The Footie Thread

[HomerJSimpson]

I should have stopped after your first line, when you gave us the short answer.

Pep and Klopp are different people, why assume they would do exactly the same thing? At the end of the day, you aren't speaking on behalf of them, but on behalf of yourself. If YOU were England manager, that is what YOU would do.

I've no doubt Pep and Klopp would do things differently to Southgate, and I'd be confident that they would give us a better, more exciting England to watch. But, they would also throw in some curve balls from time to time. Pep often leaves some big players out of the side, like Foden. So, you could easily see him leave out 2 or 3 big names, to create a bit of balance in the side, keep players on their toes and keep players fresh. Then in the following game, do something quite different.

I think that is a good thing. Pep dropping top players isn't a bad thing and someone of that ilk may not pick the likes of Kane in blind faith

 

[Arthur Wedge]

Barcelona are all over him. Just waiting for the tournament to finish for it to be sealed.

Believe they need to sell first though - still have their financial issues - trying to offload Torres and Raphina

 

[Lord Tyrion]

Believe they need to sell first though - still have their financial issues - trying to offload Torres and Raphina

Quite probably. Both sellable players and for Williams it is probably worth the wait.

 

[Arthur Wedge]

Quite probably. Both sellable players and for Williams it is probably worth the wait.

Will be interesting to see if the form transfers to the club stage

He has been around a while despite being young and so far has been a little under the radar , hasn’t blown away the league a bit like his brother in the past

Interesting to see if he does jump to Barcelona
Will the release fee there I’m surprised if more don’t go for him

I’ll take him and let Barcelona have Diaz

 

[HomerJSimpson]

Quite probably. Both sellable players and for Williams it is probably worth the wait.

I agree. I think he'll only get better at a side lie Barca although he looked a lot better than good last night. Probably added a few £ on the transfer fee

 

[Tashyboy]

The spanish starting XI had only 2 players playing for Barca or RM, the rest came from across Europe and even Saudi Arabia.

All those teams do play the high press, it’s more down to the fact the Spanish Players fitting how the manager wants them to, subs coming on like for like knowing the system, not substitutes that come on and the rest have to change how they play.

We have absolutely no idea how Pep or Klopp would set up England, they are highly succesful Club managers who have been able to buy players to fit their system.

We simply need a manager who defines how he wants to play in a style that will suit the players he has at his disposal.

They either buy in to it or are not selected.

Foden and Palmer are two players who could and should be in the starting 11. They cost city £0

 

[Lord Tyrion]

Pickford is the best English keeper. Others have had a go, none have come close to dislodging him. He has yet to let England down. His is not a position that needs a lot of scrutiny.

In terms of his long kicking in this tournament, that has to have come from the manager. His distribution, long, is normally pretty good but you have to have the set up further up the field for it to work. For him to do it so frequently, that must be instructions.

 

[Tashyboy]

To be honest, it is refreshing to read different opinions today without folk falling out.

Bottom line, someone somewhere needs to analyse the tournament and more importantly the performances. I don’t think we entered the tournament with a settled 11. More so we ended up with to many players not playing in there natural positions.
I think looking back, the squad selection was also wrong. That’s not hindsight, by me or anyone else, it was said at the time.
Southgate came into the job straight from under 21 manager. Could it happen again.

 

[AmandaJR]

WOW
Walker defending poorly doesn’t somehow make Trent a good defender.
Crazy logic

Sometimes the search function offers pearls of beauty about previous comments made about players

 

[Tashyboy]

Pickford is the best English keeper. Others have had a go, none have come close to dislodging him. He has yet to let England down. His is not a position that needs a lot of scrutiny.

In terms of his long kicking in this tournament, that has to have come from the manager. His distribution, long, is normally pretty good but you have to have the set up further up the field for it to work. For him to do it so frequently, that must be instructions.

Again Pickford has come under scrutiny for his kicking, but as you say, he has been told to do that. The odd thing is the goal came from his quick thinking with a throw out. Pickford really does remind me of Joe Hart. A very good shot stopper. Sorted out his defence but rubbish at playing from the back with the ball at his feet. In Harts defence, when Pep got rid of him Hart said he could and would have learned to play from the back, it’s just he had never been asked to. Yet Southgate has had 8 years to sort that out. What I don’t understand is two of the starting back four do that at City. The difference is at City Rodri does it, for England it is Rice.

 

[Arthur Wedge]

Pickford is the best English keeper. Others have had a go, none have come close to dislodging him. He has yet to let England down. His is not a position that needs a lot of scrutiny.

In terms of his long kicking in this tournament, that has to have come from the manager. His distribution, long, is normally pretty good but you have to have the set up further up the field for it to work. For him to do it so frequently, that must be instructions.

Pickford made a lot of very good saves throughout the tournament and appears to be very good with his feet - the long hoof was down to circumstances and not having the options- it didn’t help that when players like Foden and Rice did drop to pick up the ball they were swamped and under too much pressure hence going long

 

[Tashyboy]

Sometimes the search function offers pearls of beauty about previous comments made about players

What surprised me about the comments re Walkers defending for the second goal. England were asked to switch it quickly to Saka as Spain compressed one side of the pitch.Spain switched it quickly and all of a sudden it’s one players fault.

