Who brings on Henderson over Grealish at 1-1? Southgate needs sacked. The squad and everything else was enough, but that moron fucked up again.
Who brings on Henderson over Grealish at 1-1? Southgate needs sacked. The squad and everything else was enough, but that moron fucked up again.
Not sending Sterling/saka running at Emerson palmieri every minute of the 90 when possible is mental.
Boy looked lost.
What a dog shit year.
I think Southgate got his overall strategy bang on, and proved me wrong (i.e. being really defensive), but i just don't trust him to make the little changes (e.g. SUBS). Even a div like me could see the momentum had shifted in the second half tonight, and that we were desperate for subs.
Italy were the best team at the tournament and deserved to win it. England gave them a very good run for their money and were the second or third best team. They are clearly talented, well drilled and motivated, and crucially most of them are yet to peak. Tactics were bad for most of the game tonight but there are lots of extremely encouraging elements.
I don't really see why Saka kept getting games. I never saw anything particularly good from him.
Semi-final followed by a final, back to back. The only way is up.
I mean, I love a England are shit pile on as much as the next guy, but losing the final on pens...c'mon now.
Imagine paying £4K for a ticket to watch that though. Brutal.
Doesn't make it less needless though. Exploiting the opposition's weakness at least somewhat with the players at their disposal (which is what lead to the goal in the first place) would have been nice to see.
I might be understating the quality of the Italian defence a bit, mind you.
I’m very scared for the next few years though. James is right.
That entire eleven has room to grow, maybe need to hope another stud striker appears (Greenwood?) but you’ve a hell of a squad to build on.
re: saka
I think he would have looked a better if he was able to run onto through balls from an angle (e.g. from a central midfielder advanced enough up field to play it) rather than being isolated and tasked to beat his man wide with no open channel available to run in
dude spent the entire game either cutting inside to little support or being hauled down
also Italy was sticking their dudes on your fullbacks pretty tight in the second half to prevent your wingers/wide forwards from being able to easily recycle possession by passing back to their fullback, so not having a central midfielder playing in an advanced role that could carry the ball was especially glaring since there was no release valve
England could have impacted the game with earlier subs. Southgate suffers the same affliction as Ole and doesn't trust players until too late.
Good tournament and I'm still happy as my other nation won.
Also if Sterling isn’t taking a pen what is he still doing on the pitch? His legs were gone by 80 minutes.
I've got the proper hump, Moscow 2008 style. Jorginho is a fucking prick, fuck off.
Has Frank Lampard gone grey in a month?
Do you think Southgate will do another Pizza Hut advert.
I'm amazed at how mad/sad I am about it. I've just been making random intermittent sighing/pfft noises.
Seeing the stats they showed during the interviews caught me off guard. I didn't feel that it was a 65% posession 20-5 shot game.
I dunno if it helps the people who were more positive than me but I expected nothing and thought I was far too cynical and jaded for "England penalty shootout exit" to get me but sure enough it's made me a lot sadder than I think fht it would / could.
I should have watched Love Island.
I'm a twit
First half and second were only subtly different. First we barely had the ball but comfortably had them at arm's length for the most part. First 20 (?) of the second it was full England mode.
That was a lot for 5am on a Monday.
If we go out against Germany or get bummed by some other mugs I’d just lol it off and not care but this hurts. The hope, the disappointment and feeling terribly sorry for the lads who’ve worked their arses off for nothing.
We are a negative team and we would have won it that way if Marcus Rashford had kicked a ball straight. Being more positive we might have gone out earlier. For us to be a positive, front-foot team we would need a different manager and probably at least one imaginary driving central midfielder.
You can win many ways in football.
Anyway, wasn't it a great tournament? The best I've seen I think.
3 black players missing a penalty was it? That’ll be fun over the next few weeks
Jadons Ancho looks mixed-race, but Wikipedia seems to suggest otherwise. Somebody ask him on Instagram.
England were decent, Italy a little better - mostly because Veratti and Jorginho kept control in the middle. England looked more dangerous when they were in scoring positions, which Italy struggled to do. That's all pretty consistent with how the tournament had gone so far, to be honest. Both teams should be in the mix at the next World Cup, but I'd be a little happier if Italy could score more consistently.
England dropped back after the goal, and I can't help but think that it let Italy play themselves into the game after a slightly awkward start. I also can't imagine that substituting players on just for a penalty shootout is particularly helpful for their psyche going into it. It just seems like a bad idea to me.
Delighted to see Chiellini win a major trophy. Donnarumma is a hell of a shot-stopper, and could be exactly what PSG need.
Incidentally I have never been more certain of anything in my life that I was of Bonucci scoring his penalty. This is mental strength, something stats and analysis just don't cover.
What a horror show Rashford has had since beginning his political career. A truly woeful footballer.
I understand the intention but what's this hypothetical coversation here. "Alright Gary, don't go home and beat your missus and I'll see you at work tomorrow."
Go a step further. If you know your mate is a wife beater kick his head in and dump him in a canal. Be each others alibi. Victimless crime.
The only person who picked Italy to win was Baz (although Spoon had them as finalists and Taz 'liked' them). Well done Baz. Which is odd when you see all this 'Italy were the best/strongest side', as if they have obviously better players than us. They don't. They just don't have a berk in charge of what they do have.
Italy bent us over for half of the second half and still needed us to chuck one in for them.
Sadly we did. And then Englanded the fuck out of those penalties.
I've just realised: we're going to win the World Cup, and win it easily.
The World Cup is basically another European Championship ('the Euros' can fuck off) with South American football now on a sad decline. Italy won't be that good again (they never are) and I don't think France will either. If we learn anything from this and Croatia, we should be flying by the time we get to that.
Only slight worry is if Kane will still be walking by then.
England had a better squad than Italy. The only better squad at the tournament was probably France (lol).
But then, as Jimmy said, England were only two kicks away from victory, so maybe Southgate is on to something that will come together next year.