Both bones apparently.
Under 21 Euros 2019
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Denmark without Andersen is a blow
Italian teams are really clever with their coloured seats.
Nelsson is a very good CB. But agreed, will be a miss as Anderson is a very good passer.
I thought Richter had judged that angle perfectly, but turns out it was just a fortunate deflection.
Germany are going to top the group with ease, semi final is going to be interesting for them.
I think we lack a bit of firepower up front to go all the way. Our keeper and defence are excellent and the midfield's pretty decent, but I doubt it will be enough to beat Italy/England/France.
Who knows. Germany is well organized and quite mature, I think that gets you very far in a youth knockout stage.
Last tournament our side didn't look that exciting on paper either at the time, yet they won the tournament, beating a very talented and highly rated Spain side.
Richter again, kept his cool.
Gotta admit I hadn't heard of him until he scored that brace vs Frankfurt and put Stuttgart to the sword within a week, just 1-2 months ago.
Neither had I before those performances in the second half of last season. Played in Bayern's youth from ~7 to 14 years old, though.
You’ll beat both England and France. You played us (England) off the park in a recent friendly and our manager seemed clueless as to how to counter your tactics, he didn’t even really try anything. Your team is older and more experienced too. France also often play less than the sum of their parts. Deschamps was even drafted in to bollock their side after they lost a warm up to Austria recently. Italy will take some beating at home and because they’ve taken nearly all their best players in the age group.
I remember it well. Everyone was certain that Spain would walk the competition. They had the names I guess.
Fantastic counter and finish 
To be fair they very much did walk the competition until the final. I don't even think it's necessarily a question of talent. Germany just have experience, discipline and cohesion.
Sign Skov
You can see Baumgartl is a Stuttgart lad.
3-1. Pen for Denmark, one of those close range hand things.
Looking back at the squads Germany’s was probably the oldest. I’d say Spain’s players have gone onto better things individually as players though. I think only Gnarby plays for your seniors now (?). That said Asensio, who was the supposed big star, has disappointed in his career so far.
Kehrer as well.
Looks very creative and classy with his left foot.
At the U21 EC 2017 more or less only the second tier young players were playing, because the (at the time) better ones were sent to the confed cup, which was played without the 2014 world cup winners.
(I contend that this missed chance of forging a new unit from new and old players was one of the many reasons for the 2018 world cup disaster.)
Yeah it looks great.
Watched the Italy-Spain game.
Obviously Chiesa and Ceballos have that extra bit of acceleration, directness and technique that separates top attacking players, but I also thought Pellegrini was fantastic. He looked the smartest player out there. If that clause he was rumoured to have is real, I'd love to see us spend 30M on him. Just an assured player, like the kind of hardworking and clever #8 Rakitic has become, and was close to playing Cutrone in a couple of times too from deep.
Spanish CBs didn't look up to it athletically for me. The LB was good, not so much the RB. Oyarzabal was really poor. Soler bit better.
Barella looked a potentially strong dribbler but wasn't in the game as much as the other 2 center mids. Mandragora I thought looked clumsy at times, but as a 3 with Pellegrini they outplayed the Spanish mids for the last 30 minutes so credit is due. Kean was clumsy on the ball but smart with his body. Cutrone looked a useful classic 90s style big, unselfish striker you'd want to pair with a nippy goalscorer.
Obviously Chiesa and Ceballos have that extra bit of acceleration, directness and technique that separates top attacking players, but I also thought Pellegrini was fantastic. He looked the smartest player out there. If that clause he was rumoured to have is real, I'd love to see us spend 30M on him. Just an assured player, like the kind of hardworking and clever #8 Rakitic has become, and was close to playing Cutrone in a couple of times too from deep.
Spanish CBs didn't look up to it athletically for me. The LB was good, not so much the RB. Oyarzabal was really poor. Soler bit better.
Barella looked a potentially strong dribbler but wasn't in the game as much as the other 2 center mids. Mandragora I thought looked clumsy at times, but as a 3 with Pellegrini they outplayed the Spanish mids for the last 30 minutes so credit is due. Kean was clumsy on the ball but smart with his body. Cutrone looked a useful classic 90s style big, unselfish striker you'd want to pair with a nippy goalscorer.
Got a bad feeling that Boothroyd will play Foden - Maddison -Dowell in midfield which will be completely mental. He will undoubtedly go with Dowell as a DLP when he's actually a very mediocre attacking midfielder. Some chatter that he's going to start Kenny over AWB as well!
Our midfielders are listed as
Foden
Gibbs-White
Sessegnon
Maddison
Mount
Barnes
Dowell
Gray
Choudhury
So no natural holding midfield or play-maker and only one defensive midfielder, the rest of the central midfielders all operate most effectively in the same area..
Our midfielders are listed as
Foden
Gibbs-White
Sessegnon
Maddison
Mount
Barnes
Dowell
Gray
Choudhury
So no natural holding midfield or play-maker and only one defensive midfielder, the rest of the central midfielders all operate most effectively in the same area..
Gibbs-White is a good player, should be starting for me. Shame for Mount to miss out in there too, can he play out wide?
I completely disagree. Gibbs-White barely has any minutes as a professional footballer. We're playing against very experienced sides here. I don't think we should be shoehorning a player like Mount into the side either. Apparently Foden is on the bench tonight which I think would be the right choice if he plays Choudhury - Maddison - Dowell as a midfield. Probably the most balanced midfield in a very unbalanced squad.
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Foden can play on the wing though can't he? Given that this tournament is supposed to be about developing players for the senior side, I'd like to see at least some of the biggest talents start.
According to Dailymail, Mount will start and Foden will be on the bench. Mount, Maddison and Hamza will be the midfield.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/f...nch-England-U21s-opening-match-Euro-2019.html
It depends how you look at it. There's a school of thought that winning tournaments imbues a winning mentality. The reality of this under 21 tournament is that we have the youngest and least experienced squad. Spain and Italy has bought their best players. Croatia have lots of senior internationals in their side. Germany have the oldest squad. I can't agree that shoehorning the youngest players and least experienced players in the squad into the side is a good idea. They'll likely get beaten easily by the likes of France, Germany and Spain.
Can't say that I'd miss Dowell. I can see the logic in that selection. Both Mount and Maddison have played the 8 & 10 position.
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Won't the average experienced players also get exposed though? Ultimately if we're not good enough to win it, surely we might as well play the best players.
Or is it part of the FA's strategy to encourage youngsters to move to clubs where they get game time?
Are any of them average though? In the wide positions you have Gray, Barnes, Nelson and Sessegnon. I think we'd all hope that those players can kick on from where they are now.
Fair enough I suppose. Not particularly convinced by any of them but then I haven't seen enough of them either tbf.
He's simply not good enough.
Interesting to see how serious France take it. Would be pretty confident in England winning tonight if they had a decent manager. They're going to struggle in midfield pretty much every game with the squad picked unless they completely dominate possession.
Croatia have been really poor today, they don’t look interested at all. Romania finding it so easy to lift balls over the top.
Edited, that pic was too big, here's the team:
Henderson
AWB
Dasilva
Clarke-Salter
Tomori
GRay
Maddison
Solanke
Foden
Sessegnon
Choudhury
(in squad number order, not formation)
Henderson
AWB
Dasilva
Clarke-Salter
Tomori
GRay
Maddison
Solanke
Foden
Sessegnon
Choudhury
(in squad number order, not formation)
The leaks were right although they originally had Mount over Foden but some suggestion of an injury.
Croatia are pathetic
Solanke starting over Abraham or Calvert-Lewin is strange.