Roberto Martinez served Southgate a ballooned bouncing lob when he announced he was leaving out most of his first choice players.
Instead of smashing it back and shouting game and first round to me, Southgate chose to pat it into the middle of the court, deny himself the chance of seeing Kane and Rashford together, waste free-kicks on promising young Trent, deny himself the speed of Kyle Walker and put a brake on Jesse Lingard's excitement at the improvement he is showing. Like David Goffin, Martinez can produce a backhand passing shot when needed. Januzaj, with a bit of top and side from out wide, looked like the player Man Utd thought they'd bought!
And oh dear we've shown the Colombians how our goalie copes with a ball that swerves or dips. Catching it is no more in his repertoire than Butland's, but short of a training ground outrage I can't see us having the sense to opt for Pope. Let's hope that nice Mr Peckerman doesn't put Muriel up front with Falcao against us and that James Rodrigues is no more than half-fit ............. if we can then just avoid conceding corners for Mina to head in, we might have a chance of playing Switzerland.
Only losers conceive of the possibility of defeat and we made that choice. It didn't even come down to penalties against the Germans.
Instead of smashing it back and shouting game and first round to me, Southgate chose to pat it into the middle of the court, deny himself the chance of seeing Kane and Rashford together, waste free-kicks on promising young Trent, deny himself the speed of Kyle Walker and put a brake on Jesse Lingard's excitement at the improvement he is showing. Like David Goffin, Martinez can produce a backhand passing shot when needed. Januzaj, with a bit of top and side from out wide, looked like the player Man Utd thought they'd bought!
And oh dear we've shown the Colombians how our goalie copes with a ball that swerves or dips. Catching it is no more in his repertoire than Butland's, but short of a training ground outrage I can't see us having the sense to opt for Pope. Let's hope that nice Mr Peckerman doesn't put Muriel up front with Falcao against us and that James Rodrigues is no more than half-fit ............. if we can then just avoid conceding corners for Mina to head in, we might have a chance of playing Switzerland.
Only losers conceive of the possibility of defeat and we made that choice. It didn't even come down to penalties against the Germans.