The Footie Thread

[Neilds]

Didn't watch the first 2 games as I was away on holiday but, after watching last night, I am quite relieved I missed them! One thing that was obvious to me was the lack of dynamic decision making in the middle of the field. Whenever Rice got the ball, his first move was to pass backwards or sideways, don't think he played a forward pass all night - would be more suited to Twickenham than a football pitch.
Maybe we have been practicing penalties and we will go on and win after all

 

[crdb]

Was a good game once Palmer came on. We actually looked like creating chances, weird that..

 

[Voyager EMH]

If you play your best stuff in the 3 warm-up games, you give your next opponents plenty of things to analyse and attempt to negate tactically.

England certainly haven't given the game away in that respect. There is nothing to analyse.

Got to be to our advantage from that point of view.

 

[Bdill93]

Was a good game once Palmer came on. We actually looked like creating chances, weird that..

Playing players who are in form and ready to roll actually produces better football? Well I never!!

About 3/4 players need dropping but never will be

 

[Billysboots]

Don't give me this 'the players are knackered' crap, how can they be?
If they think they're tired it's merely because everyone constantly tells them that they are.
They are just playing badly or they're carrying an injury, as I think is the case with Kane and/or Saka.

Well Bellingham looks unbelievably leggy, Rice a shadow of the player he has been at Arsenal and don’t even get me started on Kane. Bang average, all three. I agree Kane may be carrying a knock but no suggestion either of the others are.

 

[PaulMdj]

Playing players who are in form and ready to roll actually produces better football? Well I never!!

About 3/4 players need dropping but never will be

Well Bellingham looks unbelievably leggy, Rice a shadow of the player he has been at Arsenal and don’t even get me started on Kane. Bang average, all three. I agree Kane may be carrying a knock but no suggestion either of the others are.

This is part of the issue for me, as @Bdill93 rightly says we should play players who are on form, but all those he has selected as his first XI were on form prior to the start of the Euros.

So are we saying 6-7 players are suddenly out of form?

That’s why I take the “players that came on are better” with a pinch of salt, they are coming on to a pitch were the performance is low and by simply trying for 5-20 minutes look better and their good passes stand out, ie, Gordon played a lovely ball through the middle and created a chance near the end, shown in the highlights afterwards, people commenting on it, yet the first time he got the ball and took the defender on, he knocked round the defender one side, ran the other, all good? No, he put the ball out for a throw in to them!

 

[clubchamp98]

No reason for any player carrying an injury or knock.
If they’re not 100% fit they should not be playing.
Kane looks miles off the pace but there’s two others Watkins and Toney who are not, squad game allegedly.

we need wide men but ones who stay wide to many of them drift in to much and don’t hold their positions.

Tell tale sign for me is how much have we worked the goalkeepers in the three games.
Don’t think Oblak needed a shower last night he didn’t do anything.!

 

[Orikoru]

The whole country is crying out for Bellingham to play next to Rice, to allow Foden to play 10 and a left winger (Gordon) to come in - for Southgate to continually refuse to do this is nothing short of arrogance now. Through his stubborn arrogance, we have limped through the group with a manager that still has no idea what our best line-up is. We'll play a third place team next, but it could actually be Holland, and if that's the case I wouldn't back us to go through, given that we've only drawn with two much inferior teams than theirs.

The first decent attack we strung together was in the 92nd minute. You're supposed to grow into a tournament, but we have actually looked worse in each game.

Our only hope is that he luckily lands on the perfect formula in the next round and we suddenly hit the ground running. But I wouldn't count on him doing that since he won't change anything substantial.

 

[RichA]

Absolutely fuming watching that last night so, trying to be objective, unbiased etc after a good night’s sleep.

Slovenia did well, remember they were unbeaten going in to last night and by their reaction at the end it was a Cup Final for them, disciplined, well organised, we still should be able to beat them for all that.

