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In his exclusive column for CaughtOffside, former Aston Villa attacker Stan Collymore discusses some of football’s biggest talking points, including why England are now a squad to be proud of, why Crystal Palace and West Ham are moving forward, and why Man United have let down Jadon Sancho and Mason Greenwood.
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England finally have a squad and a manager to be proud of
I really enjoyed England’s performance against the Netherlands. It was a lot more assured, a lot more assertive, a lot more aggressive.
When the Dutch scored, there was always an element of ‘here we go again,’ but England got that slice of luck with the penalty. I’d be very disappointed if that was given against me as a player and I was very surprised that the referee’s original decision wasn’t upheld. Incredibly fortuitous.
After that I thought for pretty much the entirety of the match, 70 plus minutes, England were the better team.
It shows how far we’ve come that the expectation in this tournament to date hadn’t been met, and for an England team to dominate possession of the ball against the Dutch is quite remarkable – and that may not get commented on as much as it should.
It’s a massive vindication of the St George’s Park project, of English coaches and English coaching, and of the talent that we’re now producing.
England used to play the Dutch and you’d think to yourself ‘how are we going to get the ball back?’ and on Wednesday I watched an English team play a Dutch team where the Netherlands players were running around wondering when they were going to get the ball back. That could be a real watershed moment for English football in many ways.
I still think that Harry Kane is labouring a little bit, but the main positive is that we now know that another glass ceiling can be broken.
The captain of the national team can be taken off and there won’t be any sort of division amongst England fans because there are now players coming through – like Ollie Watkins –…
Source link : https://www.caughtoffside.com/2024/07/11/collymore-man-united-sancho-greenwood/
Author : Stan Collymore
Publish date : 2024-07-11 10:58:21
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