The FA bods are probably watching that today and thinking it is time to bring in Graham Potter for Southgate ... 

40 minutes ago, JM7 said:

Spain v Italy. How mad is it that Morata is captain of Spain 

Under utilized here...we never played to his strengths, same as Torres when he was here.  They don't want the ball at their feet, they need it played in front of them or they are always going to be offside; yes he did miss a ton of chances but overall I don't think we gave him enough time....Werner-Jackson has the same problem but as bad as he is, he is beginning to learn to stay onside more often.  

20 minutes ago, Scott Harris said:

"We don't have a natural replacement for Kalvin Phillips".......this is the level of sh*t we have to deal with. You have abundance of English midfielders that you could have taken and made something out of. If you can't make a midfield out of Rice and one of Gallagher, Mainoo, Loftus-Cheek, Bellingham, Wharlton, Jones, Ward-Prowse then you need to go. There are option there to make an excellent midfield or at least a competent one without resorting to desperation and picking Alexander-Arnold who will perform worse than every single one of them.

I was fuming when he said that, what top manager cant replace Kalvin f**king Phillips from the squad he has, useless w**ker.

34 minutes ago, Scott Harris said:

You could also say those teams wouldn't win anything without the English players though.

Would we have won all we won without Terry and Lampard? I don't think so. 

Would Real Madrid have won the league and Champions League this season without Bellingham? Maybe, but it would have been very difficult.

Would City have been as good as they have been without Foden? No, they probably would have lost the league to Arsenal.

United dominated the Premier League under Ferguson with English players at their core.

The players aren't overhyped, the FA constantly bringing in the wrong coach is the issue. I haven't agreed with a single appointment they have made in decades.

Good points Scott. But remember those England players are coached by foreign managers for years, they spend a couple of weeks with the national side and seem to be clueless.

I think the last English coach who devised new tactics was Alf Ramsey and his ' wingless wonders" 😂

Anyway I wouldn't be surprised if the Italians hit Spain with a sucker punch in this game

29 minutes ago, Scott Harris said:

"We don't have a natural replacement for Kalvin Phillips".......this is the level of sh*t we have to deal with. You have abundance of English midfielders that you could have taken and made something out of. If you can't make a midfield out of Rice and one of Gallagher, Mainoo, Loftus-Cheek, Bellingham, Wharlton, Jones, Ward-Prowse then you need to go. There are option there to make an excellent midfield or at least a competent one without resorting to desperation and picking Alexander-Arnold who will perform worse than every single one of them.

Yes I was amazed by that kind of confused he didn't take Chilwell and gamble that one of him and Shaw would be fit.

I think the verdict is still out on Phillips too whether he is a good player or just has a few good moments. 

Feels like the level of football fell off a bit in comparison to the previous Euro where Gavi and Pedri controlled every match with ease for Spain. It was also more tactical.

Also in the past, the number 10 of Italy was a real star, Pellegrini looks like any average player to me and the number 10 of Spain is on the bench...

 

Cucurella having a good game tonight.

36 minutes ago, 2211 said:

I’m convinced if Maddison had a better end to the season Palmer wouldn’t of even made the squad.

Southgate is too rigid, has his favourites and is a yes man.

He’s not an elite manager at the end of the day.

Fancy shoehorning TAA into that midfield team because of his ‘passing ability’ but having the other necessary midfield qualities clearly don’t matter.

If Maguire was fit Guehi wouldn’t even be playing, just let that sink in.

 

 

TAA has been a disaster in midfield. Deffo McGuire would start every game because of the myth that he has " never let Gareth or England down"

 

Southgate has all the charisma of a wet flannel. No wonder there's no energy - half the players probably want to slit their wrists after having a team talk from that c**t.

Rodri allowed to stay on after treatment… the City brown envelopes cover their players at all times?

Thing is NO ONE decent wants the England job.

Maybe back to Big Sam , the original choice! 😂

Shoe horning players out of position never worked for us and the ‘golden generation’ Scholes on the left etc.. why the f**k would that change now

1 minute ago, charierre said:

Rodri allowed to stay on after treatment… the City brown envelopes cover their players at all times?

Citeh want their players to stay on the pitch after treatment?

Am I missing something, I didn't see it tbh .

