It’s on channel four at five if anyone interested.
I think it was the Barnsley Tykes who used to belt out
"It's just like watching Brazil" during their brief stay in the Premier League (and just before they sold us their Ronaldo in the guise of Ashley Ward
). Well watching England last night was just like watching the Rovers! Lots of possession ruined by a shot shy attack after the midfield had finished 'over footballing' outside Ukraine's penalty area by continually passing square, wide and backwards!
Pathetic tactics! Any team wanting to overcome a stubborn defence needs to take 1 or 2 touches, pass quickly and turn the defenders to face their own goals. It's not rocket science and all the possession in the world does not translate into goals with slow ponderous 2/3/4 touch passing. Southgate is an enigma, sometime he does good and sometimes his team plays with massive naivety at a pace which some pundits who shouldn't even be in the studio sagely calling it a "patient" build up. Now I'm not advocating throwing caution to the wind and going all gung ho a la Keegan's Mags of the 90's but it's notable that all of that square passing came to nowt and England's equalising goal came from a long punt out of defence by Harry Kane of all people, over the top to Kyle Walker who beat the offside trap, controlled it and knocked it past the Ukraine keeper. Simples and a goal straight of the much criticised (and frequently reviled by the millions of know nowt Roy Race fans out there) Big Sam Allardyce. This isn't to suggest long ball stuff is all good but as with corners, free kicks etc footballers need to mix it up a bit. Personally speaking I shouldn't be surprised to discover that Southgate was preparing a post match bollocking for Harry just as Walker swept the ball past the keeper!