Match Day Thread Euros - let’s have it !

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The Exile II said:
We'll get no better playing on the back foot. It's an obsolete style. Even the Italians are on the front foot these days.

How many good performances the whole tournament? One. The one in which we were far more positive.
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Obsolete style in international football? I don't think so, it's just put us in the final of a major tournament.

Leicester played on the back foot when they won the league. Chelsea won the champions league playing on the back foot under Tuchel. They'll do the same again next season.

Why you so bothered about performances? It might not have been the silky skills you wanted but it was highly effective and got us to the final. Everything else is irrelevant, surely?

If a world cup semi-final and final of the Euro's isn't good enough for some of our fans then I don't know what it will take to please some people.
 
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Saff said:
Why you so bothered about performances?
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He isn't. He made a comment, it backfired and no-one agreed with him. Now he's clinging on to it in spite of the obvious logic that got us to the World Cup Semis, The Nations League Final and the European Championship final
 
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Saff said:
Obsolete style in international football? I don't think so, it's just put us in the final of a major tournament.

Leicester played on the back foot when they won the league. Chelsea won the champions league playing on the back foot under Tuchel. They'll do the same again next season.

Why you so bothered about performances? It might not have been the silky skills you wanted but it was highly effective and got us to the final. Everything else is irrelevant, surely?

If a world cup semi-final and final of the Euro's isn't good enough for some of our fans then I don't know what it will take to please some people.
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We achieved the reasonable objective of getting to a semi-final and then a bit more. To start winning these things and getting to semis and finals regularly, you need the performances, either on the night or further upstream. Italy were also poor but put teams to the sword earlier on. Scraping games 1-0 builds no momentum.

There seems to be no killer instinct, which is what sets the winners apart from the rest. We'll be coming up against an Argentina, Brazil, France in the World Cup and they'll know that Southgate will send a team out to try to contain them rather than beat them.

'game management' seems to be the new mantra, which is really just bullshit to cover an overly cautious approach.
 
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Paperback Ruiter said:
Rashford at least beat the keeper but not the post. Still far to casual and a bad penalty. But the other 2 were shocking. No pace, not in the corner and the most comfortable height for a keeper I've ever seen. You go high or low with pace and conviction. You shouldn't pass the ball towards the goal one way and hope the keeper goes the other and unlucky if he doesn't. Kanes was an example of a good penalty. Maguires was unreal but heart stopping in real time.
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Ah right, so they have to be in the corner then… so the Italian one right down the centre was either a **** penalty or awful goalkeeping or both? It’s only a poor penalty if it misses the target period. If the keeper dives the other way nobody cares whether it’s in the corner or not. You hit the target and see what happens. You don’t need power if the keeper guesses wrong.
 
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I won't bash Soutgate for his tactics or selection at kickoff as he has chopped and changed throughout and it has worked.

We battered Italy down the right with Trippier and Walker for first 15 or 20 minutes then they got wise and snubbed it out.

He should have brought Grealish and Sancho on at about 60 mins. To be honest I would have been chuffed to see either of those come out after half time. It was obvious to see that they had got to grips with our tactics and were camped in our own half kicking it to half way line for them to attack again.

Needed someone on the pitch to hold the ball and beat a couple of players and worry them. We got in top of them a bit more in extra time when Grealish went at them, too little too late by then.

Soutgate will get another tournament and deserves it in my opinion.
 
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The Exile II said:
We achieved the reasonable objective of getting to a semi-final and then a bit more. To start winning these things and getting to semis and finals regularly, you need the performances, either on the night or further upstream. Italy were also poor but put teams to the sword earlier on. Scraping games 1-0 builds no momentum.

There seems to be no killer instinct, which is what sets the winners apart from the rest. We'll be coming up against an Argentina, Brazil, France in the World Cup and they'll know that Southgate will send a team out to try to contain them rather than beat them.

'game management' seems to be the new mantra, which is really just bullshit to cover an overly cautious approach.
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Turkey and Switzerland in their first two games and that was it. They laboured in their match with Wales and they struggled through against Austria. After that they drew 2 out of their last 3 games. We had the momentum going into the later rounds with that 4-0 drubbing of Ukraine.

You need performances to get to semi-finals and finals regularly? We have just made it there in the last two tournaments.

I think your idea of a performance is scoring lots of goals and winning by a big margin. My idea of a top performance is to nullify the opposition and to take control of the game. We controlled every game in this tournament, apart from the final and against the Jocks when we just didn't turn up for that one.
 
Well, 12 hours on and I’m still absolutely heartbroken. I probably managed about 4 hours sleep last night and I’ve never been less enthusiastic about dragging my arse out of bed at half 5 on a Monday morning…

Just so disappointed with that second half performance, to only manage one shot on target in 2 hours and have only about 34% possession at home is criminal. We never once really got at the two ageing centre backs. At the start of the game we were playing the ball into Kane’s feet and getting lots of joy but as the game wore on we just started to lump it forward and it just kept coming back at us.

Huge opportunity missed. We will never get a better chance at winning a tournament than that, it felt like a once in a lifetime opportunity and we’ve blown it.

Sickening.
 
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rb92 said:
Huge opportunity missed. We will never get a better chance at winning a tournament than that, it felt like a once in a lifetime opportunity and we’ve blown it.

Sickening.
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Can’t agree there. I think we’re in a very good place with the national team. Somewhere I can’t remember us being previously. Just an opinion mind.

do agree it’s a huge opportunity missed mind
 
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Draig said:
IF Saka had to take a penalty then I would have had him take the 2nd or 3rd one.

