Are England getting over World Cup nightmare? | Football Weekly

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Are England getting over their World Cup nightmare?

Football Weekly discusses whether England's 7-0 Nations League win over Croatia shows they are over their World Cup hangover. The panel praises England's attacking play and individual displays such as Bellingham's, but argues Croatia were awful and the Nations League context limits what the result proves, especially against Spain or France. They also cover the search for Kane's successor, midfield competition, Modric versus Ronaldo, and the behind-closed-doors sanction being undermined by letting children in.

Max Rushden, Robyn Cowen, Jonathan Wilson and Barry Glendenning reflect on England's sensational 7-0 victory over Croatia. Are shoots of recovery there? Who's coming after Kane? And can they keep this up? Watch the full podcast episode ► https://youtu.be/Efp7WCvqXbs Subscribe to Guardian Football ► https://www.youtube.com/@guardianfootball?subconfirmation=1 We want your feedback! If you had any thoughts on our coverage of the World Cup, please let us know here ► www.theguardian.com/YTWorldCupSurvey The Guardian publishes independent journalism, made possible by supporters. Contribute to The Guardian today ► https://support.theguardian.com/ Guardian Football Weekly: https://www.tiktok.com/@guardianfootballweekly https://www.instagram.com/guardianfootballweekly/ Website ► https://www.theguardian.com Facebook ► https://www.facebook.com/theguardian Bluesky ► https://bsky.app/profile/sport.theguardian.com Instagram ► https://www.instagram.com/guardiansport/ The Guardian on YouTube: The Guardian ► https://www.youtube.com/@theGuardian Football Weekly podcast ► https://www.youtube.com/@FootballWeeklyPodcast Guardian News ► https://www.youtube.com/@guardiannews Guardian Australia ► https://www.youtube.com/@GuardianAustralia Guardian Sport ► https://www.youtube.com/@guardiansport

