@Munkunku One of Oranje's sponsors have a cat starring in their commercials. A very good little actor, nothing AI about it. Cat is now with the Dutch squad.

 

Southgate needs to f**k off after this tournament regardless, but if England don't win this it's an absolute shambles.

Fair play to Southgate for at last having the balls to drop a few of the old favourites and select players in form. The defence looks a bit iffy, but so many good options going forward.

Have to feel sorry for Grealish. Despite the fact he looks a bit of a cock with the hair band, he's a decent lad. Must be questioning the move to City which hasn't really worked out and he is one player who certainly hasn't flourished under Pep. And no doubt he'll look as Palmer who did the opposite. No way Palmer would have been anywhere near the squad if he sat on City's bench.

Let's hope we go and win it.......................

 

1 hour ago, Nibs said:

Fair play to Southgate for at last having the balls to drop a few of the old favourites and select players in form. The defence looks a bit iffy, but so many good options going forward.

Have to feel sorry for Grealish. Despite the fact he looks a bit of a cock with the hair band, he's a decent lad. Must be questioning the move to City which hasn't really worked out and he is one player who certainly hasn't flourished under Pep. And no doubt he'll look as Palmer who did the opposite. No way Palmer would have been anywhere near the squad if he sat on City's bench.

Let's hope we go and win it.......................

I don't see Grealish as a starter though he did offer something else offensively. 

Otherwise most decisions make sense.

Don't expect much under Southgate yet happy to be proved wrong.

 

England squad is almost what I would have picked from his 33 training squad. Wouldn't have taken dunk and probably would have put branthwaite in instead but its refreshing to see some new faces. Especially as, if it is his last tournament, it would have been easy for Southgate to have stuck with the tried and tested. 

If England can get to grips with their defence, that squad looks set for a long while yet. 

1 hour ago, Nibs said:

Fair play to Southgate for at last having the balls to drop a few of the old favourites and select players in form. The defence looks a bit iffy, but so many good options going forward.

Have to feel sorry for Grealish. Despite the fact he looks a bit of a cock with the hair band, he's a decent lad. Must be questioning the move to City which hasn't really worked out and he is one player who certainly hasn't flourished under Pep. And no doubt he'll look as Palmer who did the opposite. No way Palmer would have been anywhere near the squad if he sat on City's bench.

Let's hope we go and win it.......................

 

Pep hasn't improved Grealish. He has drilled the inspiration out of him. Grealish could be a bit of a prat at Villa, diving et al, but he was also capable of some mercurial, inspiring football. Shame. 

Eidur's son is starting up front for Iceland tonight.

Is there still time to sack Southgate and get a decent manager in before next weekend?

Struggling against Iceland at home isn’t really what you should be doing before a tournament.

1 hour ago, Gordon Bennett said:

Is there still time to sack Southgate and get a decent manager in before next weekend?

De Zerbi with Potter as assistant, who says no? 😅

This is like watching us from start of last season. Loads of sideways possession not enough movement with quick passing and not taking the few chances made

Watching these players for England is like watching the Wish version of those players. They don't play anything like they do for their clubs. Gordan non stop crossing, doesn't do that for Newcastle. Foden's movement and touch play that we see for City is non-existent for England. Palmer plays too safe, doesn't do that for Chelsea, where's the style? Rice dominates midfield for Arsenal, for England you barely notice the guy and teams play through him easily.

It's the only side in international football that I see this happen to. The players we see play for their clubs just become a different player playing for their country. Once again, it comes down to the coaching. Southgate's football is trash, it lacks bravery, it lacks any invention. It's the most bland, boring, nothing football you can play. And what is with that defence? They play on the half way line..........France will love that, and none of them can win a header from a set piece. It's like watching a mix of Tottenham's suicide high line defending and Chelsea's set piece defending. The FA are to blame for this, they've been sabotaging every England team for decades.

Well that was 90+ minutes of sh!t I wish I hadn't wasted my time watching. I'm sure it was a deliberate attempt to fool our competitors in Euro24

It's all on Southgate! He should've walked before the last World Cup to give us a fighting chance in these comps!