I can understand the thinking behind the stuttering in the run up, try and get the keeper to commit before you kick. However the perfect penalty is always pace into a corner - meaning the keeper doesn't have the time to get to it. Both Harry's showed how it should be done.

I can't wait to hear Southgate being properly grilled about England's penalty coaching and preparation.
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I can understand the mind games in a run of the mill league game. But to do it on that occasion? Madness!
In a penalty shootout you should know where you are going to hit it before the match starts, not a second before you hit it. His brain must have been ****ed as it was, nevermind complicating matters further by messing with the goalkeeper.
 
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young2077 said:
I won't bash Soutgate for his tactics or selection at kickoff as he has chopped and changed throughout and it has worked.

We battered Italy down the right with Trippier and Walker for first 15 or 20 minutes then they got wise and snubbed it out.

He should have brought Grealish and Sancho on at about 60 mins. To be honest I would have been chuffed to see either of those come out after half time. It was obvious to see that they had got to grips with our tactics and were camped in our own half kicking it to half way line for them to attack again.

Needed someone on the pitch to hold the ball and beat a couple of players and worry them. We got in top of them a bit more in extra time when Grealish went at them, too little too late by then.

Soutgate will get another tournament and deserves it in my opinion.
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Agree completely, I don't know why Grealish was subbed either. In fact I would start with these two never mind bring them on as subs.

Also think if Chiesa had stayed on it wouldn't have ended up as penalties, we couldn't handle him until he was injured.

Also also, the foul on grealish was a red card, jumped in with studs on show
 
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marcusblackcat said:
Can’t agree there. I think we’re in a very good place with the national team. Somewhere I can’t remember us being previously. Just an opinion mind.

do agree it’s a huge opportunity missed mind
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I agree, mate. This team will be big hitters in the next 2 or 3 major tournaments. Such a young side and we still have the likes of Bellingham coming through and all the young lads playing last night will come on massively for the experience.

I'm hugely optimistic that this side will win a trophy.
 
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young2077 said:
I won't bash Soutgate for his tactics or selection at kickoff as he has chopped and changed throughout and it has worked.

We battered Italy down the right with Trippier and Walker for first 15 or 20 minutes then they got wise and snubbed it out.

He should have brought Grealish and Sancho on at about 60 mins. To be honest I would have been chuffed to see either of those come out after half time. It was obvious to see that they had got to grips with our tactics and were camped in our own half kicking it to half way line for them to attack again.

Needed someone on the pitch to hold the ball and beat a couple of players and worry them. We got in top of them a bit more in extra time when Grealish went at them, too little too late by then.

Soutgate will get another tournament and deserves it in my opinion.
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Yep,I'd pretty much agree with all of that marra. Some are losing sight that England got through to a major final with a very young group. Southgate made mistakes last night,no doubt about it,and, hopefully, he will learn from them,and these players will have another year or two of maturity in them.
No need for us to be pessimistic going into the next competition.
Just glad none of our players will be involved so they don't come back injured,knackered or both...which will leave us to concentrate on what's really important!:emoticon-0105-wink:<laugh>
 
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young2077 said:
I won't bash Soutgate for his tactics or selection at kickoff as he has chopped and changed throughout and it has worked.

We battered Italy down the right with Trippier and Walker for first 15 or 20 minutes then they got wise and snubbed it out.

He should have brought Grealish and Sancho on at about 60 mins. To be honest I would have been chuffed to see either of those come out after half time. It was obvious to see that they had got to grips with our tactics and were camped in our own half kicking it to half way line for them to attack again.

Needed someone on the pitch to hold the ball and beat a couple of players and worry them. We got in top of them a bit more in extra time when Grealish went at them, too little too late by then.

Soutgate will get another tournament and deserves it in my opinion.
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This is another problem. When the opposition change tactics we don't seem to be able to adapt ours. There's still that old tactical halfwittery on the pitch there. You could see the Italians getting at each other trying to figure it out and they did. We desperately needed someone to kick a few of them up the arse and get them playing.

All very well saying how great it was to get to the final, but if we're ever to win one we have to ask why we were so passive for 100 minutes. It's a very similar performance to the 2018 Croatia game. You step in with the big lads, you lose 'just happy to be here' as an excuse for failure. Success is now about winning tournaments, like it is with the Brazilians, French and Italians. That's why they win.
 
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Southgate has to go for me. We will never win anything with this clown in charge. Italy were there for the taking in the first half. Well done Italy, fully deserved win.
 
Part of the problem, at the moment, is that Southgate is taking this 'friend of the players' thing too far.

I know some of these players are young lads but, if he picks them, he can't use that as an excuse when it goes wrong.

And his cuddling of them, after the final whistle, was just a bit cringy ...

... it's like he was going back to 1996, time to man up and forget it.
 
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Just been sent a video from the concourse at Wembley, after the game, which I won't be posting on here.

It's a gang of England thugs waiting for passing Italians, any Italians, punching and kicking them and making them run the gauntlet to get away.

We're trying to get the World Cup here and we have this, fans storming the ground and policeman being hospitalised ...

... it really makes you wonder if some of these people just want trouble at any cost.

(I've sent the clip to a CID mate as the culprits will be easily identifiable, hope so.)
 
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Saff said:
I agree, mate. This team will be big hitters in the next 2 or 3 major tournaments. Such a young side and we still have the likes of Bellingham coming through and all the young lads playing last night will come on massively for the experience.

I'm hugely optimistic that this side will win a trophy.
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He won’t play any of them though. He would rather play 8 defenders as proven.
 
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