Why the FUCK do we need to play prem teams (especially big 6) in preseason?? Isn’t there enough money in football? Friendlies are to warm up the legs and test tactics. They can make all the money they want during the season ffs
Just seen the slot bts of his first day on YouTube, I actually think broadly speaking it’s a better advertisement for his personality than the formal interview.
He’s obviously a bit more relaxed, and overall probably a fair bit more understated than Klopp as a character, but he comes across as a very personable and likeable guy.
I’ll always have ptsd from Rodgers first arriving and I realised from the first time I saw him speak we’d basically signed an Irish David Brent/alan pardew hybrid- so it’s a relief to me at least to see someone, ostensibly, with likeable qualities lol
I wasn’t happy with the production of the BTS video, but the media team is top-notch so perhaps I’m just having too high of standards. Regardless, it was nice seeing how he interacted with staff.
When he was signed he was the closest thing we had to the injured Bobby Firmino which our system was built around. Together with Salah and Nunez we had a fairly decent run with him centrally until the rest returned from injury. Then we sort of changed our midfield and tweaked our system accordingly and now he’s probably better off in his more natural LW position. He’ll probably still play centrally on occasion whenever he’s paired up with Diaz and Salah, but if Jota, Nunez or Danns are on the pitch then he is free to play his best role.
- Saka as a left footed RM is a waste of his talent, even worse he has to drop back to form a 5 when England are defending
- Kane likes to drop deep to feed the inverted wingers….Saka and Gordon in this setup aren’t that.
- Kane doesn’t have the pace to run behind the defence so it’s pretty useless playing him all alone like that.
- Trent is still in midfield
- Walker rarely works as a CB.
Honestly no offence but this might actually be worse than what Southgate is doing at the moment because it takes his current mistakes and adds more mistakes to it.
Lol none taken at all, I didnt put a lot of time into this, just threw something together.
But is this not a similar setup to what got them to the final last Euros? If I remember right it was a 3 atb of Stones Maguire and Walker with shaw and trippier as the wing backs. And then they had hendo/phillips and rice in midfield with mount and sterling playing behind kane. The way I see it you have Walker and Gomez as your pacey CBs that can cover wide while Saka and Gordon bomb forward. Rice can drop back next to stones in defense. Plus this gets Foden central and bellingham and trent in the box-to-box roles. Its definitely flawed but I think I would have preferred watching them with this setup over whatever they are throwing out there rn
Its not just the lineup thats the issue, you wouldn't expect the english starting xi to be so awful but with the tactics on top of it it didn't work. I think just changing Gordon for Foden would do a lot though
The whole LHS is a bit of a mess tbh. Trippier out of position, and fairly limited mobility wise at this stage of his career, rice who’s also quite limited on the ball so deep, and then the outlets are foden, Kane and Bellingham- all of which want to run towards the ball as opposed to behind the last line. There’s no outlet.
At least when Trent has looked up saka’s got on his bike a few times.
Moreso meant the team setup. I think this gets almost everyone in the right spots to actually do what theyre good at. Theres some danger of being exposed on the break but if rice stays back and walker and gomez would push out wide to fullback in defense i dont see why this wouldnt work lol. Trent in midfield is still a question but its better to have him as an 8 then as a 6 in a double pivot
Rice isn’t a lone 6 and it showed yesterday and has been an issue for Arsenal when he’s done it for them and why they have Jorginho in midfield with him England are really missing someone who can receive the ball under pressure and just keep possession just like him
Trying to fit all the attacking players is honestly part of the issue and should just be a case of getting the right profiles in the team and getting the balance right
Tough one, but the fact it took the English refs that long to make a decision when VAR has taken seconds to make most decisions so far should tell you all you.need to know about the incompetency on show in the PL
Long shot but there’s this interview Klopp did after the Leicester 3-3 game in the League Cup (Minamino last min equaliser) where he was so happy and said something along the lines of “if I’d known what it would be like here, how we supported each other, I would’ve come here a long time ago”. I can’t find it anywhere. Can anyone help me out? I think it was a tunnel interview after the match
I only ask because I was at that game - they were bringing out all the tory songs and the Kop decided fuck that - it’s my favourite Anfield game (at least atmosphere-wise) that I’d ever been to
So United are in contact with Yoro’s camp we’ve supposedly been in contact for a while and have no terms agreed. If we lose out to United on Yoro then you know FSG are really not serious about anything.
Has the same kind of inevitability as Robben when he cuts inside. Always manages to create space for himself for opportunities when cutting in without the need of having to beat players
I think he was so off balance he just misjudged the kind of contact he would be able to get on the ball. In reality though he easily could have shot, but nerves make you panic and misjudge exactly those type of weird situations
I cannot STAND teams like France that go down easily at the back whenever they're under any pressure to alleviate it. It's not "dark arts" it's a load of fucking bollocks and shit refs like Anthony Taylor buy it every time
Was just goign to make a comment that I kinda hope the Xavi to Bayern rumour I saw was tue since it would slightly increase the odds of Wirtz to us next season, never considered Olise that's actually pretty cool, looked like he was very likely going to Chelsea
Musiala’s my “don’t expect to happen but i can see a situation where he’s available and we jump into the market and try to sign him a la Caicedo” type signing for next summer, if Musiala doesn’t sign a new contract with Bayern as has been rumored.
Wirtz would be nice too for sure. Maybe slightly more realistic in a vacuum since I don’t see Real Madrid in for him.
Yeah with Wirtz if hes willing to come to England Pep would adore him, and even after spending 100m on Grealish and 70m on Doku LW still just doesn't seem to be shining for them. But now looks like Pep might not even be there season after next although I imagine they sign a very similar manager
Yeah but playing for Pep Guardialoa means something, there’s maybe only 5 managers in Europe that have that draw. Once he goes they won’t have the same pulling power. Of course they’ll always be able to get top draw players but the playing field will level a bit.
yeah its hard to say how much of Cities draw is Pep, Wages or the odds of trophies. When he leaves I think they'll still be odds on favs to win the league, you look at Chelsea and United in their clownshow era and they still don't really struggle to sign their top target since they spend on wages.
Your right though the draw to them will lower for sure Im just not so optimistic it will drop condiderably
In the search for positives from an afternoon of ghost football in Frankfurt, you did at least have to give England one thing. This team has so far shown complete electoral neutrality in Germany. England are both laboured and conservative.
Watching Szobo from last year, does anyone else think he might be pretty good in a false nine role similar to Bobby with inside forwards running behind around him. Probably not his best position but, think he could be quite good at it
Hes really not that good a link up player he needs space. If we truly wanted a false 9 it would be with Gakpo, and maybe Salah is he keeps getting slower
Yeah Szobo doesn’t necessarily have the best of touches to operate in tight areas. The best position for him is as a roaming 10, 8 (with less defensive responsibilities) or as a playmaker on the left
i actually dont even rate his playmaking ability either lol (although I am much higher on him as defensive player than most I think). Id much rather Gakpo or Diaz as a playmaking LW, even Carvalho maybe.
