"England may be beaten semi-finalists, but football has still come home..."

"England may be beaten semi-finalists, but football has still come home..."

          Firstly, I'd like to welcome you all back to my blog. Originally, I planned on writing one post per week and I managed that for a long time. However, I wasn't enjoying what I was writing. I have a couple of pieces in the pipeline, besides this one. So let's see how this goes...

          This summer has been one to remember for English football fans. The country has been brought together by Gareth Southgate and his England team. So what if we lost in the semi-final to Croatia? Southgate, despite his tactical ineptitude, has guided England a lot further than anyone could ever have imagined. Manchester United fans are declaring that Jordan Henderson is the best midfielder in England, Liverpool fans are praising Lingard and Pickford and everyone loves Harry Maguire.

          If you had told me at the end of the last World Cup, that a Sunderland reserve would be our number one. That lad from Burnley would be at right back, with Ashley Young at left back I'd have laughed in your face. Maguire himself has only had two years of playing in the top flight at this point and he has been one of the best defenders in the tournament.

          I'm not here to criticise any of our players, only to praise those that made us believe and put up a good fight for a change. Despite only keeping one clean sheet, Jordan Pickford has been immense. Trippier has bee our best player in my opinion, his delivery and workrate has been second to none. the back three has worked really well and their ability in the air has brought three goals for England. Henderson has been dictating play in the midfield, he's surely dragging himself towards the elite level of midfielders. Lingard and Alli have done very well to create chances and have worked well together. Sterling has sacrificed himself to drop deeper and link up the play and Kane has kept his nerve on so many occasions to score from the spot.

Kane celebrates his last minute winner against Tunisia.

          England even won a penalty shoot-out this year! There are many reasons to be optimistic. Why can't England do what Spain did and win the next three major tournaments? The structure is in place, the team is young and the manager has experienced work with these players for a long time. In four years time I expect we'll see maybe five new players in the squad, Henderson, Walker and Cahill are all on the older side of this team and there is plenty in the England youth set up to replace them effectively.

          We have reason to be optimistic. So let's be! We go again on Saturday to decide who comes third. Win that and kick on into the European Nations League and then the Euro's. Football has got to come home at some point... right?

That's all for now folks.

Until next time...

Craig