The World Cup so far
It’s too early to make any predictions as winning World Cup teams tend to grow in stature rather than hit the ground running but it’s nonetheless valuable for the Rust to present its customary contrarian view. Pre-tourney there were many fears in the popular press of hooliganism provoking a severe police reaction yet so far there have hardly been any incidents.
As for England, Gareth Southgate has done a good job in lowering the public’s expectations and keeping the press onside. There were none of those gung-ho photos of players in helmets, the war imagery of trenches as we went into this competition more level-headed. England performed reasonably well in their first game which – like your virginity – you want to get out of way in as least embarrassing a way as possible.
You could criticise his game management for not taking Dele Alli off earlier or entrusting all the set pieces to Ashley Young. Conversely we saw a new tactic of Harry Maguire dribbling the ball out of defence offensively. This is known as “breaking the chain”, forcing the opposition to lose its shape and create gaps as someone has to leave their position to confront Maguire. I hope this enterprising tactic which we have not seen since the days of Bobby Moore persists but equally I fear for Maguire marking the explosive and physical Romolu Lukaku.
I prefer Mark Pougatch as presenter to Gary Lineker. Rio Ferdinand’s analysis is incisive. Chris Waddle’s tactical knowledge is belied by his lack of fluency as opposed to the articulate Danny Murphy whose content when boiled down does not amount to much. I could do without Terry Butcher’s chest-thumping chauvinistic flag-waving. I prefer the more sober analysis of Guillam Balergie of Spain to many of the ex-footballers.