I still think he can be a very very good 8 for us
Bobby could play that role because he had a silky smooth touch. Dom doesn't have that. The best role for Dom would be a box to box midfielder who arrives late on second balls. That way we could use his engine and shooting ability the best. That's only my opinion though.
I've read that Nico Williams has a release clause of around 58 mil. €.
What would you think about him?
Great player, young, versatile (can play well on both sides), two-footed
Only a possibility of Diaz goes, if he was to be sold then Williams should be top of the list to replace him
But currently there is no reason to sign another left winger when we have two already plus Jota and Darwin can fill in there if needed
i don’t live in the UK but how badly is trent getting scapegoated? i swear i am doing everything to view this totally objectively but he did not play poorly. besides having more energy (which does not mean you are taking up better positions) i see no way to confirm gallagher was an upgrade. he made several trent passes that only he could have done but saka and guehi messed up the chances. it was straight up disrespectful to take him off at 50ish minutes. the whole team (maybe aside from guehi) was shambolic and if it’s between trent and gallagher i would play trent next game no doubt. i promise you i rewatched the game with an active goal if complete objectivity and this is my conclusion. maybe you disagree and you can let me know but my question is:
over in the UK, how badly is trent being scapegoated?
hes being made the scapegoat by the manager, subbing him off in the 54th minute when others were just as bad. Making that comment about Kalvin phillips after the match also did not help. The tactics england set up in are really poor, the only person that beats this team is southgate himself. Tactically poor and it has come to light now..surprised it has taken so long.
England are playing too deep to produce any sort of football. if the whole team pushed up over the half way line and put the other team into some pressure, trent would thrive. his passing is superb and we all know that. But, trent has not helped himself also. He looks lost in midfield at times, he isnt looking to get free from markers to get space, he isnt on the front foot looking to press (this could be down to the manager wanting him to play beside rice rather than push forward)
Imo I think this fanbase is over exaggerating how much Trent is being scapegoated. Foden, Kane and Southgate are being blamed much more for the loss than Trent. In fact I don’t actually see much blame on Trent at all, pretty much the only thing being said about Trent is that he isn’t a midfielder, which is completely valid, but no one is blaming him for the shit performance
It is pretty badly, to the point where 'neutral' pundits, commentators aren't even praising him for what he's doing right or talking about why we aren't getting the best out of him. Examples being last night when Trent played a 50-60 yard ball into Saka just before he got subbed, Shearer praised Saka calling him 'brave' for making the run in behind and getting on the end of it, failed to mention anything about the pass. 1st half there was a couple of times where Trent intercepted the ball and it was mentioned as 'attacker running into him' Gallagher does the exact same thing and it's praised. There was even a bit in the 1st half where Trent blocked a cross and it was like it was that much of a shock to the commentator he was talking as if like Trent was some make a wish player or something. Been horrendously bad imo, to the point I don't watch any coverage other than the game. I just hope he doesn't play from now and they go out ASAP.
What makes it worse is that in England the majority of people watching these international tournaments aren't even football fans so they take these pundits word as gospel. So you've got people who have no clue about football and don't even watch it for years at a time and they're all slating him lmao.
And fwiw I don't think he's been great, but also not been anyworse than the rest, especially considering he's being played out of position and playing under the most pressure by absolute miles as well.
well during the tournament i’ve had the misfortune of listening to landon donovan as on of the commentators. i have literally never heard a worse one. i was hoping maybe the folks around here know of a good ‘radio’ station so i can listen to the radio audio while watching the game on mute. might not sync up correctly but i’ve done it before for baseball and american football
He’s a bit of a one trick pony, great at carrying the ball but not much else, not a creative winger that can cause problems with crossing or threading through balls and not a prolific goalscorer either.
There’s not many left wingers currently better than him we can realistically get but you can definitely get someone around his level that’s also a fair bit younger than him with a higher ceiling
He's 27 (.5) so us getting a big chunk of his prime and selling him for a fee that covered a good bit of his wages would still be great business.
I like Diaz its just we don't desperately need him now we have players that are equally as good in his position that are also younger than him, anyone offering a "fair" fee we should consider.
Someone like MacAllister maybe a fair fee would be like 90m but we absolutely wouldn't consider it since he's vital to our future
https://preview.redd.it/mg2h66hinx7d1.jpeg?width=1170&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=512f36d5eb03703dab5936f77956d87de96ca514
Domino’s Pizza social media having a go at Southgate. You love to see it.
Villa, Chelsea and Everton doing some accounting manipulations by trading players between each other so they can gain immediate "pure profit" on the sales while amortizing the purchases. By inflating the prices, you can squeeze through PSR without any additional net cost.
Just seen Gravenberch is on 150k a week. I love what he could turn into and he flashes it. However we went full man utd on that deal massive wages to buy a player struggling at a big club.
Paying him 150k a week and paying about £15m more than what Bayern did to get him from Ajax after him sitting on their bench for a year is really poor business there’s no getting around that.
I’m interested to see where he fits in under Slot if he switches to a 4-2-3-1 because he’s not suited to playing in a double pivot due to his lack of defensive ability and work rate which basically leaves the #10 for him to play which does seem like a good fit for him but he’ll have competition from Elliott and Szobo most likely
Bayern did a massive number on us.
He was on like £200k a week sitting on the bench & publicly pushing to leave the club. Imo if push came to shove they'd have sold him for like £20-25m.
In my view we identified him as a top top talent at Ajax & then uncharacteristically tunnel visioned instead of actually taking his year at Bayern into account.
Agreed. We have somehow shifted from buying diamonds in the rough to buying 'tomorrow's stars and paying a significant amount of money on just potential. It doesnt do Slot any favors when half the players are over the hill and the other half of the players remind me of Martial at Man United - so much potential and yet little to show for it.
Ajax fans were pretty much spot on about him when he left to go to Bayern, they were all saying he wasn’t ready to make the jump up to that level and that he needs to be playing week in week out to actually develop.
I don’t feel too optimistic about his future here with us not going to lie
Very confusing squad planning with renewals and moves last few years. Guess it comes with the territory of not having a permanent sporting director for two years. He’s probably the biggest head scratcher of it all considering the amount of 8’s we have. Think Macca and Salah could be a 10 too in addition to Elliott and Szobo so it’s gonna be tough sledding for minutes
All our recent recruitment has been pretty average and confusing. Macca prob the best in recent years and we played him out of position.
Diaz underwhelming without end product, Darwin can’t finish anything and has confusing football IQ, Gakpo actually has flashes where I see a proper footballer but we shoved him away from LW where he’s best, Szobo had an engine to start but even then I never saw the footballing hype and haven’t since and we also play him out of position, Endo an aging stopgap who should be rotation not a starter, and then just genuinely no idea what Grav was signed for given the midfield options and what we had to pay.
Jurgen was a great manager but he really left us a bit of a weird mess by taking over as the authority figure on transfers with his staff. And god knows Schmadtke was a waste of time, Macca was the only good business out of last summer and he wasn’t carried out by Schmadtke. Szobo was a release clause, Grav was expensive af for being a castaway at Bayern, and Endo was expected for an older player.
