Group B: England, Iran, United States, Wales (England and USA qualify)

[Bizza]

 

Fucking hell   

[Pata]

It's hilarious that there are people who think Southgate deserves the job because he's such a nice guy. He did a nice job getting rid of the toxic atmosphere around the team but you really should have gone and hired a real coach after the Euros. It was the best chance ever to win something with the favourable draw and home field advantage and he bottled it. He's a tactical dinosaur who will replace Bellingham with Phillips or Hendo in the knockouts and/or change it to a back 5. He's so scared of losing that the margin of error gets too small, one set-piece goal or soft penalty against England and he has no idea how to turn it around. All he has is the plan A of keeping it tight and hope to nick it at some point.

 

Can you imagine how the game would have looked if Southgate was the coach for USA and (the not that highly rated?) Berhalter for England? I really enjoy international football due to its purity but it's a shame how far it has fallen of club football regarding managers. Most of the big countries employ dinosaurs as the young exciting management talent just isn't interested or FA's are too scared to hire anyone without a big status. It should be exciting to get to watch France, England, Belgium, Portugal, Netherlands etc. with all that talent in their squads but so often it's just dull as everyone is playing not to lose. Seeing how Howe changed us from the ultimate dross to extremely enjoyable to watch so quickly just makes it worse.

 

 

 

Edited November 26, 2022 by Pata

[Deuce]

 

[cubaricho]

5 hours ago, huss9 said:

we're effectively through to the next round so i hope he tinkers with team and tactics and lets the team express themselves a little more.

we'd have to get absolutely battered off wales and even then it would need iran and usa to draw to get knocked out.

 

 

 

??????

[ExiledGeordie]

5 hours ago, huss9 said:

its not that we were shit today thats annoying.

we've been shit and lucky in the past.

 

the annoying thing is the lack of tactical nous or desire/knowledge to identify things arent working or players arent at it and then make changes accodringly and in plenty of time. just same old, same old.

I just don’t think Southgate has any tactical ability or in game management. A decent coach would’ve changed things much earlier when it clearly wasn’t working and found a way to get Foden on. He has a defensive mindset and simply doesn’t know how to harness our attacking talent available. 

 

[cubaricho]

3 hours ago, Pata said:

It's hilarious that there are people who think Southgate deserves the job because he's such a nice guy. He did a nice job getting rid of the toxic atmosphere around the team but you really should have gone and hired a real coach after the Euros. It was the best chance ever to win something with the favourable draw and home field advantage and he bottled it. He's a tactical dinosaur who will replace Bellingham with Phillips or Hendo in the knockouts and/or change it to a back 5. He's so scared of losing that the margin of error gets too small, one set-piece goal or soft penalty against England and he has no idea how to turn it around. All he has is the plan A of keeping it tight and hope to nick it at some point.

 

Can you imagine how the game would have looked if Southgate was the coach for USA and (the not that highly rated?) Berhalter for England? I really enjoy international football due to its purity but it's a shame how far it has fallen of club football regarding managers. Most of the big countries employ dinosaurs as the young exciting management talent just isn't interested or FA's are too scared to hire anyone without a big status. It should be exciting to get to watch France, England, Belgium, Portugal, Netherlands etc. with all that talent in their squads but so often it's just dull as everyone is playing not to lose. Seeing how Howe changed us from the ultimate dross to extremely enjoyable to watch so quickly just makes it worse.

 

 

 

 

Boy howdy this ain’t wrong.

 

Hell yeah dude for nailing it. 
 

 

[Guest]

7 hours ago, TheBrownBottle said:

Not arsed about winning it, would like to see some good football

 

 

 

 

Euro 2000 must have been perfect. Keegan manager and going out to two 3-2 defeats.

[ponsaelius]

45 minutes ago, cubaricho said:

??????

 

That'd be you lot out as well, strange wish 

[cubaricho]

11 minutes ago, ponsaelius said:

 

That'd be you lot out as well, strange wish 

I mean, I was being a dick.  
 

Please tinker the team against wales. Please. 

[MagMal]

He won't change the tactics we have seen it in previous tournaments. He keeps playing the same players and formation and by the time we get to the knockout games Kane is knackered and half injured as the opposition know all they have to do is stop him.the second have against Croatia he should have been off and against Italy he was done after 20 minutes. 

 

The over reliance on him costs us, yes he's a good player, even though I don't like him, but that is more from the fact that any team that plays him becomes so in flexible as they have got to play off him and it slows the game down, we are too predictable.

[gazza ladra]

All these pundits arguing that Trent Alexander-Arnold would’ve made the difference.  

[TheBrownBottle]

51 minutes ago, Optimistic Nut said:

 

Euro 2000 must have been perfect. Keegan manager and going out to two 3-2 defeats.

