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"England don't have belligerent gobshites any more!" - Daniel Harris

The England squad no longer has "gobshites" and it is better-equipped to deal with adversity in t...
Newstalk
Newstalk

11.30 4 Jul 2018


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"England don't...

"England don't have belligerent gobshites any more!" - Daniel Harris

Newstalk
Newstalk

11.30 4 Jul 2018


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The England squad no longer has "gobshites" and it is better-equipped to deal with adversity in the World Cup, says journalist Daniel Harris.

Daniel joined Ger and Eoin on OTB AM following England's victory over Colombia, pockmarked as it was by histrionics and ill-tempered feuds.

"What is interesting about this England team is that they don't have the kind of belligerent, classically-English, lion gobshite that we associate so much with the English football team and with England as a country.

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"People like Lingard, Rashford and Sterling are more likely to find the way Colombia behaved amusing than a reason to respond with this alpha male, wall-headbutting shouting. That is one of the reasons that they were able to keep calm."

On the gameplay, Daniel was not entirely convinced by Gareth Southgate's decisions in the second half.

"There's a better performance in England than we got last night. I don't think that was entirely England's fault because of the way that Colombia played in the first half. England are a very 'first half' team. That made it very difficult because the game kept stopping and starting.

"In the second half of the second half, you could see that they were beginning to get nervous and the substitutions invited pressure. By taking of Dele Alli and putting on Eric Dier, Gareth Southgate more or less told the players to sit on 1-0."

You can watch OTB AM from 7:45 every weekday morning on our Facebook, YouTube and Periscope channels. If you would like to see more sporting videos, like and subscribe any of our pages or log onto offtheball.com.


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