1 minute ago, dan_cfc said:

Shoe horning players out of position never worked for us and the ‘golden generation’ Scholes on the left etc.. why the f**k would that change now

"Golden generations" has never been more misused !

Spain score ! Come on Italy !

1 hour ago, El regreso said:

 

 

The evidence for my 'Neal Maupay is secretly Irish' theory is really building up...

Cucurella really impressing. The guy has so much energy.

Both these teams look like they'd run rings around England 

Fairs Cucurella 

3 hours ago, Scott Harris said:

I know he's our player, so obviously I am going to have some bias here, but how the f**k do you leave a player like Palmer out of the side two games running? It would be different if they were playing well, but they're not. I guarantee if you asked Southgate he would use some bollocks experience excuse. Palmer didn't have much experience when he signed for us, but look at the season he had. That Arda Guler kid for Turkey has been thrown in at the age of 19 and he scored the best goal of the tournament so far. Then you look at Spain, they have a 16 year old kid on the wing!

I'm so tired England's lack of progressiveness. It's always so outdated and conservative. No courage, always held back with a fear of making a mistake.

Bad manager. 

 

 

Anti-Chelsea bias from the rest of the country.

Saka starts Cole cannot get minutes. Why? Saka plays for Arsenal, Cole plays for us.

2 hours ago, dkw said:

I was fuming when he said that, what top manager cant replace Kalvin f**king Phillips from the squad he has, useless w**ker.

Same one that does not think Cole Palmer merits minutes, and cost England the last euros by poor final management.

Southgate need to decide what to do, right now he is trying to cram Trent, Kane, foden, Saka, Bellingham into a team and it is a mess. 

Without shaw that left hand is total dead end. 

Up front, England need runner. Too many player who want the ball to his feet. You need Watkins/Sterling/Rashford to stretch play. I don't watch enough Gordon, maybe he can do this. 

Gordon - Kane - Saka

Bellingham - Trent/Conor

Rice 

It is imperative for Bellingham not to drift right, stay on the left and Crash the box. 

Get Saka on the ball on rhs and either have Conor make run from the middle to create space for saka (pool style) or have Trent to play two man game with Saka (arse/city style). 

Southgate also need to fix the gap between the line, it is way too big. Either ask the front man to drop more or have the backline push up more. The midfield looked lost defensively because they have to defend everything and everywhere. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited June 21, 20242 yr by Bob stark

Managers don't make good players but they can make them look like Cr**. To an aussie England has looked too defensive and unambitious since forever. The one exception being the last world cup where  with a bit of luck they could have made the final.

They look worse than ever at the moment. England seem similar to Portugal in their ability to turn a team of talented players with flair into a bunch of sideways passers content with sterile possession. However because of the "pragmatic" approach and boring neutrals to tears they may go a long way.

Spain look pretty good but despite the result and Italy not having much nevertheless they had enough athleticism and ability to make the likes of Yamal seem as young as they are. Also I think Rodri is struggling with the work load.

I don't understand why he played the exact same lineup instead of tweaking it.

I wanted Southgate to try the formation most have been screaming out for but its too late now.

Kane/watkins

Gordon/eze, fodden/cole, saka/Bowden

Bellingham, rice

Trip, guehi, stones, walker.

 

Stones playing higher up (inverted) in possession. Then tweak it from there...Gallagher in against tougher opponents to control midfield, swapping the inverted role, even looking at saka at leftback as ppl keep saying he played there before (I wouldn't know).

But even I had higher expectations of Southgate when in truth I should be expecting soo much less. I still can't get over that he doesn't tell the players what to do tactically and the players have to figure it out between them. That's shocking! Or do I have it wrong and understand the coach's role incorrectly!?

The post match interviews really opened my eyes...

Edited June 21, 20242 yr by Simplymo

6 hours ago, El regreso said:

Cucu having a good game so far.

🤑🤑🤑 50m please 

We need the money to sign olise 

Edited June 21, 20242 yr by Bob stark

I would honestly drop Kane. He has been useless - akin to us playing with Jackson only somehow worse!

Maybe Kane is just jinxed and any team with him in the side is never destined to win anything. Great player on his day but we're playing with 10 men currently (despite the tap-in goal).