I was initially feeling slightly encouraged when Woy was interviewed just before the match and he said that the quality in the team meant that there was no need for the typical route 1 style of play of past Ingurland teams…
The first five minutes of play demonstrated that either the ‘lads’ were not listening to him, or didn’t understand what he meant, whereby the hoof it up forward and hope one of the dudes in a white shirt can get the ball seemed to be the favoured approach. 😕
Aside from that, sitting too deep, not pressing high up the field when Russia had the ball, removing a known goal scorer from the opponents goal area, allowing the back four to pass between themselves until one of them miscues, or hoofs it hopefully forward, the attacking midfielders not dropping back to link up, playing Sterling for nearly the whole match and… not scoring more goals than the opposing team, despite all our ineffective possession.
Lucky to get a draw TBH and against many other better teams, Ingurland would have been taken apart.
Normal tournament service resumed.