I agree mate.
sad thing is, the state of this forum over the past few days means it’s difficult to tell.
Ah ok sorry. Like you say been so much negativity on Southgate and the side from the start is hard to tell.....still nothing compared to some of the facebook England managers and ridiculous opinions I have read.
Hold my hands up. I said before the tournament we are capable of winning it this year with the home advantage....but our centre backs are not good enough consistency wise and its maybe a year or two early with a lot of the players. I think our centre bcks, the whole defence in fact have been superb (though Pickford concerning for the fist time in an ENgland shirt last coupel of games).
I wasnt on the drop Kane when he was poor brigade, was very much on the Sterling isnt the best option....I actually thought he was poor in the group games bar the goals, but he has been very good the last two games.
I was also despite being a fan of SOuthgate before the trounament, very critical of his team selections in thr group games and especially in the Germany game..but on the whole its paid off and can understand some of the selections now.
So however we have got to the final and whatever happens in the final, the whole team from players to staff have carried themselves well and been a credit.
Anyway....score this evening, I have no idea, think it wil be a pretty horrible game though and we will really struggle to cope with the press or hurt them in the key areas and Barella floating about worries me. I do think if we can keep the score level after an hour though with our subs we have a good chance, if we score first we have a very very good chance....but though this is a different Italian side to usual, I still think breakign them down from a goal behind could be very frustrating....head tells me 2-1 Italy, heart tellms me 3-1 England.
Key player for me for us for the first hour is Mount. I think he has doen a lot of hard work un-noticed in the trounament and he will have to do a lot in this game too so dont see him lasting the 90mins....But he has been pretty average attacking wise so far and I think him finding space and creating overloads or drawaing players out ofposition to track him is vital for us to break down the Italians.
The two players who worry me fo rus are obviously Pickford afte the last two games as generally he has been superb for ENgland. The other one I feel a bit bad saying is Phillips. I have loved all the back story and interviews with him, has come across as a very humble, down to earth, great human being. He has had some good spells n games and worked really hard.....but he hasnt been great on the ball so far generally (ironic as wonder what the Italians think of hearign he is the Yorkshire Pirlo)....but what worries me, this is the hardest workign and best midfield we have played, yet time and time again so far he has been caught a lot for me being to keen to win the ball and bypassed or rolled if he doesnt give a foul away and that worries me tonight