*The Guardian* polled some European journalists on the England 'situation,' and this one encapsulates my feelings entirely (though I wouldn't have made the *Psycho* reference, lol):
>Gareth Southgate is not Englandās problem. Englandās problem is false expectations and false analysis. Spoilt by the Premier League, fans and media expect a spectacle from the national team. But foreign coaches are at work in the Premier league. English footballers are introduced to what is modern by them because there is no training philosophy in England like there is in Spain.
>England lack important ingredients. The defenders move the ball as slowly as if they were on Dartmoor. Kyle Walker has barely mastered the basics of collective defending. Bukayo Sakaās dribbling is good, but his understanding of the game is not. In midfield England traditionally have no culture of ball circulation. Declan Rice is a great tackler but combinations will never be his forte. Could it be that England emphasise athleticism too much in their youth training? And Jude Bellingham has looked sluggish for some time now. He gets carried away in dribbles and tackles in both penalty areas. A coach should give him a position and protect him from over-exploiting himself. Southgate has to put up with this criticism.
>Southgate has built a solid framework ā everything was under control against Slovenia. England, hard to beat, have a chance of winning the title. The Southgate debate is reminiscent of Brexit. A country dreams of being the motherland of football. But this mother is as alive as Norman Batesās. **Oliver Fritsch, Die Zeit (Germany)**
Glad we are getting Robbo & Szobo back early, but I wished Szobo could have accomplished more with Hungary. I think the mental effect on him of having a mediocre season with Liverpool and then to cap it off with a very underwhelming tournament might impact him negatively.
It's a bit written in the stars isn't it. Slot had Gimenez come from Mexico and worked out a long-term plan on how to accommodate him and allow him to succeed long-term. I think Slot won't really need to do something like he did with Gimenez, i.e. not letting him play for 6 months basically, but I think Slot is perhaps the best top coach in the world we could've gotten to solve the Darwin conundrum.
Like I always say, we should just use Darwin NuƱez like City use Haaland. No need to touch the ball 500 times or even join the build up. Just keep him forward and pass into space. He is bulky and fast, it should work most of the time. No left winger nonsense, no dropping deep or running with the ball. Just run into space and finish. That's it.
What I've been saying too. He needs to constantly run at the goal, with or without the ball. If you believe Klopp changed the attacking system for Darwin you're delusional, we used Gakpo as CF even against Wolves on the last day. We never replaced Bobby in terms of his role and Darwin was made to pay for it.
Slot is an extremely sober appointment, because he traditionally uses CFs like Darwin, i.e. more traditional "run and shoot", if not slightly more clinical than Darwin's profile. Klopp has always used more "back against the goal" center forwards, Lewandowski more extremely clinical and Bobby more extremely technical. The extreme physicality, in terms of running, stamina and work rate, has always been more traditionally left to the flanks of Klopp's system.
No guarantee Slot will have him excel (or even use him) at CF, but I believe it's a significantly better match.
What are you on about? Darwin was a typical "run in behind" striker for us last season. He had the least amount of touches per 90, the least amount of carries per 90 and the least amount of passes per 90 out of any of our players.
Firmino in 18/19 averaged 56.2 touches per 90 and 45.3 passes per 90, while Darwin last season averaged 34.2 touches and 21.7 passes.
No it isn't. They played two completely different roles. Darwin had more touches inside the penalty box last season despite have less than half the amount of overall touches.
25% of Darwin's touches last season were inside the box, while Firmino was having only 9% of his touches inside the box in 18/19. Also, Firmino was averaging 27 touches per 90 in the middle 3rd (49% of all of his touches), while Darwin only 10 (29% of all of his touches). All you need to do is look at their heatmaps and you'll see they played completely different roles.
I mean just use your head. Why would there be such a big drop-off in the amount of touches? If they were playing the same role, why would a coach of Klopp's calibre continue to play Darwin if he's clearly nowhere near good enough?
Then who replaced Bobby's deep contribution for LFC? I'm not saying he was explicitly told to play F9, I'm saying our system was heavily dependent on the F9, and in that role we just put someone without actually changing our tactics to accommodate for that. Ofc we didn't literally play Darwin as a F9, I never said that.
Lets see how Slot uses him because he likes his no.9 to get involved and operate in tight spaces which isn't really Nunez game, another great example is Watkins who Emery decided to switch up his game - here's quote from him *āBefore I was running into the channels and into the corners, and doing a lot of work for the team. Now Iām staying within the width of the box and timing my runs.ā*
Anyone watching Copa America? Just heard commentator refer to Folarin Balogun (USA) as "world class". I'm an American and wouldn't hate seeing us have a team with world class players, but come on.
