England v ITALY

I was unlucky enough to see 5 or so minutes of that absolute garbage
How Sterling is a professional football player is beyond me.

But the whole competition is being strung out for financial purposes and that results in pretty meaningless games at times.

They should have had 4 groups of 4 teams with the top 2 teams progressing to the quarter finals.
The fact that Denmark have played 3 games and lost 2 of them, yet still progress, tells its own story.

 

I remember buying the Sunday Sport once back in about 1988, thinking it had SPORT in it ..........

Once the truth unveiled I was an avid reader

 

My predicted team.

.......................................Pickford..................................

Walker............Stones...........Maguire............Shaw

......................Henderson.........Bellingham...............

Sterling......................Grealish...................Sancho

...............................Calvert-Lewin...........................

 

Pickford
Stones, Maguire, Mings
Trippier, Phillips, Bellingham, Shaw
Sancho, Kane, Grealish

Assumes Mount and Chillwell isolating.
Foden would be a definite but he's on a booking.

 

Thoughts England beat the Czechs at Wembley 5-0. Played 4-3-3. That is 4-2-3-1 with two defensive midfielders.

 

No Sancho!! In this game!!! The lad has 16 goals and 20 assists this season!!!! Two cdms in a dead rubber!!!!!! How many will Southgate play if we play Germany or France!!!!!! Hes a very very boring man !!!!!!!!

 

I would like to see Trippier back in the side. England are scoring less than a goal a game. Trippier would improve the standard of the free kicks and corners.

 

Absolute boring dull rubbish served up by a bunch of under achievers who have the nerve to call themselves professional footballers. They are disgrace to the England shirt and probably think more about their social media standing than the pride they should feel representing their country. Any decent team that play football the way it is intended will walk all over this sad bunch.

 

Inver, think that's a bit ott.
I don't understand 2 DMs last night but pretty sure we'll need them next Tuesday.
It may be good practice getting used this system against lesser teams because the next game will be incredibly difficult.
2 DMs may give us the best chance to go further.

Ps - I agree England were a painful watch but it's the same every Saturday in the Premiership and certainly at AG.
Passing square then back then square ad nauseum does my head in. And inevitably a cock up trying to 'play out leads to a goal every week.
The possession style of football has turned me off the game.

 

England are in probably the weakest group in the tournament, have played all 3 games at Wembley, have only managed to score only 2 goals and have looked slow and predictable, OK they have not conceded but have had some good fortune defensively at times. We were so marginally better last night it hardly registered, I get that it's tournament football where a win is a win, the next game will tell us all we need to know, unless a miracle happens and we get Hungary, then my money will be on a defeat for a same old same old predictable England major tournament disappointment and probably not much in the way of great memories.

About as inspiring as the Marks and Spencer's George Floyd inspired inclusive brown underwear for the genders that wear those sort of things, whatever they are called these days.

 

The pundits made a good point yesterday after the game; if it was Germany or Italy qualifying in the manner we have, everyone would be referring to them as being 'professional' and 'efficient'.
Because it's England, we expect to be ripping sides apart, winning 3 or 4 nil, dancing through the midfield, scoring with Rabona's and bicycle kicks, and when we only win 1-0 we are cr@p - yet we are still top of our group.
I've said on OTIB; I want to see us win a trophy. I've NEVER seen us win a major trophy and I'm 54. However, I have seen enough 'exciting' defeats to last me an entire lifetime.

Keep going with the 'boring' 1-0 wins Gareth - it's fine by me. The football itself may not be exciting, but if we go all the way by playing it then I'll be delighted.

 

'it's the timid leadership and management style that has failed.....'
We're through the group stages as champions of our group. How is that failure?

 

Pundits, I am glad you mentioned pundits, why is there a need for the BBC to have between 6 to 8 pundits for every game? don't forget they are riding the publicly funded BBC gravy train and have a vested interest in making it seem better than it is.

But hey ho and back to the thrust of your post, what will your view be if we revert to type and lose to a better team in the knockout stage?, because let's be honest France, Germany or Portugal would almost certainly have dispatched England's opposition easier than we have.

 

I would be pissed off if we lose. I was pissed off when we didn’t beat Scotland (although everyone knew that the Scots would raise their game).
As with many of the similar debates on here I’m looking at the table position, rather than the entertainment value over 90 minutes.
I’d take Warnock-esq hoofball if it brought silverware - over 1 season at least.
Now we have qualified it’s **** or bust. I think we will see a different approach - particularly if we fall behind.

 

I see our qualifying as ‘champions’ a success.
Not entertaining - frustrating at times, but successful nonetheless.

 

My point being it will be predictable, England need a non predictable approach, but I will be surprised if the approach changed.

 

euro's are 3 stages. qualify ….qualify .. the knockouts ….

2 out of 3 so far we play a team from the source of the one of the 2 teams [Belgium + ] that could be finalists …. but in group F there are 3 of them!