No goals in a first half in which England defended well but lacked precision in attack, followed by six in the second when the attack was as good as it’s been since the European Championships and the defence… wasn’t.
Promising though, right? Nice to be reminded that England have some very good footballers at least. Here’s how we rated them in the 3-3 draw with Germany at Wembley.
NICK POPE
He was bad at the thing he’s bad at and worse at the thing he’s supposed to be good at.
It’s as though he’s been told to ‘be cool’ with the ball at his feet, repeats that mantra over and over in his head when he’s in possession, resulting in him taking far too much time and looking anything but cool when he eventually gets rid of it, inevitably giving it away.
He kicked the ball straight out of play with his first opportunity to show how cool he is, was tackled by Jamal Musiala with his second and nearly gifted Kai Havertz with a goal as he spread his arms wide to illustrate his coolness to his defence, waiting for a ball to come into he box which never arrived.
And then it was if the confidence he has in his shot-stopping drained through his feet and out into the ether. He weirdly made no real attempt to save Ilkay Gundogan’s penalty, not that he had any real chance, and then horribly fumbled a bread and butter save to cost England victory. Not cool, Nick.
JOHN STONES
One very good moment as he outmuscled Havertz, brought the ball out of defence and passed through the lines to Raheem Sterling, one slightly dodgy one as he passed the ball to Pope from about six yards away from him with about six Germany players in the box along with them. Limped off after 35 minutes when his hamstring pinged and looked quite concerned.
READ MORE: England show off best and Harry Maguire before Pope lets air out at Wembley
ERIC DIER
Is the middle centre-back in a three actually the easiest position to play on the pitch or is it just made to look easy because typically classy players play there? Can’t really remember anything he did, right or wrong, which in that position probably means he was pretty good? Or not good? Don’t know.
HARRY MAGUIRE
He might just have played himself out of the starting lineup for the opening World Cup game against Iran. He did his positive defending thing well in the early stages, stepping in to win possession and pushing the team forward. The England fans were even chanting the Harry Maguire song for a bit.
But Musiala…
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