Jump to content

Leaderboard


Popular Content

Showing content with the highest reputation on 12/07/21 in Posts

  1. 8 points
    There's a lot of utter tripe on this thread. England were excellent throughout the tournament (with the slight exception of the Scotland game) and only lost by the narrowest of margins to an exceptional Italy team. Italy were better in the second half, but England controlled the extra time period. It was a very even game between two well organised teams who both (understandably) set up in a highly defensive way. Of course you're going to sit back with a 1-0 lead in the final. Slightly disappointing that it was difficult to turn the momentum once the (fortuitous) equaliser went in but Italy never looked like scoring a second. Then of course we were actually ahead in the shoot out before missing our last three. Had Rashford's one crept in then the psychology would have been very different. Tiny, wafer thin margins put us as the runners up in a tournament of many of the best teams in the world. Yet people moan about failings, tactical errors, poor management etc. It's nonsense. We were immense and only just failed to win the whole thing. An awesome achievement, the best we've ever done in the Euros.
  2. 5 points
    Only someone truly ITK denies they're ITK! Everybody follow Bethnal!
  3. 5 points
    The more I read about happenings in and outside Wembley, the more the result seems like justice having been served. Booing during national anthem, stealing seats from Italian fans, racist abuse, laser pointers, fighting... You would not see that in Germany or any continental non-ex-eastern block country. Compare that to the behaviour of Finnish and Danish fans during and after Erikssen's collapse. For shame.
  4. 5 points
    🤣 It's the best England squad we've had for years. What England lacked is brave management from the sidelines. Southgate is a great guy, a rare football man with integrity, but he's not a brilliant coach. His club record speaks for itself; took a fairly well-established Premier League side down into the Championship. He then went on to become the England U21s coach, presumably because he impressed some suits because his CV had "failure at Middlesbrough" and "three years with my feet up". He led his team into the Euro Under 21s in 2015 and, erm, finished bottom of the group. Luck of the draw has disguised his myriad shortcomings. Look at the teams he has beaten in major tournaments; Panama, Tunisia, Sweden, Colombia Ukraine, Czech Republic, a past their prime Croatia and Germany and Denmark (after 90 minutes). In every single one of those matches we were either favourites or massive favourites. He's also failed to win games that we were either marginal favourites (Croatia 2018, last night) and massive favourites (Scotland). As soon as we go up against anyone who is on or around the same level as us, we fail. Don't get me wrong, beating teams we should be beating is far from a given for England, look at Roy bloody Hodgson's tenure, absolutely dreadful and Southgate is a massive, massive step-up from that. But he's tactically naive and a bottle job. Last night was a bigger bottle job than his 1996 penalty. His persistence with Mason Mount throughout the tournament was bad enough in and of itself, but when you factor in that he was keeping Foden, Grealish and Sancho out of the side it beggars belief. Putting a 19 year old who has never taken a senior penalty as your 5th penalty in a European Championship final is staggering. Getting an early lead and resorting to Hughton-ball despite the fact that we have an array of attacking talent was almost certain to not work against a team like Italy. Mancini v Southgate last night was like man v boy. If you stuck the former in charge of the England squad, England lift the trophy. In fact, I think if you stuck most of the managers of their respective countries that were at the Euros this year in charge of England's squad, they would have lifted the trophy. Lovely bloke, top man but he's holding this squad back from their potential. And their potential is to win one of the next five years major tournaments. And that's sad, given how long we've waited.
  5. 4 points
    It’s an Orange card, which sadly is yet to exist in the game. It’s not worth a sending off but maybe a 10 minute sin bin.
  6. 4 points
    He's very much a player like Kenny McLean, rather Stiepermann or Vrancic. A box-to-box midfielder, who while maybe not the most technically gifted, will run all day and make challenges and progress the ball up the pitch with carries, rather than passes. An archetypical No.8. He's also over 6ft tall (although maybe not the strongest). If this is true (and I suspect it is) then he will probably be coming in ahead of Billing and OGC Nice were rumoured to be looking to sell him on for €5m - which would certainly free up some budget. He appears to be a bit of a cult figure in Nice - while some love him, some hate him. His addition could be further evidence of Norwich going to a more 4-3-3 next season with more combative midfielders who run with the ball, rather than trying to pass it up the pitch.
