Kane had his best game of the tournament tonight and really looked up for it, not something i could say of other games.
He had his best half of a game. Because he was deployed as Spurs deploy him - dropping deep and receiving possession on the turn, either winning a free kick or picking out a pass. Then in the second half we reverted to hopeful punts up top to a very isolated Kane who was being used as a traditional number 9. There has been no real consistency to Southgate's attacking play. Defensively I think he's done a superb job. Anyone who makes Walker, Stones, Maguire and Shaw look world class deserves huge amounts of credit. But going forward? Our personnel change game by game, as did our tactics. And tonight against a genuinely world class back line and top quality midfield, it showed. We barely created half a chance from the 2nd minute onward. Maybe I'm wrong but to my mind Southgate invests far too much stock in his wide attackers when most of them don't warrant such investment as they are great when the going is good but absolutely cannot dig the team out when it needs something special. Sterling, Mount and Saka were all anonymous tonight.
Always a good idea to utilise your one world class player. Like give him the ball, that would be a start. You can call him sluggish on occasion, but that also unsurprisingly coincided with him not being utilised properly. Instead as has been said, it could almost be said that England are there to support Sterling and Mount. I wonder how we would have done with Grealish instead of Sterling through the whole tournament? But no, just persist with run-down-a-blind-alley-don't-pass Sterling because he's been built up into some kind of super-player. Hell, even the BBC player rater has him above Kane for this match (WTF?)
Maybe quarter finals at best. Grealish is the most over rated player of modern times and is (imo) ****.
This is as ridiculous as it gets I take it you didn't see the cricket the other day? First ball of the innings caught at slip. Yes, it wasn't a substitute fielder but it was somebody catching a ball (quicker than 80mph) with his first touch of the game. You realise they were just taking a penalty, don't you? A shot from 12 yards and these are professional footballers. I didn't see none of the other players warming up by taking penalties, did you? Get used to the conditions and atmosphere? They'd been inside the stadium for hours ffs. You aren't a Man Utd fan lost on this board by any chance, are you
As usual everyone turns into a result merchant after a disappointing outcome. Also as usual the match result depended more on luck than anything else. Shaw would probably only score that goal once in ten attempts. The Italian goal only goes in about one in five times, I suspect as most of the time the first attempt goes off the post to safety. Yet apparently playing a different formation or different players would have been better! Despite the fact that the player who assisted our goal wouldn't have been on the pitch. No team has actually scored two goals against Italy for more than three years. We were slightly worse than them and might still have won.
Well I don’t know where you’re all waking up this morning, but I’m sure the weather where I am reflects the mood of English football fans. Miserable Absolutely gutted. it was always gonna be a tough game, and a final is just too close to call. Sadly we just didn’t have enough answers or ideas in the second half to get over the line. That was where the game was lost for me. FairPlay to all the lads that stepped up to take a penalty, it’s a lottery. - although I personally feel you’ve got a better chance of winning it if you take them like Kane and Maguire. No nonsense. I’ll never understand why we see these strange run ups that Jorginho and Rashford displayed last night. I’ve seen more of these end in failure than goals over recent years. Massive shoutouts to Kyle Walker and Kalvin Phillips who for me were our two best players throughout the tournament. Others played well in specific games, but I thought those two were the standouts over all. If we could con Leeds into thinking Harry Winks is somehow better than Phillips and make an exchange, that’d be lovely. There’s a lot of excitement regarding the World Cup and this group of players, and rightly so, they are a very good team. The best we’ve had in ages. But we mustn’t get carried away by the fact we made the final. We won’t have 6 home games out of 7 at the World Cup, which for me made a huge difference in this competition. it’s down to Gareth now to regroup the players and bounce back once again. Well done England, a great effort and you can hold your heads up high.
to be fair to grealish who i think is an absolute ****er and i thought would have had more balls, i don't think he takes any pens at Villa, Watkins was the number 1 (but think he may have missed a few).
PS if you think that Kane not having a single shot on target in 120 minutes is down to bad luck then I have to differ. Southgate has set England up in a negative manner throughout this tournament, as a result we have produced a single decent game (Ukraine) IMO this is the best group of players since 1970 with amazing attacking potential and yet the manager decides we should be set like Burnley playing City. I have not bought into the hype from his mates with nonsense comments like Ferdinand ' He has not made a single mistake' . The fact that he is apparently a warm and generous human being is not the issue, he is employed to manage the England team. Such a shame when we have a squad with such potential that we have a manager who shows little ability to take advantage of that potential. No doubt he will keep the job following his marvelous achievement of getting England to the final. Here we do agree, more by luck than judgement.
You rather missed my point. It may we be true that we would have done better with different players, different tactics or a different manager. But we've had all of those before and never got to a final. And no-one has beaten Italy for years. So I'm going to assume that the guy who has got England to a World Cup semi-final and a European final knows more about football management than posters on here. And I'm going to try to improve my understanding of football by analysing what he did right rather than what he might have done wrong.
I'm still waiting for my moment....a bit like England. Some suggestion that my blood pressure is up...Really?
While it is perfectly logical to believe that a former professional footballer would know more about football than me or any other poster on here (assuming we don't have any former pro. footballers on the forum) Your strategy of trying to learn about the game from observation is exactly what fans do but it didn't start with this manager or this team. That build up of observation is what we see on this forum so the very method you advocate is where these opinions come from. I have compared what Southgate has done in his managerial career with what other managers have done with football teams in the past. I compare Redknapp with Mouriniho for example or Pochettino with ABV. Clough with Fergusson and on and on. However as I said before if you have one of the worlds best strikers leading your team and he doesn't get a single shot on target we don't need a comparison to make the assumption that something didn't work. Is it down to Italy having amazing defensive abilities or is it a flaw in our strategy and set up? people will have their own views which is why we have the forum.
In the last few years I have watched my teams finish runners up or lose FA cup semi's , League cup semis and finals , the Champions League, the Premiership ,a world cup semi and now a European championship final , to paraphrase Hoddle I must have done some bad **** in a previous life
Having suffered Spurs under Mourinho, the vast majority of us could recognise last night's tactics, performance and result. It was a performance lacking in bravery, until it was too late. The equaliser was always coming, as we conceded more and more possession and fell deeper and deeper. It was a repeat of Croatia and it brought the same result. It was poor, as we have players who could have changed the game but Southgate opted for Henderson and that was that. Until he learns to be brave and make winning decisions, a trophy will remain out of his reach.
I am but regrettably I have passed on this curse to my son and grand kids although one of the girls like nothing other than Hey Duggee
