On paper, man for man we are the best team in the tournament. Not a single Serbian player would make into our starting eleven. Sorry for being misérablist but not impressed tonight.

54 minutes ago, loz said:

Saka for Bowen.  f**k sake. Palmer clearly the best option 

Clearly... even though he did set up Kane for the 2nd a couple of minutes later and worked very hard defensively.

This is the problem we have, three top right sided forwards in Saka, Foden and Palmer yet no natural left sided player and Grealish left behind.

Saka is the one that gets the nod as he crosses with his right the other two are inverted and we have no width on the left.

Kane for me is only a 70 minute player at this level as a lone striker. In a front two probably different. 

TTA should be on the bench now, experiment failed and give it to Gallagher.

I think we go out in 1/4s

 

 

Guehi was the best player tonight, everybody else was a bit sh*t. Loose touches, nervy, players didn't want to force it. A typical England tournament performance. One day we are going to get an England side that doesn't feel so shackled, hopefully I get to see it in my lifetime.

You lot are hysterical. The worst thing that happened tonight was the final guarantee that we're going to be subjected to another decade of f**king Hey Jude.

1 hour ago, axman2526 said:

This is why I stopped give a sh*t about the nation team many years ago. The Chelsea hatred has run deep for decades. 

The "covering for Lampard ruined Gerrard", the media gate to get JT stripped of his armband and place because St. Steven was supposed to be captain England. Etc etc.

 

Same stuff still goes on. Cole Palmer not even used. You have Palmer play that season for Arsenal and he is an England starter, you have Saka play thar season for Chelsea and he does not make the squad.

You should support Canada axman. The north-American equivalent of San Marino.

Typical first game for us. Tricky opposition. Bossed it. Scored a goal. Should have had a couple more. Only 1-0. So a nervy finish.

Move along. Nothing to see here.

1 hour ago, just said:

You should support Canada axman. The north-American equivalent of San Marino.

Clearly you have never seen Canada's women's team Just. Had some really excellent players and teams. ;)

Edited June 17, 20242 yr by axman2526

From Sky Sports:

 

German police: England fans involved in incident ahead of Serbia clash

England fans were involved in an "isolated" incident near the centre of Gelsenkirchen ahead of the national team's Euro 2024 opener against Serbia on Sunday, German police have confirmed.

Videos on social media show trouble brewing outside a restaurant on a side street, with tables, chairs and bottles thrown before riot police arrived.

It was initially thought the fighting involved only Serbia and Albania supporters, but Gelsenkirchen police have told Sky Sports News that England fans were caught up in the trouble.

At least six people have been injured and seven Serbia supporters have been arrested.

A spokesperson for the United Kingdom Football Policing Unit confirmed an "investigation team is now reviewing footage of the incident and if any UK nationals have been involved, football banning orders will be sought."

Boring England game but clearly the better team. Some team with a better midfield will then find out if the English defence is up to it, which I expect they aren't, but even though Serbia finished in front of Portugal in the qualifiers they showed less than Poland.

Best game so far for me is Poland Netherlands, because Poland in attack looked ok.

Spain and Germany have looked good although no doubt both have vulnerable defences. 

That leaves France and Portugal to strut their stuff of the contenders.

The bias is crazy.  Good to see England win, and no easy games, but overall I thought England were quite poor.  The transition play was too slow and couldn't really get the forwards into the game.  Guess this is why I do not work for Sky....

https://www.skysports.com/football/news/32461/13153977/euro-2024-serbia-0-1-england-player-ratings-marc-guehi-and-declan-rice-impress-in-defence-as-three-lions-win-opener

Declan Rice - 9 
A real faultless display, the reliable balance to all that creativity ahead of him. The Arsenal midfielder produced double digits in ball recoveries and quite a few of them came in important moments on the edge of his own box. Rice is growing into a big-game payer for country now, not just club.  And you can see why Southgate has put him in his leadership group.

