At the highest level, sitting off players, with men behind the ball only looking to press them when they become active in your own half simply isn't good enough and will never be good enough, the passing ability, vision, movement and chain reaction movement of top players is simply too good to afford them the time you do playing Southgate's/Hodgson's/Allardyce's way, by the time that pass is played to its recipient by the time you've tried to press him 'active in your own half' he's already moved the ball on to the next player and is looking for the return and others are creating other possibilities
That was England all over throughout last night's game and Rice or Phillips charging way out of where they were supposed to be playing to try a one man press an opposition player Kane or one of the other forwards should have been pressing, God knows what half arsed, half baked thinkning that was based on
"If Everton were playing at the bottom of my garden, i'd close the curtains”
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