{"id":757361,"date":"2026-06-24T14:43:13","date_gmt":"2026-06-24T14:43:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/757361\/"},"modified":"2026-06-24T14:43:13","modified_gmt":"2026-06-24T14:43:13","slug":"england-cull-headless-gordon-clueless-madueke-and-rice-need-to-be-dropped","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/757361\/","title":{"rendered":"England cull: &#8216;Headless&#8217; Gordon, &#8216;clueless&#8217; Madueke and Rice need to be dropped"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>England get a kicking after that Ghana draw but drop Declan Rice? Really? It\u2019s certain the wingers must change anyway.<\/p>\n<p>Send your mails on England and all things World Cup to theeditor@football365.com<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Bench England three please<\/p>\n<p>Ok might be a bit knee jerk this but after tonight\u2019s borefest Madueke, Gordon and Rice need to be benched, Mr Set Piece didn\u2019t put one quality ball in all game, Madueke didn\u2019t have a clue what either foot was doing and Gordon was pocketed the entire game by the Ghanaian right back.<\/p>\n<p>Rashford, Saka and Mainoo need to start against Panama.<\/p>\n<p>Anyway Ghana set out to defend and did it admirably giving England nothing up top, Kane snatching at the only chance coming his way summed up his game. At the back Pickford was bloody lucky to get away with a couple of fouls somehow getting the decision from the ref. Onwards and upwards to the next game hopefully Panama don\u2019t park the bus and frustrate.<br \/>Paul Murphy, Manchester<\/p>\n<p>READ: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.football365.com\/news\/england-ratings-ghana-safety-first-approach-backfires-tuchel-spence\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">England player ratings: Negativity flows from teamsheet to pitch in goalless Ghana draw<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Did we miss a certain right-back?<\/p>\n<p>Anybody else think we could have done with someone with great set piece delivery, the ability to switch play quickly or step into midfield and make telling passes?<br \/>Howard (just me?) Jones<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u2026One word: Trent<br \/>Jon Snow <\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Do we miss a Foden or Palmer?<\/p>\n<p>As echoed by many, yesterday\u2019s game was a \u201creality check\u201d indeed. However, it wasn\u2019t a bad a result and probably was important for the team to see what it\u2019ll be like playing against a team disciplined with the low block, especially for the round of 32.<\/p>\n<p>Ghana were defensively very disciplined; credit to Queiroz for drilling that into the team. 1st half we were unable to thread the ball through the centre and both Madueke and Gordon found it hard to penetrate from the wings. The last 15 minutes were us at our best however by then Ghana were buoyed by the prospect of closing us down. It was a game of fine margins and unfortunately the O\u2019Reilly header and subsequent Kane miss was the difference between England finding a way through and Ghana\u2019s plan being effective.<\/p>\n<p>The only food for thought for Tuchel will be his team selection. He rightly chose Guehi ahead of Stones, but I would question the wisdom in having Spence, who by no means had a terrible game, ahead of O\u2019Reilly. We were much more effective in the attack when he came on, and even Madueke performed better on the left.<\/p>\n<p>Saka was fantastic when he came on; there is a clear difference in the football intelligence displayed by Saka and Madueke. Whilst Madueke is a great battering ram of a winger, Saka has that ability to conjure up magic and hopefully he is 100% fit for the rest of the tournament.<\/p>\n<p>Whilst neither have been particularly outstanding for England, these are the games where a Palmer or Foden have the ability to unlock defences. Unfortunately both Eze and Rogers didn\u2019t make the impact Tuchel hoped.<\/p>\n<p>All said, it\u2019s important to remain positive. A strong performance against Panama is what\u2019s needed to restore confidence and top the group. Oddly enough, I think the team will play much better against a Top 10 ranked side further down the tournament due to the openness of the play. It\u2019s the Round of 32 that I\u2019m worried about as a banana skin.<\/p>\n<p>Thanks,<br \/>Ronson, AFC<\/p>\n<p>READ: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.football365.com\/news\/tuchel-southgate-england-second-game-trend-ghana\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Tuchel echoes Southgate with England second-game trend repeated against Ghana<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u2026We\u2019ve just entered injury time. It\u2019s a disappointing result, but we do need to remember that not all teams will play like Ghana are playing, and most of them won\u2019t do it as well as they\u2019ve done.<\/p>\n<p>But we have lacked creativity. That\u2019s more concerning than the result.<br \/>Phil, Manchester<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u2026Back to not knowing what this England is then. We controlled the game but jeez it was slow. If we were expecting a low block why did we just ease into the game and let them settle? Lethargic. We could all see it, Tuchel could see it and again, at least it felt like he was moving pieces to get around it.