Final: England 1-2 Spain

[Groundhog63]

20 hours ago, Groundhog63 said:

Before the QFs we had her lot around for a birthday buffet bollox. Her eldest's

 

Anyways we decided to do a sweep for the rest of the EUROS. 

2 teams each, £5 a head

 

However there was only 7 of us so we hoyed the dog in the mix. 

 

I got England and yes, you've guessed it, Flora the collie got Spain

 

One man and his dog, still standing

 

Woof woof

 

[The College Dropout]

Tournament was boring. 
 

Saved by the right winners. 

 

 

Edited July 15 by The College Dropout

[TaylorJ_01]

I'd give it a 3/10. No real memories. Enjoyed Romania and Georgia as they attacked, but the rest was a dull slugfest bar the odd game. A lot of the best players didn't turn up like Mbappe, Kane etc and no-one particularly made a mark, aside from maybe Yamal.

[NE27]

Shitfest of a tournament before you even get to the supporting a largely unimpressive England side.

 

The perceived minnows being the best watches for entertainment.

[The Butcher]

[Andy]

1 hour ago, TaylorJ_01 said:

I'd give it a 3/10. No real memories. Enjoyed Romania and Georgia as they attacked, but the rest was a dull slugfest bar the odd game. A lot of the best players didn't turn up like Mbappe, Kane etc and no-one particularly made a mark, aside from maybe Yamal.

 

Would argue Olmo and Williams made their mark too, but outside of Spain you'd be struggling aye

[Ste]

The moment that summed up Englands tournament for me came after the equaliser. We were enjoying periods of possession in the opposition half, we get a throw in. Walker throws it all the way back to Stones, who plays it back to Pickford, who boots it long for a Spain goal kick. After that it felt like it was all Spain for the last 15-20 minutes barring the chance from the corner. 
 

In comparison, Spain soaked up the pressure, went back to the keeper who played it to the half way line to the man in space. We have to get better at beating a press. The talent is undeniably there, the mindset isn’t. 

[triggs]

Think a lot of the problem remains that English midfielders like to run around the place like box to box players rather than playing with more patience and guile. International football isn't played at 100 miles an hour.

 

Xhaka got clowned in England for years but the reason Switzerland play above themselves is because he knows how to control the tempo and break the line with his passing or just play simple passes and slow it down when he needs to.

[huss9]

50 minutes ago, Ste said:

The moment that summed up Englands tournament for me came after the equaliser. We were enjoying periods of possession in the opposition half, we get a throw in. Walker throws it all the way back to Stones, who plays it back to Pickford, who boots it long for a Spain goal kick. After that it felt like it was all Spain for the last 15-20 minutes barring the chance from the corner. 
 

In comparison, Spain soaked up the pressure, went back to the keeper who played it to the half way line to the man in space. We have to get better at beating a press. The talent is undeniably there, the mindset isn’t. 

so thats either been practised on the training ground.

or its been just desperate measures as they havent practiced patterns of play at all.

 

 

Edited July 15 by huss9

[TRon]

4 hours ago, gbandit said:

Worst international tournament I’ve ever seen

 

I think it was the lack of really exciting quality on show. There was some good individual players, but they didn't seem to light the tournament up like players of the past such as Zidane, Platini or Maradona (yes I know I'm going back a bit). Maybe it's just the boring way the game is played these days. Only Spain seemed to really go for it, there were too many teams happy to sit back and wait for a mistake, and England were the worst culprits.

[Wullie]

30 minutes ago, triggs said:

Think a lot of the problem remains that English midfielders like to run around the place like box to box players rather than playing with more patience and guile. International football isn't played at 100 miles an hour.

 

Xhaka got clowned in England for years but the reason Switzerland play above themselves is because he knows how to control the tempo and break the line with his passing or just play simple passes and slow it down when he needs to.

 

I think it's very hard to accuse this England team of trying to play at 100 miles an hour. I've rarely seen a more slow and ponderous team. Spain on the other hand were fast and dynamic.

[Lush Vlad]

49 minutes ago, Ste said:

The moment that summed up Englands tournament for me came after the equaliser. We were enjoying periods of possession in the opposition half, we get a throw in. Walker throws it all the way back to Stones, who plays it back to Pickford, who boots it long for a Spain goal kick. After that it felt like it was all Spain for the last 15-20 minutes barring the chance from the corner. 
 

In comparison, Spain soaked up the pressure, went back to the keeper who played it to the half way line to the man in space. We have to get better at beating a press. The talent is undeniably there, the mindset isn’t. 

Yep. Said when Spain played France. They can get back to front in 5-6 quick, incisive passes between the lines. Whereas we go front to back from a corner in the same number of passes. 
 

Our possession is always safe and a bit pointless. A lot of our good play comes from chaos, second balls, a moment of individual brilliance. Our midfield really don’t control games. Rice in particular was terrible and a bit cowardly in possession all tournament, IMO. 

[triggs]

11 minutes ago, Wullie said:

 

I think it's very hard to accuse this England team of trying to play at 100 miles an hour. I've rarely seen a more slow and ponderous team. Spain on the other hand were fast and dynamic.

That's what I mean. They play so ponderously because none of their midfielders can pass the ball well enough

[St. Maximin]

Leaving tactics aside, is there something about the we develop players detrimental to how we play? For the years I’ve watched us play, we love our big and powerful blokes in the middle of the park (Kane, Rooney, Gerrard, Lampard, Henderson, Rice etc). This includes some of the best of their generation too. But they don’t have much agility, quick feet or acceleration et al, so the football becomes really slow and they resort to sideways play or lumping it forward. I know Spain had a big guy in Rodri in midfield, but they’ve often relied on small players too who just happen to be really good in possession and keep it moving, freeing up their wingers too. Night and day watching them compared to us. 

