Best performance of the tournament was against the Ukraine where we stayed on the front foot until we were 4 nil up. In the final the early positive approach became more autious as we surrounded the initiative to Italy. In extra time both teams were negative wingers are a dying breed. both Walker and Shaw are confident going forward and had we stayed on the front foot a second goal would have made things much tougher for Italy. Southgate has developed an integrated and effective squad but needs to be more creative and flexible with tactics and game awareness to seize the moment and I would have made Jordan Henderson captain and midfield king pin. A united squad who gave their all and I feel more success will follow.
Italy weren't lucky. They put a lot of pressure on that resulted in the goal. They marginally outplayed us which gives me a lot of hope that this team, being so young, will have other chances to win finals.
Excellent post. The Italians were a brilliant side throughout the tournament and if we’d gone after them there’s a good chance they’d have tore us apart.
not marginally outplayed us. They dominated apart from the opening and closing 5mins. They were the only team that forced the issue and corrected their own tactical issues quickly. England decided it was better to sit on a 1-0 lead for 87 mins. They may not have carved us open with chance after chance but they controlled the game.
After the croatia game in Russia the feeling was Southgate will learn from this, recognize the game is out of control and change things earlier. Arguably he was worse this time around.
We conceded twice in the whole tournament. Once from a wonder goal and the other from a lucky rebound off the post. We didn't lose any games in open play. The squad was mostly kids. He's not perfect but he's done more for English football than most managers ever will.
Any credit going his way for changing the shape of the team to match up against Germany and using the subs brilliantly to canter to a 2-0 victory? And I won’t accept a response that suggests it was a poor Germany team when there were three Champions League winners and some Bayern Munich regulars playing. Or do we just bash success and achievements these days?
I think that's the point though, do we have room for a learning curve in the finals of major tournaments? He has had 61 games in charge, and hasn't shown any indication that he's going to deliver the type of aggressive football that the players are capable of. Is he going to find a way to get the best out of Sancho and Foden, two of the best attacking prospects in the world? Being unable to use Sancho effectively when he has been tearing up the German league is a massive question mark for me. Can we afford to persist in the long term with a manager who can't get the most out of his available resources?
We did very well against Germany and Denmark. He got both games spot on. Germany are a good team but they were off colour against us you have to admit that. How often does Muller miss a chance like that? We were far more positive against both teams and the way we saw out the Denmark game was as impressive as I’ve seen us. That made the Italy inactivity and negativity all the more frustrating. It was like watching a car crash you knew was about happen yet doing nothing to prevent it.
But as mentioned in a previous post you’re talking like we had a divine right to boss the Italy game. They’re a brilliant side who thrive on dominating the ball like that and have technically better players than us. As proven in this tournament they have the quality to go from back to front at lightening speed and punish you. We’re Germany off colour or did we just tactically out think them and on the pitch out play them? How come when we win it’s the opponent’s being off their game and when we lose no credit goes to the opposition? In one message you’re saying Southgate doesn’t learn and basically call for him to replaced. But then in this reply you call out two great performances that got us to the final. That’s the final by the way, a stage we haven’t got to for 55 years and where we lost with the very last kick of the whole tournament.
I'm happy to give him time to see what his next few games look like, we've got Hungary twice and a game against Poland before the end of the year and I'd expect us to be more threatening. Otherwise Howe or possibly Gerrard would be on my radar.
Imagine if Allardyce had never got found out for his indiscretion. What a squad we would have- Forster Butland Green Clyne Chambers P Jones Dunk Cahill Smalling Bertrand Baines Delph Cork Cleverley Shelvey Noble Dier Livermore Young Walcott Townsend Rodriguez Caroll Deeney Welbeck Sturridge Be careful what you wish for
Do you want us to be more threatening than winning 8-1 on our route to the final after the group stage? Howe and Gerrard. Give your head a shake man.
I’m not disputing we did well to get there. I’m not calling for his head. I’m annoyed we progressed so well yet at the time it mattered most we reverted to Hodgson’s England. And even reverted to the Croatia game 3 years ago. Everyone could see the game was slipping from our control and fresh impetus was needed and he waits until 105 mins to bring on our best player.
I couldn’t see the game slipping away. Neither could the people I went with. We both turned to each other on 65 minutes and said we’d happily take another 30 minutes of this and a 1-0 masterclass. Sadly, we switched off at a set piece and got unlucky with the way the ball dropped. It was nothing like Hodgson or Croatia. At the time it mattered the most our team full of kids took one of the best sides in the world to the last kick of the game and could have won it ourselves. Extra time was an even affair.
Which we were in every game after that. Maybe Southgate learnt from that? Which is interesting considering he’s been criticised for exactly the opposite.
Huh? Another 30 mins of offering nothing? Of sitting back. Of waiting to concede while watching Henderson come on? Your mates Italian by any chance? You knew Italy would score and once you’ve sat back for so long it’s so hard to snap out of it and start playing. First 10-15 were great. Then Italy changed it up and Southgate stayed the course. Defeat was inevitable.