Young Blues and England held again

From a kick-off we had two players stood on the left touchline. The ball was rolled back to a centre midfielder who launched it at the corner flag for the two wingers to run onto. We used to do that in our year 6 school team...and we were utterly shit.

Oh and Lundstram wasn't unused. He came on with a minute or so to go.

On a separate note it's about time we bought some new players especially as the R.S are making a few moves in the transfer market.

To be fair to him, he may be under instructions not to work too hard on the defensive side and save himself for his forward runs, on the other hand it could be he's a lazy Le Tissier type who's not pulling his weight. Only the coaches know I think.

Stones looked good, didn't absolutely panic when under the slightest pressure which set him apart from the majority of the England side.

Good player I'm sure, but not today.

Any good Chileans we should be tapping up?

Will be interesting to see how many youngsters get serious playing time under RM. I suspect it will not be quite as many as people think.

Barkley went up a gear in the last half-hour and caused Chile all sorts of problems. Unfortunately, his less talented team-mates were more of a hindrance than the Chilean defence.

Always keen to receive the ball, he makes little effort to chase and win it. At Leeds, he was the same, but I don't think it's laziness. He's a big lad, still growing into his frame and his all-round ability will improve with experience.

One thing is certain: the richer clubs throughout Europe will have his name in their notebooks.

Incidentally, the heat is not an excuse for English players to run out of steam – it's a perfectly good reason. Football is just not a summer game!

As for Barkley, besides three good aggressive penetrating runs into the Chile half, he looked below average at most other aspects of a footballers game, heading, tackling, positional play (didn't mark or track back, didn't find space enough going forward), most worryingly is the amount of times he lost the ball when played into his feet. His passing was okay but nothing special, I had hoped for more from both of them, Stones costing £3 mil and Barkley now having the benefit of years of coaching 'alongside the first team' at finch farm and a few loan deals in the lower leagues, Martinez, on this evidence, will need to work some magic to get these lads into the first team.

Lundstram however looked good in the first game, a CM played on the right wing, with shit service from the RS Flanagan, I thought he had a good game, neat, tidy, doesn't give the ball away, intelligent passing.

Barkley looks really good running at pace with the ball at his feet, but that's it, Lundstram seems to have most aspects to his game nailed down and is starting to look better than most as this level.

Lundstram is my tip for prolonged future success at the top end of the game (hopefully with us). Fuck knows how Coady gets in the centre of midfield ahead of him, he plays like Pip Neville.

As for Barkley not tracking back, yes he probably could have done more – but he was playing as our most advanced midfielder. He was expected to support Kane and start attacks, not harry down players in his own half.

He did get caught in possession a few times and misplaced a few passes, but he was the shining light amongst an otherwise dismal England side. Whenever he received the ball he had one option: run with it. He's not the finished article, nobody would say that, but I don't think you can really criticise the lad after those two performances.

And yes, Conner Coady is utter shite.

if you haven't got the tools, you won't build anything. Lord knows what's happened to kids in this country... the Latins and Hispanics still have lads who can play – we haven't.

Mind you, if we class a fella who can't go past people, head or tackle but takes corners and poses in his undies as "great" is it any wonder?

I remember the old Spurs team of the early sixties who dominated because they had the close first-touch passing routine off to a fine art, which is what Spain has today. Of course, speed of thought and keeping possession are a must but the key is not trying to make difficult passes unnecessarily which many players think they have the ability to do but can't.

Spain are patient and they don't need a big central striker like most teams use which just commands use of the big boot in the air and dead ball situations from wide positions. People like Taylor, Sexton and Pierce grew up on this tired style of play and are teaching it to the young English players hence the poor performances. If they don't change then many smaller footie nations will overtake us if they haven't already.