St. Maximin

Pretends to read Orwell maybe. Probably is more articulate than a lot of English players though, but that says more about them. He’s still a horrendous human being and the obsession some fans have with him is bizarre. He wasn’t good that often and spent a lot of his time here in jail.

I agree on the current joke of a manager but at the same time I think that was partly fuelled by the fans’ reactions at first. He’s just completely lacking in class and continued the comparisons rather than trying to make amends for being clueless.

I am speaking what I feel is the truth mate. I just mean my angle on here is criticising the reaction he gets to criticism/defences he receives, because I feel they are fair points worth considering on a forum that is very pro-Rafa. If the forum hated him for some bizarre reason I’d be more inclined to defend him. Just feel there’s room for nuance and happy for you to disagree with my views also as it’s never exciting if we all agree

No that actually wasn’t even a stupid post though was it? That criticism just gets laughed off almost proves the point, though I know it’s not as simple as that. People talk about him like he’s some miracle worker who constantly had the team overachieving, when it wasn’t quite as simple. The point a lot home defeats is fair and at times in the Prem we had some dreadful runs of form. I mean we were pretty much neck on neck for safety with Cardiff one year until the closing weeks, but I’m sure we all thought our squad was much better than theirs and that Warnock wasn’t a genius. I know we won it in the end, but we were also poor at times in the Championship; hardly walking it like under Hughton despite a better squad. I’m throughly with you on his vision for the club and the shocking investment opportunities he had. His fan engagement was brilliant also and deserved better. But in the interest of balance, he always had a defence. No shots on target at hone to Fulham? Team in relegation form? Well his hands are tied so he can’t do better. Can’t say I fully support some views like that, or the reaction here to an opinion. However… I should also point out I’m deliberately creating debate when my views on the guy are pretty much the same as the majority here. If this was a forum that loved to slate him I’d be arguing differently. But I think a different perspective, whether or not you agree, is healthy.

I mean I haven’t been here long and I’m not going to defend this new guy’s behaviour, but I do feel like you have to following certain narratives on here, whether it’s about Rafa, Bruce or other things like politics, or you’re in line for a hammering. It wouldn’t be fun if everyone agreed and nobody should expect you to. I often like to take a different position for balance because while I’m a huge fan of what Rafa did on and off the pitch, it almost feels like he’s beyond criticism from Newcastle fans and he’s always got an excuse to hide behind regarding investment etc. Controversially I sometimes defend Bruce also, but that’s more because I don’t think the investment argument is that simple when you look at the players both managers have had despite the difference in amount spent. Bruce is still an idiot of course.

Same here imo. We had one of the best two or three squads there and hosted 6/7 games. Getting to the final shouldn’t really be seen as an achievement they should be proud of. Germany, who I do feel are better than some make out, were our only other major challenge on paper and we still had a big home advantage. Southgate’s cautious approach often made sense with hindsight, but with the players we had, it would count for nothing unless we won the whole thing. It’s not like we had a bad defence anyway!

Yeah I didn’t think he was good, though I thought he’d take the last as I remembered him winning a shootout with one. Also thought Grealish has taken them for Villa also, but if they’re the best in training then I get why they were the five. Just seemed odd Saka was last.

I don’t get why people are criticising the other experienced players for not taking penalties. It’s the manager’s choice as he’s confirmed and the players clearly respect him. The whole “player power” stuff was seen as a problem years ago - they shouldn’t be overriding his decisions. Also as a man who has won the League Cup in a shootout and responded to the media brilliantly in recent years, I really doubt Sterling refused a penalty to throw a 19 year-old (who could conceivably also get racist abuse from morons) under the bus.

Southgate impresses me so much in how he conducts himself on and off the pitch, gains the players’ respects and engages with the media. For those reasons and the recent tournament runs it’s hard to argue against keeping him. I think he’s also been exposed tactically and this was so similar to the Croatia game in how we made ourselves the dominated team with few ideas after an early lead, rather than capitalising. Also I get that in a big tournament you often have to be conservative, but this was too much. We should be building the team around the likes of Sancho, Foden and Grealish for years to come, but his reluctance to find roles for them, even as subs earlier on, I find very frustrating. The obsession with playing Mount also I don’t get. He is also a brilliant player but I see nothing in him that says he needs to start every game, especially as a winger over the aforementioned players. I still think it it’s typical of the English mindset to be be over-reliant on the reliable model-pro over anyone remotely maverick. It’s been a brilliant tournament and loved following England throughout, but without doubt the best team won. Well done Italy.

The penalty seems unnecessarily polarising to me. Having watched a few replays I’m tempted to say it was soft but not convinced it was a ‘blatant dive’. Sterling was definitely looking for it, as any attacking player would be, but I don’t think that’s much different to penalties we see all the time, so we just have to accept if it wasn’t a penalty then it was cheating that has become widely accepted in the game. It just happened to be at a very crucial stage in the game and tournament. No clear and obvious ref error for me so I think VAR probably wouldn’t have differed to the ref either way.