Trent Alexander-Arnold - 8
A livewire. had plenty of shots from midfield and took up good areas - while his smart interception created the Walker chance in the first half. He was taken off as England needed more energy in midfield, but the Liverpool player showed he can do the running side of the game as well. 

Bellingham - 9
Saka - 8
 

Gallagher - 6 (lowest rating of anyone that played)
Brought on as England's energy levels dropped and the Three Lions did improve a little after his introduction. But too many lost balls and heavy touches meant Southgate's side couldn't settle. 

 

That arnold rating is ridiculous, he was dreadful and had no idea how to play the position. Mistakes gave them 2 clear cha, he was a gaping hole in the midfield trying to defend, he was the reason we had no control as Rice had to constantly pick up behind him. Amazing.

6 hours ago, axman2526 said:

From Sky Sports:

 

German police: England fans involved in incident ahead of Serbia clash

England fans were involved in an "isolated" incident near the centre of Gelsenkirchen ahead of the national team's Euro 2024 opener against Serbia on Sunday, German police have confirmed.

Videos on social media show trouble brewing outside a restaurant on a side street, with tables, chairs and bottles thrown before riot police arrived.

It was initially thought the fighting involved only Serbia and Albania supporters, but Gelsenkirchen police have told Sky Sports News that England fans were caught up in the trouble.

At least six people have been injured and seven Serbia supporters have been arrested.

A spokesperson for the United Kingdom Football Policing Unit confirmed an "investigation team is now reviewing footage of the incident and if any UK nationals have been involved, football banning orders will be sought."

Every tournament muppets throwing white plastic chairs

Must be my age and getting more cautious as I get older, but I thought Southgate got it right with subs last night. Would have like to have seen Palmer, but I think Gallagher for TAA was a no brainer as we needed a bit of bite in midfield and look to shore things up. And Bowen was the right call. He has more pace than Palmer and offers more defensively - as he showed.

Kane and Foden were very disappointing but he'll never take Kane off and Foden did improve slightly last on (but still nowhere near his best).

Hopefully Cole will get on next game and do something so special it will be hard not to pick him after that.

10 hours ago, The Rising Sun said:

Shearer was annoying me so much I was half hoping Serbia would score, preferably with an own goal from Jude, just to put a stopper in Shearer's ridiculous over the top adulation of every little thing that Jude happened to do , good player though he is.

But " we never start well" ......yeah and after " never starting well" we go on to win f**k all as well.

f**k me now the pundits are idolising over the way Jude speaks! 

I can't stand Shearer as a pundit - he is so boring and states the bloody obvious and talks in cliche's. Give me Ali McCoist any day.

 

8 hours ago, axman2526 said:

From Sky Sports:

 

German police: England fans involved in incident ahead of Serbia clash

England fans were involved in an "isolated" incident near the centre of Gelsenkirchen ahead of the national team's Euro 2024 opener against Serbia on Sunday, German police have confirmed.

Videos on social media show trouble brewing outside a restaurant on a side street, with tables, chairs and bottles thrown before riot police arrived.

It was initially thought the fighting involved only Serbia and Albania supporters, but Gelsenkirchen police have told Sky Sports News that England fans were caught up in the trouble.

At least six people have been injured and seven Serbia supporters have been arrested.

A spokesperson for the United Kingdom Football Policing Unit confirmed an "investigation team is now reviewing footage of the incident and if any UK nationals have been involved, football banning orders will be sought."

England fans get the headlines,

Six people injured, Seven Serbs arrested, does that mean 6 English fans were victims just bizarre as no English supporters arrested.

Anyway almost certain some of our fans will be arrested before the tournament has ended despite the banning orders.

4 minutes ago, strider6004 said:

England fans get the headlines,

Six people injured, Seven Serbs arrested, does that mean 6 English fans were victims just bizarre as no English supporters arrested.

Anyway almost certain some of our fans will be arrested before the tournament has ended despite the banning orders.

