I personally wouldnt have brought Saka on, or Grealish. I would have taken Mount off for sure as thats where our weak point was. Its so easy to see after the game though.
Exactly this. Spent most of last night screaming 'go forward' whilst watching endless backward passing and zero risks being taken. In the second half, especially, I expected our young, energetic side, to play forward and try to use their pace against an older side...but it was more of the same...Maguire to Stones, back again...Pickford acting as sweeper...give the Italians lots of time to get set up and quash any forward pass.
We got to a final of a major tournamemt for the first time in my life time, conceding 1 goal from a set piece to get there. We lost on penalties to a team breaking records themsleves to get there. Yes it was gutting that we lost but its still some achievment. Southgate should be applauded not criticised.
….and the first headline I see this morning is ‘FA condemns racist abuse of Rashford, Sancho and Saka’. FFS, will this **** never end?
Half the problem was Kane dropping so deep, taking what was supposed to be mounts position, leaving us doing 'a Spain' with no outlet striker. I said to my boy before kick off. Chielini and Bonnuci will love Kane starting, plays right into their hands.
Deserved win for Italy as they were really pressing forward most of the time. England made the mistake to only show how good they can be for the first 10 minutes, after that they never managed to put Italy under pressure again. Kane for me best English player, didn´t see very much of Sterling and Henderson ... no words about him. They have thrown away a once in a lifetime chance when they decided to play like Italians formerly did. Besides, if you asked about the correct definition of racism 9 out of 10 wouldn´t know what that really meant. These days everything has become racist - a term purposely misused for all sorts of censorship.
Credit to Italy to win while playing in the cauldron of Wembley. They were the better team. For England's young side, it's all experience with the WC coming up next year. They did incredibly well, but just fell at the last. Onwards...
All the press about pride, hurt, how well the team has done, ‘bringing the country together’ etc. And I get that, no one should kick a man while he’s down. But at some stage we have to figure out that celebrating failure just legitimises it, makes it bearable, makes its repeat justifiable and almost inevitable. And this time feels much more like a loss to me than a ‘glorious attempt’. Almost everything was in our favour - best squad for ages, home advantage, a very kind draw - and ok we only lost by 3 kicks of the ball after 7 games, but what is it in our psyche that makes losing this ok? As a nation, not specifically the team?
So sad to wake up to stories about racist abuse of Saka, Rashford and Sancho. Some of the posts on Saka's social platforms are disgusting. I hope the players continue protesting against racism in whatever way they see fit for as long as they want to. Clearly much still to do. Off the pitch they have been outstanding this year.
I think Southgate deserves praise for getting us as far as he did. His priority of keeping us tight at the back just about worked until the Final. I wrote on here early 2nd half that maybe Mount who seemed to be contributing little should come off, and Grealish who could have given us some ball holding ability in midfield, plus a creative attacking threat, should come on together with Saka, it could have been Sancho. But Southgate waited until far too late, and then played Saka too deep in midfield, instead of getting him attacking wide where he could have hurt Italy as he did Germany. It nearly lost us the game in the 90 minutes, and hoping that England could win on penalties with 2 cold subs and a kid is fantasy. Starting with 7 defensive players on the Park against an attacking Italian team was both a poor and negative decision.
The thing is Bob, I think the whole problem shouldn’t just be levelled at football and it’s fans when a lot of the trouble I’ve seen this morning was more scumbag youth who have probably never been to a football game in their ****ish little lives. They’ve just seen it as a chance to kick off with the OB and have a bit of a laugh……to blame t(e problem on football alone is wrong, IMO.
Some of the videos doing the rounds of pissed up 'so called fans' carrying on is a tarnish on this country. Its embarrassing, makes us look like neanderthal thugs! Then add the racist comments on social media towards players that these people claimed to have supported prior to the penalties is just pathetic. Some of my mates were at the game, they said the actions of lots and lots of fans was disgusting. Why do these people feel the need to get so pissed and carry on like this?
Kane dropped deep to good effect at times picking out some very good passes forward for runners in behind them. But the "runners' were Sterling, and only Sterling. Mount wasn't at the races and Saka when he did get on was too deep. We needed Saka, Sancho, Foden, or Rashford making those runs from wide.
Ive seen those pricks myself Bob and they’ve been about for years. However my point remains…..a lot of the trouble in town yesterday, as shown by various videos, seems to have come from pissed up youth who I expect have latched onto football…….just my opinion of course. England fans definitely still have their fair share of ****s to be fair
Forgetting the football itself, I feel nothing but shame and disgust this morning at the stories I'm seeing and hearing.
Some I’ve seen are grown men in 50’s probably, acting like teenage thugs, they are not fans but idiots. I bet the Scottish papers & media are having a field day & their fans
