Declan Rice LARPing as Trent was highlight of dire England win | OneFootball

Djed Spence is largely excused for the defensive mess from England but there’s no doubt Declan Rice did a better job at right-back.

There will be more England mails along later; send your own to theeditor@football365.com

England could get battered by Mexico

Just watched England put in one of the worst recent displays against DR Congo and celebrate like they’d won the World Cup.

Mexico are going to batter England at the Azteca and I’m all here for it. Will

…Well that was awful. But Harry Kane saves us yet again. But much improvement is needed or Mexico will make us pay in the Azteca. Dan, London

…That was so bad, I can’t even believe I’m sending an email about it. Phil, Manchester

…Have to hand it to Tuchel: Gordon changed the match, Eze brought a higher technical level to the midfield and Rice gave way more balance to the defence and attack from right back.

But why are we so open? Why is our defence so shambolic and so often out of position?

Mexico at home in the Azteca at 2200m is going to be very very tough. Ben Teacher

…Maybe it’s just me, but it strikes me that if you want to have your wide players put crosses in and stretch the opponent defence with width, it’s probably a good idea to play them on the side of the pitch where they can use their strong foot to do it.

Just a thought anyway.

I also enjoyed Rice doing a 30 odd minute turn of LARPing as Trent. That was fun, and went unsurprisingly well. Makes you wonder, though…

Interesting tidbit: Mexico have not conceded in the first half in 15 matches since 2010. They’ve also scored the same number as us so far this tournament while conceding none. Beat them, and then it’s just Haaland or Brazil. And then likely Argentina in the semis. No worries! It’s coming home etc. Badwolf

But England dominated…

The Grauniad reports England were awful despite the 2-1 win.

In their eyes, the average England player had a dire 5.6 rating compared to 7.2 for the talented Congo. So England scraped through by sheer luck!?

Except the xG was 2.04 for England vs 0.81 for Congo. A fairly resounding stat that England should have won comfortably given the chances they created.

Have sixty years of hurt just turned us all into curmudgeons? Have historically inflated views of England’s capabilities in the past swung to unwarranted gloom?

We played well against a good side, had the lion’s share of chances and produced the result we needed.

The team did a great job especially as the real-feel temperature in Atlanta was fricking 38°. Hotter than Suffolk last week. Anyone feel like sprinting around for 90 minutes in the middle of the day last week? It’s hardly unsurprising that there were some control issues in that environment!

Come on England-(fans)! Ben Morton-Harmer

England are not A Team; we shouldn’t need rescuing

Southgate understood the importance of a group, a team.

Tuchel is doing the same as all the other excellent managers we’ve had, they treat it like Champions League as if you have a cohesive drilled unit and you just need clever tactics.

Again we rely on individuals. Except for the Southgate years, this is the same old England I’ve seen for every tournament of the last 40 years,

I don’t want Kane or Bellingham to “save” England, I want the England team to save themselves.

But it’s not that the English players don’t want it, or aren’t trying hard enough. With Southgate, there was a sense of being bigger than the parts, a sense of purpose. Somehow he managed to free the English players from the pressure. There was fluidity. There was a pleasure watching them even if they would go out. Ian LFC Belgium

Pickford is a liability

England’s players must be thrilled to have Harry Kane as their teammate. It balances out having Pickford in goal.

As poor as the defending might have been, he was beaten at his near post far too easily. Set wrong and not strong enough.

A better side will expose him even more. I keep saying it because it’s true. He will cost England dearly in this tournament. Eoin (He’s like shearing a pig. All noise, no wool) Ireland

Spence far from the worst

As a Spurs fan, I’m not going try to claim Spence had a particularly good game. I would say he wasn’t the worst (he can thank Marcus for that later) but I have no idea why I keep reading he was at fault for the goal, as he was the only one who wasn’t. As an example, I’ve read the section on him in your player ratings a few times and I can’t make head nor tail of it.

If he’s tighter to the run the ball that becomes the assist would have to go in the air? You mean the ball that went over his head???

The fault was spread – both CBs get pulled far too far out giving too much room for the runners, and Spence has two players and makes the only choice he can make to mark the one right in front of goal. Meanwhile Madueke is loafing around 15 yards upfield (as both he and Rashford were constantly when DR Congo overloaded the wings) and Pickford is off balance and beaten too easily.