  7. 4 points
    You see this sort of comment after every England defeat. It makes me wonder why these people just do as they say they're going to do and stick to following club football. The fact of the matter is, a squad with the second lowest average age in the tournament reached the final, taking the winners to penalties. I'm quite happy with how the national side is progressing and quite enthused for it's future. I'm not Southgate's biggest fan, but I do think we have a good squad here which will only get better.
  8. 3 points
    True, but then again, so are Craggy Island's All Priests Over 75s Five-a-Side team
  9. 3 points
    As long as he's playing regular first team football it's a good move for him to aid his development
  10. 3 points
    Malteser Canary, the lighter way to enjoy threads.
  11. 3 points
    Give them a lifetimes season ticket to Portman road (and for Essex's benefit- make it transfer to their descendants too). Sadly I think that is even too good for them!
  12. 3 points
    I'm not sure we really need a Nice midfielder – I think we'd be better off with a nasty one...
  13. 3 points
    Chiellini is one of my favourite players of the tournament. Him and Bonucci absolute monsters. Would love Hanley and Gibson to dish out some of that. Chiellini correctly booked. Can't believe VAR didn't at least check the Jorginho challenge. Straight red all day long.
  14. 3 points
    I've never really bought into the Southgate hype, so I was disappointed but not surprised at how the game panned out. He sets his teams up to not lose - and we didn't, so he is very good at that - but that doesn't entertain or excite me so I care little about how we do. The Croatia semi and last night was effectively the same game, 3 years apart, and I'd hoped he'd have learned more. I'm more depressed by the thought that given this part success, he will never change. Yes, we got close to winning something but even if we'd won the shootout I'm not sure I'd feel that elated because of the way we go about it now. The over-reaction to the "youth" and "spirit" of this particular squad is just typical of the "noise" surrounding England in a tournament. Part of me is glad that the Italians won it, because they were by far the most exciting team to watch. I wish we had taken them on rather than just allowed them to dominate.
  15. 3 points
    If an England or Norwich player got sent off for that we'd be furious. It was a cynical 'professional' challenge but within the current laws of the game it was a booking. It is the kind of challenge that makes me think rules need to change- a yellow doesn't seem punishment enough for cynically stopping a breakaway like that but red seems too harsh. Maybe this is where sin bins become an idea?
  16. 3 points
    Don’t play like England, don’t leave your best players on the bench
  17. 3 points
    I can agree in part about how we went about tonight- too defensive once we went ahead, questionable subs and the penalty order was head scratching. However... I think you're largely ignoring the psychological aspect of football management and putting it all on tactics. England's problems in previous tournaments haven't been talent or tactics based, they've a team that struggles with pressure and being favorites. Southgate, along with this talented young squad dealt with all of that with huge aplomb. I also don't think its fair to call him tactically naive- he changed our system multiple times in this tournament, always to good affect. A tactically naive manager wouldn't have switched to 3 at the back 3 Germany, nor would they have totally switched formation for the next game v Ukraine. Finally, the point about attacking talent. There is a fairly frustrating group of England fans who seem to think we just stick all our talented attackers on the pitch at once and we win. Football doesn't work like that. There is no tactical set up that will let you play Grealish, Sancho, Sterling, Foden, Mount and Saka all at once so you have to make choices. At the start of the tournament he got pelters for choosing Sterling, who then went on to be our player of the tournament. I also personally believe his use of Grealish has been generally spot on- he's an impact sub right now, he's far too unreliable in possession and at tracking back to start and build your attack around. I'd argue we should have seen more of Sancho and that he should have allowed players like Foden a bit more time off the bench. Outside of that I think he got his selections largely spot on. There is a reason top coaches keep picking Mason Mount- he works hard, does the simple things well and allows other players to be at their best.
  18. 3 points
    Jesus the revisionism has started quick. Southgate got everything right up until the last 75 mins of this tournament and even then we weren’t beaten on the field. He’s not infallible and I think we can all analyse the mistakes (without context) that lost us the game, but to suggest he’s been tactically inept just doesn’t match reality.