[The College Dropout]

44 minutes ago, triggs said:

Think a lot of the problem remains that English midfielders like to run around the place like box to box players rather than playing with more patience and guile. International football isn't played at 100 miles an hour.

 

Xhaka got clowned in England for years but the reason Switzerland play above themselves is because he knows how to control the tempo and break the line with his passing or just play simple passes and slow it down when he needs to.

Agreed. 
 

 

13 minutes ago, Wullie said:

 

I think it's very hard to accuse this England team of trying to play at 100 miles an hour. I've rarely seen a more slow and ponderous team. Spain on the other hand were fast and dynamic.

Aye but running around is what they are good at. Nobody we played at CM main skills are getting it and playing it forward with a pass.  Mainoo is press resistant, Rice is a mega athlete, Jude is both. TAA isn’t a central midfielder.  
 

Ruiz could control any ball given to him.  Insanely press resistant and he’ll pop balls through the lines time and again.  
 

Even Morata would come deep and hold it up well. 
 

We don’t develop Ruiz types. We don’t develop Rodri types. 
 

The amount of difficult to play balls through the lines and difficult to control balls Spain played was insane. Even the GK was at it.  I thought he was shanking them but he was drilling. 20 yard low balls into Morata and Yamal all night. They would control it and Spain would be on the attack. 
 

In contrast Pickford kept hoofing it.  I blame Southgate for that. I don’t think we won a single first ball from a hoof. Should’ve started Toney if that was the plan.  
 

Foden is a fantastic player but he’s not a playmaker.  He’s more of a second striker, he’ll get goals and assists but he’s not a linky player. Palmer and Saka needed to play together a lot more. Both enjoy combination player and get more involved. Foden needed to be dropped - not to become the primary AM.  He has no relationships with any other England players. 
 

Walker is Man City’s counter attack defence and 1v1 dribblers. He’s not that good at any other element of the job.  His immediate understudy at the tournament is an even worse defender. 
 

Players is over rated. 

[gbandit]

We’ve changed the players we bring through. We have much more technically gifted players now to match teams like Spain. Our issue was entirely to do with how we set up. If you don’t try to win games you’re not going to win games 

[The College Dropout]

10 minutes ago, triggs said:

That's what I mean. They play so ponderously because none of their midfielders can pass the ball well enough

Mainoo could get there but he’s far too young atm. Game needs developing. 
 

They need to let him concentrate on being a baller and not fall into this ‘he needs to score goals and assist’ trap that’s so prevalent in this country. Luka Modric, Xavi, Kroos never scored loads or had crazy assists. Put their foot on the ball in pressure, get their teams into advantageous positions for others to score and create.  

[Cf]

In terms of the tournament being interesting there's just too many teams. 

 

Due to the seedings being split over 6 groups there weren't many interesting on paper matches. 

 

And because of 6 groups and this concept of best 3rd places to to round of 16 it encouraged safety first play where you could qualify from your group by drawing your games. 

 

Needs to go back to 4 groups of 4. 

[The College Dropout]

5 minutes ago, gbandit said:

We’ve changed the players we bring through. We have much more technically gifted players now to match teams like Spain. Our issue was entirely to do with how we set up. If you don’t try to win games you’re not going to win games 

We still don’t have central midfield passers/controllers.  Rice plays for Arsenal but Arsenal peaked with Jorginho/Partey deepest and utilising their ability to play it through the lines and allowing Rice to run everywhere and physically dominate. Jude plays for RM but he’s tasked with scoring, there’s 5 players ahead of him to put their foot on the ball and control it.  Ancelotti is a master at getting players where their skills are maximised and that’s close to goal.  
 

 

[The College Dropout]

4 minutes ago, Cf said:

In terms of the tournament being interesting there's just too many teams. 

 

Due to the seedings being split over 6 groups there weren't many interesting on paper matches. 

 

And because of 6 groups and this concept of best 3rd places to to round of 16 it encouraged safety first play where you could qualify from your group by drawing your games. 

 

Needs to go back to 4 groups of 4. 

If they keep it at 24 teams. They should do 3rd place teams going through on goals scored not points.  4 3rd place teams with the most goals go through. 
 

Or just go to 32 and hope for some spankings. 

[St. Maximin]

5 minutes ago, Cf said:

In terms of the tournament being interesting there's just too many teams. 

 

Due to the seedings being split over 6 groups there weren't many interesting on paper matches. 

 

And because of 6 groups and this concept of best 3rd places to to round of 16 it encouraged safety first play where you could qualify from your group by drawing your games. 

 

Needs to go back to 4 groups of 4. 

I agree the format didn’t help, but ultimately it’s longer and more football to watch (which I still want as a fan) and more opportunities for decent teams. 16 is thin given how much talent there is and a tough draw could mean luck plays a big part. 
 

I’d rather expand to 32 and get rid of this silly 3rd place rule. Gives some of the weaker nations something to aspire towards and encourages attacking football in the groups. Still plenty of good (including world class) players didn’t make the tournament!

[The College Dropout]

Need to do something to encourage goals.  

[Wullie]

If they expand to a 32 team Euros they'd have to completely change qualifying imo. Make it so the teams who got through to at least the last 16 of the previous Euros don't need to qualify. Making Spain, France, England, Germany etc etc go through an entire qualifying campaign to get to a 32 team Euros would be a farce. 

[Sergio]

41 minutes ago, triggs said:

That's what I mean. They play so ponderously because none of their midfielders can pass the ball well enough

Aye, Lobotka was great at dictating the tempo and controlling the game in the Slovakia match. England have never had a DM like him, Rodri, Kroos, Verratti etc. who can shift out of pressure, provide an outlet and keep things ticking. 

[Gallowgate Toon]

Wharton looks like he could be the one to break the mould.