Following last night, it is fair to say there are a lot of disappointed people, including myself, but I don't think this can be classed as a disappointing tournament. Having been reading a lot today and trying not to be too down I thought I would look for the positives bits of the team and GS's management.
1) Choosing Pickford for his distribution to use as part of a positive passing game. It was a tough call between the 3 Keepers and I wouldn't have disagreed with Butland between the sticks. However, I think GS knew how we wanted us to play and chose a player, relatively unproven, to set the tone of playing out from the back
2) Harry Maguire ahead of Cahill. The 'easy' decision was to play Cahill alongside Stones to give some solidity in case of any mistakes. But he had faith in the game plan and also in the two young defenders to play in the system
3) Kyle Walker as CB. He is not natural and will always struggle in the air and possible with positioning. However, his raw pace is there to provide cover for when our two ball playing CBs push. On more than one occasion in the tournament KW recovered either from his own mistake or others.
4) Keiran Trippier. I personally have been a fan for a very long time and when KW left Spurs I have a few worried Spurs friends but I knew he would step up. However, as we all know he was a revelation this last month and his set piece delivery has been the best I have seen since Beckham.
All of the above are interlinked desicions which are both brave and innovative, which is something England have been missing for a long time
5) The Midfield with one holding player. Henderson really showed his class for this WC and the faith to stay with only one DCM I personally think is testimant to our new way of playing. I/you may disagree on the subtitutions at times and whether RLC (or the Ox/Lallana/Wilshire) would have performed better at holding the ball that Lingard/Alli but overall I like that GS is positive and not looking to 'match up with teams'.
Yes it wasn't 100% and there were some out of form/tired/injured players within this system but it is very rare that all your team will do that. But, imagine if we carry on like this and our players do develop to what we wish them to be. 2/4/6 years time we could be in the same position again with Dozzell in a 3 man midfield and picking up a trophy.
I personally think GS will learn from this but I don't fear that he will revert to type for an England manager and see what we have over the last xxx years. You only have to listen to some of the comments from ex/aspiring England managers (BFS for one) to see what this WC could have been with a different system/belief/restrictions on the same set of players, or even Joe Hart/Wayne Rooney.
[Post edited 12 Jul 2018 19:21]
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