We won the group (don’t know how) without a single good performance, but can we take that as a positive?

Team selection, apart from Guehi, I don’t think any other player can be happy with how they are playing.

Obviously Southgate picks the team, but I still think some players are letting him down, the amount of times they’ve misplaced a pass or lost the ball is staggering.

Tactics/substitutions, solely on Southgate and I think people maybe getting a bit too carried away with the substitutions last night, personally I would bring Mainoo in from the start and move Saka to the left.

Next game is a knockout (obviously) and the players (whoever they are) need to step up.

Misplaced passes have been awful. Even when they reach their intended target he is generally having to move backwards to receive it. It results in that constant backward motion when we have the ball that you rarely see in our domestic football. A backward pass is normally followed by at least one person moving forwards into space. We've hardly seen any of that, other than from Saka, who is normally exhausted after 45 minutes of unsupported or unnoticed movement.

 

[PaulMdj]

The whole country is crying out for Bellingham to play next to Rice, to allow Foden to play 10 and a left winger (Gordon) to come in - for Southgate to continually refuse to do this is nothing short of arrogance now. Through his stubborn arrogance, we have limped through the group with a manager that still has no idea what our best line-up is. We'll play a third place team next, but it could actually be Holland, and if that's the case I wouldn't back us to go through, given that we've only drawn with two much inferior teams than theirs.

The first decent attack we strung together was in the 92nd minute. You're supposed to grow into a tournament, but we have actually looked worse in each game.

Our only hope is that he luckily lands on the perfect formula in the next round and we suddenly hit the ground running. But I wouldn't count on him doing that since he won't change anything substantial.

Starting XI sunday:
Pickford
Walker
Stones
Guehi
Trippier
Rice
Bellingham
Foden
Gallagher
Saka
Kane.

Shocked not shocked

 

[Orikoru]

Starting XI sunday:
Pickford
Walker
Stones
Guehi
Trippier
Rice
Bellingham
Foden
Gallagher
Saka
Kane.

Shocked not shocked

This is the annoying thing. He's missed the opportunity to work out our best 11 on the fly, by not making any changes (bar one pointless one) in the group stage. Now he'll argue you can't make wholesale changes in the knockout stage. Infuriating.

 

[Bunkermagnet]

No reason for any player carrying an injury or knock.
If they’re not 100% fit they should not be playing.
Kane looks miles off the pace but there’s two others Watkins and Toney who are not, squad game allegedly.

we need wide men but ones who stay wide to many of them drift in to much and don’t hold their positions.

Tell tale sign for me is how much have we worked the goalkeepers in the three games.
Don’t think Oblak needed a shower last night he didn’t do anything.!

Don’t forget GS has taken Shaw, who was injured, isn’t fit let alone match fit.
What does that tell you about him as a manager….

 

[BrianM]

On a positive note, England haven't played well but are through on the easier side of the draw and can't play much worse.
Mainoo and Palmer would start for me in the next round, maybe Gordon as well.
Bellingham looks like he needs a rest, he's played some amount of games this last season and it looks like it's caught up with him the last 3 games (Maybe expectation on his shoulders as well?)
England still have a real chance to win this, only Spain look like the best team for me, France, Germany and Portugal are hot and cold.

 

[clubchamp98]

Don’t forget GS has taken Shaw, who was injured, isn’t fit let alone match fit.
What does that tell you about him as a manager….

He’s a clown.

Playing TAA against a team sitting back with no room to play long balls over the top.
So now he can say he tried it.
But against better teams who come out that might work. If we had any runners

Putting a sub on for 1 minute is something you do to waste time not to win games!

Kane is like Henderson to GS he will play him until the cows come home no matter how bad he plays.

Just so depressing when you look at the talent we have.
Change it up it’s just not working.
Problem is if you watch the interviews after the game GS seems happy the way things have gone.