  19. 2 points
    OK. I am far from the rabid England fan I used to be. Ever since Italia 90 I had followed England passionately. Never missed an England match on the TV. But not really since 2006 I suppose have I felt the passion. I felt more and more disconnected from the England team and took less and less of an interest. 2018 was great to be successful, but we overachieved and whilst I supported the team I never really felt the connection. This also continued all through this tournament, with Southgate's effective yet uninspiring football and crop of players who are far from in their prime and more unfinished products. I've watched all the games, without really connecting. Something I've struggled to really explain. Last night Id spent ages saying I didnt expect England to win and that it was great just being in the final. But this morning I still cant stop thinking about it. Im in a foul mood and it really hurts. I keep telling myself its only a game of football and it isnt really important and it doesnt matter. But it doesnt help. How is everyone else feeling?
  20. 2 points
  21. 2 points
    Never forget the time Hazard played against the famous Strawberry Town
  22. 2 points
    If this Government and its MPs had spent more time making considered decisions, than decisions that lined their own pockets whilst letting the Countrymen they supposedly represent die in overcrowded hospitals ....................... If this Government and its MPs had spent time condemning racists and their comments then maybe Britain would be a better place to live..... Just shows how incredibly stupid this current crop of MPs really are.
  23. 2 points
    I bet Chellini would have been happy to take a red there over being almost-certainly being the 36 year old who got skinned by the teenager for the late winner in the final of his last tournament, as Italy could always have had a go at parking the bus through extra time if it remained 1-1. Any of us would have pulled him down, I'd want an England player to pull an Italy player down in that exact situation at that stage in the game.
  24. 2 points
    🤣🤣🤣 Lakey, Uncle Fred and Swindon Canary. 17 course meal. No drinking.
  25. 2 points
    Now there’s a personalised number plate for Robbie Savage if ever I saw one
  26. 2 points
    He came bottom. Surely time for the BBC to ditch the dinosaur?
  27. 2 points
    Those kind of football fans make me ashamed to be associated with this country. Can’t we just shoot them all and be done with it?
  28. 2 points
    We had a good/great opportunity this time to win a Trophy. Home advantage is an enormous factor . Until last night Southgate's decisions had worked. Having beaten Croatia, we only needed 1 point from two games, so Southgate set up not to lose against Scotland . Our shape and team selections achieved the goal. We qualified, and as an added bonus won the Group. Tournament football = so far so good. Against Germany , again good decision borne out by a win. Match up their shape, and allow for the fact that Germany are a relatively poor side. Ukraine , we were more expansive allowing our full backs to get forward and allow Sterling and Saka to carry the ball through their lines. Denmark - a team good out of possession , but will tire. Southgate used our subs better than Denmark. Again as Denmark tired we ran the ball through lines - forcing an own goal and a penalty in so doing. And so to the Final. Italy could have tired, but didn't. Potentially the worst thing we could have done was score early - as it seems to be a scenario that encouraged Southgate to sit on a lead - a literal 5 across the back when out of possession which , particularly in the second 45, was most of the time. Italy equalising was the most certain outcome of the whole tournament as we dropped deeper and allowed space between our lines for Chesia to have his best game of the tournament. Poor use of subs - waiting for Italy to affect the game far too much before we adopted a 4. the Rice / Henderson replacement was foolish - Rice was probably our best player who carried the ball. Grealish was too late , and the space behind the Italian defence was never breached as the starting position of our forward players were too deep . We resorted to long goal clearances that just came back to us. So in conclusion - we did well until the Final, at which point we looked like an old England side, being outthought by international players and coaches. But the biggest disappointment is missing 3 pens, two of which my Granny(god rest her soul) could have thrown her cap on, and one that Rashford managed to contrive a miss after the sort of run up that would have got you a 10 in strictly. So really enjoyed everything until about 30 mins in last night. Then it all unfolded before our eyes. And that's why I was was fed up until the therapy of writing this.