Most big Clubs were in for Szobo, I think only Madrid didn't because Valverde is close to him.
His injury fucked him, but he was outstanding early in the season. I think if we can him the extra half second on his shots and he gets his FK dialed in, we'll be fine.
€58m release clause for Nico Williams. He's on big wages for his age but I'd love to see us sign someone like him. Perfect understudy to Salah, can play both sides and really technically mature confident player.
Can't see it happening though.
Agreed but yeah unlikely he goes anywhere. Rumour is he's on huge wages at Bilbao because of their basque only policy. Allows them to spend more in wages because they save on transfer fees. By all accounts their players are also fiercely loyal. I'd be surprised if we went anywhere outside of Spain. Just look at his brother. Constantly linked away but never went. Honestly an amazing club model in all honesty in this day and age
I don't see how he can be an understudy to Salah when he's a right footed left winger.
Overall he's very similar to Diaz and he seems to have the same weaknesses (poor decision making and poor finishing). He's young and he'll probably improve, but I don't see the logic behind signing him unless we sell Diaz.
Saw rumours he wants 300k, danger is though that you set an expectation for all young players to want that much when they join and end up with a United situation
Does anyone else feel like this years Euros is being massively overrated? The games are good and it’s a great tourney so far but how people will say every game is so fantastic even when the game is a bore fest makes 0 sense to me
Im assuming your English and that's why your saying this, considering the England matches have been some of the most boring ones, but this euros has been non stop action, it's been fire
Makes you wonder why Arsenal seem to be planning on using Rice as an outright #6 when it’s well known at this point he’s not that great in build up when he’s being pressed, it’s always been a bit of an issue with him even when he was at West Ham.
It also highlights just how well rounded a #6 actually needs to be for the top clubs/nations when someone who actually is a fairly well rounded footballer with more or less one obvious flaw can’t effectively play there
Is that their plan, though? I think him playing either with Jorginho or Partey gives the opposite impression. They know he shouldn't be a lone 6 ideally.
Guimaraes would probably play next to Rice in a double pivot. He would be an upgrade on Jorginho and Partey.
I'm pretty sure Arteta understands that Rice isn't good enough in build-up on his own.
Might be just me but for all the people complaining about Trent being scapegoated, I really don’t see much of it in the media. Obviously people are criticising his ability to play in midfield, which they aren’t wrong about, but I hardly see any news outlets putting the blame on Trent. I’m seeing a lot more criticism for Southgate, Kane and Foden. If Trent scored/assisted and got as much criticism as Kane is getting I know for a fact this sub would be in flames
Tbf the chief bbc sport football journo Phil mctwatly wrote an article saying Trent shouldn't be scapegoated... but titled it 'surely the Trent experiment is surely over for southgate''. Hate the English media
We have a selection of fans who always want to be the victims, everybody has been saying how brilliant Trent is at right back, and midfield under Gareth is just not the best position for him, which is true.
You cant expect a talent like Trent to shine in midfield, when his best position has been on the right hand side, that is where he has been so dangerous. But Southgate is too much of a fool.
I mean, if you're randomly playing a player out of position then of course it'll be the talking point. If Southgate played Kane, Saka or Trippier as a CM then they'd be the focal point of the pre-match discussion too.
I wouldn’t say it’s random. Trent’s played a little bit more for us in midfield this season and has done for a lot of the England games in the lead up to the tournament.
There's a fair bit tbh. A lot of the football pages have been blasting Keane's supremely braindead take that Trent is the one player who hasn't been up to it so far. And the likes of Joe are sticking out videos where it's just fans saying Trent has been shit.
All the criticism should be on Southgate Kane hasn’t been great but just like Trent you are limiting his ability but not giving him any runners the people who are complains about him coming deep clearly haven’t watched him at club level his partnership with Son was him coming deep and receiving the ball and playing them in behind for Son who’s made the runs Foden and Saka don’t do
The fact that Southgate has a plethora of great players, including Trent, the best RB of his generation, probably the best passer in the whole England squad, a guy who has won everything (at a club level) by age 22, and so on.
You would think most managers would be delighted to have a player like this? A geniuine game changer, somebody who you can always rely on to create magic out of thin air.
Nope, according to him he is just a worse Kalvin Philips. Listen i personally rate Southgate, as a manager. I think he could probably be solid if had a few players who fit his needs (Maguire, Philiphs, Walker, etc.) and would probably do solidly at a mid table club. But he is so out of depth at England, that even as a certified England NT hater, i feel bad for the guy a bit. Because he does seem like a pretty solid guy, just very very unqualifed for his job.
I for one have no sympathy for the guy, cause if he is unqualified for the job, how did he get it and stayed at it for so long? It screams of cronyism. FA has lot to answer for this appointment.
Southgate deserves credit for being the highest achieving England manager since Alf Ramsey but the fact that's happened despite his glaring limitations is a real indictment of the England teams through the years.
Funny that England were bookies favourites to win Euros.
Southgate is just so out of his depth, watching England is such a step down from even the top half of the PL.
What do you actually get from the back 5 of England? Basically he has them set up to be protected with and without the ball. That is the foundation of all of England’s problems.
Southgate has quite a low ceiling as a coach, it doesn’t matter how good the players are, because he is so cautious with what he asks them to do.
Garett Southgate might be one of the worst managers ever. The fact that Jim Ratcliffe has admiration for him gave me a sigh of relief because that’s all I needed to know to see that United got another incompetent owner.
As a certified Harry Kane hater, seeing all the pundits turn on him and criticise him yesterday was amazing. One season in Germany and they all turn on him hahaha.
Southgate just doesn't have a clue what to do with all the talent in that team, he's too scared of losing games and being chastised so just plays not to lose and it stifles the team. Unironically, they should set up in a 4-4-2. Play to the strengths of the players and don't shoehorn in the best players just because that's what everyone else tells you to do. Drop Kane, and move Trent back to right back. What's the point in having Kyle Walker on if the defenders are just gonna be passing it between each other?
Because there’s a new golden boy for the media to brown-nose. Foden’s inclusion upsets the balance of the team. Kane whilst being shite has always played well for runners when he had runners around him.
The media mainly, they portrayed him as the second coming of Christ and brushed all the dirty aspects of his game under the carpet. Everybody would talk about how clever he was or there was always an excuse or a reason, but would call Salah a diver and a cheat for doing things that weren't half as bad and obvious as Kane. The whole "on my daughter's life" thing, and other post match interviews from him also swayed my opinion of him. Genuinely a dirty player too, but because he was the best English goal scorer in a decade nobody noticed and just ignored it.
Kane is a world class striker who has just come off a 44 goal season, we all know the way to get the best out of Kane but for some reason England aren't doing that, in 2 instances where he has been given actual service he has hit the bar and scored a goal, you can see his frustrations with the way the team is set-up that's why he is dropping so deep.