Euro 2000 is still my favourite Euros, funnily enough  - though I don’t think I’m alone in the opinion that it was the best Euros to date. 

[TheBrownBottle]

1 minute ago, TheBrownBottle said:

Euro 2000 is still my favourite Euros, funnily enough  - though I don’t think I’m alone in the opinion that it was the best Euros to date. 

Edit: to test this, just did a quick Google of ‘best European championships ever’, then clicked on the first two articles:

 

https://www.sportskeeda.com/amp/football/ranking-the-best-uefa-euro-championships-of-all-time

 

https://www.planetfootball.com/quick-reads/a-definitive-ranking-of-every-euros-since-1996-from-worst-to-best

 

no prizes for guessing the winner

 

I just want to watch decent football, especially when (for me) it is low-stakes

[St1pe]

I don’t think Southgate is the greatest coach we’ve had but he’s taking more flack than he deserves after that game. We’ve played far better with much more desire and intensity than we did last night under him and some of those players need to look at themselves if they can’t get motivated to play in a World Cup game. We got out worked and outfought by the US. 
 

Kane and Sterling in particular had that look of a pro at the end of their career just plodding about at international level living off reputation.

 

Throw in Saka and Bellingham having poor games and Rice going backwards so often the entire team was completely toothless. 
 

Southgate should have changed it sooner. The reluctance to sub Kane when him plodding around in the 10 position without anyone making a real attempt to get behind him was painful.

The Foden thing is just bizarre. 
 

 

 

[Coffee_Johnny]

11 hours ago, Astroblack said:

Fuck it, I’ll take a 0-0. 

This made me chuckle. Your ultra confident pre-match messages to resigned acceptance of shit-show, slow to change, Southgate-soccer (…don’t know where that phrase came from, but hope I won’t be needing it again) exactly mirrors my feelings yesterday. 

[Coffee_Johnny]

6 hours ago, Bizza said:

 

Throw the cunts out! 

Genuinely want to vomit. 

[Cronky]

Karen Carney made a good point afterwards that there was no link between Rice, Bellingham and Mount down the middle. It was difficult to tell from the TV, but she said that Rice was very deep and the physical distance between them was a problem. Rice and the CBs ended up playing predictable balls out to the full backs, who usually had no option but to turn inwards and return the ball backwards.

 

Foden is good at retaining and using the ball in tight spaces under pressure. We often seemed to lose the ball due to a heavy first touch, so if Maddison isn't fit, maybe the best idea is to replace Mount with Foden. Grealish is also better at retaining the ball than Sterling so that would be the other change.

 

Southgate seems to see Foden as a wide player, but I'm sure he has the ability to have a freer role.

[joeyt]

6 hours ago, Shearergol said:

As a striker, yes. Wouldn’t want Kane at Newcastle 

 

Second most goals ever in the Prem, incredible statement. Do you really think Southgate should have started Wilson over him?

[MagMal]

Part of the problem for me is this stupid obsession we have with the England captain, at international level everyone should be a leader and the captaincy should be depending on the opposition or occasion but we tie ourselves into this position that we can't drop a player because he wears an armband. If that player is then a striker you have to play to him regardless of the other players or his form or the public and papers go made.

 

As a result of that we have lost all abilities to have a play B or C as Kane can only play in one system and he is there to get the goals to win games, if the captain was in midfield, defence or even the keeper (not pickford) the team would have more flexibility on tactics. 

[Cronky]

I'm not sure that Kane is a great captain, but for that role you need someone who is near certain to play when fit. No other candidate fits that particular criterion.

 

Well, apart from Pickford, but for obvious reasons that's a no.

[La Parka]

Sterling is a liability. 

 

Mount is fucking shit.

 

The gap between the forward 4 and rice and Bellingham was too far.

 

Not one of the centermids can pick a pass through the lines .

 

The pressing was utter shit, they'd be better off sitting in shape in a low block. 

 

Kane is our best player with the ball at his feet, but he's often too deep if saka and theoretically sterling get in behind.

 

Trips was shit. He misses almiron. 

 

The passing was ponderously slow, predictable shit. There was no urgency. 

[Rich]

Can’t believe we lost 0-0.

[RS]

Just me that can see a fired up Wales meeting Southgate driven negative tactics and knocking us out of the tournament?

[Rich]

Aye.

[Coffee_Johnny]

England will qualify but I’m far less optimistic. We’ll struggle against better teams. Just hoping Southgate stumbles upon, as Robson did with Beardsley-Lineker in Mexico ‘86, an attacking formation which gets the best out of our squad. I doubt it will happen, but I’d be fascinated to see how Kane and Wilson would link up as a forward two and finding a starting place for Foden. Apart from the obvious goal threat he brings, he is so athletic and combative he brings so much more than Sterling and Saka.