Segun Oluwaniyi

Maybe the clubs and leagues should wisen up and put all of this rubbish on an advertising hoarding and stop using their employees as vessels to makes useless statements for the political issue du jour. The players are not even allowed to make political or religious statements of their own volition. How silly is it that they should have to make them at the club's behest?

I do not understand this statement; many groups of people exist. One can acknowledge they exist without wearing the group's paraphernalia at their place of employment. Refusal to do so does not make them hateful or evil, no matter how much certain people will protest. Frankly, trying to frame the issue as ”not political" is just a rhetorical attempt to limit discussion and push back. The statement is inherently political, to the point that there are actual policy debates around it to this day.

Michail Antonio needs to let his hairline come home.

Rodri went off injured at halftime of the Euros Final; his replacement came on, played fantastically well, and scored the winner. If Oyarzabal had instead come on, had a shocker, and handed the title to England, I feel like Rodri would not have won the award. Vini should have won, imo, but he wasn't at a level where it was undisputed. With Rodri, it just seems like they wanted to reward a player with both club and international success, and he was the best option from Spain or Argentina.

There are generally about 2-3 strikers in world football at any given time that are actually consistent and do not go through random patches of poor finishing. Osimhen is probably my favourite player around these days and once every five matches or so, he looks like Michail Antonio on a bad day. Lautaro Martinez, Harry Kane, even Lewandowski all have games like this regularly. Isak is at the same level of the players I named, imo, but scoring goals is difficult. Once again, the failure is recruitment. Calum Wilson should have been shipped to Saudi or a lower team in the table that can take the risk with his constant absences due to his quality. This Osula boy, they could have loaned him to a Championship side or somewhere in Europe if he needed to season first. Isak has played 90 minutes in most of the matches he's started this season; even the best forwards usually sit after 75 or so if things are not working. We simply cannot afford to.

Not sure it is his fault necessarily, the recruitment is a much bigger issue for a club with our ambitions imo, but I would be stunned if he survives this season without massive improvement. The table is not inaccurate for this group at all, they perform and look like a mid table team. Like most sides of that pedigree, there are a few real high quality players and occasionally we flash ability to play at a higher level. However, we are completely incapable of imposing our style of play in matches, remain very inconsistent, and do not have the quality to replace from the bench or adjust when the top players are injured or not in form. The team is 12th and the next two matches are Arsenal at home and then a very tough away trip to the City Ground (Nuno's team are horrible to play against). There is every chance that the table looks very grim for this team in a fortnight. It is hard to know how the owners react in this situation as we haven't seen them deal with it before, but if we are 13th or 14th at the international break, it is a position that leads to managers getting sacked more often that not. I like Howe, but would not begrudge a change at this point. The team is just not hard to play against at this moment. I would prefer a manager that can restore defensive solidity if he is replaced.

Commentator is talking about the confidence Howe is showing by keeping Isak on. The only striker on the bench is a young boy the manager refuses to play, I don't think it is about confidence.

This team has nowhere near the attacking talent and depth to be where it wants to be.

Not in anyway a foul on Joelinton, referee helping a soft defender.

It is incredible how low stakes these Champions League group matches feel with this new format. Arsenal play PSG tonight, and I am not even sure of the relevance of this game. Both sides will likely go through with ease and they seemingly aren't even really in direct competition with each other. The previous format was stale, but at least if two teams of this quality were grouped together, one side losing both matches would put them under real pressure in the other four; topping the group was also a real objective they would be competing against one another for. A 36 team group where you play 8 randomly assigned matches to knockout only 12 teams. Who devised this foolishness?

Guehi with ridiculous defending. Essentially ushered him into taking a shot on his strongest foot and never challenged

Tbh, I seriously dispute the idea that England did not have a squad of elite players throughout the 90, 00's and early '10s when the team was achieving much worse results than under Southgate. It is the same with France and Deschamps. These teams are inherently full of high level talent, but the results had generally been messy and inconsistent in terms of achievements before these managers arrived. Both of them are high level managers in the international game imo, but both should also be replaced at this point.

From the outside, it is very funny to see the disconnect between Southgate's accomplishments and the way you English people talk about him.I've watched this team my whole life, and generally, they rarely play cohesive football and generally are not particularly good. Missing tournaments and crashing out early are nothing new to England, despite generally having strong talent. I understand some of the annoyance; I can see the football being played, but Southgate has turned England into consistently one of the best teams in the world with results better than any nation in same time frame. This was not case when he inherited the team. His time has passed at this point, anyway.

It is hard to understand what happened with Kane in this tournament. Does he simply refuse to stop coming deep and play in his proper position? Maybe he is incapable of playing as a true #9 at this point of his career. It cannot have been a tactical decision to have no presence upfront and one of best finishers in world consistently nowhere near goal scoring positions.

Slovenia penalties were all very poor, tbh. Good height to save and little power or deception.

You are always tempting fate when commenting on a player with the goal-scoring ability of Ronaldo, but it is bizarre that he is going to play 90+ minutes here. He has not been terrible, but the man is the least effective Portugese attacking player in this match and looks tired and frustrated.

I don't think that should be offside in a general sense, but I swear I have seen multiple goals ruled out in that exact circumstance? I assumed it would be called off when they showed the replay.

Offside.

I'll never complain about more nations getting to compete in these competitions, and the quality of football has justified their inclusion. However, Portugal '16 and Cote d'Ivoire '24 soured me on the 24 team format entirely. You should not be able to embarrass yourself in the group and win the tournament.

The annoying part of these 24 team tournaments is that neither the Netherlands nor France or in any danger of going out, despite the rubbish they have played in this group.

It feels as though Giroud will once again end up starting for France in the most important matches. Throughout Deschamps reign, they have also looked better with him on the pitch and unfocused when he is not there.

People always massively overreact to performances in the group stage matches of these tournaments, especially the 24-team ones that we have now. Four points in the group is really the equivalent of six in a 32 or 16 team format. England have a simple path to win the group on the last match day, talent and room for group. This is all you would hope for in a tournament.

Dortmund have been disgraceful since they conceded. Just completely gave up on the match and collapsed.

My son is 9 and Man U have been rubbish for nearly his entire life There will soon be teenagers and adults where this is the case. You cannot compare them to Madrid and their unexplainable juju.

Did Hummels try to save that with his hand?