Transcript

England 7-0il win in Croatia. But we we've been asking Robin, you know, what Thomas Tukul needed to do in this international break to get the skeptical fans back on side and then especially after defeat to Spain in a reasonably good performance and I think Sephan nil is probably quite a good way of doing it. >> Yeah, I think still some skeptics might not be you know it's the nation's league that's obviously some some hold it in higher regard than others. Um Thomas Tukul himself said he believes this result um will banish a few of those demons in from the World Cup. I'm not sure that's his that's his place to say, [laughter] but obviously, you know, a wonderful performance and as you mentioned in the intro, so many fantastic individual displays, but I think the collective one was was wonderful, the attacking display. Um very strange soundtrack with school kids. Um, I mean, maybe that's kind of where England play to their strengths. They just need a crowd like that every week and then every time. >> So, what we're gonna have to we're going to have to pretend that the Euros are a little mixed concert and then [laughter] put England there and then it'll be fine. >> Exactly. Yeah. Um, but no, it was wonderful. I mean, obviously Croatia, do do we say it? >> You can say it. F fi ladies and gentlemen Croatia retired [laughter] finally and Modric was very strong wasn't he? Um yeah on the criticism saying he was ashamed >> off the pitch. Yes. >> Yeah. [laughter] Yeah. Needed to lie down didn't he? Um so yeah I mean wonderful and also I mean the hundred England fans who were there uh they could you know what a game to say you were there. >> Totally. Um, it's quite hard to analyze a game when someone's scored seven, Wilson, because it to me it just seems like lots of goals. Um, but can you analyze it for us? Well, I think two things can be true at once. I think England were excellent, but Croatia were also awful. Uh, and I think what you saw it was a little bit like the third place playoff in that you see if you don't defend properly and you give players of that quality space just how easy they can make it look. And the gaps between the certainly in the first half between the two deepline players in the Croatian midfield and the three more attacking players were vast and it made England's press extremely easy. And of course the reason for that it may partly be that three is not doing their jobs properly. But fundamentally it's those two holding players have a combined age of 73. We we've seen even that 20 minutes after Halime against Croatia at the World Cup that England could physically overpower them. They just did it for 90 minutes this time. And I think Croatia are a team at the moment who are sort of ripe to be hammered. So if a team knows they're not very good, they sit deep and they try and frustrate you and it's a low block and you we've seen that England performance a million times. But Croatia still think well we are we're one of the top 15 teams in the world. We got to World Cup final eight years ago. Um and there hasn't quite been an acceptance of their new status. And so they do, especially at home, they come out and attack and they leave space. And England have shown that, yeah, this front four and yeah, I think you'd have to give Elliot Anderson and Alex Scott great credit as well, plus the two fullbacks pushing on that if you give them that kind of space, they will batter you. Now, that's a great thing. It means that England are less likely to be frustrated by low blocks. They have this great attacking power. Does it suddenly mean they're equipped to beat Spain or France? Well, well, maybe not. But you know that that's the very final step and all the steps up to that final step look pretty good at the minute. >> Yeah. I mean sad for Croatia to have to update their status from World Cup finalist to ripe to be hammered, isn't it? You know, you [laughter] you understand why they haven't changed their bio yet. Of all the performances, Barry, I mean, Bellingham was with all the caveats of you can only beat who you're playing as, etc. Bellingham was he's when he's good, he's so like Zidane. I don't think I'm the only person that thinks this. Just the way he moves and this kind of effortlessness and I don't know, it's just a total joy when he is on it. >> Yeah. And he was very much on it in this game. He sort of glides around the pitch. His positional awareness is wonderful. He can weigh a pass as well as anyone, if not better. Uh he's not afraid to do dirty work when required although he didn't have to do a huge amount in this game. Um but he was available when required. Uh he was I of the seven goals and it's always a struggle to remember them all or they came in and who scored. I thought the first four fourth sorry I thought the fourth was probably the best real team effort um where Sacka converted to Bellingham cross but you had Lewis Hall uh Alex Scott um Gay Gordon Kane Bellingham then Gordon again Bellingham again with the cross and sack of finish just a sthing team move cutting through Croatia like a hot knife through butter. And I think what impressed me most about England in this game was their relentlessness because they were 4-0 up at Halime. They could have just, you know, messed about in the second half, play closed out the game without expending much more effort. But I think they were determined to make a statement performance uh in so much as winning a group game in the Nations League against a dreadful team in a really weird circumstances can be a statement performance. and Tuc said afterwards you the scar of the World Cup semi-final will always remain but this is a you know big step in the right direction. I I think it's a bit early to be talking about scar tissue. I I think for many it remains a a open festering suffering wound that is nowhere near uh healed yet. I think when that header went in uh to put Argentina two-1 up, I thought, well, if we can hammer Croatia in the Nations League, this I won't feel the I won't feel this at all. Um uh I mean, who do we who do we want to mention? Said Alex Scott Robin is really interesting. Partnered Elliot Anderson. Apparently, they're great mates. Tul intimating that, you know, there is competition now for Declan Rice. And I guess the point is that you could if Kane gets tired, you can push Bellingham up and have Rice with Anderson and Scott, but like he he I think we mentioned it already, but like he he just he looks so good, Alex Scott, and just so natural. >> Yeah. No, he he looks like he's at home already in this England team and he's, you know, got just got a couple of caps. Um, I think the great thing is is that it seemed beforehand that Declan Rice just had to play every single game, every single minute, and there was no let up for him. So, I think this is this is the important thing. I think the main thing that people are concerned about, and rightly so, is and we don't, you know, we're not retiring