My lads side played a tournament today, that was far more entertaining than that England performance.
Wasn’t pretty was it. Thing is at this stage of events it’s not about how you play it’s all about the right opening result and qualifying out the group. I’d say England look certs for the next stage.
When was he the England manager? The FA wanted Ramsey to drop him after Stiles got criticised for his aggressiveness in one game in the World Cup. Ramsey said “ Fine. Who are you going to have in charge for the next game?”. End of discussion and the rest is history.
And? In a tournament results matter, especially the first game. Would you rather have had a thrilling 4-3 defeat?
He really is a magnificent player.Got stuck in and took some punishment in doing so, others need to follow his example and show the confidence he showed.
If anything that’s given me more confidence in the defence. Serbia had, what, one shot from distance that threatened? (Was it even going in?) It wasn’t pretty, it wasn’t scintillating but who were the last side to play 7 fantastic games in a row and win the tournament? Argentina opened the last World Cup with a loss against Saudi Arabia. Ivory Coast were in meltdown in AFCON. 4 points probably enough to qualify from this group now. Take the points, heal the kicks from Serbia - another 90 minutes together and get better. Denmark will be a much more open game as they have to win.
Heard something today that 3 of the 4 teams in a group will go to the next round, and that basically if you win A game you're just about nailed on to be in the 3. No idea if that's right though.
Judging a team and manager on a single performance is silly and reactionary, sadly tho that 2nd half was reminiscent of so many tournament games under Southgate. Got one up then sat deep and invited pressure, Serbia are, let's be frank, a relatively mediocre international team, play like that again against one of the stronger teams and we'll find ourselves getting punished again.
Not far off, 4 of the 6 3rd place teams will qualify, so 4 points and you are pretty much nailed on to go through. An abhoritrion of a change to the Euros extending them to 24 teams, should have left it at 16 and kept it at an elite level, so little jeopardy in the current format.
There again the extended format has enabled tens of thousand of fans from smaller countries with populations a third and less the size of London to travel and have a good time. And run a lot bigger countries close.
You want the team with the talent they have to grab the game by the scruff of the neck. They don’t, unconvincingly limping to the full time whistle. My lads team won the tournament they played today, winning 10/10 games. Entertainment and results.
What your lad’s teams did is irrelevant in terms of international football. My eldest lad’s team 30 years ago won the league and cup double 4/times and despite 2 seasons in leagues a year above their own only lost once to a team their own age in 5 seasons and got to 2 cup finals in those years they 2 seasons they were in a league a year older than them winning one of them. Never equated what they were doing with what England were doing though. Youngest lad’s team won the league and Cup twice and I never equated what England were doing either.
Serbia haven't been given the respect they deserve, they're a decent side with some really decent players and they're a pain in the arse to play against. They're really big, defensively compact and smart with tactical fouls which stopped us from getting into a rhythm. It's a win which pretty much sees us through to the next round. The left hand side is a bit of a worry, Foden just doesn't look like the same player in an England shirt and never has. I did think the subs were good today though and did exactly what we needed. On the whole it's easy to criticise but that's just 2 out of the last 10 Euro tournaments where we've won the opening game, and they were both under Southgate.
To me Gallagher is a disappointment. I thought he was destined for great things but for England he doesn’t cut it. Others may disagree, Jarrod showed he can come on later in a game and do a good job.
Mixed feelings about tonight’s game. on one hand, a win is a win and against a strong direct team, we got a clear sheet, absorbed a lot of pressure etc etc. But my frustration is that beating a team 8 nil sends a message to everyone else that they will have to spend most of their time thinking about how to combat our threat, rather than thinking about how to score against us, which is psychologically a massive advantage. So I don’t understand why you wouldn’t attack more with the firepower we have. I’m quite pro Southgate, as I think he has done wonders for the national team and given us true belief that we will win, rather than hope, but it would be great to come out of a game gushing about a dominant performance rather than being glad to have won the game by a scrape. Just hope the result allows us to relax and play a more open game going forward and get some goals and get the fear from other teams for the knock out stages. Good cameo from Bowen though - he’s been unlucky not to get a goal and assist or two in the last few weeks. Shows Southgate has some faith in him, which I expect comes from how he will be training. Post match interviews were impressive, just need the players to use their feet as well as their mouths (Bellingham aside!].
But nobody has done that to Serbia in recent years. The only bad result they've had was losing heavily to Russia but they had a man sent off after 20 mins, so it's a major caveat. You weren't going to walk through them with ease.