<\/p>\n<p>Jude was pretty disappointing but, again, pushing him so far forward just starves him of space. it was good to see that Rogers brings something new and it felt like the subs could make an impact if needed. Nothing quite came off though.<\/p>\n<p>Boy did we get lucky. How that Konsa tackle wasn\u2019t a pen I do not know. Even Pickford\u2019s non-challenge looked dodgy to me.<\/p>\n<p>I imagine we, as a nation, have slipped into its all gone to shit again. You would think we would learn that this is a rinse repeat story that happens every tournament. I quite like Kane\u2019s two tournaments in one approach. He is right, all we need to do is get out of the group stage, I guess it doesn\u2019t matter how you do it but surely you need to build on momentum. That sort of result just builds pressure. One thing we do know, we haven\u2019t worked out a low block. Whoever we get in the round of 32 will know if they stay compact they will have a chance unless we change shape. Although they didn\u2019t quite pay off, at least our subs felt like positive changes.<\/p>\n<p>As frustrating as that was It\u2019s so sad to see the shambles that BBC tv coverage has become. Maybe Lineker was worth the money after all, the Wazza and Micah combo is so hard to follow, it\u2019s just an assault to the senses. And that ref guy? Possibly the least TV ready person you could find!<br \/>Tom, Andover<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u2026Oh dear that was terrible, wasn\u2019t it? <a href=\"https:\/\/www.football365.com\/news\/tuchel-southgate-england-second-game-trend-ghana\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">The second game curse strikes again<\/a>. 0-0 against Scotland at Euro 2020, 0-0 against USA at 2022 World Cup, 1-1 against Denmark at Euro 2024, and now 0-0 against Ghana at World Cup 2026. Win our first game relatively comfortable and then labour to a draw in our second. Have things really progressed post Southgate? Of course we\u2019ll likely win our group but it goes without saying that if we play like this against the first good team we come up against in the knockout rounds we\u2019ll be packing our bags and going home.<br \/>Dan, London<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Wasn\u2019t that a penalty?<\/p>\n<p>Settling into to the obvious main event of the evening Croatia Panama the game we all want to watch and after five minutes went for a scan of your reactions to the England match.<\/p>\n<p>Am I missing something here or was the Ezri Konsa tackle on Prince a completely fair challenge? Surely this deserved some mention within <a href=\"https:\/\/www.football365.com\/news\/tuchel-southgate-england-second-game-trend-ghana\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">your breakdown.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Now I am open to correction and may have missed it being mentioned or in another article (yes, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.football365.com\/news\/england-ratings-ghana-safety-first-approach-backfires-tuchel-spence\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">it was mentioned here<\/a> \u2013 Ed) but come on \u2014 England really did get away with one on this \u2014 it was a stonewall penalty.<\/p>\n<p>Penalty aside as an Irishman I am actually rooting somewhat for England at this World Cup but just shocked to see the penalty shout completely ignored and relatively under scrutinised on tv punditry also.<\/p>\n<p>Regards<br \/>Dave \u2013 Enfield<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Worst \u2018Big\u2019 Team ever?<\/p>\n<p>Are England the worst big team ever?? Always hyped up, football is constantly \u201ccoming home\u201d. But they are absolutely poison to watch. Zero creativity. Bellingham auditioning for the sequel to The Invisible Man. Gordon is headless. Madueke couldn\u2019t cross the road.<\/p>\n<p>Admit it lads, all of the foreigners in the PL make these average players look better than they actually are. Long hopeful balls down the channels are all you have, and Ghana has it figured out. Woeful.<br \/>Weldoninhio, BAC<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"England get a kicking after that Ghana draw but drop Declan Rice? Really? It\u2019s certain the wingers must&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":757362,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[563],"tags":[64,63,596,85],"class_list":["post-757361","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-football","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-football","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/757361","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=757361"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/757361\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/757362"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=757361"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=757361"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=757361"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}