It will take me a while to get over it I reckon. In the cold light of day though the better team won but overall they have done us proud. First final since 66, won 5 and drawn 2, best defence, probably one of the younger squads. There is no doubt we are gettinv better as an international team. We played some high quality football at times and had some excellent performers. Just fell a touch short last night. I thought Italy were unflappable. Even after conceding they looked calm. That said we pushed them back first half and possibly could have done a bit more to hurt them. I didnt particularly think Mount worked wide and perhaps Sancho would have committedd their full back more. Hindsight makes us all international level coaches though. Second half Italy responded well, as top teams do. We couldnt have expected them not to have a go and show what they are about. You dont go unbeaten for 30 odds games if you are a pushover. I think people think we should have pushed for a second in the first half, I reckon we did but Italy are too good to buckle. Veratti was immense. Oddly at 1-1 they sat back again. I think their game plan was penalties all along. We looked tired in extra time, as did they. Might not be a popular opinion but Henderson didnt have a good game, never got to the pace of it and didnt have an impact. Overall 2 top international teams cancelling each other out and 2 top international coaches cancelling each other out. I wonder about our penalty takers, and I am sure Southgate is too. Saka on last didnt sit right with me. He is young enough to brush it off I hope. Pickford was quality. Just to finish on a high.
What gets to me most is that the game was so similar to our world cup exit against Croatia. Score. Sit back. Give up posession. Concede. Lose. It never worked then and it didn't work last night. Southgate doesn't seem to have evolved at all. Gary Lineker has pointed out that England need to more attack minded, get more people forward and be braver in posession, going on to say we had the attacking talent to scare teams but seem to frightened to use that talent. The big question now is can Southgate change his style of play or is he destined to forever repeat a style of play that has been found out?
***BREAKING NEWS*** UEFA officials have noticed that Italy used a player that was yellow carded two games ago. He should have missed the last two games. UEFA officials could disqualify Italy from Euro 2020, meaning England could become euro champions! This news is official and can be checked on the BBC website. It was brought to the attention of the chairman of UEFA only 25 minutes ago. Carlsberg don't do statuses, but if they did, this would be the best status of the Euro 2020!
Yeah, okay. We should have went all guns blazing against Italy even though they would have picked us off with their better players and won easily Yours is the thinking of Phil Parkinson - haven't got a clue just hope whatever happens, works.
I never, ever saw Parkinson send SAFC out all guns blazing. More's the point, neither have I asked for that approach. Sitting back on a one goal lead and inviting pressure is only ever going to lead to conceding a goal. You have to at least attack once in a while to keep the opposition from camping out in your own half!
After twenty minutes the Italians were all over the shop. Getting at each other, arms waving, the whole lot. They couldn't cope with our speed of play and barely had a sniff of the ball, let alone a chance. Then we dropped right off them for no apparent reason. Now, is that change on instructions, is it physical, or is it the players beginning to ignore what they're being told? Option 2 and 3 seem unlikely - when you've got a team in bother surely the instinct is to go for the kill for any professional footballer and that keeps your energy levels up. The English game isn't designed to keep teams at arm's length - the slower pace is a continental thing because it's warmer there. It's up and at them, in the opposition's face whether attacking or defending, and when we've done that combined with the new talent we've bred good teams struggle to stay with us.
We kept attacking Ukraine and they never looked like coming back ... ... we just lacked the courage to do that with Italy and they knew it.
I'd say it was none of the above. We were crucifying Italy down the right and they couldn't cope with our overlaps. Mancini spotted the flaw and changed his tactics to get a grip on that which allowed Italy to get their foot on the ball and start their own attacking game. I don't even understand the bottom part? Mourinho has won trophies in England keeping teams at arms length. Tuchel has just won the Champions league at Chelsea and they're also one of the big favourites to win the premier league, next season. His tactics is to keep teams at arms length and slow games down.
I found it strange as to why the penalty takers were not decided on in advance and at least some practice had been done judging by past tournaments
Southgate said penalties were practiced at every training session. If he's seen Rashford do that, in training, he wants his arse kicking for choosing him.
