ponsaelius

Spain absolutely destroyed Italy in 2012 when Italy played a 4 man defence. Confed Cup in 2013 and Euros last year Italy beat them with a back 3. I know Chiellini is out but Rugani is no mug to step in. Otherwise you have to have 3 in midfield against Spain if you've not got the extra CB. Playing 2 in there on their own and little help from the wide players is really insane. One of the worst team selections I've ever seen from any manager.

Shambles from Ventura. It's like a team you'd play in a video game not in a real match.

Yeah this system is ridiculous from Ventura. Has he never watched Spain play?

It was 4-2-4 in their last two qualifiers, with the wide players playing way up the pitch. Unlikely to be the case today admittedly but Insigne is not really somebody who can do defensive work. Was expecting them to play a back 3 today but I guess Chiellini's injury forced their hand.

And Italy are playing 4-2-4

FA Cup not the Trophy. Good result winning 0-2. N. Shields vs Dunston for me today. Decent crowd of 352. Shields were shite losing 1-3. Cracking hattrick from Dunston lad.

Part of the furniture.

Butthurt Isn't this bloke well past middle age?

USMNT continuing to make a mess of things. Absolutely gasping for a USA vs Syria play-off.

Tremoulinas has had endless debilitating knee injuries, still crocked now.

Spotted him at central station about 4ish. Suitcases going in the car, hugs to family and friends. Was gonna run across and shake his hand but he whizzed off before the lights could change to cross the road. 11 years is a long time at one club, it really is a bit of a shame to see him leave via the back door.

TBH I do think West Ham's transfer business this summer and for as long as I have remembered has been an embarrassing, disorganised clusterfuck of epic proportions; signing players on reputation alone and pandering to shady agents. I think of all the clubs in Europe they have one of the poorest transfer policies relative to their size. All that said, they do back their managers and actively try to improve. They would definitely do so with Rafa, and would reap the benefits of doing so if they handed him the keys to the club.

No clue.

Checking and we could name Good as well. That's our options for the last squad place; El-Mhanni, Good and Colback. I think unless Rafa really has fell out properly with Colback then unfortunately he is gonna be in our squad.

I don't think he will be replacing that Aussie but he's 2nd choice there rather than 4th here. Means he'll play in cups, and an injury away from starting.

We don't have enough players to leave him out do we? Unless we register El-Mhanni instead. Fuck I really hope we do that.

Betis seem to have had a lively window with the Ceballos money. Can't work out if it's been good or bad though.

Since the Irish spend most of their time playing fucking catch the pixie with sticks or whatever the GAA is it's probably a bit true. They're more in the Iceland/Faroe Islands category of overachievement than Netherlands/Uruguay though.

I mean a Euros win, 3 world cup finals, and 6 more major semi finals. That's a hell of a run for a country of, what, 15 million? If anything they're due a major slump for a while.

Netherlands isn't a big country. Rather than arguing they're doing extremely poorly right now, it's probably more the case that they've overachieved for the last 40 years. They were a minnow pre-1974. Always more likely to have poor generations, and blips of failing to qualify, than other larger European countries like France, Germany and Italy.

They just sold Patrik Schick to Roma for potentially up to 40 million euros. Plus 18 million for Skriniar and 20 million for Muriel, they had plenty of money to spend (and little need to cash in on Praet).

Clearing our boardroom so we can make sure Lazaar gans

Marc Wilson, Jonny Williams and Callum Mcmanaman

If he doesn't walk then he's either got far too much honour or he's spineless. I'm not sure which it is.

We can't even get the pathetic, ambitionless squad padding loan signings over the line