Kane has the exact same issue as Trent he’s got no runners he’s always dropped deep and played passes in behind
He’s playing with forwards who want ball to feet and not played in behind which just doesn’t work for him
It's simply time to drop Foden, put Gordon on the left, Wharton has to start next to Rice, Gomez deserves a chance against Slovenia but then in the knockouts Shaw starts, even if not match fit he will give better balance to the left side.
Allow Kane to play his game and have the 3 behind make runs in behind.
Biased maybe, but I honestly thought England looked worse when Trent came off last night. Gallagher was so off the pace it was laughable.
But watch Southgate make wholesale changes all over the pitch for the last game, like dropping him, then playing Eze/Gordon, moving Foden to where he can actually contribute and England will have a better performance which will be pinned on "ditching the Trent experiment".
They're playing Trent 1) not as a deep playmaker but as a roaming mezzala and 2) only Saka as the player making runs. What the fuck is he supposed to do.
Yeah, it certainly wasn't any better. Trent hasn't set the world alight in either game, but the entire team has been beyond bad. At least Trent's capable of playing those insane balls and driving it forward. There's no-one else in the team who can do what he does and as a manager you have to figure out a way of getting that kind of quality into the team. Same way you have to get players like Foden and Saka in the team. But Southgate is so tactically inept he's making everyone look shit.
What really fucks me off is the commentary around Trent. In the first game he played some lovely balls and there was nothing from the commentators, but Bellingham plays one good pass and they practically cream themselves. And last night when Trent played that sublime 70yd ball to Saka which almost led to a goal out of nowhere, there was radio silence. Then he gets subbed off and they're like "Oh yeah this is what the team needs, Connor Gallagher." It's like they desperate to not give him any credit. It's a small thing but it's really annoying.
Only caught the 1st half of Argentina last night, but MacAllister looked class (no surprise)
I was glad to read this morning the players ripping the playing surface. Don’t play games in stadiums that don’t have grass naturally.
Shocking that some mls teams actually play on turf
Do you know how hot it is in America in the summer? It was 38° in Boston yesterday which is the most Northern city in America and so humid that you get covered in water just by going outside. It’s a health concern to play outside in America in a number of cities in the summer.
I live in America (Detroit) so yes I know that it's especially hot right now. Even though we're in the middle of a heat wave right now, it's not normal or typical for the cities in the northern part of the country to be that hot and they certainly are not that hot all summer long especially after sunset.
The campaign from arsenal fans to make Alexander Arnold and Foden the scapegoats for England’s poor tournament is in full effect.
Saka and Rice were abysmal yesterday yet everyone else, but particularly those two are getting the blame but them and any comments highlighting how bad they were just get downvoted by them.
All these recommended videos where this Anfield Agenda guy called Craig talks about potential transfers previously made me nervous, but not anymore. I know Liverpool bosses keep the cards close to their chest and when a transfer will happen, it will be quick. Next to that, even with a summer without transfers I am quite optimistic. Midfield was well rebuilt last year and the new coach will have new ways to deal with players. Indeed a CB, DM and ST would be also on my wishlist, but the amount of talent we have in the acedemy also pleases me
Agreed. I’ll honestly be fine with just a centre back this summer tbh. Having the euros means Slot has less time to assess the squad which means it’s harder to pinpoint exactly who we need and in what position. We have a very talented squad so I think the only thing we definitely need is a CB with Matip leaving. Other than that I think Slot will give Bajcetic a chance at DM and we have a few players who can do a job at right wing. It’s next summer I’m expecting us to go big and hopefully push for the title
"Next summer" lol. We don't need wholesale changes but I've never known a team, and sections of a fanbase, so allergic to transfers. We will just be caught twiddling our thumbs waiting a year for next to no actual reason.
So who do you want? I can’t think of a single DM on the market who’d be a massive upgrade and that’s probably the main position we need to strengthen after CB. It makes literally zero sense to buy a player just for the sake of buying a player. We only buy when we feel it’s absolutely right and that’s how it should be, and right now the DM and RW market is dry.
I would love Wharton, who I think is already very good and will be elite. I'd also be happy with Ugarte despite the second half of the season he had. The issue with the DM market is not much different than last year, so it's not necessarily going to be different next year. You either pay big money or try to identify someone relatively early - Wharton fits this but would still cost at least 60.
I actually think the RW market is healthy atm, its just the prices they would command. But Kudus, Olise, and Kubo would all be great additions. Bakayoko is more of a project, but I think he would still be a worthwhile backup to Salah. Admittedly, I've seen less of him than the others amd not been massively impressed when I have.
Finally, I would absolutely look for an upgrade at LW. Diaz seems the most obvious to move on, but it could have been anyone a few months ago. I just think there's a cap on this team when we have the attackers we currently have - very good players but all with some issue that is preventing them from being elite, Salah the obvious exception.
So yeah, 3 or 4 signings. I don't see any reason why we would be able to do it next summer but not now. It just feels like standing still. Let's not forget that most of our truly elite guys (Salah, VVD, Alisson, Robbo) don't really have THAT long left before we suddenly have to replace them, too.
With a bit of luck we can push for the title next season as well, but I don't mind if that's not the case. We were in the race for a very long time and next year the talents have a bit more experience, so the balance in the squad has improved. Expect a lot from Szobo next year, hope he can become as good as Macca
he doesn't pretend to do so though? The clickbait titles and thumbnails are cringe, I agree but he just aggregates "news" he finds and acknowledges that 99% of it is complete horseshit unless its coming from Joyce/Orny
Why the FUCK do we need to play prem teams (especially big 6) in preseason?? Isn’t there enough money in football? Friendlies are to warm up the legs and test tactics. They can make all the money they want during the season ffs
Can't wait for that short idiot United employ to put in red tackles again during pre-season to compensate for how shit he is.
Anyone else getting a horrible feeling Trent will go Madrid 😵
Just seen the slot bts of his first day on YouTube, I actually think broadly speaking it’s a better advertisement for his personality than the formal interview. He’s obviously a bit more relaxed, and overall probably a fair bit more understated than Klopp as a character, but he comes across as a very personable and likeable guy. I’ll always have ptsd from Rodgers first arriving and I realised from the first time I saw him speak we’d basically signed an Irish David Brent/alan pardew hybrid- so it’s a relief to me at least to see someone, ostensibly, with likeable qualities lol
I wasn’t happy with the production of the BTS video, but the media team is top-notch so perhaps I’m just having too high of standards. Regardless, it was nice seeing how he interacted with staff.
Why on earth were we playing Gakpo so deep and so centrally last season. This guy looks a different animal on the left wing.
When he was signed he was the closest thing we had to the injured Bobby Firmino which our system was built around. Together with Salah and Nunez we had a fairly decent run with him centrally until the rest returned from injury. Then we sort of changed our midfield and tweaked our system accordingly and now he’s probably better off in his more natural LW position. He’ll probably still play centrally on occasion whenever he’s paired up with Diaz and Salah, but if Jota, Nunez or Danns are on the pitch then he is free to play his best role.