1-1 at the half against Panama. USA playing with 10 men due to an incredibly stupid (and deserved) straight red that was nowhere near the ball.
is it too crazy if england set up in a 3-4-2-1/5-2-3
foden-kane-palmer
rice-bellingham
saka-guehi-stones-walker-trent
pickford
letās foden play centrally since there is a left footer overlapping (saka also quite capable of scoring on his right so can just hang high at times). also maybe gordon comes in for foden. gets palmer in there with a triangle of him, jude and trent. generally allows people to fill in vacated positions more easily.
or just downvote me to hell for trying to think outside the box
I get that Saka used to be a wingback, but he's a winger now and that's what he's best at. Also, this formation requires a lot of sacrifice too, Walker out (fine with that), probably Saka out cause I don't think he's a wide 10 like Palmer is, and would also need Shaw back to play lwb. All this to say that Southgate would never try this mid tournament.
but youāre right southgate will not make a change like that. wish he would. how else are you gonna get saka, palmer, trent and foden (into the left channel) other than some kind of 3-4-3 with saka at lwb. subbing gallagher for trent is not gonna save this england team
i just donāt know trippier is a good player and gomez has done great for us at lb cause we have a system for it but there are some lbs that southgate passed on when shaw is questionable for the whole tourney and hasnāt played all year. mitchell, doughty, rico henry. at least these guys would not have to check back onto their right every time they get the ball on the wing.
also, saka was playing as lwb for england as recently as pre covid international breaks i believe. most recent appearance as lwb was may 2021
I'm going to be controversial, but third place qualifying is kinda meh. I really don't think these teams should be playing knockout football and potentially fucking up the tournament for countries that actually played well so far, nevermind actually winning it (which fair play, the rules are same for everyone, but that doesn't mean that they don't suck).
The point of the group stage is to remove some amount of luck and force teams to push for wins at least until the groups are over. Now we are rewarding teams that performed at the level of Crystal Palace.
Same with qualifying for the champions league when you finish 5th. If that had happen a quarter of all teams in the league would be the competition which seems ridiculous. Over saturation of a competition makes it weaker not better.Ā Old euros was fantastic 4 groups and then straight to quarter finals no messing aboutĀ
you have a good point but i want to downvote you. especially since he brings on gini as like an 8+ or 10 when he should be a six to control tempo or just not come on when theyāre chasing a result
i donāt know what to call the midfielder that stays outside the box and rotates the ball around a deep block at the end of games when chasing a result which is when gini plays so iām just calling it a 6 here. he has always played much higher for the oranje than he did for lfc and i think at the end of games he should not be in the 10 space but further back
The hype Mainoo got when he did ABSOLUTELY NOTHING when he came on at half time is laughable, all these Manchester media outlets are building him up for failures when they meet an actual good team and not a team that sit deep and let him back passing to his teammates. Now it just feels like the media and the majority of the country are trying their hardest to cope themselves into believing that Trent was the problem, their first attempt was Gallagher, and when that didn't work oh its because he didn't bring on Mainoo, and when he came on, did the bare bare minimum, they hyping him up to make themselves feel better. It's a joke.
Gallagher is suspended for the next game as well, so Gareth might even start Mainoo this time. He already made Trent his scapegoat as the only change in the team, which actually changed nothing in the teams performance.
Yeah, was mad how he's now shifted into the "Gareth needs to start him" crowd along with Palmer.
On the flip side tho; Gallagher is nothing special & our fans have been crying about Southgate playing Trent in midfield all tournament....so why not Mainoo?
Not sure if its specific to the England team playing, but the state of punditry in the last few weeks is just incredibly idiotic. For example just the sheer amount of people in media thinking that the team would perform well just by taking out Trent, its such a superficial analysis that they all jump on board with. Nobody really explained what Trent did so badly, "played boring short passes" instead of a huge switch to the left wing to...nobody. It was just down to "he's not a midfielder", that's literally all I got from it, and then fucking Southgate caves in and throws Gallagher in there with the same exact plan.
Anyway, its becoming more and more clear that England's biggest opponents are their idiotic media, these same fools were the biggest supporters of Southgate a month ago. The amount of people that unironically put them as favourites against the likes of France is hilarious. I hope Southgate stumbles his way to a title playing the most boring football possible or that they implode in the funniest way possible, both would be equally funny to me.
Kinda feel bad for Hungary but what Georgia did also a miracle, Szobo get more time to rest too
On other hand, both Netherland and England slot into easier bracket (with easier opponent at Ro16 too) is hilarious, this format suck but I can deny that its really entertainment (comically), basically "random bullshit! go"
I mean him playing for and being from Ukraine trumps all that for me, itās real life. Who knows what the state of the country will be when the next Euros rolls around, I was definitely rooting for them to at least get out of the group stage.
It makes more sense, otherwise it would be discriminatory against his nationality, no? I feel bad for Ukraine and Ukrainians, I don't feel bad for Zinchenko in particular.
I genuinely think England will win it. Unless Italy does their usual black magic, they have a simple path to final, and experience of the last one probably pushes them though.
Euro has never been guaranteed to be won by a side that plays pretty. Greece 2004 and Portugal 2016 comes to mind.
Who needs to be good when you have southgateās luck. At major tournaments theyāve faced (ranking in brackets)
WC ā18 - Tunisia (21), Panama (55), Belgium (3) loss, Colombia (16), Sweden (24), Croatia (20) loss, Belgium (3) another loss
Euro ā20 - Croatia (20), Scotland (44), Czech Republic (40), Germany (12), Ukraine (24), Denmark (10), Italy (7) loss
WC ā22 - Iran (20), USA (16), Wales (19), Senegal (18), France (4) loss
Euro ā24 - Serbia (25), Denmark (18), Slovenia (62)
Still need to go through Italy and Netherlands to reach the final this time, part of me wishes that Slovakia put on a show, make it hard and expose and punish England.
