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World Cup 2026: Mexico, USA and Canada

revlis said:
Without Kane you were out in the round of 32 vs DR Congo. It's insane how it's always his fault. What's he supposed to do without the ball? All these complaints about how he doesn't press etc...that's not what he's good at!! He's a striker who lives around the box and only needs a half chance to put a team away.
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I didn’t say it was solely his fault. And he certainly wasn’t helped by Tuchel’s tactics in the second half. But he’s one of our best players, he has to take some responsibility. Look at Messi, he didn’t score but he was involved in pretty much every chance they created. He realised they were in trouble and once again stepped up and said I’m the best player, I need to drag my team through to the next round. Kane just doesn’t do that at the business end of tournaments. You ask what’s he meant to do? Make life difficult for your opponent, bully them, win headers, hold the ball up, create something. After all, he’s arguably our most creative player as well as being our best goalscorer.
 
thfcsteff said:
Rice was dead on his feet.
Tuchel didn't trust Mainoo.
He also didn't trust Rashford. I can only assume Saka was pretty injured.
I thought his midfield selections squad-wise were average at best, and knowing that Rice was playing hurt makes them even harder to understand.
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I do think especially in retrospect that he probably should have brought Mainoo and Rashford on at the second water break. The pattern of the game was very set at that point and England needed someone to hold the ball for even a few seconds to break the pressure and someone to offer either a threat chasing down balls or the ability to run with it under some pressure. Not going to claim would have won doing this, but it does make him look very passive in the manner if the defeat.

I do think the idea England allowed it to happen is overstated, Argentina literally woke up with the concession of that goal and forced England backwards. I will say Tuchel didn't try everything he could to break that pressure.
 
Zavod 311 said:
They're not a far better footballing team
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Result and performance throughout the game says different.

Argentina raised their game to the levels of which they are capable once they conceded; England (who are a slightly above average team, as their performances throughout the tournament highlighted) had no answers once that happened.
 
Jurgen the German said:
I didn’t say it was solely his fault. And he certainly wasn’t helped by Tuchel’s tactics in the second half. But he’s one of our best players, he has to take some responsibility. Look at Messi, he didn’t score but he was involved in pretty much every chance they created. He realised they were in trouble and once again stepped up and said I’m the best player, I need to drag my team through to the next round. Kane just doesn’t do that at the business end of tournaments. You ask what’s he meant to do? Make life difficult for your opponent, bully them, win headers, hold the ball up, create something. After all, he’s arguably our most creative player as well as being our best goalscorer.
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Kane was massively guilty of not doing 2 or 3 things in this game. The first is MOVE. Kane probably passed the ball as well as any of the best Argies but the difference was that they then moved into space. Kane didn't, and he was barely showing when our defender and midfielders had the ball. He would get himself blocked off to receive the ball and make little effort to find space. Compare that to how their attackers were operating especially Messi who could find himself in 10 yards of space every time he chose to.

Dan Burn also showed the world what Kane wasn't doing when he came on. That was competing physically especially for headers with your back to goal. Kane was doing that old thing he does where he either doesn't jump and tries to con the referee or he jumps early and under the ball to avoid the physical contact. I've always found that annoying. He's 6'2" and could have competed way harder in those exchanges.

I don't think it is fair to bash Kane for most of his efforts though. He's 32 and had a hard world cup. His manager has left him on and the games have come thick and fast. His body must be operating in the red zone at his age. For me, he isn't a captain and that was a mistake way back when from Southgate. Unfortunately, that was quite visible again last night. He wasn't really leading.

I actually hope Harry sticks around for the Euro's but Tuchel needs to find a different way of using him in a better setup. It's not as if we have any young guns pushing him out either. All the backups are pushing 30 as well.
 
Muttley said:
I don't think it is fair to bash Kane for most of his efforts though. He's 32 and had a hard world cup. His manager has left him on and the games have come thick and fast. His body must be operating in the red zone at his age.
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Kane's problem is, he wants to play every minute of every game. It's a result of different factors: he probably wants to score as much as possible, and people made him a saviour. At some point, he was considered the best player in the world, bar for Messi and Ronaldo. That's not a player you want to take off the pitch when you're a manager because, if things go South, you're going to be asked some uncomfortable questions.

There's too many games anyway at club and international level. You need to manage your minutes if you want to keep on going in the latter stages of tournaments. I didn't check the temperatures but that probably didn't help either.
 
England got what they deserve, I've been around long enough to know when you set out to solely defend you're surrendering the game. We were doing alright until we scored and the manager's bottle went. Rice was obviously still not fit along with Saka. Poor squad selection did not help.
 
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