From what I’ve seen there was maybe 30 blokes having a fracas. Probably 80-100 thousands football fans including ticketless milling about. You see punch ups of that size every Saturday night in Croydon. Cheap headlines 

1 hour ago, Nibs said:

Must be my age and getting more cautious as I get older, but I thought Southgate got it right with subs last night. Would have like to have seen Palmer, but I think Gallagher for TAA was a no brainer as we needed a bit of bite in midfield and look to shore things up. And Bowen was the right call. He has more pace than Palmer and offers more defensively - as he showed.

Kane and Foden were very disappointing but he'll never take Kane off and Foden did improve slightly last on (but still nowhere near his best).

Hopefully Cole will get on next game and do something so special it will be hard not to pick him after that.

The way Kane was moving yesterday was reminding me of my father who is borderline Parkinson's amongst other complaints, surely this is Kane's last tournament, I thought yesterday it was made for DCL just a shame hs is so injury prone.

Playing for City Foden never seems ro cover so much ground as he does for England yet Gordon might just be a better fit on that left attacking side as is more mobile. Feel sorry for Foden as he is playing second fiddle to Saka. 

It is funny how there is such a massive thing made of who will make the squad, such as Toney, Watkins etc when the likelihood is they will get minimal minutes. Because unless England are chasing the goal from a losing position or are well clear in the lead, is the only chance they get minutes, or if they lucky, one of them gets a start at the final group game due to already being qualified, but Kane gets way too much entitlement. He is good but I don't see why he has to play 90 mins. Watkins is one of the best defensive forwards. He works his socks off, holds up the ball well, links up with his team well. Could he not have come on for Kane? Gordon also should have come on for Foden as his defensive work is brilliant and he would of been better for the counter and Foden was sh*t yesterday.

Why I will never rate Southgate as a manager. Boring football, strange tactical decisions and just doesn't get how to kill games off.

45 minutes ago, STATS said:

It is funny how there is such a massive thing made of who will make the squad, such as Toney, Watkins etc when the likelihood is they will get minimal minutes. Because unless England are chasing the goal from a losing position or are well clear in the lead, is the only chance they get minutes, or if they lucky, one of them gets a start at the final group game due to already being qualified, but Kane gets way too much entitlement. He is good but I don't see why he has to play 90 mins. Watkins is one of the best defensive forwards. He works his socks off, holds up the ball well, links up with his team well. Could he not have come on for Kane? Gordon also should have come on for Foden as his defensive work is brilliant and he would of been better for the counter and Foden was sh*t yesterday.

Why I will never rate Southgate as a manager. Boring football, strange tactical decisions and just doesn't get how to kill games off.

We’ve got a potential Lamborghini but play like an Austin Allegro.,Let the f**king brakes off Gareth

Same old same old. Pick players on club form, fine. But overlook how they are maximised at their clubs. Foden can play left or right but does most damage drifting into 10. But that's Bellingham's space now and forever more. So Foden either crowds Bellingham or stays wider where, as a wide player, he's simply less effective. Gordon would offer more pure attacking threat on the left but his supply, with Trippier at LB, would be next to nil. A fit Shaw would do the job but is he fit enough to start?

12 hours ago, PloKoon13 said:

You lot are hysterical. The worst thing that happened tonight was the final guarantee that we're going to be subjected to another decade of f**king Hey Jude.

Brilliant - while I am grumpy old get territory - Sweet Caroline, completely ruined a great tune for me, particular the "so good" bits ! 

And these fan parks, - I mean it is great to see enthusiasm don't get me wrong, but which proper English person in their right mind would throw away a beer ? ......I'll tell you none. 

Bloody youngsters don't know they are born 😁

Bowen put in a very decent cameo 

 

 

6 minutes ago, andy said:

Bowen put in a very decent cameo 

 

 

He did. His usual full-on energy creating something out of not much. An antidote to the overall second-half listlessness.