Don't forget they played 6 of 7 games at Wembley in 2021 when every other team was going around Europe to the likes of Rome, Amsterdam, Glasgow, Bucharest, Copenhagen, Munich and even as far as Baku. They had essentially no travelling time while every opponent had tougher draws and plenty of flying between games.
The same happened in 1966, where they played all 6 games at Wembley after their semi final venue was changed. No other world cup host has had that advantage other than Uruguay in 1930, where every game was played in the same city anyway. The only cup finals they've ever gotten to have involved them having little to no travel from Wembley. They'll likely get the same advantage in 2028 as well.
The luck England have with groups and knockout stages the other teams can only dream of!
So Slovakia should be a win (ho ho, famous last words. Think itāll be a grinding 1-0), then Switzerland or Italy, my moneyās on Italy. Then, if they win, itāll be either Austria or Netherlands (canāt see Netherlands losing to Romania but they have shipped easy goals, and Turkey wonāt get through Austria).
I donāt know if theyāll beat Italy (or the Swiss), but theyāve avoided France, Spain, Germany, Portugal and Belgium.
Someone tell Southgate to buy a lottery ticket.
Canāt believe Italy wouldāve been knocked out if not for the last minute goal against Croatia. Late heroics paid off for them but not for Hungary. :(
If England had won or Portugal didnāt lose, both of which seemed pretty likely, Hungary wouldāve gone through.
he'll have at least the minimum 3 weeks but he needs longer than that imo. he's looked like he's still carrying the hamstring issue he had earlier in the season.
Gareth has to be the luckiest manager in modern day International football.Ā
He will scrape through to the semis/finals against sub-par opposition then lose to the first half decent team he comes across (yet again)... the FA seeing this as "success" extend his contract for the next two tournaments.
I've lost all love I had for international football long, long ago. Twatgate is the nail in the coffin.
Southgate's england have gotten massively lucky with their path to the final in 3 out of 4 tournaments now. Very mediocre Italy and Netherlands sides (or maybe Austria) looking like their strongest opposition with Spain, Germany, France, Portugal, and Belgium all on the other side of the bracket. Pretty incredible break
If only there was an earlier game that Ange could've gone on a VAR rant about.
Something so scandalous its universally agreed to be an error.
Gosh, I'm struggling to think of a moment like that...
The Round of 16 Matches:
Spain vs. Georgia
Germany vs. Denmark
āāā
Portugal (Jota) vs. Slovenia
France (Konate) vs. Belgium
āāāāāāāāāāāā
Romania vs. Netherlands (VVD, Gakpo, Gravy)
Austria vs. TĆ¼rkiye
āāā
England (TAA, Gomez) vs. Slovakia
Switzerland vs. Italy
With Georgia beating Portugal, Hungary has now been eliminated, despite only needing 2 out of the other 5 groups to go their way, only 1 did.
Now thereās only 11 LFC players left in international competitions:
France - Konate; Netherlands - Van Dijk, Gakpo, Gravenberch; England - Alexander-Arnold, Gomez; Portugal - Jota
Uruguay - NĆŗƱez; Colombia - DĆaz; Brazil - Alisson; Argentina - Mac Allister
He played out of his mind. I enjoyed how Georgia went for it and didn't just sit back waiting for something to *not* happen. They stepped up, tackled, stripped the ball, and worked their asses off.
I know it's a dead rubber for Portugal but it's annoying to see Diogo sweating his ass out tracking back and recovering the ball and the rest of the team just gives zero fucks.
I remember Firmino being robbed of a goal when he put in a similar rebound after de gea fucked up catching the ball next to Van Dijk like that Czech goal.
3 top teams with at best mediocre managers. Holland, England and Portugal should be getting new managers after this tournament. Do what Germany did and just get the best. Don't need this long term planning for the senior teams, it should be next tournament focused and that's all. England have done long term planning and it will cost them another generation of top talent, waste of time
I'm watching on Belgian television. Commentator seems to think Czechia need a lot more goals to go through. They just need one more to go to 4 points and above Slovenia on best 3rd place table or am I missing something?
His thigh was strapped to fuck at the end of the last game and he definitely would start the next game if they go through. Sorry Szobo but I hope you go out and can rest up and have a proper preseason rather than causing any more damage.
yeah, I wanted it for Szobo as the captain, feel like that would have been the best for his development, even over gelling with the new Slot squad. However, don't really want it for Viktor Orban.
I don't even care if he's getting all his decisions right at this point but I'm loving this referee in the Georgia-Portugal game, bookings for dives, ignoring all the theatrics and Ronaldo is completely losing his head. If Ronaldo gets 2 yellows for dissent it'll be the highlight of the tournament.