 

[nickjdavis]

This is part of the issue for me, as @Bdill93 rightly says we should play players who are on form, but all those he has selected as his first XI were on form prior to the start of the Euros.

So are we saying 6-7 players are suddenly out of form?

That’s why I take the “players that came on are better” with a pinch of salt, they are coming on to a pitch were the performance is low and by simply trying for 5-20 minutes look better and their good passes stand out, ie, Gordon played a lovely ball through the middle and created a chance near the end, shown in the highlights afterwards, people commenting on it, yet the first time he got the ball and took the defender on, he knocked round the defender one side, ran the other, all good? No, he put the ball out for a throw in to them!

But at least he was trying something...trying to be positive...trying to beat the defender instead of looking for the safe backwards/sideways pass.

Bloke comes on after sitting on his arse for 89 minutes its going to take a while to get up to speed with the game....yet in that one instant you could see that Gordon had the beating of the right back....he did something that the commentators had been crying out for an England player to do....take a risk, try to make something happen....yes you might lose the ball, give it away...but the way Slovenia played and the lack of ambition they largely showed, England were nigh on guaranteed to be back in possession within a short while.

Across the field we simply look terrified of making a mistake, scared to try something that might not work....only Palmer in the 23 minutes that he was given and Gordon (4 minutes) showed that desire to make something happen.

 

[Bdill93]

This is part of the issue for me, as @Bdill93 rightly says we should play players who are on form, but all those he has selected as his first XI were on form prior to the start of the Euros.

So are we saying 6-7 players are suddenly out of form?

That’s why I take the “players that came on are better” with a pinch of salt, they are coming on to a pitch were the performance is low and by simply trying for 5-20 minutes look better and their good passes stand out, ie, Gordon played a lovely ball through the middle and created a chance near the end, shown in the highlights afterwards, people commenting on it, yet the first time he got the ball and took the defender on, he knocked round the defender one side, ran the other, all good? No, he put the ball out for a throw in to them!

Kane missed the last 2/3 games of the season with a back issue, that's not in form that's injured.

Saka wasnt setting the world alight this season, Palmers form was more impressive.

Foden was playing centrally, and so has no LW form to speak of.

Rice was playing an 8 now hes a 6.

Tripper is not a LB

Square pegs - round holes.

I hope he just picks his 10, be that Foden or Bellingham, and balances the midfield with Rice and one other - Mainoo looked better than Gallagher.

Then pick a LW to replace the gap on that side.

Start Kane fine, but he needs replacing earlier if he's doing absolutely nothing as he has for 3 games now bar a deflected tap in which is trademark Kane. Right place, right time.

 

[Beezerk]

Late to the party, horrible watch again last night.
It's like the players have been told not to pass to another team mate who has an opponent within 5 yards of him, they're completely playing with fear with no trust in their abilities.
Gary Neville nailed it with is "basic" comment, zero nouse, skill and ambition to go forward.
Southgate out!

 

[Norrin Radd]

Southgit has had eight years in the job and still doesn't know what the best team is or how to get them to stop being so bloody negative.
It took a total rookie to actually run at the defence , unfortunately I bet Southgit gave him a right hairdryer for doing so as it made him look even more a total tit .

 

[Arthur Wedge]

This is what I think the next team should be

Pickford

TAA
Stones
Guehi
Walker

Rice
Mainoo

Gordon
Foden/Bellingham
Palmer

Kane


What he will go with is


Pickford

Walker
Stones
Guehi
Trippier

Rice
Mainoo
Bellingham

Foden
Kane
Saka

 

[Rlburnside]

This is what I think the next team should be

Pickford

TAA
Stones
Guehi
Walker

Rice
Mainoo

Gordon
Foden/Bellingham
Palmer

Kane


What he will go with is


Pickford

Walker
Stones
Guehi
Trippier

Rice
Mainoo
Bellingham

Foden
Kane
Saka

I think we would all be happy with your selection, although I think Bellingham would be better alongside Rice