danboyb
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Post by danboyb on Jun 16, 2024 22:31:59 GMT
Was pleasantly surprised with the first half hour. We looked full of confidence and very composed, then suddenly for no real reason we hit the rewind button and reverted back to the England that are so frustrating.
Man for man we’ve got as good a squad of players as any country in the tournament. A great mixture of experience and youth. But other top nations will look at that and think- Same old England.
Winning was the most important thing, clean sheet, no bookings and no injuries, so plenty of positives. The same old worries with England (and Southgate) still exist though.
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Andrewlang
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Post by Andrewlang on Jun 16, 2024 23:19:59 GMT
Never mind any of that. What the hell is going on with Joe Harts tattoos?
Andrew
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Post by harryhabin on Jun 17, 2024 5:51:20 GMT
Well probably a good game to watch for a neutral, typical England performance, look good for 20 mins then the opposition realise the lack of goal threat and find a way to take the game to us. Very similar to the Swiss and Danish games where they also looked dominant early on. This England team need a manager who can mix it up a bit, Southgate tactically is, and always has been, a one trick pony who is throttling the talent in the team. Let's see how we go against Denmark on Thursday
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Post by texaspete on Jun 17, 2024 6:16:09 GMT
For God's sake, we are blessed with a strike force we haven't seen for a generation or more, and one most teams in the tournament would die for. We have three very good midfielders (Bellingham, Rice and Saka) but we really suffer from having no elite strikers other than Kane. Not sure it’s true that most teams in the tournament would die for the strike force of Harry Kane and literally no-one else even vaguely world-class and we’ve had better options at lots of previous tournaments
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Post by pollycarpou on Jun 17, 2024 7:11:30 GMT
Kevin Betsy interviewed about Jude Bellingham on Radio 4 this morning.
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onlyluke92
Youth team star
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Post by onlyluke92 on Jun 17, 2024 8:14:26 GMT
No gripes from me. We won, we got a clean sheet and scored a good goal. Growing into a tournament makes me much more optimistic than potentially peaking too early. Wouldn't have thought that that game would have taken too much out of the players either. Was surprised that Foden wasn't hooked, yes out of position but quality when on the ball was lacking last night
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Post by Jerry1971 on Jun 17, 2024 8:19:38 GMT
Frankly that was a dismal watch last night, very reminiscent of a Bonner style performance with players so heavily restricted by the 'system' that it almost made it seem they were playing well within their capabilities. Kane managed a passable impression of Big Joe (final season before anyone moans!) with an element of wrestling (when he got close to the ball!), otherwise was caught far too advanced (with no support from SakaBrophy) or far too deep. I'm not sure if I'm the only one who really hates 4-2-3-1, but when you see it employed as it was last night it is difficult to defend that system as anything other than negative.
I've not been one for wanting a change, I think Southgate has broadly done a good job with England, but I completely get why a lot of fans feel change is needed. It was quite telling after a weekend of some really excellent football and exciting games, with plenty of goals, throughout the Euros that as soon as England kicked off the energy levels dropped and we ended up with a poor game. Thank goodness for young Jude - if we are to go anywhere in this tournament so much depends on him. No doubt we'll now be exciting and steamroller our way to the title, but on the evidence of last night that is more hope than expectation.
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imp566
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Post by imp566 on Jun 17, 2024 8:41:20 GMT
For God's sake, we are blessed with a strike force we haven't seen for a generation or more, and one most teams in the tournament would die for. We have three very good midfielders (Bellingham, Rice and Saka) but we really suffer from having no elite strikers other than Kane. Not sure it’s true that most teams in the tournament would die for the strike force of Harry Kane and literally no-one else even vaguely world-class and we’ve had better options at lots of previous tournaments I think based on the club form, Saka, Foden, Palmer, Bellingham would interest most international manager. Taking it to this level is the key, which Saka did for the first half hour, then became anonymous, Foden hardly showed during the whole game, Kane was isolated, but thank goodness Bellingham came to the party! I would have introduced Palmer for Foden after an hour, we needed a Brophy in that team, someone to drive the team up the field; instead we sat too deep second half, some of our attempts to pass out from the back were frankly suicidal; just as well Serbia couldn't punish us!
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Bendigeidfran
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Post by Bendigeidfran on Jun 17, 2024 8:46:55 GMT
It's weird watching England play. Like, I can see why, despite his relative success, so many are anti Southgate. It's turgid football. The players who didn't make the plane would be star players for lesser blessed teams like us, which in theory should mean the ones who did make it are world beaters. And the apparent talent in the squad should be tearing teams like Serbia apart. But they all look like they're playing within themselves. They seemed to be playing on the counter last night, where surely they should be the dominant force? As much as I like to see them falter (which is far more the media's fault than actual fans), at times I find myself thinking "you're better than this".
Anyway, Page out.