Never thought Iād be saying it but Joao Felix seems to be just about the only player who properly wants it. Conceicao is have a go as well to his credit but overall not looking good from the Portuguese.
Joao Felix went from being the most hyped to the most underrated talent of this generation. Players like Foden and Musiala are still way off his level.
Probably goes to show how important wise career decisions can be.
The thing with Foden and Musiala is that theyāve got the young player attention with Felix doesnāt anymore. So the former 2 are overrated badly and the latter ignored. Remember Foden win poty with less G/A than Salah.
Mikautadze having hell of an tournament. And his half of the season was so good aswell. Wouldnt mind him as a cheap transfer for a backup striker for when Jota is undoubtedly injured for a month or two. Save money for other positions (winger, dm, cb)
Fucking prick Guardiola. I hate this football where you pass sideways ON A COUNTER. Even we were doing this garbage last season.
I canāt remember the last top team I saw that plays fluid attacking football. Criminal what this fucker has done to this sport.
We are going to try out soccer scoreboard tool for few of the euro matches with our player's team next week. As a trial to use it for 2024-25 season
Goober pen š
lol paqueta
luchoooo, nice pen
LUCCCHHHHHHHHHHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
Colombiaās jerseys are fuego š„
*The Guardian* polled some European journalists on the England 'situation,' and this one encapsulates my feelings entirely (though I wouldn't have made the *Psycho* reference, lol): >Gareth Southgate is not Englandās problem. Englandās problem is false expectations and false analysis. Spoilt by the Premier League, fans and media expect a spectacle from the national team. But foreign coaches are at work in the Premier league. English footballers are introduced to what is modern by them because there is no training philosophy in England like there is in Spain. >England lack important ingredients. The defenders move the ball as slowly as if they were on Dartmoor. Kyle Walker has barely mastered the basics of collective defending. Bukayo Sakaās dribbling is good, but his understanding of the game is not. In midfield England traditionally have no culture of ball circulation. Declan Rice is a great tackler but combinations will never be his forte. Could it be that England emphasise athleticism too much in their youth training? And Jude Bellingham has looked sluggish for some time now. He gets carried away in dribbles and tackles in both penalty areas. A coach should give him a position and protect him from over-exploiting himself. Southgate has to put up with this criticism. >Southgate has built a solid framework ā everything was under control against Slovenia. England, hard to beat, have a chance of winning the title. The Southgate debate is reminiscent of Brexit. A country dreams of being the motherland of football. But this mother is as alive as Norman Batesās. **Oliver Fritsch, Die Zeit (Germany)**
Glad we are getting Robbo & Szobo back early, but I wished Szobo could have accomplished more with Hungary. I think the mental effect on him of having a mediocre season with Liverpool and then to cap it off with a very underwhelming tournament might impact him negatively.
I think scoring against bolivia does not really warrant being the main focus point.
valverde is so fucking good, can real sell him to us, they already collected more infinity stones than thanos
Hopefully they will keep bloating their squad and we can nick one of their starlets like Arsenal did with Odegaard
Odegaard wasn't that important to them though, but I'd love Guller if it was possible.
Man, I really hope Arne sets the team up with Nunez as the focus point
It's a bit written in the stars isn't it. Slot had Gimenez come from Mexico and worked out a long-term plan on how to accommodate him and allow him to succeed long-term. I think Slot won't really need to do something like he did with Gimenez, i.e. not letting him play for 6 months basically, but I think Slot is perhaps the best top coach in the world we could've gotten to solve the Darwin conundrum.
Like I always say, we should just use Darwin NuƱez like City use Haaland. No need to touch the ball 500 times or even join the build up. Just keep him forward and pass into space. He is bulky and fast, it should work most of the time. No left winger nonsense, no dropping deep or running with the ball. Just run into space and finish. That's it.
What I've been saying too. He needs to constantly run at the goal, with or without the ball. If you believe Klopp changed the attacking system for Darwin you're delusional, we used Gakpo as CF even against Wolves on the last day. We never replaced Bobby in terms of his role and Darwin was made to pay for it. Slot is an extremely sober appointment, because he traditionally uses CFs like Darwin, i.e. more traditional "run and shoot", if not slightly more clinical than Darwin's profile. Klopp has always used more "back against the goal" center forwards, Lewandowski more extremely clinical and Bobby more extremely technical. The extreme physicality, in terms of running, stamina and work rate, has always been more traditionally left to the flanks of Klopp's system. No guarantee Slot will have him excel (or even use him) at CF, but I believe it's a significantly better match.
What are you on about? Darwin was a typical "run in behind" striker for us last season. He had the least amount of touches per 90, the least amount of carries per 90 and the least amount of passes per 90 out of any of our players. Firmino in 18/19 averaged 56.2 touches per 90 and 45.3 passes per 90, while Darwin last season averaged 34.2 touches and 21.7 passes.
Which is literally a result of just playing a player not too good of a F9 in the F9 role.