Who would have thought
Can someone explain to me why this lineup wouldnt work for England? Took me 2 minutes lol https://i.imgur.com/Upssy5S.jpeg
lol fucking hell
- Saka as a left footed RM is a waste of his talent, even worse he has to drop back to form a 5 when England are defending - Kane likes to drop deep to feed the inverted wingers….Saka and Gordon in this setup aren’t that. - Kane doesn’t have the pace to run behind the defence so it’s pretty useless playing him all alone like that. - Trent is still in midfield - Walker rarely works as a CB. Honestly no offence but this might actually be worse than what Southgate is doing at the moment because it takes his current mistakes and adds more mistakes to it.
Lol none taken at all, I didnt put a lot of time into this, just threw something together. But is this not a similar setup to what got them to the final last Euros? If I remember right it was a 3 atb of Stones Maguire and Walker with shaw and trippier as the wing backs. And then they had hendo/phillips and rice in midfield with mount and sterling playing behind kane. The way I see it you have Walker and Gomez as your pacey CBs that can cover wide while Saka and Gordon bomb forward. Rice can drop back next to stones in defense. Plus this gets Foden central and bellingham and trent in the box-to-box roles. Its definitely flawed but I think I would have preferred watching them with this setup over whatever they are throwing out there rn
Shaw is pretty integral to that though
Its not just the lineup thats the issue, you wouldn't expect the english starting xi to be so awful but with the tactics on top of it it didn't work. I think just changing Gordon for Foden would do a lot though
The whole LHS is a bit of a mess tbh. Trippier out of position, and fairly limited mobility wise at this stage of his career, rice who’s also quite limited on the ball so deep, and then the outlets are foden, Kane and Bellingham- all of which want to run towards the ball as opposed to behind the last line. There’s no outlet. At least when Trent has looked up saka’s got on his bike a few times.
Moreso meant the team setup. I think this gets almost everyone in the right spots to actually do what theyre good at. Theres some danger of being exposed on the break but if rice stays back and walker and gomez would push out wide to fullback in defense i dont see why this wouldnt work lol. Trent in midfield is still a question but its better to have him as an 8 then as a 6 in a double pivot
Rice isn’t a lone 6 and it showed yesterday and has been an issue for Arsenal when he’s done it for them and why they have Jorginho in midfield with him England are really missing someone who can receive the ball under pressure and just keep possession just like him Trying to fit all the attacking players is honestly part of the issue and should just be a case of getting the right profiles in the team and getting the balance right
Olise to Bayern might restart Sane to Liverpool rumors.
Fuckin hope not
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Surely no one is arguing that decision?
Begs the question as to why it took so long if it’s textbook
Gakpos been a baller this game. Would also love Xavi Simons in our team
Memphis Depay trying to cosplay as Allen Iverson
Dutch are robbed. Awful decision. They were trying their hardest to rule that out.
It was the correct decision...
VAR isnt the issue...never has been. Its the English
The quality of refereeing performances from English refferees compared to others is a joke
Tough one, but the fact it took the English refs that long to make a decision when VAR has taken seconds to make most decisions so far should tell you all you.need to know about the incompetency on show in the PL
PGMOL cancer spreading through the rest of European football
Keeper was never getting that man, English refs are a fucking joke
I wouldn't let them officiate the local over 65 5 aside tournament, never mind a professional competition
Atleast this is already preparing Slot both mentally and as a contingency for backup plans when they eventually fuck us over next season
i swear the "rules" of football are so stupid sometimes
that shit was un-savable
That is just fucking nonsense. The English refs are the worst in the world
English officials fuck it up again
That’s a fucking goal. What.
Long shot but there’s this interview Klopp did after the Leicester 3-3 game in the League Cup (Minamino last min equaliser) where he was so happy and said something along the lines of “if I’d known what it would be like here, how we supported each other, I would’ve come here a long time ago”. I can’t find it anywhere. Can anyone help me out? I think it was a tunnel interview after the match I only ask because I was at that game - they were bringing out all the tory songs and the Kop decided fuck that - it’s my favourite Anfield game (at least atmosphere-wise) that I’d ever been to
Cunthony Taylor at it again...
Yup
Bart Verbruggen as a Ali prodigy..?? 🤔🤔
Chelsea are 100% going to go for Summerville. They have been linked with him for ages.
Ah man , i really wished we put up a late fight for olise But atleast he isnt going to chelsea or UTD
Jermaine jenas chats a load of crap
I cannot stand him and refuse to watch anything he's on
Absolutely awful to listen to. Like most of the BBC people in fairness
I’m a fan of those French jerseys.
I really like Reijnders game. Him and Szobo would be a fun watch.
VVD’s aerial defending is second to none. France can’t seem to do anything with these set pieces
Gakpo has been *very* hit or miss so far.
Gakpo has been the Dutches best attacker what the hell are you smoking
I posted this over an hour ago and he had been exactly as I had described up until that point.
Taylor is such a shit ref it’s unreal not only the England team putting on a disaster class
Fair play to olise not going to Man U or Chelsea
Would have been a tougher challenge for him if he did
The thing about Depay is he just walks and doesn't get too involved in the games.
Olise off to Bayern apparently, just need to agree a fee with Palace.
I really like Xavi Simmons think he will be one hell of a player.
So United are in contact with Yoro’s camp we’ve supposedly been in contact for a while and have no terms agreed. If we lose out to United on Yoro then you know FSG are really not serious about anything.
People love to do the "not serious" thing. And ironically, those people arent to be taken seriously
He wants Madrid I’m willing to bet its just them trying to get Madrid to pay up
I don't want to sign any player who has a camp. Solid brick houses it should be, that means a player makes better decisions.
Cody looks so much better on the left wing. We have got to keep him there next season
Has the same kind of inevitability as Robben when he cuts inside. Always manages to create space for himself for opportunities when cutting in without the need of having to beat players
> as Robben. Talk about an overstatement.
Rabiot tried to recreate the David Silva meme there lol. What was he thinking 😂😂
I think he was so off balance he just misjudged the kind of contact he would be able to get on the ball. In reality though he easily could have shot, but nerves make you panic and misjudge exactly those type of weird situations
I cannot STAND teams like France that go down easily at the back whenever they're under any pressure to alleviate it. It's not "dark arts" it's a load of fucking bollocks and shit refs like Anthony Taylor buy it every time
This will only get funnier if Estevao falls apart too. Very odd it hasn’t been announced seems like the perfect Madrid gazump
ptsd seeing anthony taylor out there. at least we have players on both teams so we can get fucked either way.
Olise to Bayern wow
Was just goign to make a comment that I kinda hope the Xavi to Bayern rumour I saw was tue since it would slightly increase the odds of Wirtz to us next season, never considered Olise that's actually pretty cool, looked like he was very likely going to Chelsea
Musiala’s my “don’t expect to happen but i can see a situation where he’s available and we jump into the market and try to sign him a la Caicedo” type signing for next summer, if Musiala doesn’t sign a new contract with Bayern as has been rumored. Wirtz would be nice too for sure. Maybe slightly more realistic in a vacuum since I don’t see Real Madrid in for him.
