I really like the guy. You can see he wears his heart on his sleeve (although most Italian's do anyway). His foul on Saka was cynical but suspect that any of our defenders would have done the same in that situation. Thought we lost that game because we sat back after we scored and then didn't make substitutions when we needed to. Bringing on two players right at the end for the penalty shoot out was the biggest mistake though - they should have been brought on latest at the start of 2nd half of extra time. Its great to get to finals like that though. I didn't see or hear about all the **** that happened afterwards but its great to see how the country gets behind the team when we are playing well. My Mrs was down the pub with our kids and their partners plus the dog all getting pissed watching the game. Really miss being in the UK for sporting moments like that.
Absolutely. I think the manager got over-clever and was already seeing his quotes in the headlines “they have no fear, they weren’t even born, if they’re good enough they’re old enough” etc…. Instead he sent them in to a cauldron that was just too hot from their ice cold start. It looked like Rashford panicked as a result (I can’t blame him, he was essentially given the message that he didn’t merit a footballing place but was being given responsibility for a ‘one-kick/winner takes all or is crushed’ isolated moment in time - easy to panic). His pause before that kick was painfully long and worked more against his psychology and muscle control than it did against Donarumma. Once that hit the post and went out you could almost see a cloud of doubt and fear flow backwards and engulf the other penalty takers. South Gate made the wrong call and I put it down to ego. That said, we’ll never know who was volunteering nor what the pre-planned list looked like… for all I know they might all 3 of them have been begging to be in the first 5. I thought that tackle on Grealish was a red card. Italy’s win will always have that asterisk against it for me
Bah my head is still ringing. Best team won on the day so congratulations to Italy. No sourness or complaints about fouls or cheating etc. They won because they deserved to. Being brutal I think a few things cost us. Lack of experience to really assess the situation after the first goal. We sat deep and hoped to get them on the counter. I'm fine with that at 1-0 with 10 mins to go. I'm fine with it at 2-0. But with 88mins remaining they were never gonna panic at 1-0. Bonucci and Chiellini just calmed them down and knew they had to be patient and play the game. What our leaders (and it does need to come from on the pitch) should have said is, forget the score lets continue to approach the game the same. It takes real leadership though and its a heightened situation for everyone. Hopefully we learn from that. I thought the selection was wrong but I've said that every game. I thought he shoehorned Mount in because he's one of his favourites. Personally I'd maybe have gone Sancho, pace was always gonna be the achilles heel for Italy. Again though I ain't gonna crib too much, Southgate has got us further in two international tournaments than 90% thought we were capable of before they started. Finally the subs were all wrong for me. Poorly timed and the wrong subs. I understand the desire to bring on penalty specialists. I'd prefer they half an hour to get into the game, but even just coming on is fine. However Rashford, Saka and Sancho are young lads. If the likes of Grealish and Stones did stick their hands up, I think Southgate should maybe have factored in age. All easy in hindsight though as much as I was saying all these things as the game was happening. Obviously some of the stuff in the aftermath is sickening and hugely disappointing. Sadly its not surprising either. Not even gonna dignify the racism, or the violence etc. Once again a very very small minority spoil it for the rest. There is 67 million people in this country, and we have probably a few thousand idiots stealing the headlines. Great. **** them all and I wish them nothing but hedgehogs for ****es. Still incredibly proud of Southgate and the boys, great effort and a real togetherness we should learn from in football and society
This comment makes no sense. Who am I meant to have said I like or don't like? And who are the other managers I'm meant to like. I'm gonna have a field day here I can tell...
Most notably Pardew, when things turned to **** with that crazily **** run I remember you being the last standing member of his fan club Southgates a wet fart, frightened of his own shadow type bloke. His decisions and lack of ability cost us that final, and we won't get amother chance like it any time soon. **** him
I could hardly watch the first 20 minutes of the second half, we were so much on the rack. Southgate left it too late for the substitutions, yes we were 25 minutes from glory but italy were knocking at the door and he did nothing. It was the Croatia semi all over again apart from italy didnt get a winner. A missed opportunity.
I must say, Harry Maguire was immense during the tournament, as was Shaw and a few others. Its typical England though, play seven, concede two goals, no defeats in regular or extra time and we still blow it! ffs
I still stand by my claim that Gareth Southgate is the Steve Bruce of international football. Ok, maybe not quite as ****e as him but you get my drift...
Never said I liked Southgate or Pardew. Could agree with some of Pardews approach which was to try and win. Risk it and not fear a beating. But him as a person or some of his decision making, nah not for me. He had the passion you’d want to see mind - no one could doubt that. Never got the impression he was good at developing players much, didn’t really have a modern style for all we passed the ball, just got good players and was sensible enough to let them go on the pitch and do their thing. Hence a lot of them players played some of the best footy of their careers under him. Sometimes you can over complicate football, good players know what to do. HBA, Ba, Cisse, Cabaye, Santon never really hit the heights anywhere else after bar brief ones like HBA at Nice or Ba at Chelsea when he got to play. With Pardew I simply look at the results objectively under Ashley, his were the best and prob best to watch. He did a good job and time has done him no harm as managers come and go under Ashley finding the same old blockages to progressing. Even when Pardew gave him his goal of doing it cheap, he still ****ed him by extending the first team squad for Europe with Anita. With Southgate don’t think he picked a team, formation or approach I would have in the entire tournament. I am long in the tooth enough to concede however, results wise he over achieved, whatever I think of how he went about it. I didn’t have us down as in the top 4 teams. But we fully merited getting to the final and were one of the best teams. I’d just preferred we used our flair more to kill games. No problem picking teams off once in full control. But we were determined to keep games tight based on what had won previous tournaments. It was like watching us when in front over the last 5 yrs.
