@cassius_knightfall: It was an interesting performance, especially because I feel like Gareth Southgate did commit a few tactical mistakes that, while I won't say cost England the match, did affect their overall ability to impose their tactical vision on Croatia. England went with a 3-5-2 formation which unfortunately asked Lingard and Dele Alli to do a lot of work. They were playing as part of a three man midfield (with Henderson as the lone holding midfielder) with the task of running forward to support Harry Kane upfront, but also having to drop back to midfield to close down on opposition players in order to keep them from playing the ball from deep and to stop Croatia from creating chances, and whenever the ball was switched out they had to run to the wide areas of the pitch to help the wingbacks.
Advanced midfielders who are meant to be supporting the two strikers up front shouldn't be running around the pitch that much. And it prevented them from retaining possession of the ball, and without Dele Alli and Jesse Lingard to consistently feed him the ball from good positions, Harry Kane was isolated up front. He won't do anything if he's not being given the ball. And he can't be fed the ball if Dele Alli and Jesse Lingard can dropping far too deep to help Henderson protect the back three or have to drop down to the flanks to help the wingbacks defend against Croatia's wide midfielders. It's why England eventually resorted to their old tactic of passing long balls up front. Unfortunately that doesn't work anymore, and it hasn't worked in years. If all Harry Kane and Sterling are being fed are long balls because the advanced midfielders behind them are deep in midfield or even in defense so they're too far to feed them proper passes, it neutralizes England's ability to create chances and score.
And whenever Dele Alli and Jesse Lingard would drop deep to help Henderson, it left a gap in midfield for Croatia to exploit. Even worse, whenever Dele Alli and Lingard had to run to the flanks, it created a lot of space that exposed Henderson and England's midfield to Modric, Rakitic and Brozovic. And that's just about the last thing you want to do against Modric, he's the world's best midfielder. Give him space and he'll use it. Furthermore, with all the running Dele and Jesse Lingard had to do, they tired out very quickly. Too tired to cover the open space they kept leaving behind whenever they'd run out of position. The game was decided in midfield, as most games usually are. It was a tactical blunder. Had Croatia not played the combined extra 60 minutes from the two games before England, they'd have been fresher and probably would have taken the lead earlier and more convincingly considering how often Dele Alli and Jesse Lingard were getting caught out of position.
The 3-5-2 is a very demanding formation and it can be strong with the right personnel, just like any formation. But it needs a very strong midfield three for it to work. You need an amazing holding midfielder to retain possession so that your attacking midfielders don't have to keep running around the pitch whenever the opposition team switches the ball up because it's otherwise impossible to cover all that ground with a midfield three. It's been England's main formation in this World Cup but it's failed every time England faced teams with an elite midfield. Belgium exploited the formation's weakness, and now Croatia did too. Gareth Southgate should have picked up on the formation's tactical weakness. Especially because England are overloaded with world class talent. With that being said, I don't think Croatia will beat France.
They've gone to extra time in the last three games for a combined 90 extra minutes. They've literally played one game more than everyone else because of it. They'll be too tired to deal with Mbappe's pace, and I don't think they're getting past Kante or Pogba who will be walls in midfield.
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