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Andrewlang
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Post by Andrewlang on Jun 17, 2024 9:42:58 GMT
First half was very much the composed control of a Southgate performance, save for the heavy touch from Arnold that almost cost us we looked very comfortable. It was disappointing to see us looking so unsettled and ragged in the second half but Southgate seems positive enough about the 'resilience we showed to defend our box' so I'll take it. Bellingham talked about growing team spirit and confidence by keeping clean sheets too. Not sure I like hearing that we 'ran out of energy' particularly though, that's a bit of a concern in the first game of a tournament.
Meh, I'll take it. Dull game but I enjoy the occasions as ever, it's not about the entertainment at international level for me. The result is king. Southgate is the one, he still turns me on. Footballs coming home again.
Positives - Saka skinned his man a number of times in the first half. Rice does an excellent Tom Champion which is great to see even if he's got more strings to his bow than that. Bellingham. The defence looked mostly good with Guéhi my probable standout. Arnold in midfield isn't for me but if we can unlock his quality on the ball in a central position he could be special so to be able to experiment with that role at tournament football is a measure of how good we are and how confident we are in him.
Roll out the Danes. Let's go. 🦁🦁🦁.
Andrew
Andrew
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Post by funkymonk on Jun 17, 2024 10:20:16 GMT
Perfunctory performance, not great after the first half hour but also never felt like we were in too much danger either.
Surprised Saka was hooked rather than Foden for Gordon, but there are 60 million England managers and I doubt they'd all agree.
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Post by zx10racer22 on Jun 17, 2024 10:24:05 GMT
Southgate is proof that the England job is impossible.
For years, we had fans complaining that players were picked solely on reputation, or because they played for a big club. This year, Southgate drops an out-of-form Grealish and loads of people complain.
Before Southgate came along, England had NEVER won their opening game of a Euros campaign. Southgate's England have now done it twice in two attempts and people are still complaining that we didn't win convincingly enough.
That's not to say I agree with everything Southgate does. I'd like to see Gordan start instead of Trent, so we have one holding midfielder (Rice), with both Foden and Bellingham playing centrally behind Kane, with Saka and Gordan playing wide.
But I am happy to accept that I don't know the game as well as a manager who's worst performance in three major tournaments (quarter finals) is equal to our best performance at the previous ten major tournaments...
So yeah, a solid win against a team with 12 players who play in the big five European leagues. There's not many easy games in major tournaments these days. I'll take that.
Baffles me how some people are never happy. If we'd won 5-0 those same people would be saying "we're peaking too early"...
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Post by artvandelay on Jun 17, 2024 12:03:28 GMT
I thought I would avoid this completely but had the games on in the background yesterday and I was amazed at how easily everybody falls over now. It's just a nonsense! Harry Kane, in particular, seems to be having a permanent battle with gravity. I remember when there used to be a bit of skill in conning the referee! Not that I can ever understand the justification for its use, VAR doesn't seem as intrusive here; although Serbia will feel aggrieved that it didn't get involved!
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danboyb
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Post by danboyb on Jun 17, 2024 12:16:22 GMT
Southgate is proof that the England job is impossible. For years, we had fans complaining that players were picked solely on reputation, or because they played for a big club. This year, Southgate drops an out-of-form Grealish and loads of people complain. Before Southgate came along, England had NEVER won their opening game of a Euros campaign. Southgate's England have now done it twice in two attempts and people are still complaining that we didn't win convincingly enough. That's not to say I agree with everything Southgate does. I'd like to see Gordan start instead of Trent, so we have one holding midfielder (Rice), with both Foden and Bellingham playing centrally behind Kane, with Saka and Gordan playing wide. But I am happy to accept that I don't know the game as well as a manager who's worst performance in three major tournaments (quarter finals) is equal to our best performance at the previous ten major tournaments... So yeah, a solid win against a team with 12 players who play in the big five European leagues. There's not many easy games in major tournaments these days. I'll take that. Baffles me how some people are never happy. If we'd won 5-0 those same people would be saying "we're peaking too early"... I think the majority on here have stated that they’re very happy with the win, that’s the most important factor. Yes, we’ve improved huge amounts under Southgate, no matter what happens in this tournament that cannot be questioned. Can we go any further under him though. We’ve got the players to win this thing, have we got the manager to achieve that? Jury very much still out on that. The difference between how Germany demolished the Scots and how we limped over the line yesterday was quite telling for me. They got on top and just battered their opponent in to submission. We got on top and then took our foot of their throats and allowed them a sniff. We’ve done that in the past and been punished for it, will be again too against the better sides. Yes, we won, that’s all I really care about, but I was hoping to see signs that we can actually win the competition, I didn’t see that. Hopefully that will change and we will get better as the competition goes on. But there were more questions than answers from last nights game.
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Tom Shaw's Fist of Rage
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Post by Tom Shaw's Fist of Rage on Jun 17, 2024 12:23:52 GMT
Scotland couldn't have made it much easier though. Serbia while unremarkable had the ability to string 3 passes together and had two top level forwards.
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