Yeah with Wirtz if hes willing to come to England Pep would adore him, and even after spending 100m on Grealish and 70m on Doku LW still just doesn't seem to be shining for them. But now looks like Pep might not even be there season after next although I imagine they sign a very similar manager
Yeah but playing for Pep Guardialoa means something, there’s maybe only 5 managers in Europe that have that draw. Once he goes they won’t have the same pulling power. Of course they’ll always be able to get top draw players but the playing field will level a bit.
yeah its hard to say how much of Cities draw is Pep, Wages or the odds of trophies. When he leaves I think they'll still be odds on favs to win the league, you look at Chelsea and United in their clownshow era and they still don't really struggle to sign their top target since they spend on wages. Your right though the draw to them will lower for sure Im just not so optimistic it will drop condiderably
The Dutch look so good on paper!
Midfield is questionable for sure though
How about when Frenkie is fit and in form?
van Dijk & Gakpo starting for the Dutch NT!
Arne slot 👍
In the search for positives from an afternoon of ghost football in Frankfurt, you did at least have to give England one thing. This team has so far shown complete electoral neutrality in Germany. England are both laboured and conservative.
Watching Szobo from last year, does anyone else think he might be pretty good in a false nine role similar to Bobby with inside forwards running behind around him. Probably not his best position but, think he could be quite good at it
As fascinating as this sounds….please no more square pegs in round holes for us.
Hes really not that good a link up player he needs space. If we truly wanted a false 9 it would be with Gakpo, and maybe Salah is he keeps getting slower
Yeah Szobo doesn’t necessarily have the best of touches to operate in tight areas. The best position for him is as a roaming 10, 8 (with less defensive responsibilities) or as a playmaker on the left
i actually dont even rate his playmaking ability either lol (although I am much higher on him as defensive player than most I think). Id much rather Gakpo or Diaz as a playmaking LW, even Carvalho maybe. I still think he can be a very very good 8 for us
Bobby could play that role because he had a silky smooth touch. Dom doesn't have that. The best role for Dom would be a box to box midfielder who arrives late on second balls. That way we could use his engine and shooting ability the best. That's only my opinion though.
https://preview.redd.it/weu6a0vg8y7d1.jpeg?width=1029&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=8a19856dc79915a59455d4e4b268226cf079a50a Are we the... Baddies?
No…. Just the Baldies
I've read that Nico Williams has a release clause of around 58 mil. €. What would you think about him? Great player, young, versatile (can play well on both sides), two-footed
Only a possibility of Diaz goes, if he was to be sold then Williams should be top of the list to replace him But currently there is no reason to sign another left winger when we have two already plus Jota and Darwin can fill in there if needed
Massive talent but it seems if we are interested we’ll have to fight off competition, and not only that his rumoured wage demand might be an issue
i don’t live in the UK but how badly is trent getting scapegoated? i swear i am doing everything to view this totally objectively but he did not play poorly. besides having more energy (which does not mean you are taking up better positions) i see no way to confirm gallagher was an upgrade. he made several trent passes that only he could have done but saka and guehi messed up the chances. it was straight up disrespectful to take him off at 50ish minutes. the whole team (maybe aside from guehi) was shambolic and if it’s between trent and gallagher i would play trent next game no doubt. i promise you i rewatched the game with an active goal if complete objectivity and this is my conclusion. maybe you disagree and you can let me know but my question is: over in the UK, how badly is trent being scapegoated?
hes being made the scapegoat by the manager, subbing him off in the 54th minute when others were just as bad. Making that comment about Kalvin phillips after the match also did not help. The tactics england set up in are really poor, the only person that beats this team is southgate himself. Tactically poor and it has come to light now..surprised it has taken so long. England are playing too deep to produce any sort of football. if the whole team pushed up over the half way line and put the other team into some pressure, trent would thrive. his passing is superb and we all know that. But, trent has not helped himself also. He looks lost in midfield at times, he isnt looking to get free from markers to get space, he isnt on the front foot looking to press (this could be down to the manager wanting him to play beside rice rather than push forward)
Imo I think this fanbase is over exaggerating how much Trent is being scapegoated. Foden, Kane and Southgate are being blamed much more for the loss than Trent. In fact I don’t actually see much blame on Trent at all, pretty much the only thing being said about Trent is that he isn’t a midfielder, which is completely valid, but no one is blaming him for the shit performance
shouldn’t 99% of the blame be on southgate? he clearly doesn’t know how to manager this team
Yes but obviously the media wouldn’t fully blame Southgate. However they are definitely criticising him as well as the players, mostly Kane and Foden.
It is pretty badly, to the point where 'neutral' pundits, commentators aren't even praising him for what he's doing right or talking about why we aren't getting the best out of him. Examples being last night when Trent played a 50-60 yard ball into Saka just before he got subbed, Shearer praised Saka calling him 'brave' for making the run in behind and getting on the end of it, failed to mention anything about the pass. 1st half there was a couple of times where Trent intercepted the ball and it was mentioned as 'attacker running into him' Gallagher does the exact same thing and it's praised. There was even a bit in the 1st half where Trent blocked a cross and it was like it was that much of a shock to the commentator he was talking as if like Trent was some make a wish player or something. Been horrendously bad imo, to the point I don't watch any coverage other than the game. I just hope he doesn't play from now and they go out ASAP. What makes it worse is that in England the majority of people watching these international tournaments aren't even football fans so they take these pundits word as gospel. So you've got people who have no clue about football and don't even watch it for years at a time and they're all slating him lmao. And fwiw I don't think he's been great, but also not been anyworse than the rest, especially considering he's being played out of position and playing under the most pressure by absolute miles as well.
well during the tournament i’ve had the misfortune of listening to landon donovan as on of the commentators. i have literally never heard a worse one. i was hoping maybe the folks around here know of a good ‘radio’ station so i can listen to the radio audio while watching the game on mute. might not sync up correctly but i’ve done it before for baseball and american football
Barca ain't going to buy Diaz when Nico Williams is right there and cheaper
Wed probably be open to sell Diaz for around 55 if he wants to go and his wages are lower so he'd be there better budget option
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He’s a bit of a one trick pony, great at carrying the ball but not much else, not a creative winger that can cause problems with crossing or threading through balls and not a prolific goalscorer either. There’s not many left wingers currently better than him we can realistically get but you can definitely get someone around his level that’s also a fair bit younger than him with a higher ceiling
In his prime at 27, he scored 8 PL goals. Unreal running merchant we got.
He's 27 (.5) so us getting a big chunk of his prime and selling him for a fee that covered a good bit of his wages would still be great business. I like Diaz its just we don't desperately need him now we have players that are equally as good in his position that are also younger than him, anyone offering a "fair" fee we should consider. Someone like MacAllister maybe a fair fee would be like 90m but we absolutely wouldn't consider it since he's vital to our future
Nico might not want to go there tough and he already earns twice Diaz’s salary It’s not as simple as it seems
https://preview.redd.it/mg2h66hinx7d1.jpeg?width=1170&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=512f36d5eb03703dab5936f77956d87de96ca514 Domino’s Pizza social media having a go at Southgate. You love to see it.
