England have gone out of the World Cup at the quarter-final stage when forced for the first time to take on a really good team.
It’s a familiar refrain, but this time felt a bit different. England weren’t outmatched or outplayed by France but just landed on the shitty side of the fine margins in place when two good teams meet. And it would probably have been a good idea not to miss that late penalty. But not only was there no disgrace, there wasn’t really that same old ‘heroic yet inevitable failure’ vibe either.
So who did their bit for England? We’ve done a sort of ranking-grouping type wotsit because we weren’t quite sure how else to to go about it.
THE ZERO-MINUTERS
Aaron Ramsdale
The only job on earth we can think of that is even better than being a third-choice club goalkeeper is being a third-choice international goalkeeper. One of the sweetest gigs in all of sport, surely.
Nick Pope
Second-choice keeper is a bit dicier, though, isn’t it? You could be involved at literally any minute but also you probably won’t. Bit more of a head-fuck, that. Pope seems like an unflappable sort, though.
Conor Coady
A textbook example of what in cricket would be referred to as “a good tourist”. Never really sure what this meant. Sorting out visas? making sure everyone has their boarding passes? He does seem like a tremendously good egg, has done lots and lots of media and also seems to be involved in every single video that has been churned out for sponsors etc. Feels like it’s a genuinely important role in a modern football squad and we don’t want to start sounding like he’s a joke of a footballer either, because he’s not. But it’s clear that his role in the team extends well beyond football. He’s the squad equivalent of the bloke who holds the ball and guards the penalty spot after a penalty is given so that the actual taker can focus on his task without distraction. A coaching future seems inevitable. If we’re going all the way back to our cricket analogy, Conor Coady is Paul Collingwood.
Ben White
A reminder that football is only the most important of the unimportant things. We don’t know what’s happened, aren’t going to speculate and we just hope that everything is okay.
Conor Gallagher
The player who will catch out a thousand Planet Football quizzers in four years’ time.
James Maddison
Maddison has done Southgate an absolute solid here. Arguably nobody has proved themselves a better team man than…
Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at Football365…