England National Team

[Shogun]

If England get knocked out by anyone not called France/Germany then it's a horrendous tournament.

I know Portugal are good but Roberto Martinez tax must be applied.

[TheRam]

The absolute state of Gordon’s accent.

What a tool.

[Bluedylan1]

Loving Rooney as a pundit btw.

[TheRam]

Loving Rooney as a pundit btw.

Never thought he’d be good at the pundit thing but he’s great.

Considering he’s been immensely famous since the age of sixteen he seems like a totally normal guy.

[Shogun]

I really hope Rooney does well at Plymouth

[Gash]

At least he's got plenty time this summer to enjoy a Grealish burger. Bit awkward for Hellman's though.

https://www.hellmanns.com/uk/summer.html

[Toffee1]

[Shogun]

Anyone else think the reaction from the England camp towards criticism has been really poor? Kane and Rice both making a point that those players failed with England and that they should just be positive and bigging the players up.

I watched the BBC post-match and it wasn't even bad. They didn't criticise the application of the players or fault their quality, they just analysed the poor play. If anything the pundits were going at Southgate without doing it directly.

It's another instance of the wrong attitude to me. I feel a winner's response would be to brush it off, say they've had a couple of poor performances but they're still top of the group and they know there's a lot more to come from the team.

This 'oh no, please don't say bad things about us' is such a whiny loser mentality. Have a snap back after you win the tournament.

[Audrey Horne]

Yeah was thinking it was very 'poor us' mentality.

Very defensive. As if they can't see why it's being said..

[TheRam]

Anyone else think the reaction from the England camp towards criticism has been really poor? Kane and Rice both making a point that those players failed with England and that they should just be positive and bigging the players up.

I watched the BBC post-match and it wasn't even bad. They didn't criticise the application of the players or fault their quality, they just analysed the poor play. If anything the pundits were going at Southgate without doing it directly.

It's another instance of the wrong attitude to me. I feel a winner's response would be to brush it off, say they've had a couple of poor performances but they're still top of the group and they know there's a lot more to come from the team.

This 'oh no, please don't say bad things about us' is such a whiny loser mentality. Have a snap back after you win the tournament.

You’re never too old to learn.

If someone like Gary Lineker criticises you, you should probably take what he’s saying on board. I thought his bit on Kane was a brilliant bit of analysis.

Footballers are like that these days. Very sensitive.

I think both him and Rice thought they could coast through that game the other night and we’re caught short constantly.

[Cods]

It does seem a bit of a mentality thing doesn't it, arrogance maybe.

In Kane's case he thinks he gets to decide who he looks up to and listens to. It's as if he's trying to protect his image from any criticism through media... once you're criticised it's 'all out defend and deflect'.

He could have just said 'yeah maybe Linekar could be right in some of the things he said'. Come at it with a bit more honesty.

EDIT: to be fair to Kane I missed the first half of a 90 second grab from his comment earlier, which added a bit of context and turned the debate for me, not a bad response from him really as he was able to turn it back on Linekar pretty expertly actually.

The shorter grabs of interviews are not the best way to get a good read of it.

[Bluedylan1]

To me Kane's comments have comes across as quite insular and very much in a bubble created by Southgate because of the toxicity of the UK media in the past. It's like after the first game, the players seemed absolutely shocked to hear that people were a bit critical of the performance. They really didn't anticipate anything negative coming their way because presumably everybody in the bubble is trying to be super positive all the time.

I think a lot of the insularity comes directly from Southgate. Because he belonged to a much more toxic era as an England player, where the papers had so much power and they could destroy individuals, I think he tries to keep them all quite sheltered and sees the media as very much the enemy.

Far be it from me to defend the football media and punditocracy, but a lot has changed since Southgate was an England player, the redtop papers don't have nearly as much influence, and the TV media are way more balanced and nuanced in their comments for the most part.

From Southgate's perspective I do get it. Players now are very different. There's much more awareness of mental health, which is a really good thing, but the flipside to that is that there's probably a higher degree of sensitivity to criticism and maybe less emotional resilience. Lots of people live in echo chambers now, and aren't exposed to direct criticism as much. Society is different.

Kane's response did come across as slightly over-sensitive and defensive, and I think that's what you get if you keep things in a bubble. I think he could've pitched his response a bit more ''we know we have lots of good players and our performances haven't been at the levels we could reach'' and just take ownership of the conversation. If you acknowledge a failing yourself, it takes the sting out of the criticism and makes you much less defensive.

[Toffee1]

Doubt he will play tomorrow and if he does, he won't be match fit = still a waste of a squad place in my opinion.

[Bluedylan1]

Jesus Christ. The last thing we need is a chase the ball, kick and rush merchant.

[Sir Stealth]

Jesus Christ. The last thing we need is a chase the ball, kick and rush merchant.

Mad how obvious it is that Adam Wharton should come into the side


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