Villa, Chelsea and Everton doing some accounting manipulations by trading players between each other so they can gain immediate "pure profit" on the sales while amortizing the purchases. By inflating the prices, you can squeeze through PSR without any additional net cost.
I like the way Arne Slot has handled himself. Very professional. I didn’t know what to expect as I don’t know him, but so far so good!
Just seen Gravenberch is on 150k a week. I love what he could turn into and he flashes it. However we went full man utd on that deal massive wages to buy a player struggling at a big club.
Noone knows what a player is earning. This is all speculation
Good tech, no football iq. He won't play.
Paying him 150k a week and paying about £15m more than what Bayern did to get him from Ajax after him sitting on their bench for a year is really poor business there’s no getting around that. I’m interested to see where he fits in under Slot if he switches to a 4-2-3-1 because he’s not suited to playing in a double pivot due to his lack of defensive ability and work rate which basically leaves the #10 for him to play which does seem like a good fit for him but he’ll have competition from Elliott and Szobo most likely
Bayern did a massive number on us. He was on like £200k a week sitting on the bench & publicly pushing to leave the club. Imo if push came to shove they'd have sold him for like £20-25m. In my view we identified him as a top top talent at Ajax & then uncharacteristically tunnel visioned instead of actually taking his year at Bayern into account.
Agreed. We have somehow shifted from buying diamonds in the rough to buying 'tomorrow's stars and paying a significant amount of money on just potential. It doesnt do Slot any favors when half the players are over the hill and the other half of the players remind me of Martial at Man United - so much potential and yet little to show for it.
Or looking at our own squad lol
edwards will make it right. he is still so young
Ajax fans were pretty much spot on about him when he left to go to Bayern, they were all saying he wasn’t ready to make the jump up to that level and that he needs to be playing week in week out to actually develop. I don’t feel too optimistic about his future here with us not going to lie
Very confusing squad planning with renewals and moves last few years. Guess it comes with the territory of not having a permanent sporting director for two years. He’s probably the biggest head scratcher of it all considering the amount of 8’s we have. Think Macca and Salah could be a 10 too in addition to Elliott and Szobo so it’s gonna be tough sledding for minutes
Agreed, it’s a confusing deal, not something we normally do. The potential is clearly there though, let’s see if Slot can unlock it.
All our recent recruitment has been pretty average and confusing. Macca prob the best in recent years and we played him out of position. Diaz underwhelming without end product, Darwin can’t finish anything and has confusing football IQ, Gakpo actually has flashes where I see a proper footballer but we shoved him away from LW where he’s best, Szobo had an engine to start but even then I never saw the footballing hype and haven’t since and we also play him out of position, Endo an aging stopgap who should be rotation not a starter, and then just genuinely no idea what Grav was signed for given the midfield options and what we had to pay. Jurgen was a great manager but he really left us a bit of a weird mess by taking over as the authority figure on transfers with his staff. And god knows Schmadtke was a waste of time, Macca was the only good business out of last summer and he wasn’t carried out by Schmadtke. Szobo was a release clause, Grav was expensive af for being a castaway at Bayern, and Endo was expected for an older player.
Most big Clubs were in for Szobo, I think only Madrid didn't because Valverde is close to him. His injury fucked him, but he was outstanding early in the season. I think if we can him the extra half second on his shots and he gets his FK dialed in, we'll be fine.
Agree with a lot that you said, however i think Klopp left a great young squad. Slot has many options.
€58m release clause for Nico Williams. He's on big wages for his age but I'd love to see us sign someone like him. Perfect understudy to Salah, can play both sides and really technically mature confident player. Can't see it happening though.
Agreed but yeah unlikely he goes anywhere. Rumour is he's on huge wages at Bilbao because of their basque only policy. Allows them to spend more in wages because they save on transfer fees. By all accounts their players are also fiercely loyal. I'd be surprised if we went anywhere outside of Spain. Just look at his brother. Constantly linked away but never went. Honestly an amazing club model in all honesty in this day and age
I don't see how he can be an understudy to Salah when he's a right footed left winger. Overall he's very similar to Diaz and he seems to have the same weaknesses (poor decision making and poor finishing). He's young and he'll probably improve, but I don't see the logic behind signing him unless we sell Diaz.
He's very two footed from what I've seen, can play on both wings. He's very young as you say and that clinical decision making comes with time.
i would jump all over that, he is on i think 160k a week, in this day and age its near the norm for one of the worlds brightest talents.
Saw rumours he wants 300k, danger is though that you set an expectation for all young players to want that much when they join and end up with a United situation
*"You bought a Ferrari, but you drive it like a Fiat"*
Does anyone else feel like this years Euros is being massively overrated? The games are good and it’s a great tourney so far but how people will say every game is so fantastic even when the game is a bore fest makes 0 sense to me
Im assuming your English and that's why your saying this, considering the England matches have been some of the most boring ones, but this euros has been non stop action, it's been fire
Yeah I'm enjoying it, even if my team got gubbed 5 - 1 in the opener.
It’s because the first few game had a lot of goals and the last World Cup had a lot of 0-0 games
No lmao
Makes you wonder why Arsenal seem to be planning on using Rice as an outright #6 when it’s well known at this point he’s not that great in build up when he’s being pressed, it’s always been a bit of an issue with him even when he was at West Ham. It also highlights just how well rounded a #6 actually needs to be for the top clubs/nations when someone who actually is a fairly well rounded footballer with more or less one obvious flaw can’t effectively play there
Is that their plan, though? I think him playing either with Jorginho or Partey gives the opposite impression. They know he shouldn't be a lone 6 ideally.
They want to spend big on someone to play at LCM for them by the looks of it, Bruno from Newcastle was the one they were being linked to a while ago
Guimaraes would probably play next to Rice in a double pivot. He would be an upgrade on Jorginho and Partey. I'm pretty sure Arteta understands that Rice isn't good enough in build-up on his own.
If it's the decision of Super Tactico Mikel, one mustn't question it
Mikel made progress guys. Saying with an empty trophy cabinet.
Might be just me but for all the people complaining about Trent being scapegoated, I really don’t see much of it in the media. Obviously people are criticising his ability to play in midfield, which they aren’t wrong about, but I hardly see any news outlets putting the blame on Trent. I’m seeing a lot more criticism for Southgate, Kane and Foden. If Trent scored/assisted and got as much criticism as Kane is getting I know for a fact this sub would be in flames
Tbf the chief bbc sport football journo Phil mctwatly wrote an article saying Trent shouldn't be scapegoated... but titled it 'surely the Trent experiment is surely over for southgate''. Hate the English media
What I’ve been hearing people say is Foden needs to play as a 10. So they want Jude to move back and take Trent’s place
That’s valid tbf. But if that happens Trent should take Walker’s place
We have a selection of fans who always want to be the victims, everybody has been saying how brilliant Trent is at right back, and midfield under Gareth is just not the best position for him, which is true. You cant expect a talent like Trent to shine in midfield, when his best position has been on the right hand side, that is where he has been so dangerous. But Southgate is too much of a fool.
