leffe186

Clever defending.

How many opportunities are they going to waste?

Oh no. Just doesn’t feel like it’s going to come for Austria.

What an absolutely wonderful pass that was, and the striker kinda fucked it.

Guler is such a lovely footballer already.

Is there some cunt in the crowd with a ref’s whistle?

let’s hope it carries on like this. Austria have the feel of Ange about them.

Surprise, he’s fine. Get up you cunt. Enjoying the ref so far.

Neither team has any interest in defending corners.

This might be the best 5mins in a tournament I’ve ever seen

My wife asked why a 5-year-old was playing.

Austria are such fun

Oh wow nearly 1-1. What a start.

Jesus what a mess. Beautiful corner though.

Looking forward to this game more than most, which unfortunately suggests it might be a let down.

Christ lads, how are we still saying “can’t see any alternative that will improve things” or 3-5-2? Just put Gordon on the left and Saka/Palmer on the right - we’ve seen it work before the competition start and we’ve seen it work during the competition (for at least a minute, maybe two). Let‘s try it, eh?

But you don’t change that by keeping them in the same formation and just telling them to “pass quicker” or “show for the ball” or whatever. You change that by looking at the team as a whole and seeing how to create opportunities for space - either to pass to or move into. Look at what happened when Gordon came on against Slovenia. His presence and first run forced Slovenia’s midfield and defence to shift to the right when he had the ball to close him down and support the RB. That gave him room to move inside and Mainoo room to move into the space allowed. Then because Kane is clever as fuck he made the right run to draw the defence even further out of position and laid it off. If Palmer had anticipated it and not been on his heels it’s a goal. The frustrating thing is hoping that the chemistry will come without actually making any effort to put the right reagents together in the right order.

All right, going to watch injury time and extra time. The thing is, if Southgate played Gordon on the left and for whatever reason it didn’t work out I’d hold my hands up and say “fair enough, maybe I don’t know as much as I think about football, at least he tried.” This, though, is spectacularly infuriating. Just maddening.

Posted this in the other thread but was working through the game, keeping an eye on the BBC text. Is it worth watching any of the game other than the goals? It just sounded like…everything we’ve been talking about again, again…again

Right, was working through the game, keeping an eye on the BBC text. Is it worth watching any of the game other than the goals? It just sounded like…everything we’ve been talking about again, again…again.

“Why would I not want to play our best players?” Because we’ve seen it not work and for the fleeting seconds when you did what every supporter with half a fucking brain saw you needed to do we looked ace. ”But why would I not want to play our best players?” Repeat ad nauseam.

Disagree. The biggest problem is that we don’t have balance and an outlet on the left that opens things up allowing the central pairing more space and options when we have the ball. That’s when they get the chance to change the rhythm and tempo. They’ve been setting it up to now, just always at slow because the one option for a change of pace gets double-covered on the right.

Yup, every sport tbh.

Oh I wasn’t restricting myself to football. Not by a long chalk.

Said it in the other thread: my gut reaction is just not to watch which makes me a bit depressed, tbh. I feel like I’ve been doomscrolling continuously over the last 24hrs . Is anything not shite? Anything at all?