Footie - The Euros

[slinger]

Italy were shitaly.
Denmark made no mark on Germany.
England had a reality check from Slovakia. The Swiss will be a good watch...

[slinger]

auf wiedersehen

[slinger]

Ronaldo's ego cost Portugal their place. He produced nothing and yet refused to be substituted.

[CN211276]

Ronaldo's ego cost Portugal their place. He produced nothing and yet refused to be substituted.

Think they would have won had Jota replaced him.

[antonio66]

England's route to the semi-finals has been like something from Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy.

They've engaged the Improbability Drive.

[karatestu]

[antonio66]

Watched the game last night, another 2 hours I'll never get back.

[slinger]

We're being forced to play to the "strengths" of our lowest common denominator, and that's currently Harry Cane. He never had a great amount of speed to start with, and what little he had he's lost. Sometimes it's like watching "walking football ", as he ambles about up front and reduces everyone else to the same speed.

Yes, I am biased, but I'd be playing Trent as a wingback, and have two fast players, Saka and one other maybe, to make runs in behind the opposition defence knowing that with Trent's passing abilities, he'll find them 8 or 9 times out of 10. Playing at that tempo would have shredded most of the defences we've come up against so far. Mind you, it wouldn't last, cos if we went a goal up Southgate would start dragging attacking players off in favour of defending our lead.

Another thing: Joe Gomez. There was a worry that we might be short of a left-back when Trippier was nursing a thigh injury, and Southgate chose to use a player with absolutely zero experience at left-back (Konsa) rather than Gomez, who played at left-back for Liverpool 19 times last season. Poor old Joe, the actual man for the job, is still sitting on the bench chatting to Trent.

Southgate's record looks brilliant on paper, and unless you've actually watched how his teams achieved those stats - on grass, not on bloody paper, you might be fooled into thinking he's some sort of footballing genius. The sooner he takes over at Man U the better.

All opinions, although completely correct, are purely my own, obviously.

[CN211276]

I know a Man U fan who was over the moon when Den Hag was kept on, fearing they would appoint Southgate.

[antonio66]

Here's a post I made on pfm.

I don't think he has planned for this tournament, he's given numerous players caps for England, randomly in my opinion in the hope of putting a team together. What does he do when he announces his squad, leaves out Rashford and Grealish, bringing in players with little or no international experience. Plus of course taking 3 or 4 right full backs and only 1 injured left back.
I've said this all before but my plan would have been to pick my team around Foden, yes I did say that more than two years ago. Experimentation would of course be done in the two years leading up to the finals, (we had a weak group to qualify from, plus friendlies, and of course Southgate had six previous years of getting to know players and if my team couldn't get through that I'd resign) but I would have in mind a core of players, with the opportunity for new exiting players to get into the squad.
What has Southgate done for £4.8 million per year except bore football lovers to death?

I'll add, football should be entertaining which England are not under Southgate, even though there is so much talent at the moment.