To ask why the England team (the men) keep falling at the final hurdle, (well virtually at the final hurdle,) at the football World Cup ... and The Euros too?

I didn't think the Argentinians were that bad.

I thought there was a rule whereby only the captain was allowed to talk to the ref or at least there is in the Prem.

FIFA should clamp down on that IMO, but it is something a lot of sides do.

Why do you think this? I don’t think he does at all. I think he’s very young so has a bit of an attitude but that’s perfectly usual for a man his age, particularly one as talented. He’s an intelligent chap and I can tell he was raised well.

Why do you see it as "falling at the last hurdle"? I think that's part of the problem , the expectation that England have the "right" to win. Argentina were better on the night so they won.

The boys played well and I am proud of them. The fact is the other team played better. People may criticise the strategy and the so called ‘dirty tricks and knavish behaviour of the sly foreigners’ but in actual fact, we just need to come back, practice, improve and try again. They were the better side who have shown that they can score in the latter half of the game.

I think the third place game is utterly pointless.
Played for money. For the TV revenue, for betting and gambling.
The players will say they will do their best, but the heart will not be there.

It doesn’t matter. Bellingham seems like a total prick.

England weren't in the same side of the draw as France and Germany and the Netherlands are well down in the FIFA rankings at the moment (12 and 9) so hardly amongst the best.

Mexico were our biggest challenge and it was a significant victory to overcome the team ranked 10th in the world in their home stadium at altitude. They hadn't been beaten in that stadium in 13 years or something ridiculous.

I thought the Argentina match was a 50:50 beforehand. Argentina are ranked more highly than England at the moment, in fact #1 in the world, but their recent form has been a bit sketchy in this world cup (France and Spain have played better IMO) which probably bought down the odds a fair bit.

Essentially the first time we came up against a team ranked significantly more highly than us we lost. Kind of what was expected.

Of course they do !

They are something like the 4th best ranked team in the world, so it makes sense that they always finish 4th.

Good, but not the best.

Also this we are no 3/4 in the world, we did really really well and Mexico was a sensation

Also, I don't understand all this 'because the media build them up', of course the media do and I'm fairly sure other countries do the same.

Because it is a game of small margins and mistakes get punished.

Tuchel got it wrong last night.

And it's not just England either.

I don't think they will. I wish they could just come home.

Agree.

France went out at the same point as us, so they weren't "already wiped out"

I know, I posted on a Scottish thread celebrating Scotland getting through to the WC after so many years of nothing, but to be honest we expect nothing else from them really.....

I can't understand why that line that was so effective against Mexico failed.
I think at the moment we've got the best team we've ever had.

Hopefully they can be proactive against the French and shine.

This sums it up.
Disgusting dirty tactics and poor ref early on.

Then becoming defensive instead of feeding that ball to no 10 or Kane. Taking off best players like Gordon etc. going defensive.

That's a rude thing to say.

Imagine if someone posted on here that they didn't want Scotland to win something because they were English! It just wouldn't happen! Yet as a Scot you think it's ok to make it clear you don't like the English.

No they didn't they went on an open top bus through Oslo, they celebrated their team getting that far....

This time it was due to Tuchel making the wrong decision. Going defensive after the goal was a mistake and ultimately cost us.

Argentina are a different beast to Mexico and Norway and of course it wasn't going to work like it did with them.

Teams that are generally supposed to be among the best, had already been wiped out - Germany, France, The Netherlands.

They performed at a level consistent with their FIFA ranking (4).

What do they need to do to get better ? A moot point.

But IMO the big difference between England and the higher teams at the moment is their team play rather than the ability of individual players.

When England are attacking and the opposition is in the low block, you always feel they have issues breaking it down (eg Ghana). When England are defending you always feel it is a desperate cling on for life (Mexico) rather than a well organised and impenetrable defence.

I think Tuchels tactics (1-0 and park the bus) were absolutely correct at this level. It's just that the players can't park the bus. As individuals they are great players that are more than capable of doing this, it's just that they for some reason can't. Maybe it is the coaching set up they have.

As a nation England does pretty well in relation to its size. Plenty of other countries where football is popular like Germany, Japan, China, Mexico and Italy where they didn't make it as far as England. So they did pretty well all in all.

The French self destructed - I would be a lot more frustrated if I were France.

No they don't, they have been good enough to win the world cup on several occasions so it's natural to be disappointed when it still hasn't happened.

Historically

1. A tradition of the press building up the team to knock it down...making other results in the past where we exceeded the skill and ability of our players look failures
2. Until Southgate repeated managers who weren't brave enough to tell the players to grow up and stop letting club loyalty get in way of being grown up
3. allowing the media to pick the team examples being the freezing out of La Tissier, Stan Bowles and constantly playing Gerrard and Lampard together. Because the press lobbied for their favourite and knew they could destroy the manager

This Tournament

1. Venus....Mexico City at altitude, miami in the heat the legs were gone in the 2nd half
2. failing to take another right back
3. Henderson injury and the fact that Mainoo wasn't fancied by the manager....Rice should have been replaced at 60 mins
4. poor tactic to sit back
5. ref was following instructions to let the game flow and didn't stop the fouls until the end of the first half