 

[Lord Tyrion]

Again Pickford has come under scrutiny for his kicking, but as you say, he has been told to do that. The odd thing is the goal came from his quick thinking with a throw out. Pickford really does remind me of Joe Hart. A very good shot stopper. Sorted out his defence but rubbish at playing from the back with the ball at his feet. In Harts defence, when Pep got rid of him Hart said he could and would have learned to play from the back, it’s just he had never been asked to. Yet Southgate has had 8 years to sort that out. What I don’t understand is two of the starting back four do that at City. The difference is at City Rodri does it, for England it is Rice.

Pickford can do the basics with the ball at his feet. He is not an Allison or an Ederson but then most keepers don't have to be. As you say, the key is for the CB to show and give them a short pass. To give them confidence, they need the next guy in the chain to be there and showing each time. Pickford can control a ball and pass it 10yds, no issue. That's all he needs to be able to do, not skin 3 people first of all.

 

[Canary_Yellow]

Pickford is the best English keeper. Others have had a go, none have come close to dislodging him. He has yet to let England down. His is not a position that needs a lot of scrutiny.

In terms of his long kicking in this tournament, that has to have come from the manager. His distribution, long, is normally pretty good but you have to have the set up further up the field for it to work. For him to do it so frequently, that must be instructions.

He plays for Dyche; there isn't a keeper in the league that spends more time hoofing it than he does. "He hit 968 long passes in the past Premier League season, 77 more than Luton goalkeeper Thomas Kaminski and over 200 more than any other player in the competition." (Skysports)

I do agree that there isn't an obvious alternative, but the importance of the role of the keeper cannot be overstated for teams that want to play out to beat the press (which is what we'd be doing in the Pep system to which my post was in response to). It's no coincidence that Klopp and Pep both dropped a serious wedge of cash on goalkeepers.

Pickford is a good keeper, no doubt, and I'm not knocking him. Suits a Southgate side very well, but if we wanted to be brilliant at playing out from the back, the ideal scenario would be to have a keeper that plays that way week in week out. It's not easy for any player to completely adapt how they normally play when moving from club to country.

 

[AmandaJR]

What surprised me about the comments re Walkers defending for the second goal. England were asked to switch it quickly to Saka as Spain compressed one side of the pitch.Spain switched it quickly and all of a sudden it’s one players fault.

According to some he was one of our top players in previous rounds and the semi final and now is rubbish and on the scrap heap. He's not perfect but made some amazing last ditch challenges and is a damned better defender than some of the options being suggested.

 

[Tashyboy]

He plays for Dyche; there isn't a keeper in the league that spends more time hoofing it than he does. "He hit 968 long passes in the past Premier League season, 77 more than Luton goalkeeper Thomas Kaminski and over 200 more than any other player in the competition." (Skysports)

I do agree that there isn't an obvious alternative, but the importance of the role of the keeper cannot be overstated for teams that want to play out to beat the press (which is what we'd be doing in the Pep system to which my post was in response to). It's no coincidence that Klopp and Pep both dropped a serious wedge of cash on goalkeepers.

Pickford is a good keeper, no doubt, and I'm not knocking him. Suits a Southgate side very well, but if we wanted to be brilliant at playing out from the back, the ideal scenario would be to have a keeper that plays that way week in week out. It's not easy for any player to completely adapt how they normally play when moving from club to country.

If and it’s a massive if we actually saw something positive from hoofing it long I could accept that it is working but I didn’t. We never retained possession and then created, and if we did it came back to build from the back. A system was built to protect Pickford, but it’s not a system that other players are not used to so we kinda robbed Peter to play paul.

 

[Tashyboy]

According to some he was one of our top players in previous rounds and the semi final and now is rubbish and on the scrap heap. He's not perfect but made some amazing last ditch challenges and is a damned better defender than some of the options being suggested.

I had veins sticking out of the side of my head when he legged it 80 yds to overlap Saka for Saka to not pass to him

 

[Arthur Wedge]

According to some he was one of our top players in previous rounds and the semi final and now is rubbish and on the scrap heap. He's not perfect but made some amazing last ditch challenges and is a damned better defender than some of the options being suggested.

Wonder what the reaction would be if that was someone different who was so far behind the play

Walker did play well in the semi final with his covering

Shame about all the other games when he was poor

 

[Canary_Yellow]

View attachment 54219

Wonder what the reaction would be if that was someone different who was so far behind the play

Walker did play well in the semi final with his covering

Shame about all the other games when he was poor

That picture is extremely misleading!

 

[Reemul]

We tried that In the first 2 games. We invited so much pressure in the first and against Denmark we let in the equaliser

His subs were brilliant, got the big calls right

I mean he had the guts to take Kane off when he is on paper our best striker , worked against Holland, and against Spain he brings on Palmer to level the game.

His tactics as I said may be questionable but his use of subs was spot on

Absolue rubbish, his subs were not great. They worked. I mean we won 2 of 7 in normal time, well done not.

Every substitute was reactive, 0-0 at half time, makes some changes, ,try to win it, oh no, wait until we are losing and then change even though we are not winning. Then we sit back, change then, nope then they score again.

It's about being pro active, sure we might not win but at least we are trying to win instead of trying not to lose, such a big difference and the main thing that annoys a lot of fans.

As an Everton supporter this for 15 years was David Moyse, it's why we did pretty good, top 6 a fair few times but never actually won anything.