I’m feeling very positive about England so far in the World Cup. They look really relaxed, they’re enjoying their football and look like they are loving life too.
That’s coming across in the way they are playing. There’s a lot of movement between the players and the individual quality England have is really good.
However, it’s the way they’re playing as a team and how high the team spirit seems to be that’s impressive for me.
They need to stick to winning ways now, so the Belgium game is still quite important.
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There’s a lot of talk about going into the harder side of the draw by beating Belgium. I just reckon you’re going to come across the bigger teams at some point.
England have got to go out there and play their game. If they win they win and if they lose they lose.
Whatever changes they make, the players that come in are going to want to do well.
Momentum is massive and it keeps your confidence up.
A lot of those teams out there will be thinking ‘we don’t want to play England’ and that’s because they are looking good at the moment.
Coming out of left field
If England keep winning and win the World Cup, I don’t care who plays at left wing-back.
I would personally have Danny Rose there though because he’s left footed.
But, Ashley Young has had a great season for Man United and he’s done well when he’s played there.
However, personally I’d like to have Rose in there. I’d also like to see Marcus Rashford play because he’s exciting.
Superb Southgate
It’s a good young squad and Gareth Southgate picked them, so all credit to him. The thing I’ve noticed from the outside is how relaxed everyone looks and that’s down to the manager.
I’ve heard Rio Ferdinand talk about how Sven-Goran Eriksson told him not to come out with the ball, whereas these players are out there enjoying playing football and doing what they think should be done in that precise moment in time.
Obviously, they’ll have their jobs to do and Gareth Southgate will have given them guidelines, but they just look like they’re playing with freedom.
Gareth’s a young manager and I wouldn’t say he’s got tonnes of experience, but he’s done really well. He’s proved a lot of people wrong.
He’s doing tremendous and I’m really happy for him. It been well documented about the little cliques that existed in the England squad in the past, but this seems to be one massive unit.
You see them on social media and they look like they’re having a laugh. They’re having a good time in training and look to be dealing with the pressure really well.
The most important thing though, is that they are doing good on the pitch and that’s what’s happening.
No time for VAR
I hate VAR. It did provide me with a couple of minutes of entertainment waiting to see the decision on the South Korean goal was, but being a past professional footballer I don’t agree with it.
If you’re going to use VAR, you have to use it all the time not at random moments. You might think an event in the game is a crucial moment, but there might be another key moment that certain people might not necessary believe was key, but it still could be crucial to the outcome.
Use it all the time or don’t use it at all.
It takes too much time too, it’s way too slow. Even when you watch the VAR, people still have different opinions still.
You get decision that go for you and against you, that’s part-and-parcel of talking about the game afterwards.
Good riddance Germany
I’m buzzing that Germany are out. It’s a decent team gone and it makes life easier for England, if they are to get to the final.
Everyone likes to so a big team go out too. To be honest, I didn’t believe Germany would do that great.
There’s better teams out there in the tournament than them. The way England are playing, they shouldn’t be afraid of anyone.
But, it is a bonus because Germany are a big team who won the last World Cup and they had the experience of that.
England can go all the way. You got to have that belief, I’m sure they’ll have that.
People get worked up saying ‘why are you getting so hyped up, you’ve only played Tunisia and Panama’, but the team has played well. You look at some of the other big teams and they’ve struggled.
England just look confident, it’s going to be a big test for them against Belgium, but I’m sure they rest players too.
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