  29. 2 points
    https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/the-wireless/373065/the-pencilsword-on-a-plate
  30. 2 points
    Then you don't know what is then 😉
  31. 2 points
    I'm devastated, to be perfectly honest. Once France were knocked out, we had the best squad of players in the tournament (as Chiellini put it, our bench could have made the final). We had a favourable draw. We played all bar one of our games at Wembley. We had a one goal lead. We will never have a more favourable set of conditions to win a major tournament but Southgate squandered an absolutely golden opportunity that may never come round again. This one stings, and probably will do for a while.
  32. 2 points
    If we do get this Lees-Melou champ, maybe the chant should be: Lees-Melou, Melou He's French and he's six foot two He's coming straight after you Lees-Melou, Melou. (Might have got the pronunciation wrong. It's nearly 25 years since I did GCSE French).
  33. 2 points
    Well, it IS only a game of football GMD but maybe you're more of a fan than you've reckoned on? The fact that you've kept telling yourself it was simply great to be in a final possibly indicates that underneath you really wanted to connect once again like you used to. The more you try and avoid something often the effect is that the greater it lurks in the background. And yet, who could blame you, given the near hysteria created in the media and even in the BBC studios an hour before the game? Even I had started to hope and feel something good might happen. Everybody was riding on a high of emotion and hope against hope. Very difficult not to be drawn into all that.To see large parts of the country too united just a little after what we have all been through in the pandemic (and I will steer clear of politics here). My own feelings concern two things really: (a) just why didn't we really go for it, to use all this creative youth we have at our disposal? Why didn't the team try and at least match the national psyche (the songs, the spirit etc). Yet, we saw a very safe and cautious performance that belied those first 20 minutes or so. We tried to do a kind of Italy (and nearly achieved it). We've looked best in the tournament playing attacking and expansive football but abandoned that in the most important game. I felt it poor to throw in Sancho, Rashford at the end for the penalties but you'd assume they had planned it? I was dismayed at seeing Kane and Sterling have to come deep into their half to even get the ball (Kane had not one touch in the18 yard box for 120 minutes - until his penalty!) (b) what a cynical and nasty team Italy are / were, fouling in that second half and especially in extra time. For that reason alone I really wanted England to win, if somehow to show that sportsmanship might win. England kept their composure and that was a great credit. Italy was the better team but so far behind being great sportsmen (imo). It's left me feeling I'm glad we are not like that but unhappy that those tactics so obviously work. As for comments that some wish we were like that I'm not in agreement. We will move on soon enough. Nationally, we will go through the nonsense again in a year with the World Cup!
  34. 2 points
    It's a shirt pull, yes a particularly aggressive one, but still only a yellow unfortunately.
  35. 2 points
  36. 2 points
    Pretty much the same as usual, but as I wrote on another thread, I don't much care for this notion of patriotism as it appears to me to be taking pride in the achievements of others simply because I was born in the same place. I'll understand, particularly for Saka, Sancho, and Rashford, that they'll have to live with it for the rest of their days and hope they're given the time and space to digest it. That said, with Southgate in charge, they wouldn't have a more sympathetic England manager for that job. I'm not going to write here that I'm ultra-disappointed as I've never seen myself as an England fan. But when my first thoughts after the penalty shootout was over were "I hope this doesn't embolden some morons to dish out the abuse", I think we know something's grievously wrong somewhere in our sporting culture.
  37. 2 points
    Don’t sit back on 1.0 leads for 80 odd minutes against quality opposition.Croatia in the World Cup semi and now Italy have proved it doesn’t work.
  38. 2 points
    All that matters to me really is that we've scouted him thoroughly and know his game and his character inside out which in theory gives him a good chance of succeeding here. Look forward to seeing what he can do should he sign.
  39. 2 points
    Of course the team who fall behind in the 2nd minute are going to have more possession. That's almost an inevitable result of the psychology of the situation. The fact that we were so well organised that they resorted to a bunch of speculative long shots is not reflected in the statistics. In the second half it was different. Italy adapted and were clearly better. But there was another momentum shift in extra time and there only looked like being one winner. Italy were lucky to get to penalties with all 11 men and they were pretty lucky to win the shoot out.