10 hours ago, Richard P said:

This is like watching us from start of last season. Loads of sideways possession not enough movement with quick passing and not taking the few chances made

This is perfectly fine for international. The secret for winning international football has always been to play as riskless/dumb as possible. You don't need to play well at all. 

You don't have time to train for anything good offensively so just play solid, be good defensively, have a good gk, be clinical, get goal from set pieces. 

Italy won because of chielini, Donnaruma, bonucci 

Portugal and Greece won playing ultra defensive football. 

France despite having crazy squad, still play riskless ball. 

The only team who has done well at international level without doing any of this is Argentina but they have Messi, even then they don't start winning until they play Martinez. 

 

 

 

Edited June 8, 20242 yr by Bob stark

Surprised he did not play 2 strikers after 70 mins, we had 9 shots with none on target.

I think Southgate's principles will cost us a place in the semis of decent competitions no proper football brain.

England : Serbia will be fun that's for sure.

If only England could have found a decent coach after 1966, all our golden generations and talented players would surely have won at least one trophy and maybe have reached a world cup final ?

Obviously a succession of incompetent managers have held us back for nearly 60 years

😜

I know a lot of ppl praise Southgate and at the start he did bring the "squad" together...similar to poch nurturing kids for one season. But like Chels they need a tactical coach. Yes the unity msg is now ingrained, job done. But his tactics will cost England.

 

On another note...Nice bit about how Gallagher is an unsung hero, especially after the Iceland match in which he didn't play and we lost midfield. Also palmer can challenge foden at 10 (especially if hes havong an "off" day) if Bellingham starts deep next to rice.

I'm just more worried about them or any of the chelsea squad getting injured during the euros tbh. 

3 hours ago, Simplymo said:

I know a lot of ppl praise Southgate and at the start he did bring the "squad" together...similar to poch nurturing kids for one season. But like Chels they need a tactical coach. Yes the unity msg is now ingrained, job done. But his tactics will cost England.

 

On another note...Nice bit about how Gallagher is an unsung hero, especially after the Iceland match in which he didn't play and we lost midfield. Also palmer can challenge foden at 10 (especially if hes havong an "off" day) if Bellingham starts deep next to rice.

I'm just more worried about them or any of the chelsea squad getting injured during the euros tbh. 

I was very supportive of Southgate early on. I thought the 2018 world cup was a good step forwards. The Euro's that took place in 2021 was a bad ending. I thought we played okay at times, but that final was a joke. A good manager would never have let Italy back into that game. Bringing on 3 subs to take penalties was also sure to backfire, and it did.

It would have been better for England for him to leave after the Euro's, but he certainly should have gone after the World Cup in 2022. England were crap in that tournament, you just knew that they would lose as soon as they came up against decent opposition. France were having an off day and England still lost. Since then, I've not seen a single step forward by England.

And although I am happy he has dropped his favourites that were underperforming, I'm annoyed it took him so long. It's something he should have done earlier because now we have a team getting used to playing together all over again.

You lot will make it to the final again.

Swear you are always sh*t the friendlies before a tournament. 

On 07/06/2024 at 21:24, El regreso said:

Struggling against Iceland at home isn’t really what you should be doing before a tournament.

To think that Sir Alf Ramsey is the last and only England manager to win us a trophy.

The last one to even get us to a World Cup final.

Gareth is the only manager to get us to a Euro final.

It's a terrible record, but I always feel we are a top international side for some reason, despite our awful record. Weird 

3 hours ago, Sconnie Blue said:

You lot will make it to the final again.

Swear you are always sh*t the friendlies before a tournament. 

We only reach finals when it's held in England. 

😜

 

The Euros by each country's beer. Not sure of the beers chosen for England and Scotland. Can think of a lot better beers for the two countries.

https://www.scottishdailyexpress.co.uk/lifestyle/food/europes-best-beers-go-head-32763970

 

On 11/06/2024 at 17:42, Boyne said:

The Euros by each country's beer. Not sure of the beers chosen for England and Scotland. Can think of a lot better beers for the two countries.

https://www.scottishdailyexpress.co.uk/lifestyle/food/europes-best-beers-go-head-32763970

 

That Belgian beer Triple (?)

8.4 %  ! 😜😜😜

Yeah right Boyne, dunno why IPA was our chosen beer.?