Holland 0 England 1 – Baby Step Progress

Another decent friendly performance for Gareth ‘GS’ Southgate’s England against the Netherlands in Amsterdam. A deserved 0-1 victory, Jesse Lingard with the goal, in a mostly dominant display and the result most certainly flattered the hosts despite a late rally.

REBUILDING THE ORANJE

I think it would be fair to say that this current Dutch team are nothing like the great teams of old (actually they nothing like the team that finished third at the 2014 World Cup) – but you can only perform against whoever you come up against. England made them look exactly like a team that has failed to qualify for Euro 2016 and the 2018 World Cup. Ronald Koeman has a huge rebuilding job on.

JOB DONE

A performance which  was full of promise for the Three Lions which at this stage is all you can hope for. The starting front three of Jesse Lingard, Marcus Rashford and Raheem Sterling linked up superbly causing the Dutch defence all sorts of problems, especially with their pace, whilst they remained on the pitch. They were ably assisted by Danny Rose and Kieran Trippier in the full back positions and captain for the night, Jordan Henderson, and his club teammate Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain controlled the midfield areas for the majority of the game.

SEEING IT OUT

As is always the case with friendlies, substitutions, can easily change how a game goes, these matches are for experimenting in all fairness. Southgate replaced the front three in one go and the match changed to some extent in the fact that England stopped causing problems to their hosts defence and the Oranje got up a mini head of steam. However the visitors managed to hold them out quite comfortably which was a boon for what was a solid performance from the England rearguard, which has now conceded just one goal in their last 7 matches.

IMPROVEMENTS ON THE BALL NOTED

One of the real positives from the match from my point of view was how well England kept possession, especially in the first two thirds of the match and long may this continue. Against all levels of opposition I have watched them play they have tended to just keep giving the ball away time after time after time. If this can continue to be resolved they might actually make some progress deep into a tournament.

CHICKEN COUNTING – NOT

So now back to Wembley for the visit of another team who have not qualified for the World Cup, in Italy, this coming Tuesday. They should provide decent opposition to test England and another win, with a solid and dominant performance, has to be the target. Don’t worry I won’t be getting carried away and neither should ANY England fan. Performing in a friendly is one thing (2 years ago prior to Euro 2016 they went to Germany and won 2-3) but performing when it matters is something completely different and where England so often fail, and it is in tournament play that ‘GS’ has to show that progress has been made.

Let me know what you think

You can tweet me:- Tweet to @biggishmouth  

Go to my facebook page at:- www.facebook.com/thebiggishmouth      

or click on this link to pick up:- ALL my latest and historical blogs