[hibeejim21]

I seem to be in the minority, but personally I think poor management cost us a fantastic opportunity here.

Performances generally were poor, with the exception of 1st half against Tunisia and 1st half against Sweden. We were fortunate time and time again - lucky goals against Panama, Sweden missing easy chances - which papered over the cracks. IMO Southgate picked the wrong team.

In short, we made it the semis by default.

For starters, I don't understand the new found obsession with 3 at the back. Not least when it results in playing square pegs in round holes. First game, Kyle Walker looked out of place, costing us a penalty with poor positioning but because we dug on the 2-1, it's all forgotten. But realistically, why was he playing there? He's only ever been good at attacking his whole career. A proper centre half would've stuck his head in where it hurts yesterday, but I don't blame Walker, he's one of the best full backs in the world.

Our midfield was ridiculously open, which could've been easily fixed by dropping Walker and playing a proper midfielder next to Henderson. Yes, we blew teams away first 20 minutes on numerous occasions, but after that were dominated on numerous occasions too. Croatia game was case in point, where we completely lost the midfield 2nd half because Alli and Lingard don't have any natural defensive awareness.

Ashley Young is probably 3rd or 4th choice left back IMO. Rose looked so much better when he played. Bertrand is a much better player too.

Stirling just doesn't want it, doesn't have the guts or the pride to wear the shirt. Yes, he makes good runs, but clearly hides when it comes to getting a chance. Believe me, I can tell this player is doing everything in his power not to get a chance because he's scared of missing. For all his good runs outside of the box, when it comes to inside, he'll suddenly 'stumble' or be 'brushed aside'. How the manager can continue to trust a player with no end product, time and time again, is beyond me. This isn't city where he gets 5-6 easy chances per game.

With the players we have, we should've beaten Croatia. We've beaten ourselves but we're all happy about it because we made our way to the semis, by virtue of the draw. IMO, Southgate looked just as useless as when he was Boro manager.

You make some good points,and I agree southgate was to blame for England's defeat. But I take issue with the "with the players we have we should've beaten Croatia".
Once the Croatian midfield sparked, the English players didn't have the quality to truly compete with them. That's why those players are worth a fortune and play for the likes of Barcelona and Real Madrid and in the second half the gulf in class really showed.

Also going by modric's comments today,the English pundits and media really pissed them off with their dismissive attitude towards them.

England beat no team in the WC that was higher ranked than them in the competition. This view that you should be beating Croatia doesn't hold any water.