  40. 2 points
    I'm sure Michael Bailey will talk through this at some stage in an Athletic article, but looking at his SmarterScout stats, he does look like a combative box-to-box midfielder Compared to other CM's in Ligue 1, he has Defending Quantity 92, Recover 78, Disrupt Opposition Attacks 85, Link Up 70, Shoot 73 Could be a decent acquisition IMO OTBC
  41. 2 points
    If we have a penalty shootout, make sure your final penalty taker isn't a teenager who has never taken one at senior football? Don't pick your favourites if their are much, much, much better options available?
  42. 2 points
    We must not allow our upcoming game against Liverpool to go to extra time and penalties
  43. 2 points
    You took time out during England's biggest game in 55 years to post this?
  44. 2 points
    Just back, It’s not coming home, but a day I will never forget.
  45. 2 points
    England national team can hold their heads high.The same can't be said for some of England's supporters. What an embarrassment. https://www.theguardian.com/football/2021/jul/11/euro-2020-final-wembley-fans-break-barrier-england-italy
  46. 2 points
    I agree. Those of you saying that Southgate was tactically inept can't have been watching the first 30 minutes. We absolutely shocked them with our formation, which was designed to get Shaw and Trippier free and worked almost straight away. It worked twice more but the delivery wasn't good enough - Italy's far post has been their weakness all tournament, and by dropping Kane deep and moving Sterling onto their centre backs we had them on the ropes; they didn't know what to do. But then, for some unknown reason, we sat off them and tried to hold on to 1-0. God knows why. At half time, it should have been changed - Sancho or Grealish, even Rashford for Trippier at that point and revert to four at the back. But nothing changed and Italy got stronger and stronger - they knew they would win. One missed near post header was the difference, but Pickford made some decent saves whereas Donnarumma had nothing to do. So, the Southgate plan didn't ultimately work, but it was damn close. We didn't concede a goal in open play and still didn't win the thing - maybe that will finally convince him that leaving all the flair on the bench doesn't win trophies. No one can say that we deserved it on the night because we didn't; we stopped trying to win it and reverted to the Hughton-eque tactics which have served him well. But if we hadn't stood off them after 30 minutes we could have been out of sight.
  47. 2 points
    ? 😫 Er, the flags have got nothing to do with it. The racists are the ones booing the national team for making a small pro equality gesture. It really isn't that hard, you know...
  48. 2 points
    I’m gutted so probably shouldn’t be posting but that was horrific tactically tonight. Southgate got almost everything wrong he could have done. Nice guy, great ambassador, good ethos etc etc but as a tactical coach he remains poor and cost us that tournament. Since the World Cup all we’ve needed to do is find a midfield combo to give us control in gsmes and some creativity and he can’t do it. Sat off them, invited pressure and let them score. Then to top it off let two players take pens who’ve not touched the ball and a 19 year old who has been utterly **** miss the crucial kick. Gutted.
  49. 2 points
    You could start by explaining why it is hypocrisy? Why does the fact that they are millionaires mean that they should not make gestures in opposition to racism?
  50. 2 points
    I listened to that pink un podcast this morning, which included an admission that their thinking on this had shifted. Whether it is just their view or they believe or know this is also the Webber-Farke view is a question, but I suspect it is at least partly the latter. Davitt initially suggested the likely departure of Hugill was a factor but I doubt that. Davitt et al had not before been including Hugill in the list of serious back-ups to Pukki. It was Idah and Rashica. Added to which, as he said, there had previously been a serious interest in Armstrong The nub of it came when Southwell put forward the argument that it would be hard to attract anyone good enough because they would be stuck on the bench. Davitt was not going to outright contradict that, and equally he was not going to cast serious doubt on Pukki, so he had to talk round the subject a bit. What he did emphasise what a massive workload Pukki has had for club and country over the last four years, and mentioned the injury troubles. If Pukki was fit and back to his sharpest then of course he was still the main man, but – left unsaid – was a ‘what if he is not’. And as far as I can remember Davitt never once included Rashica in the potential strike force, saying only that only Pukki and Idah would not be enough. I think the key quote was: ‘There needs to be a far more equitable sharing of the goals,’ followed by ‘I can increasingly start to see why they might be willing to spend quite a few quid on a forward.’
×
×
  • Create New...