Tony Adams on Spurs England Players mentality

[Marsbar100]

All that matters is winning, what we achieved will only mean anything if it is a springboard for being competitive and leading to a success in the Euros or worlds in future years, ATM it means f**k all and ultimately we failed as harsh as that sounds

[lol]

All that matters is winning, what we achieved will only mean anything if it is a springboard for being competitive and leading to a success in the Euros or worlds in future years, ATM it means f**k all and ultimately we failed as harsh as that sounds

It really is quite harsh to say that we failed. I don't see losing to Croatia as a failure. We just didn't exceed expectations by beating a team of similar stature.

I still maintain that we did alright, but not amazing like how some delusional fans claim we did

[Ach]

I said we were damn good v Sweden but make things up to suit your agenda.

We got to the semis. No one expected that. Apart from you. Well done.

[Ach]

All that matters is winning, what we achieved will only mean anything if it is a springboard for being competitive and leading to a success in the Euros or worlds in future years, ATM it means f**k all and ultimately we failed as harsh as that sounds

It should but apparently who we face is more important than winning.

[lol]

I said we were damn good v Sweden but make things up to suit your agenda.

We got to the semis. No one expected that. Apart from you. Well done.

Damn good my ass. Apart from you, we were just decent. Stop being delusional

[lol]

All that matters is winning, what we achieved will only mean anything if it is a springboard for being competitive and leading to a success in the Euros or worlds in future years, ATM it means f**k all and ultimately we failed as harsh as that sounds

It should but apparently who we face is more important than winning.

Stop having a loser mentality and hope we win a trophy because others suck

[Ach]

Time you watched the Sweden game before commenting. The fact you expect England to win the World Cup shows you have never watched them play. If a semi final is just average for you en dear god. Have you not seen us last few decades?

[Ach]

All that matters is winning, what we achieved will only mean anything if it is a springboard for being competitive and leading to a success in the Euros or worlds in future years, ATM it means f**k all and ultimately we failed as harsh as that sounds

It should but apparently who we face is more important than winning.

Stop having a loser mentality and hope we win a trophy because others suck

I want us to win no matter what. You want us to win playing the best teams or it doesn't count. Arsenal fa cup win in the year we beat Sutton and Lincoln already means f all to you. To me I celebrated the win as any other.

[Phil71]

England played one decent side and one half decent side in the whole competition - and lost to both of them.

Yes it was great for the fans that the team got to the semi finals, but we just about beat Tunisia, thrashed a really crap Panama, beat Columbia on penalties, and beat a pretty dull and knackered Sweden.

Let's not get too excited.

[lol]

Time you watched the Sweden game before commenting. The fact you expect England to win the World Cup shows you have never watched them play. If a semi final is just average for you en dear god. Have you not seen us last few decades?

I've watched Sweden play ,I've watched England play and I've also watched you being delusional

[Ach]

England played one decent side and one half decent side in the whole competition - and lost to both of them.

Yes it was great for the fans that the team got to the semi finals, but we just about beat Tunisia, thrashed a really crap Panama, beat Columbia on penalties, and beat a pretty dull and knackered Sweden.

Let's not get too excited.

We reached the semi finals. Did you expect that? Before the tournament started?

This lol guy didn't watch the World Cup which is clear as day. His who we face is more important than getting far in a competition mantra is pretty hilarious but he's young and we can forgive him.

Semi finals we had every right to be excited. Who we faced isn't important. Not our fault Germany and Argentina weren't good enough yet we get criticised for it?

[lol]

All that matters is winning, what we achieved will only mean anything if it is a springboard for being competitive and leading to a success in the Euros or worlds in future years, ATM it means f**k all and ultimately we failed as harsh as that sounds

It should but apparently who we face is more important than winning.

Stop having a loser mentality and hope we win a trophy because others suck

I want us to win no matter what. You want us to win playing the best teams or it doesn't count. Arsenal fa cup win in the year we beat Sutton and Lincoln already means f all to you. To me I celebrated the win as any other.

