Don’t care what anyone says, the best team in the tournament won it! England were lucky to get there having played awful, but if Southgate goes, I expect QF at best with the incoming manager!
Firstly, the best team won, I was disappointed with the approach we took to the game. However, when we equalised I felt they were a bit rattled, and we should have gone for the jugular, but after a brief flourish we went back to type and allowed them back onto us. Needed a bit of 'walterball' to push our momentum home. Southgate on the whole has done a great job getting the dressing room mentality right, this needs to be maintained, but we need a more forward-thinking coach to get the best out of these players.
If Southgate does step down, his legacy will be finally determined by how well the next manager does.
According to sky bet "our liam"is 150/1 to take over from southgate!!!! Would sooner have liam Gallagher!!!!
Could you imagine Bellingham and Palmer rocking up to training before a friendly against Brazil and Liam going “right lads, today we’re building a LEGO police station”
Watched the game in a Spanish fan zone in Playa Blanca... Only **** in the crowd of thousands with an England top on and me and the Mrs got a few funny looks when we went ballistic when we scored but not the the half the look the sad twat(and his family)who was sitting on a wall with a Scotland top on got from me.... Who you playing tonight mate? No answer,spoke volumes....PR!CK!!! Spain deserved it but we gave it a good go.
obviously the above is completely and utterly flawed, but more than anything it supports that sense of disappointment that comes with making it to another final
When the dust has settled getting to the final has papered over a lot of cracks. Seconds from going out Underperforming by a mile Persistence with Harry Kane ( way way too deep and off the pace) Very late subs Not being able to break poor teams down Allowing teams to come at us which hasn’t worked constantly. Playing way too deep. Spain where quality full stop The final against Italy is the one that got away.
People like to point out (correctly) the wealth of attcking talent that England have, but that counts for nothing if we can't consistently get the ball to them. That's been the failing for years, and the quality of the midfield play was a huge gulf between the teams. Both sides picked their best deep lying midfielder, ours was RIce, theirs was Rodri, enough said. Southgate is less than perfect, but you wonder if he has the raw material to fix our deeper midfield problems. A bolder approach might work, but equally could just lead to us going back to being knocked out of tournaments early or not qualifying. I'd still like to see us trying it, as I can't see us winning a tournament unless we try something different. What I mean by bolder is picking a midfield based on who are the best passers rather than who best protects the defence. So, for example going forward, Wharton instead of Rice. Bit early, I guess, to be thinking about the next tournament, but hopefully we won't have a centre forward who can't run or jump next time.
Why is it 'completely and utterly flawed'. What makes it not at least a reasonable dose of perspective?
Individual ability is not enough in a team sport. As said above Spain are one of a number of sides who have mastered the art of ball retention and are brilliant at ‘The Press’ which basically means getting the ball back within your opponents own final third or make them go long. We saw Barcelona doing it under Pep Guardiola for years.
flawed as the standard of international teams lower down the rankings is for me comparatively higher than down the football leagues, e.g. Slovakia are a stronger team comparatively than exeter. but don't get me wrong, I v much agree with the sentiment of the post and have said a number of times that we've had a piss easy route to the final
I think it’s time Gareth left. 2 finals and a semi final is a job well done but Lady Luck has been kind to Gareth in many ways. Our routes to those finals has been pretty straightforward if we’re being honest. Last night was, for me, another example of how frustrating watching a Southgate team play truly is. Now I don’t expect leftfield, kamikaze decisions, especially against a good team like Spain but at the same time I expect a manager at this level to be able to make decisions. Gareth is reactive and not proactive, always has been. We hardly touched the ball for the first 15 minutes and when we finally did get the ball did nothing with it. It set the tone for the rest of the half. Changes were needed at half time( think Koeman and the Dutch in the semis) and a braver coach would have acted. Gareth didn’t. Mainoo was totally anonymous for the whole time he was on the pitch but still played 70 minutes. Rice had an absolute howler but didn’t get hooked. Kane was a liability and Bellingham wasn’t much better. End of the day you can’t have that many players have an off day and expect to win a final. We lost to a better team, no complaints really although the 4 minutes of stoppage time turned into about 30 seconds with all the play acting going on. A minor point and not one that would have made a difference I suppose but as a whole needs looking at. I don’t think it would be a bad idea for football to adopt a ‘time off’ system like rugby does, just for added time because it’s getting to the point where any contact whatsoever sees players flinging themselves to the ground, feigning injury just to waste time. Time that rarely gets added on. In summary, well played to Spain, you deserved to win the tournament. As for England, we dust ourselves off and go again, it’s what we do.
I agree with this - looking at our side in the cold light of day - who are the serial winners? Stones, Walker, Bellingham, Foden Saka, Rice and Kane play at a consistent high level and perhaps should be winning more. The rest? Very decent players but not world class, yet. We really need to find the problem in midfield. Mainoo might be it but last night we were completely overrun and that’s why we lost. To win the games that matter we really need to be getting the ball to the above players quicker. We didn’t do that last night because of Spain’s press. We could probably play better tactics - we could probably be fitter and more switched on - but I do think our stars mask some of the other problems that the side has. I do think now is the time for Southgate to move on - and I say this as someone who has been a supporter of him. We need some new ideas to try and make the most out of our better players. Palmer also needs to be part of the team from the start.
