Belgians....

25 passes today.........1 key pass...........5.97 rating

https://www.whoscored.com/Matches/13071 ... um-England" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

BBC ratings less generous:

https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/44799972" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;