Kane yet. He's still in incredible form, but I think the the sort of successor to him that seems to be the big question mark because there isn't I saw this morning the sort of the ones that have experience the the youngest one's Dominic Calvin Leuen. He doesn't have >> too many caps and it doesn't seem like Thomas Tuka. I don't not sure if he's uh had many [clears throat] minutes or many at all during this international break so far. >> So, I think that that that's the issue. But I think just going back to Jude Bellingham, like just find you. He just there's nothing he can't do well and he's not, you know, dish enough to not do the dirty work and to track back. He's just not that sort of player. He wants to he he recovers the ball and then he, you know, that it's like the seventh goal. It was basically all him and he was scanning and then he found Morgan Rogers for the for the last one. England have a bonafide superstar. And it's just it's funny how a year ago, you know, he wasn't being picked and people were saying, well, you know, maybe his attitude isn't great and Morgan Rogers should be playing in that number 10 position. I mean, it's just it clearly I mean, maybe that was a good thing from two good management, but you know, no, no one can touch him in terms of his his quality in that position and and the England team. >> Yeah. How are we going to ruin him? Wasn't is the question, isn't it? [laughter] How are we going to mess him up? >> I mean, too much expectation is is sort of a usual way of things. But I think that's where whether by design or whether by chance where the fact England did actually play pretty well without him last autumn. You know, that 5-nil win in Belgrade, he didn't play. So, I think that's the other really encouraging thing. I mean, Kane maybe is is the one player where there isn't, you know, clear replacement. But turns out England can cope without Declan Rice. can cope without Bellingham. I mean, ideally, you clearly have them both there. And that I think is a really encouraging thing. I mean, if you take out the first 25 minutes against Spain, England played pretty well in that game. Um, you as well as you can realistically play against the world champions who are playing as well as as they ever have. And they did it without their best midfielder. So I I think there are reasons to be positive, but then immediately you start doing the thing, you think, well, I'm not sure Anthony Gordon's going to be this good in two years time. This is the best film he's ever going to produce. And all all the doubts start to gnar away. But but at the minute, he looks great. >> He's someone who doesn't doubt though, isn't he? He's he's extremely confident in his own ability. So I think he'll probably say that he's going to be even better. >> Yeah. Peing at the wrong time. How devastating. at the 7-0il score line flattered Croatia a little cuz in the first half it was this jewel or battle between Anthony Gordon and Liverikovic in the Croatia goal. I think the Barcelona teammates and Gordon I think he he denied Gordon on three different occasions when Gordon would have expected to score and most of us would have expected him to score. sake could have been a lot more of a humiliation for Croatia but for their keeper who shipped seven. >> Yeah. And secondly, Paris just didn't seem fair. That just didn't seem fair, isn't it? I Modric, you mentioned it said, what did he say? No jewels, no aggression, no fouls, no unity. I've been here for 20 years. I have to say for the first time, I feel ashamed after a game. The first England team he played against uh was in a two-0 win against uh I'll read you the 11. Paul Robinson, Jamie. [laughter] >> Yeah. Yeah. Banks, >> Dixie Dean, and WG Fatty Fal and WG [laughter] Grace. Um Paul Robinson, Jamie Carragher, Rio Ferdinand, John Terry, Gary Neville, Michael Carrick, Scott Parker, Frank Lampard, Ashley Cole, Wayne Rooney, and Peter Crouch. It's sort of fair enough, Wilson, that Modric is tired now, isn't it? I mean, was that the game under McLaren in Zagreb, the Gary Nevelone goal? Was it that game? Ah, it's quite possible. I was at that game if it's true. And God knows I feel tired and I haven't been running about. So, so yes, I mean, I'm starting to to get a sense and I I obviously don't want to jump the gun here, but I am starting to get the sense that 41 year olds maybe shouldn't be playing international football. [laughter] Is it is it fair that we we give Cristiano Ronald Well, I know Wilson's answer to this already. Yes. Is it fair that we give Cristiano Ronaldo such a hard time for insisting on playing when he's 41, but Modric gets a free pass? >> Yeah, of course, because Modric has actually still been doing well. Um, yeah, he he's not Yeah. Okay. I think you can see that that the physical level has dropped in the last sort of year or so. But name me the creation midfielder who should come in who's better than him. I I don't and he's just not a divish personality. He's not somebody who makes it all about him. I think >> I was being slightly facitious. >> Okay. I Well, and you're all and you're all ruining part three, let me tell you. But no, [laughter] that's fine. I think most listeners won't mind us revisiting that. And the listeners who absolutely hate us criticizing Ronaldo, well, they hate us already. So, we're we're we're probably all right. It's worth pointing out, Barry, you know, 6,000 kids were let in, plus their adult handlers, which as we establish. [laughter] Barney Barney pointing out in the paper that this makes a total mockery of the anti-racism sanction. >> Does. Yeah. It looked a very pleasant place to be. Um there on the Adriatic with a nice, you know, view and lovely warm weather. Um, I have no objection whatsoever for to kids who wouldn't might normally not get to see a game going to a game, but if a game is supposed to be be played behind closed doors, then it should really be played behind closed doors. And it Yeah, Baron is right. It does make a mockery of the punishment because um well well it is an occasion those kids will never forget. But, you know, [laughter] in an ideal world, it wouldn't have been as harrowing for them. >> Yeah. I mean, probably a good way to begin watching football because, you know, presumably it can only get better. Although, do Croatia go to Spain next? I mean, that could be interesting, couldn't it? Um, England in second place in group A3 on six points behind Spain. He beat Czech Czech 3-1. Um, they were perhaps a little bit lucky. Yal got an absolute beautiful goal. The checks did have an equalizer for 2-2 disallowed for a very soft vow. Uh but anyway, Spain are still good. Um unless anyone has any strong thoughts on England that I we haven't covered. Should mention I did in the intro the Quanser cross for for Gordon was so good, you know, and I'm sure I have said only Trent Alexander Arnold can do that and there Joel Koner is doing exactly that. So well done to him.