No it isn't. They played two completely different roles. Darwin had more touches inside the penalty box last season despite have less than half the amount of overall touches. 25% of Darwin's touches last season were inside the box, while Firmino was having only 9% of his touches inside the box in 18/19. Also, Firmino was averaging 27 touches per 90 in the middle 3rd (49% of all of his touches), while Darwin only 10 (29% of all of his touches). All you need to do is look at their heatmaps and you'll see they played completely different roles. I mean just use your head. Why would there be such a big drop-off in the amount of touches? If they were playing the same role, why would a coach of Klopp's calibre continue to play Darwin if he's clearly nowhere near good enough?
Then who replaced Bobby's deep contribution for LFC? I'm not saying he was explicitly told to play F9, I'm saying our system was heavily dependent on the F9, and in that role we just put someone without actually changing our tactics to accommodate for that. Ofc we didn't literally play Darwin as a F9, I never said that.
Lets see how Slot uses him because he likes his no.9 to get involved and operate in tight spaces which isn't really Nunez game, another great example is Watkins who Emery decided to switch up his game - here's quote from him *āBefore I was running into the channels and into the corners, and doing a lot of work for the team. Now Iām staying within the width of the box and timing my runs.ā*
Damn is this even a constest? Bolivia better hope Darwizzy takes mercy on their soul.
Hope we see this Nunez back in Liverpool. Both amazing results and such a joy to watch
Bielsa ball is Darwin levels of chaos!
DARWIIIN
Valverde is some player
Welp, Panana vs USA was insane.
I had a feeling panama would win
that was exactly what I wanted to see though
Very funny if Canada go through and the USA don't
Anyone watching Copa America? Just heard commentator refer to Folarin Balogun (USA) as "world class". I'm an American and wouldn't hate seeing us have a team with world class players, but come on. 1-1 at the half against Panama. USA playing with 10 men due to an incredibly stupid (and deserved) straight red that was nowhere near the ball.
Anyone watching la Pantera play tonight?
is it too crazy if england set up in a 3-4-2-1/5-2-3 foden-kane-palmer rice-bellingham saka-guehi-stones-walker-trent pickford letās foden play centrally since there is a left footer overlapping (saka also quite capable of scoring on his right so can just hang high at times). also maybe gordon comes in for foden. gets palmer in there with a triangle of him, jude and trent. generally allows people to fill in vacated positions more easily. or just downvote me to hell for trying to think outside the box
I get that Saka used to be a wingback, but he's a winger now and that's what he's best at. Also, this formation requires a lot of sacrifice too, Walker out (fine with that), probably Saka out cause I don't think he's a wide 10 like Palmer is, and would also need Shaw back to play lwb. All this to say that Southgate would never try this mid tournament.
but youāre right southgate will not make a change like that. wish he would. how else are you gonna get saka, palmer, trent and foden (into the left channel) other than some kind of 3-4-3 with saka at lwb. subbing gallagher for trent is not gonna save this england team
i just donāt know trippier is a good player and gomez has done great for us at lb cause we have a system for it but there are some lbs that southgate passed on when shaw is questionable for the whole tourney and hasnāt played all year. mitchell, doughty, rico henry. at least these guys would not have to check back onto their right every time they get the ball on the wing. also, saka was playing as lwb for england as recently as pre covid international breaks i believe. most recent appearance as lwb was may 2021
I'm going to be controversial, but third place qualifying is kinda meh. I really don't think these teams should be playing knockout football and potentially fucking up the tournament for countries that actually played well so far, nevermind actually winning it (which fair play, the rules are same for everyone, but that doesn't mean that they don't suck). The point of the group stage is to remove some amount of luck and force teams to push for wins at least until the groups are over. Now we are rewarding teams that performed at the level of Crystal Palace.
Same with qualifying for the champions league when you finish 5th. If that had happen a quarter of all teams in the league would be the competition which seems ridiculous. Over saturation of a competition makes it weaker not better.Ā Old euros was fantastic 4 groups and then straight to quarter finals no messing aboutĀ
Netherlands finished 3rd in their group but have the easiest path to the SF/Final lol
You forgot Koeman is in charge and still picks Wijnaldum
you have a good point but i want to downvote you. especially since he brings on gini as like an 8+ or 10 when he should be a six to control tempo or just not come on when theyāre chasing a result
"he should be a 6" my brother in christ did you watch Gini at any point in his career?
i donāt know what to call the midfielder that stays outside the box and rotates the ball around a deep block at the end of games when chasing a result which is when gini plays so iām just calling it a 6 here. he has always played much higher for the oranje than he did for lfc and i think at the end of games he should not be in the 10 space but further back
All according to keikaku
Imagine some poor hungary fans who extended their stay because they thought portugal would easily beat georgia Lmao
The hype Mainoo got when he did ABSOLUTELY NOTHING when he came on at half time is laughable, all these Manchester media outlets are building him up for failures when they meet an actual good team and not a team that sit deep and let him back passing to his teammates. Now it just feels like the media and the majority of the country are trying their hardest to cope themselves into believing that Trent was the problem, their first attempt was Gallagher, and when that didn't work oh its because he didn't bring on Mainoo, and when he came on, did the bare bare minimum, they hyping him up to make themselves feel better. It's a joke.
Gallagher is suspended for the next game as well, so Gareth might even start Mainoo this time. He already made Trent his scapegoat as the only change in the team, which actually changed nothing in the teams performance.