I think there is a lot of confirmation bias going on here – people don’t think Spence should have been in the squad, so are looking for fault. Again he hasn’t been great but the biggest problems in this team are the disconnect between midfield and centre defence, and the generally abysmal quality of wing play, particularly by whichever pair Tuchel picks to start the game. Rashford has been awful, Madueke is bright but has no end product (reminds me of Aaron Lennon), Saka has flashed at best and Gordon had been totally ineffective until his cameo today. Let’s hope that’s the new standard, because we need to be better to beat Mexico in the Azteca. Phil, London

…So, I thought Spence was England’s best player first half.

Also seen Madueke getting grief, and whilst he is inconsistent and frustrating at times, he tries to make things happen.

Rashford is either 8 out of 10 or 1 out of 10. Today was the latter.

Harry Kane is one of the greats. With him, we really could get to the final and lose 7-3 to France (Kane hattrick).

Gordon is much more useful against teams that have some ambition.

Surely Stones, Guehi and O’Reilly must have gelled somewhat at City, even though Stones hasn’t been playing. Really should try that next round, can’t be worse.

I don’t mind Spence but if not could do worse than Rice at right back with Mainoo in middle.

Belgium deserve to go out for that disgusting kit. Who signed off on that? Paul

The England half-time mails

Hold my beer Germany, watch this!

Yeah, so first half and all that, and that was a pen alllllll day long but my word we look poor again. Tuchel has set that defence up, apparently didn’t pick Trent because he can’t defend, and yet it seems literally none of our defenders can. We are flying out of the back line all of the time, losing shape, opening spaces. It’s shocking.

All Tuchel’s talk of mentality, playing with freedom – it’s all talk. it actually looks like we are crumbling.

Credit to DCR, you can only beat what’s in front of you. And lucky for them we have put a shambles of a back four in front of them and told Anderson and Rice just to leave them to it. No pressure, no composure.

Obviously want us to win but to be honest, it’s a bit of a win win – if we lose, I would assume Tuchel gets sacked, if he doesn’t get sacked for not getting this group of players past the last 32, then the entire FA should be for allowing it to happen. If we win, not sure watching us take on Mexico, Brazil, Argentina or France will be very pretty.

No follow up ‘I was wrong all along’ emails this time. Tom, overandoveragain

A later PS: I mean, I do love Harry Kane though!

…I’m typing this as the 2nd half gets going and no doubt England will somehow win whilst stinking the place out but my feelings won’t change win or lose.

When the goal went in I had an epiphany. A realisation all of a sudden of how deluded I’ve been when it comes to England all my football supporting life. Delusion of how much better we all THINK England are than they actually are.

We relentlessly glaze our players decade after decade, tournament after tournament where all these supposed ‘elite’ players we have just cannot do it in a national shirt.

We bang on about how the Premier League is the best in the world, when in reality, its all the foreign players who really make it what it is. England are, and have been for decades, a 2nd (or even 3rd) tier football nation, round of 16/QF fodder, with the very occasional shithousing our way to a final due to sheer dumb luck.

Truly elite, world class players don’t just win international tournaments, they look damn good doing it, showing a gulf in quality between them and the others. And for this reason, even Harry Kane with his good international scoring record, still can’t produce an epic 90 minute performance at a major tournament, much like Rooney before him, and plenty of others before him.

I’m at peace now with how bang average we are, now that I’m not living in some warped fantasy land convincing myself that we’re even fit to lace the boots of proper international sides like France, Brazil and Spain.

Happy World Cup everyone 😂 Marc, Bolton (MCFC)

Not a penalty! Hallelujah

Finally. A player deliberately trailing his legs in order to cause contact doesn’t get the reward for it.

Absolutely delighted. Hopefully a precedent set. Eoin (contact doesn’t mean foul, it means contact) Ireland

How to get your giddiness back…

It’s the 30th min of England v Congo, I am with my son watching (a rare delight of this particular World Cup) 7pm local time kick off. A privilege, considering.

Congo is one up, we are watching the Swahili Channel on SuperSports and I am so giddy and happy that I do not even have the word and adjective range to describe it proper…the Swahili commentators are absolutely terrible and that’s amplifying our joy even more with laughter.

And I am thinkin…where is my usual pessimism, virtue signalling and RoyKeane-esque ability to shit on this truly beautiful moment with a smarmy comment about the state of football and the greedy parasites we all pine about here.

Well, for now, I am glad glad it’s gone, it’ll be back but for now, yes, let me savour it. My son is all over the place jumping around at every England attack that fails…is this happiness? Haven’t felt it in a while. Paddy G, MUFC, Mombasa, Kenya (wait….where is the ever standing Patrick Lumumba guy in the crowds? Oh yeah, right, he couldn’t get a visa to come to this game…uh oh that pessimism is coming back)