I spent a large part of yesterday evening watching England pass the ball sideways.<\/p>\n
Then backwards.<\/p>\n
Then sideways again.<\/p>\n
Then backwards again.<\/p>\n
At one point I considered making another coffee simply to give the ball a chance to arrive somewhere interesting.<\/p>\n
England had nearly 80% possession against Ghana.<\/p>\n
Eighty percent.<\/p>\n
If possession was a currency, England could probably have bought a small country.<\/p>\n
Unfortunately, football matches are still decided by goals.<\/p>\n
And poor Harry Kane spent much of the evening standing in the penalty area looking like a man waiting for a bus that had been cancelled without notice.<\/p>\n
Now, I am repeatedly told that England possess some of the finest midfield talent on the planet.<\/p>\n
Rice.<\/p>\n
Bellingham.<\/p>\n
Saka.<\/p>\n
Gordon.<\/p>\n
Rogers.<\/p>\n
Madueke.<\/p>\n
If any of them became available tomorrow, somebody would probably offer enough money to fund a small space programme.<\/p>\n
Yet somehow, between them, they managed to provide one of England’s greatest ever goalscorers with roughly one genuine opportunity all evening.<\/p>\n
Which got me thinking.<\/p>\n
Whatever happened to just having a go?<\/p>\n
Modern football seems terrified of making mistakes.<\/p>\n
Every attack must be carefully constructed.<\/p>\n
Every pass perfectly measured.<\/p>\n
Every movement analysed by people with access to graphics, statistics and words I don’t understand.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Ghana’s tactical plan appeared remarkably straightforward.<\/p>\n
Put everybody behind the ball.<\/p>\n
Stay there.<\/p>\n
Wait.<\/p>\n
And it worked.<\/p>\n
The commentators called it a “low block.”<\/p>\n
When I was younger, we called it “everyone back.”<\/p>\n
The phrase was shorter and required fewer coaching badges.<\/p>\n
You could hardly blame Ghana, either.<\/p>\n
If somebody offered me a point against England before kick-off, I’d probably put eleven men behind the sofa.<\/p>\n
I sometimes wonder whether modern life suffers from the same problem.<\/p>\n
Nobody wants to do anything until they’ve found the perfect solution.<\/p>\n
People spend weeks researching holidays.<\/p>\n
Months comparing televisions.<\/p>\n
Years planning things they could have started yesterday.<\/p>\n
We’re all waiting for certainty.<\/p>\n
Football doesn’t do certainty.<\/p>\n
Neither does life.<\/p>\n
Sometimes you simply have to take a chance.<\/p>\n
Have a shot.<\/p>\n
Put the ball into the box.<\/p>\n
Cause a bit of chaos and see what happens.<\/p>\n
Of course, I should admit that I spent most of the second half shouting “Just shoot!” at the television despite possessing absolutely no tactical qualifications whatsoever.<\/p>\n
So perhaps I am not entirely innocent.<\/p>\n
Croatia’s victory over Panama means England can probably expect more of the same in the next match.<\/p>\n
More packed defences.<\/p>\n
More patience.<\/p>\n
More probing.<\/p>\n
More commentators discussing how to unlock stubborn opponents.<\/p>\n
And maybe they’re right.<\/p>\n
Maybe the answer is incredibly complicated.<\/p>\n
Or maybe, every now and then, somebody should simply have a go.<\/p>\n
Because sometimes it feels like we’re all looking for the perfect opportunity while life quietly passes the ball sideways.<\/p>\n
Anyway, what do I know?<\/p>\n
I’m just a grumpy old man.<\/p>\n
If you\u2019ve got a better take, drop it below. If not, I\u2019ll assume you\u2019re an England fan.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
GOM World Cup Diary #14 \u2013 Whatever Happened To Just Having A Go? I spent a large part of yesterday evening watching England pass the ball sideways. Then backwards. Then sideways again. Then backwards again. At one point I considered making another coffee simply to give the ball a chance to arrive somewhere interesting. England […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1167,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[81,13,53,82,111],"tags":[91,125,86,123,119,144,79,143,98,127,97,102,106],"class_list":["post-1164","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-football","category-grumpy-old-man","category-humour","category-soccer","category-world-cup-2026","tag-british-humour","tag-england","tag-football","tag-football-opinions","tag-football-pundits","tag-ghana","tag-grumpy-old-man","tag-harry-kane","tag-modern-football","tag-thomas-tuchel","tag-tournament-football","tag-world-cup-2026","tag-world-cup-diary"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/davethomasonline.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1164","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/davethomasonline.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/davethomasonline.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davethomasonline.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davethomasonline.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1164"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/davethomasonline.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1164\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1168,"href":"https:\/\/davethomasonline.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1164\/revisions\/1168"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davethomasonline.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1167"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/davethomasonline.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1164"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davethomasonline.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1164"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davethomasonline.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1164"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}