EURO 2020 - Group D

Hapless_Hans wrote:going well so far though so clearly Sancho is not needed

right

Southgate: has Foden, Mount, Bellingham, Sancho and Grealish at his disposal. Decides to play with Rice and Phillps with Phillips playing the wrong role.

Starting to want Harry Redknapp to come out of retirement after watching this.

Awful stuff

Feels like Southgate was prioritizing getting at least a draw instead of going for the win and maybe losing (although I don't think that's a good faith choice, England could have been more positive without putting themselves any more at risk)

What a loser

Taking off Foden who was England's best player but letting Sterling, Mount, and Philips play the full game.

Taking off Kane when you needed a goal.

England have the talent to be the favourites, but the Southgate tax is too high. Still can't believe he started Trippier at LB just for set pieces ffs.

Assuming England get through (which is actually a bigger if than it should be), they're gonna be wrecked by the first decent team they come up against. No doubt in my mind.

Southgate's a bum with weird ideas he's stubbornly clinging to which aren't maximising the players he has.

England

People blaming Deschamps for having France play below their potential and then there is Southgate What a turd

Myesyats wrote:People blaming Deschamps for having France play below their potential and then there is Southgate What a turd

not going to waste my breath on Southgate, noone rates him
Deschamps on the other hand

Its a shame because England really do have a fantastic set of players, maybe even the best in years. But its being wasted away by a terrible, unproven manager who can't utilize them properly

Agreed, everyone knows Southgate is clueless. Deschamps is a criminal. They have an insane level of quality, but he decides to play like Greece 2004.

hardly bodes well for England's tournament aspirations. I maintain QF's would be a good achievement. Scotland with the better chances tbh.

Is Kane the least aesthetic player who tries to play like a baller? Mans dropping deep linking up like he's Benzema. But he has the grace of an oaf while trying to do it.

So if England loses to Czech, and Croatia or Scotland win is there any chance England crashes out of the groups?

Kane's had 6 touches in the opposition in both games so far. And he's meant to be the leading man.

But also not surprising when he's not getting the ball and has to watch his defenders pass the ball to each other 10 times before the ball goes forward.

M99 wrote:So if England loses to Czech, and Croatia or Scotland win is there any chance England crashes out of the groups?

They could still go through as a 3rd placed team.

Jay29 wrote:Kane's had 6 touches in the opposition in both games so far. And he's meant to be the leading man.

But also not surprising when he's not getting the ball and has to watch his defenders pass the ball to each other 10 times before the ball goes forward.

It's a bunch of u-shape passing. They struggle to progress the ball centrally. At least with a 3-4-3 there are more natural passing angles. It would help them in that regard instead of having Mount play as another LW with Sterling also in the same spot.

It's so weird. Phillips is a 6 and has a limited attacking game, but Southgate is playing him as an 8. He paired him and Rice together when we were trying out a 3-4-3 and it looked awful. Exact same problems we saw tonight and vs Croatia.

Rice gets it off Stones/Mings and sees no white shirts in midfield. Mount's playing by the touchline for some reason, Phillips looks lost about where he needs to be and Foden's too far away to receive. The only way England were progressing play was by giving it to Shaw to carry which worked because of Scotland's narrow front line.

All of England's talent is in attacking midfield. When you look at the options for a 6 or 8 there's not a lot to choose from and they've yet to find a solution. Sometimes you'd see England get the ball to James or Mount wide left, but then pass it back because there's so little movement in the middle, which basically removed the option of switching the play.

I don't know what the solution is. Maybe a 3-4-3 with Maguire back in defence with Mings and Stones, one of Mount/Bellingham paired with Rice/Phillips, then take your pick for the wing-backs and attackers.

But why would you put an extra defender when you have that much attacking talent? Sometimes the answer is just playing it simple, England need some semblance of identity. Everything looks so disjointed, it doesn't help that Southegate tries to innovate or tries to play idealistically.

It really is a damn shame especially considering their previous WC run and the next WC is a year away. Can't see them changing managers before then.

Jay29 wrote:It's so weird. Phillips is a 6 and has a limited attacking game, but Southgate is playing him as an 8. He paired him and Rice together when we were trying out a 3-4-3 and it looked awful. Exact same problems we saw tonight and vs Croatia.

Rice gets it off Stones/Mings and sees no white shirts in midfield. Mount's playing by the touchline for some reason, Phillips looks lost about where he needs to be and Foden's too far away to receive. The only way England were progressing play was by giving it to Shaw to carry which worked because of Scotland's narrow front line.

All of England's talent is in attacking midfield. When you look at the options for a 6 or 8 there's not a lot to choose from and they've yet to find a solution. Sometimes you'd see England get the ball to James or Mount wide left, but then pass it back because there's so little movement in the middle, which basically removed the option of switching the play.

I don't know what the solution is. Maybe a 3-4-3 with Maguire back in defence with Mings and Stones, one of Mount/Bellingham paired with Rice/Phillips, then take your pick for the wing-backs and attackers.

The solution today was to go with two forwards. Kane-Rashford or Rasford-DCL. A smart thing would have been is to have grealish and foden as LAM and RAM behind the two forwards. There was absolutely no need for Rice-Phillips in this match (or against Croatia even)

We all know about Southgate. Really nice guy but he wants to shithouse his way to the trophy.

El Gunner wrote:that was some boring shite lol

I guess you missed the borefest of Sweden-Slovakia

in comparison the Brexit game was pretty good with lots of intensity, imo

Best part of the game was the scrum in Scotland's box in the 91st minute.

Casciavit wrote:Agreed, everyone knows Southgate is clueless. Deschamps is a criminal. They have an insane level of quality, but he decides to play like Greece 2004.

Can't get over this.

Can't remember a team that enters the pitch while refusing to play so categorically. They don't actually play the game. They don't even play to win. They're just there to end up having won, or drawn.

I mean, even teams coached by someone like Mourinho project some kind of spirit, even if it's a negative one.

But I've never seen a football team so uninspired, uninspiring, so nihilistic as Deschamps France. It's really grotesque. I'm not even going to call it football. It's some zombie shit.

These players, these performances, fuck the guy. What a fucking POS

why can't we just play this