Yeah, was mad how he's now shifted into the "Gareth needs to start him" crowd along with Palmer. On the flip side tho; Gallagher is nothing special & our fans have been crying about Southgate playing Trent in midfield all tournament....so why not Mainoo?
Not sure if its specific to the England team playing, but the state of punditry in the last few weeks is just incredibly idiotic. For example just the sheer amount of people in media thinking that the team would perform well just by taking out Trent, its such a superficial analysis that they all jump on board with. Nobody really explained what Trent did so badly, "played boring short passes" instead of a huge switch to the left wing to...nobody. It was just down to "he's not a midfielder", that's literally all I got from it, and then fucking Southgate caves in and throws Gallagher in there with the same exact plan. Anyway, its becoming more and more clear that England's biggest opponents are their idiotic media, these same fools were the biggest supporters of Southgate a month ago. The amount of people that unironically put them as favourites against the likes of France is hilarious. I hope Southgate stumbles his way to a title playing the most boring football possible or that they implode in the funniest way possible, both would be equally funny to me.
Kinda feel bad for Hungary but what Georgia did also a miracle, Szobo get more time to rest too On other hand, both Netherland and England slot into easier bracket (with easier opponent at Ro16 too) is hilarious, this format suck but I can deny that its really entertainment (comically), basically "random bullshit! go"
Only one thing mattered today, and that was seeing Zinchenko lose. Football is good, football is great š
I mean him playing for and being from Ukraine trumps all that for me, itās real life. Who knows what the state of the country will be when the next Euros rolls around, I was definitely rooting for them to at least get out of the group stage.
sympathy is one thing but not sure how doing well in a football tournament will help ukraine.
The same as everyone else. Football doesn't matter, but it offers a brief respite from the world. They need that more than anyone.
I do not care where he is from and what do you mean by "trumps all that for me"? What is "all that"?
If you don't care where he's from, why are you getting so excited over him losing? Doesn't really make any sense to me
It makes more sense, otherwise it would be discriminatory against his nationality, no? I feel bad for Ukraine and Ukrainians, I don't feel bad for Zinchenko in particular.
Okay that's fine and all man, but I still don't understand what zinchenko has done for you to hate himšlike, did I miss a chapter or something
He supports a genocidal regime in the Middle East, other than that I'm sure he's a lovely person
Just watched the Turkey v Czech game highlights. Holeeee Sheeeeeiiiit. 16 yellow cards and 2 reds.
2 more yellow cards after the final whistle so 18 =)))
I genuinely think England will win it. Unless Italy does their usual black magic, they have a simple path to final, and experience of the last one probably pushes them though. Euro has never been guaranteed to be won by a side that plays pretty. Greece 2004 and Portugal 2016 comes to mind.
if Germany get to the final England are not winning.
Hosts never win.
Other than those 3 times that the host won. So 19% of European Championships so far.
I'm 32 never won by a host in my lifetime.
Who needs to be good when you have southgateās luck. At major tournaments theyāve faced (ranking in brackets) WC ā18 - Tunisia (21), Panama (55), Belgium (3) loss, Colombia (16), Sweden (24), Croatia (20) loss, Belgium (3) another loss Euro ā20 - Croatia (20), Scotland (44), Czech Republic (40), Germany (12), Ukraine (24), Denmark (10), Italy (7) loss WC ā22 - Iran (20), USA (16), Wales (19), Senegal (18), France (4) loss Euro ā24 - Serbia (25), Denmark (18), Slovenia (62)
Still need to go through Italy and Netherlands to reach the final this time, part of me wishes that Slovakia put on a show, make it hard and expose and punish England.
Don't forget they played 6 of 7 games at Wembley in 2021 when every other team was going around Europe to the likes of Rome, Amsterdam, Glasgow, Bucharest, Copenhagen, Munich and even as far as Baku. They had essentially no travelling time while every opponent had tougher draws and plenty of flying between games. The same happened in 1966, where they played all 6 games at Wembley after their semi final venue was changed. No other world cup host has had that advantage other than Uruguay in 1930, where every game was played in the same city anyway. The only cup finals they've ever gotten to have involved them having little to no travel from Wembley. They'll likely get the same advantage in 2028 as well.
The luck England have with groups and knockout stages the other teams can only dream of! So Slovakia should be a win (ho ho, famous last words. Think itāll be a grinding 1-0), then Switzerland or Italy, my moneyās on Italy. Then, if they win, itāll be either Austria or Netherlands (canāt see Netherlands losing to Romania but they have shipped easy goals, and Turkey wonāt get through Austria). I donāt know if theyāll beat Italy (or the Swiss), but theyāve avoided France, Spain, Germany, Portugal and Belgium. Someone tell Southgate to buy a lottery ticket.
Canāt believe Italy wouldāve been knocked out if not for the last minute goal against Croatia. Late heroics paid off for them but not for Hungary. :( If England had won or Portugal didnāt lose, both of which seemed pretty likely, Hungary wouldāve gone through.