He adds something different and I think what they said on the Peter Crouch show is pretty justified. You could say Southgate got it right but on the flip side if you play him from the start maybe we'd have threatened earlier. I think it's similar with Willock at Newcastle - he kept coming on and scoring so maybe he should have just played from the start. Foden and Sancho are great also but not sure they have shown for England they would have the same impact. Grealish constantly seems to make things happen, regardless of whether Southgate persists with him.

I just don’t get this. People go out their way to say Grealish is overhyped or play down everything he does well because Mount/Foden/Saka/Sterling et al would do exactly the same. I know he’s a whopper but the guy is brilliant. Not just his skills, ability to win fouls and drag defenders across, but he has terrific end-product also. 30 goals or assists in 62 Premier League games for Villa says what you need to know frankly. I’m a big Saka fan but his stats are nothing on Grealish’s and while he’s certainly played well, he’s lacked the end-product on the wing and that’s ultimately what we want. That’s why Sterling is there as despite being frustrating and less skilful than some other players, his movement is brilliant. It’s possible for Gareth to be right in being conservative while also getting away with it by not having Grealish or another attacking player start, meaning we’d be more threatening earlier on.

It’s just such a shame there isn’t much of a plan to score goals either. It’s so underwhelming. Maybe it will work after all but if it doesn’t Southgate won’t get away with it. Guess we could take very much another solid 1-0 but I wonder how we’ll cope if we go a goal down.

I don't get the mindset behind leaving the most creative players all on the bench in favour of a third centre-back and second defensive midfielder. Can understand Saka's selection after how he played, but leaving all that quality off the starting line-up is so frustrating. We have so much quality going forward we can afford to not be boring and overly conservative. Saying that I'm happy for Gareth to prove me wrong of course.

Maybe not, but they are very good players to be fair! I think with Grealish it's not necessarily him being better, but what he is bringing in terms of technique, dribbling etc. It's something different and has the potential to create so many goals even if it's by dragging men over or drawing fouls. I'm not sure why Southgate keeps bringing on Rashford and I don't think Mount has been offering enough in a role Grealish (or Foden) could be more effective in.

He isn’t overhyped though. He’s been brilliant the last two years, with end-product to go with his skills. Southgate’s reluctance to use him doesn’t have a lot of logic to it imo. Agree Saka was great, especially first half.

Seems like a weird law in general. Even if you test negative you still have to isolate when surely you could test again a few days later rather than always doing the 10 days. It’s a waste of people’s time that proves disruptive and undermines the tests in my opinion. Yes they aren’t completely accurate but there has to be a balanced approach somewhere.

He’s the same age as James and Foden and only a year younger than Rice and Mount, who all started Friday. Four years older than Bellingham who came on as a sun last week also. It’s a pretty typical English attitude I feel. Obsessing with having experience, professionalism, reliability work rate et al is great but a cynicism over youth and anyone with a hint of maverick or unpredictability about them I think hinders us.

He’s a great player but exemplifies what I feel is a common English attitude of picking hard-working model pros over anyone with a hint of maverick about them. Talent-wise he’s not close to Foden and Grealish, who have proven to be consistent club players also, so there’s no good reason he should occupy the attacking mid role over them. Furthermore, he seems to be impossible to sub let alone drop/rotate, much like Sterling and Rice, despite not justifying that at all with his performances. Almost forget with Southgate that we have 26 players.

He's not brilliant but I think he's decent. Certainly a solid Premier League midfielder that is way ahead of lower Championship standard. Same with Fraser also though we've not really seen much from him. Tierney is back for this match apparently. You'd think a couple of class left-backs shouldn't really change the outcome much though.

Tierney and McTominay also and I think that's a bit harsh on the manager tbh. Aside from that though I agree they are trash and we should really thump them.

Not great management though to be fair.

Interesting. Maybe we played for the same club ?

I played for Newcastle CC in Jesmond for a few years when I lived in Newcastle and played him in a midweek T20 against Tynemouth 2s when he had just made the PL squad in 2018. I think he often plays a few games a season but around the end of football season it should be fine. Seemed weird he was allowed to play in August though. The level he plays I’m not sure can be classed as amateur (North East Prem, lots of paid players). Pretty sure he’s better at cricket than he is a football. He was rapid. Did get a second ball duck though.

We’ll lose a right-back but will almost certainly go with three in the 26 in case Southgate wants to play wing-backs (as he likes Walker in a back three). When you look at the attacking options though, it seems crazy he’s gone into matches with seven defenders/DMs. Also no idea how Bamford isn’t in there. Joint fourth top scorer in the league and more goals than any English player after Kane. Nothing against the other strikers there, but think he adds something a bit different also.