England didn't need to control the game in possession though. If they went 2-0 up they weren't losing that game. They had one shot in the first half. If they killed it early they'd have won.
Spain were obviously not better because they couldn't hit a barn door to save their lives. Italy in comparison had the football, the defending and the potency upfront. I find it funny till now people try to pretend that Italy fluked their way to the final and were a weak team. Being at home too was never ever going to hide the inferiority in important personnel.
They were NEVER going to go 2 nil up. They caught Italy off guard with the first goal and Italy after rightly took over the midfield then the match. The idea they "sat back" rather than were forced back is simply quite laughable.
England were happy to surrender the midfield.
They didn't have a choice. Italy had by far the superior quality in that department and it showed for 90 mintues. Blaming it on tactics is just silly.
Firstly Bonucci and Chielini were in world class form all tournament long. So daring to call them "near geriatric" is the height of arrogant folly. Second and even funnier is attacking an utter straw man. I called their center defensive partnership world class. I didn't once give that label to the rest of their back 4.
In such world class form that one of them literally had to yank Saka back by his collar to stop him breaking through.
You really live in dream land that don't you? No wonder you imagine defending after a lead is what made Croatia best England in Russia
Just think Southgate is a shit manager and a better manager doesn't set up 5-3-2 in the first place.You really live in dream land that don't you? No wonder you imagine defending after a lead is what made Croatia best England in Russia
22 years of utter shite. Impressive.You really live in dream land that don't you? No wonder you imagine defending after a lead is what made Croatia best England in Russia
The thing that concerns me is that he's previously said something along the lines of having a British core in the squad. But they've hardly put a foot wrong so far, this was the only strange rumor.
...did you actually watch that game?
I can't take anything you say seriously when you come here implying it's only tactics that made Croatia in 2018 better than England. That level of delusion is why England fans are often in such shock when their national team gets kncoked out of tournaments.
Yup. You're one of the few people who think England are all grand under Southgate.
I mean, we all watched it, they weren’t. Barely scraped past Austria, even game with Belgium, got dominated by Spain. Decent team but by no means favourites (they were the bookies 7th favourites to win behind England, Netherlands, Spain, Germany, France and Belgium)
So, what, you removed the first 30 minutes of that game from your memory?
give it a rest.Allright
especially after he didn't use them all tournament. Rashford only came on as a sub late in games, Sancho played a single game (against Ukraine) apart from one very late sub. Then you throw them on after 119 minutes in the freaking final and be like "go on boys, time for penalties, have fun". Utterly bizarre management, to put it very mildly. Southgate has always been an idiot, but that was easily his finest moment.
Why would that concern you? I'm still baffled by people acting like buying British at this moment in time is a bad thing? England is producing some of the very best talent in the world currently, you'd think we were dog shit. English team having a core of quality English players is a negative to you? Weird.
The players are fine. It's a bit of a concern if it extends to the management (Ashworth gets a pass, but not Southgate). Anyway, even the players, you just have to find the best bang for the buck. Nothing against signing English players but shouldn't be signing them just for the sake of it.
The bookies rankings were as bad as this post. No chance you actually watched the tournament and came out with "Italy struggled" against anyone that tournament. This is just world class revisionism
Or just someone with a different opinion to yours…
Great post. You would know!
Yeah I thought Italy absolutely dominated that final as well, after that hiccup with the early goal. I thought were a defensively solid outfit that didn’t score a lot, reminded me of the ‘06 Italy team.
That is how I feel. With Ratcliffe coming in saying all the right things you allow yourself a small glimmer of hope that things might start progressing in the right direction but hiring Southgate would just highlight that nothing is going to change as the people at the top are clueless and things could actually get worse.
I’d go along with that. And it’s not like he was pulling up trees as a club manager.
Exactly, so why are you trying to draw conclusions from data when there's so much statistical noise?
Because what happened decades ago is completely irrelevant for today's football as the fitness level, level of organization, professionalism, even the rules and the equipment have changed drastically. The dilemma is that if you only consider the relevant time period, you don't have enough data to draw any solid conclusions but if you go back further, the data you use becomes irrelevant. Basically the same dilemma you have when trying to train an ultra detailed xG model.
Exactly. It is simply not possible to analyse this quantitatively.
Tournament mode.
It doesn't even make sense what qualities has he shown which could translate well into DOF job infact majority of skills coveted in any good DOF aren't even required at International football makes it a non starter .
You are entitled to your own opinion. Never your own facts. Claiming Italy "struggled" at Euro 2020 at any point is inventing your own facts.
It's even stranger being against a British team buying British, when the quality in talent is undeniably there.