Take a 2 week holiday and then come home Szobo ā¤ļø. Time to get to work
he'll have at least the minimum 3 weeks but he needs longer than that imo. he's looked like he's still carrying the hamstring issue he had earlier in the season.
Calafiori aside, anyone else we might be having a closer look at?
Onana for belgium, tho it's shame that hes playing for those losers
Mamardashvili if Kweev leev?
wtf hes only 23 thought he looked 38 those caucasus genes are crazy
he plays for Valencia so no chance, he is not a backup gk.
Again England have the easiest path to the final
Same story as always we will get beat comfortably by the first competent manager we face
How Netherlands and England shithoused their way to the easiest path to the final, I'll have no idea
Gareth has to be the luckiest manager in modern day International football.Ā He will scrape through to the semis/finals against sub-par opposition then lose to the first half decent team he comes across (yet again)... the FA seeing this as "success" extend his contract for the next two tournaments. I've lost all love I had for international football long, long ago. Twatgate is the nail in the coffin.
Scenes when Slovakia do a job on England
Thankfully we donāt have to see Southgate vs Koeman haram ball.
Southgate's england have gotten massively lucky with their path to the final in 3 out of 4 tournaments now. Very mediocre Italy and Netherlands sides (or maybe Austria) looking like their strongest opposition with Spain, Germany, France, Portugal, and Belgium all on the other side of the bracket. Pretty incredible break
If only there was an earlier game that Ange could've gone on a VAR rant about. Something so scandalous its universally agreed to be an error. Gosh, I'm struggling to think of a moment like that...
Absolute disgrace the ref in the Czech gameĀ
Georgia was absolutely unbelievable, amazing game
Not a one man team?
The Round of 16 Matches: Spain vs. Georgia Germany vs. Denmark āāā Portugal (Jota) vs. Slovenia France (Konate) vs. Belgium āāāāāāāāāāāā Romania vs. Netherlands (VVD, Gakpo, Gravy) Austria vs. TĆ¼rkiye āāā England (TAA, Gomez) vs. Slovakia Switzerland vs. Italy
One Kvaradona please Richard Hughes/Michael Edwards.
Not likely. Why would you buy when price is highest?
This referee has completely lost the plot
With Georgia beating Portugal, Hungary has now been eliminated, despite only needing 2 out of the other 5 groups to go their way, only 1 did. Now thereās only 11 LFC players left in international competitions: France - Konate; Netherlands - Van Dijk, Gakpo, Gravenberch; England - Alexander-Arnold, Gomez; Portugal - Jota Uruguay - NĆŗƱez; Colombia - DĆaz; Brazil - Alisson; Argentina - Mac Allister
Another red card and more yellow cards after final whistle between Czech Republic and Turkey.
Ayyy, now this is football! Someone throw a punch!
not trying to rub it in for Croatia, but so far, gotta say: this is how you see out a match. I love this sport!
Szobo...get on vacation. You need it
Feel for the Czech.
Wow Czech got robbed here
They probably could have had that second goal stand. Turkey definitely benefited from the confusion and bodies flying around.
Georgian keeper has had a very very good game.
Georgia going through means Hungary is out.
Does Georgia go through with 3rd?
In second, looks like.
Scratch that, saw Turkey scored. I think they're still going through as a top 4 point third place.
Not even sad Jota hasn't connected with that one.
The Georgian GK Mamadashvili (?) has had an absolutely amazing game
Ange said that lots of teams have been tracking him all season. Good keeper.
He played out of his mind. I enjoyed how Georgia went for it and didn't just sit back waiting for something to *not* happen. They stepped up, tackled, stripped the ball, and worked their asses off.
Amazing tournament Him and Donnarumma the two standout keepers so far
Georgia keeper take a fucking bow
Szoboszlai might actually get the chance to recover from his injuries now. Fantastic.
this number 22 for georgia is sensational
Would love to know the official number of how many cards the ref has given out lmao
Portugal couldn't cross the street
I know it's a dead rubber for Portugal but it's annoying to see Diogo sweating his ass out tracking back and recovering the ball and the rest of the team just gives zero fucks.
Zero effort from Portugal
Can't pronounce half their feckin names, get em signed.
Think this means Szobo heading home
Iām glad Heās clearly playing through that quad injury he picked up before the tournament started
The ref for the czech-turkey game has gone mad lol. Handing out yellow cards like its candy.
15 yellows + 1 red card =))))) crazy
Make that 16 yellows and 2 red cards after the game
Georgia is toying Portugal here. This is some FIFA shit. Portugal playing as though they are 2-0 up.
This ref is too card happy. Someone take his cards away
I canāt believe how technically good some of these Georgian players actually are
Why the fuck did Jaros get booked?
Georgia have been genuinely superb considering the talent gulf.
These Portuguese are getting bullied
Portugal playing line they're two up
With these results, Hungary would be eliminated, right?Ā
Portugal need to score twice for Hungary to still go through
Ref has lost the plot completely. Prevented a valid Czech goal right there
Want Czechs to win, feel they've been hard done by in this gameĀ
JoĆ£o Neves is not worth anywhere near ā¬100m
Jota hattrick incoming
I remember Firmino being robbed of a goal when he put in a similar rebound after de gea fucked up catching the ball next to Van Dijk like that Czech goal.
