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Does anyone really care about this transfer?

You’re right, Tuchel’s substitutions really confirmed that he wanted his players to keep pushing and play on the front foot.

Don't think I'll bother with the 3rd/4th play off for two reasons 1 The real France will turn up and make us look like a pub team 2 Tuchel and the players will get it spot on and play the best game ever which will make us all miserable about the way we fu**ed up when it mattered Either way it's a lose-lose Anyway no one cares about the bronze medal

I think Tuchel is defintely taking far more of the blame than he should be. Literally the second we scored, the players all dropped back and stopped doing anything but defend. I can't imagine this was the plan. Tuchel has said it wasn't the plan, that they should have been going for the 2nd, but whether due to mentality, or fitness, they just couldn't do anything but defend. So he tried see it out. But, that being said, the subs were not great, we could have tried to force the issue by bringing on more attackers or more pace to stretch them, we also sacrificed the middle of the pitch. In hindisight you can look at some of the players left at home and wonder if they could have helped. I think the blame is pretty 50-50 between the manager and the players, they all got it wrong, for various reasons. Let's not pretend that it's 100% Tuchel and the players are blameless. The simple fact is they weren't good enough on the pitch and were out played, out run and out fought for the majority of the game.

Cave Verde had a better crack at Argentina than we did. The Argentinians looked bewildered at certain points in that game, almost in disbelief that the Verdians (?) would'nt lie down. Not like our brave souls withering & dithering. Even Egypt tried to give themselves a head start before the inevitable response from the World Champions. Our performance was poor. The players must be thanking their lucky stars that Tuchel is taking all the blame. Laughing their cocks off no less.

Anderson also at fault for trying to dive in instead of marshalling.

Well not the second one, no. Spence had a slight injury so couldn't get out to him and I think it was Rodgers who didn't even attempt to press as he was tired.

Where did you see that? Interview I saw from Guehi seems to suggest that the players retreated straight after scoring and was a mental thing, long before Tuchel even made any changes.

So no fault of Tuchel then, who said he knew the problem, knew how to fix it unlike other coaches?

Something I didn't know. Until Alf Ramsey came along, an FA Selection Committee picked the team. The manager had zero input. Maybe time to wind back the clock.

Sadly my great grandfather married an English woman. From Wallsend. Hence the flaws in my character.

I would only disagree on England being favourites. Their issues ran deep as you say. They constantly struggled to put away weaker teams; probably Croatia, a team of pensioners, their only true success. I always felt the SF would be the end of the road. That's where the top quality teams await.

A packed Olympic Stadium in Berlin, late 1930s. I think. German footballer Rudolf Raftl, the Germany goalkeeper, and a German defender rush in to clear the Aston Villa attack during a friendly match between a German Select XI and Aston Villa, at the Olympiastadion (Berlin Olympic Stadium) .14th May 1938. Aston Villa, who were on a three-match tour of Nazi Germany, won the game 6-3. Not sure who the teams are in the two pictures above. They are playing in the Olympic Stadium,Berlin in the late 1930s.

If Pickford hadnt made two very good saves late on and the woodwork hadnt saved us a couple of times the scoreline could have looked grotesque. As it was a possession stat of 12% late on is the sort of figure you might see when Chelsea play in the early rounds of the FA or league Cup was ugly enough. We can blame the manager and the next one but it's not gonna get us any closer to actually winning a competition.

I own it. I didn't count on England to be so miserably bad against Argentina they wouldn't get to meet them in the first place. Arguably the first time since 1986 that England came in as favourites and again England underestimated an irrepressible genius. Only Messi makes a perfectly flat square cutback just begging to be hit, followed up by a perfectly aimed cross that somehow evades 3 6ft+ English defenders to land on the forehead of the second smallest guy on the pitch. Maybe Olise or Yamal pull that off on a good day too. Tuchel built a team for the counter-press and the counter-attack and then decided to do neither. Two underwhelming teams but whereas Argentina rose to the level of its opponent, England descended to theirs. Tuchel deserves most of the blame, of course. Less for leaving out Palmer/Foden and far more for leaving out Adam Wharton who would have been a great complement or substitute to Rice or Anderson. His comments about 'DNA' are unfounded, given that he had three of the most recent PL winners, three CL winners (one of whom could legitimately be called his protege), a Treble winner, the current European Golden Shoe holder, and the form player of the tournament in Jude Bellingham. It was Tuchel's decision to play more defensively in the second half. The one thing in the world that Messi cannot do at age 39 is run, and yet, they never once required him to do it. They spent ~75 minutes denying him space only to give him the freedom of Atlanta from there on in. Firstly the wind went out of England's sails when Anderson, who pocketed both Paredes and Fernandez with ease, got a yellow card. Then it was Tuchel who ceded momentum the moment Gordon was taken off for Ezri Konsa when he could have easily switched in Rashford or Madueke or even Ollie Watkins to keep the pressure on.

Cheers, I like the pictures of the olde stadiums with vast terraces.

Barry Bridges with Sir Alf, Jack Charlton and Nobby Stiles. Looks like The Bridge terraces in the background. I know England trained at The Bridge, certainly in the early - 1960s.

Almost as if playing him for that many games n such a short time was a daft idea, especially after taking another injury prone right back as "cover".

Above: Barry Bridges surrounded by autograph hunters.

It’s such a shame he doesn’t seem able to play full back anymore not week in week out for a full season but he can still play there, in midfield or the right hand side of a back 3 like Dave did when he couldn’t go up and down anymore. With the contract he just signed I don’t see him going anywhere and with the fans feeling distant enough from many of these players those the fans have a connection too especially the Cobham boys are still important. Hopefully Levi gets back to his best and Josh gets more games too

My great grandfather was Dutch. Wanna make something of it?

Our track record in both the World Cup and the Euros is not winning the competitions, regardless of who the manager is. The players could be part of the reason. Tuchels tactics were poor v Argentina late on given the outcome, but we have hardly been in sparkling form throughout the competition, and indeed in other competitions. Clearly there's something missing. The players are probably as a group not top level. And our expectation is probably too high - mine certainly increases as a competition progresses, right up until reality cuts in. We had the World Champions in trouble at 1-0 and should have crushed any hope they had of a comeback, a top level team would have done that. Not one player, well maybe Pickford, stood firm in the closing stages they were all overwhelmed.

This is a brilliant video explaining how it went right, then the changes he made that went so badly wrong. Argentina had all the momentum, so Tuchel does nothing to change that, in fact he just completely plays into it and concedes everything taking Gordon of for Konsa. Awful management.

We had players in that England squad. Weird.