Every fans wants to win, but you want us to win by having weak opponents and then claim we were great

[lol]

England played one decent side and one half decent side in the whole competition - and lost to both of them.

Yes it was great for the fans that the team got to the semi finals, but we just about beat Tunisia, thrashed a really crap Panama, beat Columbia on penalties, and beat a pretty dull and knackered Sweden.

Let's not get too excited.

We reached the semi finals. Did you expect that? Before the tournament started?

This lol guy didn't watch the World Cup which is clear as day. His who we face is more important than getting far in a competition mantra is pretty hilarious but he's young and we can forgive him.

Semi finals we had every right to be excited. Who we faced isn't important. Not our fault Germany and Argentina weren't good enough yet we get criticised for it?

See...sensible people know that we did alright. Unlike delusional ones like you who think we are world-beaters

[Phil71]

England played one decent side and one half decent side in the whole competition - and lost to both of them.

Yes it was great for the fans that the team got to the semi finals, but we just about beat Tunisia, thrashed a really crap Panama, beat Columbia on penalties, and beat a pretty dull and knackered Sweden.

Let's not get too excited.

We reached the semi finals. Did you expect that? Before the tournament started?

This lol guy didn't watch the World Cup which is clear as day. His who we face is more important than getting far in a competition mantra is pretty hilarious but he's young and we can forgive him.

Semi finals we had every right to be excited. Who we faced isn't important. Not our fault Germany and Argentina weren't good enough yet we get criticised for it?

No, I didn't expect anything.

And now the tournament is over, I have given my honest assessment above.

I'm not criticising the team. I'm just stating facts regarding our tournament.

[thebigbangtheo]

Btw, HotHead, I get what you're saying, however, think about it this way.

If Arsenal won the UCL, by avoiding Barca, Real, Bayern, Atleti, and Juve through some incredible anomaly, would we care? On top of that, if we ended up beating Partizan Belgrade in the final, who'd care?

We'd still have lucked out. And we may not have won it if we had faced the big boys, but as fans we would surely lose our shit. And we'd have overachieved still because if luck weren't in our side, we'd have been smashed by the favorites.

Yes, a SF isn't as good as winning the whole thing, but we've never had a fluke World Cup winner. Well not since England in 1966? I don't know.

Brazil, West Germany, Argentina, Italy, France, and Spain.

If Croatia wins it this year, it'll be the first that a non-favorite would have won the World Cup. Meanwhile, clubs have fluked out a win in the UCL.

So, SFs of a WC is pretty incredible - no matter how you achieve it. England weren't great but they did what they had to do.

A very well reasoned and balanced assessment. Given the implication of big Tones comment, for a brief moment in time (6th minute) it seemed that fate was about to demonstrate it's wicked sense of humour again like it did in 15/16.

Applying a bit of perspective, I think the best thing that happened is that England have finally discovered a modus operandi. Brazil have their style of play and identity as do the likes of Spain, Italy, France, Holland, Portugal, Germany. Watch all the previous games England played against Croatia and you'll see that their style of play is consistent, irrelevant of the personnel.

Football has always evolved but to me at least, England haven't done that to any significant degree since 1974. The failure to qualify for Argentina '78 was probably the catalyst for abandoning building a team properly in favour of just lumping a load of players from the big clubs together and hoping that their professionalism was enough to bond them into a functional, effective team.

Remember, we had midfielders like Gerrard, Lampard, Scholes, Beckham that couldn't work together effectively simply by relying on their reputation. For all the talented players like Zidane, Vieira, Thuram and Petit that France had, the single most reason for their success was the non-superstar Makelele, the metaphoric Baldrick to Zidane's Blackadder.

Whilst I didn't entirely agree with Southgate's team selection, what he has done is give England a proper direction and style of play other than hit and hope then panic.