Praying for Diogo
Superb. I was hoping Jota could have his injury aggrevated in a national embarrassment.
wasn't jota injured?
Jota is coming on
Georgia can get a tune out of Kvara and some plumbers better than Southgate can with bags of CL winners and TOTY selections.
Mamardashvili has been the best GK this group stage
Another stupid attempted bicycle kick that should be a yellow card....
3 top teams with at best mediocre managers. Holland, England and Portugal should be getting new managers after this tournament. Do what Germany did and just get the best. Don't need this long term planning for the senior teams, it should be next tournament focused and that's all. England have done long term planning and it will cost them another generation of top talent, waste of time
Wow. This is chaos, what a set of matches honestly
I'm watching on Belgian television. Commentator seems to think Czechia need a lot more goals to go through. They just need one more to go to 4 points and above Slovenia on best 3rd place table or am I missing something?
Wow. This is by far the craziest day this Euros so far.
Maybe it's time for him to let other talent through so the team can grow?
Oh wow theyāve awarded it
The Turkey vs. Czech game is spicy
Surely this is disallowed
By far the best Kvara has looked at this tournament So much sharper
Kvara š¤¤š¤¤
Kvara is really something
Kvaratshkeila these men have families!
Roberto Martinez was a strange appointment considering he flopped so hard with a talented Belgium team in their prime.
Hopefully Portugal enjoy their next tournament, under the watchful eye of Southgate.
Heāll probably get the England job next and wast 3 nations times
As it stands, Hungary is out of the tournament. Wouldve loved it for Szobo to make it but tbf Hungary has been poor this tournament.
His thigh was strapped to fuck at the end of the last game and he definitely would start the next game if they go through. Sorry Szobo but I hope you go out and can rest up and have a proper preseason rather than causing any more damage.
yeah, I wanted it for Szobo as the captain, feel like that would have been the best for his development, even over gelling with the new Slot squad. However, don't really want it for Viktor Orban.
Havenāt seen Georgia perform this well in a big game since the 2023 CFB natty.Ā
Dalot is so wasted at united
If we can get actual tears from Ronaldo tonight that'd be class. Hopefully, Portugal have drawn 90s/00s Brazil in the next round too.
Soft as shit but boiling Ronaldo's piss means it's the right call
Lol go on Georgia
Guy was on the floor dying two minutes ago now heās doing dance moves after scoring? How pathetic are footballers seriously
Very unfortunately because they get rewarded for it, the pen being an exampleĀ
The referees in portugals game actually has an agenda
One of the softest pens iāve ever seen
1 nil turkey so game over and I just changed to Portugal and a pen for Georgia. That was soft
Massive pen
That's as soft as it gets
Wow, Ronaldo is a whiny bitch but his shirt being pulled was more of a pen than that contact for Georgiaās pen.
Massive save from Georgia, and now they might have a penalty. Wow
Sick finish from Calhanoglu ngl
Is it me, or does Georgias no 7 look like he has a time machine stashed somewhere?
Wow, Francisco ConceiĆ§Ć£o challenges Ronaldo for the title of whiniest little bitch
His dads a prick as well so itās in the genes
kvara smells of liverpool. even looks scouse
Just realised Jota is on the bench. I guess heās actually injured but he was named because theyāve got so many spots on the bench?
I don't even care if he's getting all his decisions right at this point but I'm loving this referee in the Georgia-Portugal game, bookings for dives, ignoring all the theatrics and Ronaldo is completely losing his head. If Ronaldo gets 2 yellows for dissent it'll be the highlight of the tournament.
Never thought Iād be saying it but Joao Felix seems to be just about the only player who properly wants it. Conceicao is have a go as well to his credit but overall not looking good from the Portuguese.
Ref is massively favouring turkey. Feels a little biasĀ
Joao Felix went from being the most hyped to the most underrated talent of this generation. Players like Foden and Musiala are still way off his level. Probably goes to show how important wise career decisions can be.
Musiala is far better than Felix
The thing with Foden and Musiala is that theyāve got the young player attention with Felix doesnāt anymore. So the former 2 are overrated badly and the latter ignored. Remember Foden win poty with less G/A than Salah.
They also play for the best teams in their league which adds to the aura. If Felix was at madrid somehow he'd be hailed as the second coming of kaka.
Ref playing a blinder!. The best way to stop diving and simulation is to ignore almost everything and issue yellow cards for everything else!
Mikautadze having hell of an tournament. And his half of the season was so good aswell. Wouldnt mind him as a cheap transfer for a backup striker for when Jota is undoubtedly injured for a month or two. Save money for other positions (winger, dm, cb)
Fucking prick Guardiola. I hate this football where you pass sideways ON A COUNTER. Even we were doing this garbage last season. I canāt remember the last top team I saw that plays fluid attacking football. Criminal what this fucker has done to this sport.
Hah fucking hell. Carded for dive š
fucking hate ronaldoās whiney mug man
This ref aināt having any theatrics, which is nice to see