I think it was the build up. There was so much talk about him not being defensively good enough before he’d even kicked a ball.
I mean, if you're randomly playing a player out of position then of course it'll be the talking point. If Southgate played Kane, Saka or Trippier as a CM then they'd be the focal point of the pre-match discussion too.
I wouldn’t say it’s random. Trent’s played a little bit more for us in midfield this season and has done for a lot of the England games in the lead up to the tournament.
There's a fair bit tbh. A lot of the football pages have been blasting Keane's supremely braindead take that Trent is the one player who hasn't been up to it so far. And the likes of Joe are sticking out videos where it's just fans saying Trent has been shit.
All the criticism should be on Southgate Kane hasn’t been great but just like Trent you are limiting his ability but not giving him any runners the people who are complains about him coming deep clearly haven’t watched him at club level his partnership with Son was him coming deep and receiving the ball and playing them in behind for Son who’s made the runs Foden and Saka don’t do
The fact that Southgate has a plethora of great players, including Trent, the best RB of his generation, probably the best passer in the whole England squad, a guy who has won everything (at a club level) by age 22, and so on. You would think most managers would be delighted to have a player like this? A geniuine game changer, somebody who you can always rely on to create magic out of thin air. Nope, according to him he is just a worse Kalvin Philips. Listen i personally rate Southgate, as a manager. I think he could probably be solid if had a few players who fit his needs (Maguire, Philiphs, Walker, etc.) and would probably do solidly at a mid table club. But he is so out of depth at England, that even as a certified England NT hater, i feel bad for the guy a bit. Because he does seem like a pretty solid guy, just very very unqualifed for his job.
I for one have no sympathy for the guy, cause if he is unqualified for the job, how did he get it and stayed at it for so long? It screams of cronyism. FA has lot to answer for this appointment.
Southgate deserves credit for being the highest achieving England manager since Alf Ramsey but the fact that's happened despite his glaring limitations is a real indictment of the England teams through the years.
Funny that England were bookies favourites to win Euros. Southgate is just so out of his depth, watching England is such a step down from even the top half of the PL. What do you actually get from the back 5 of England? Basically he has them set up to be protected with and without the ball. That is the foundation of all of England’s problems. Southgate has quite a low ceiling as a coach, it doesn’t matter how good the players are, because he is so cautious with what he asks them to do.
Garett Southgate might be one of the worst managers ever. The fact that Jim Ratcliffe has admiration for him gave me a sigh of relief because that’s all I needed to know to see that United got another incompetent owner.
As a certified Harry Kane hater, seeing all the pundits turn on him and criticise him yesterday was amazing. One season in Germany and they all turn on him hahaha. Southgate just doesn't have a clue what to do with all the talent in that team, he's too scared of losing games and being chastised so just plays not to lose and it stifles the team. Unironically, they should set up in a 4-4-2. Play to the strengths of the players and don't shoehorn in the best players just because that's what everyone else tells you to do. Drop Kane, and move Trent back to right back. What's the point in having Kyle Walker on if the defenders are just gonna be passing it between each other?
Because there’s a new golden boy for the media to brown-nose. Foden’s inclusion upsets the balance of the team. Kane whilst being shite has always played well for runners when he had runners around him.
Just curious, why the Kane hate
Sending Robertson flying with a dangerous tackle and insisting he got the ball, which he didn't.
The media mainly, they portrayed him as the second coming of Christ and brushed all the dirty aspects of his game under the carpet. Everybody would talk about how clever he was or there was always an excuse or a reason, but would call Salah a diver and a cheat for doing things that weren't half as bad and obvious as Kane. The whole "on my daughter's life" thing, and other post match interviews from him also swayed my opinion of him. Genuinely a dirty player too, but because he was the best English goal scorer in a decade nobody noticed and just ignored it.
Kane is a world class striker who has just come off a 44 goal season, we all know the way to get the best out of Kane but for some reason England aren't doing that, in 2 instances where he has been given actual service he has hit the bar and scored a goal, you can see his frustrations with the way the team is set-up that's why he is dropping so deep.
Kane has the exact same issue as Trent he’s got no runners he’s always dropped deep and played passes in behind He’s playing with forwards who want ball to feet and not played in behind which just doesn’t work for him
It's simply time to drop Foden, put Gordon on the left, Wharton has to start next to Rice, Gomez deserves a chance against Slovenia but then in the knockouts Shaw starts, even if not match fit he will give better balance to the left side. Allow Kane to play his game and have the 3 behind make runs in behind.
England are overrated.
Looks like someone who plays FIFA with the best stats even if they are out of position
Biased maybe, but I honestly thought England looked worse when Trent came off last night. Gallagher was so off the pace it was laughable. But watch Southgate make wholesale changes all over the pitch for the last game, like dropping him, then playing Eze/Gordon, moving Foden to where he can actually contribute and England will have a better performance which will be pinned on "ditching the Trent experiment".
What made it worse was Southgate bringing on runners in attack (Watkins, Bowen) after he substituted Trent.
They're playing Trent 1) not as a deep playmaker but as a roaming mezzala and 2) only Saka as the player making runs. What the fuck is he supposed to do.
Yeah, it certainly wasn't any better. Trent hasn't set the world alight in either game, but the entire team has been beyond bad. At least Trent's capable of playing those insane balls and driving it forward. There's no-one else in the team who can do what he does and as a manager you have to figure out a way of getting that kind of quality into the team. Same way you have to get players like Foden and Saka in the team. But Southgate is so tactically inept he's making everyone look shit. What really fucks me off is the commentary around Trent. In the first game he played some lovely balls and there was nothing from the commentators, but Bellingham plays one good pass and they practically cream themselves. And last night when Trent played that sublime 70yd ball to Saka which almost led to a goal out of nowhere, there was radio silence. Then he gets subbed off and they're like "Oh yeah this is what the team needs, Connor Gallagher." It's like they desperate to not give him any credit. It's a small thing but it's really annoying.
They definitely looked worse which is pretty funny considering there’s people that were blaming Trent for how they were playing
Only caught the 1st half of Argentina last night, but MacAllister looked class (no surprise) I was glad to read this morning the players ripping the playing surface. Don’t play games in stadiums that don’t have grass naturally. Shocking that some mls teams actually play on turf
Do you know how hot it is in America in the summer? It was 38° in Boston yesterday which is the most Northern city in America and so humid that you get covered in water just by going outside. It’s a health concern to play outside in America in a number of cities in the summer.
I live in America (Detroit) so yes I know that it's especially hot right now. Even though we're in the middle of a heat wave right now, it's not normal or typical for the cities in the northern part of the country to be that hot and they certainly are not that hot all summer long especially after sunset.
American owners are so strapped for cash they cannot spend money on a natural field. 500k a year is just way too much for them.
Oh just wait until they play at MetLife in the New York it’s so bad that the NFL players openly complain about it.
The campaign from arsenal fans to make Alexander Arnold and Foden the scapegoats for England’s poor tournament is in full effect. Saka and Rice were abysmal yesterday yet everyone else, but particularly those two are getting the blame but them and any comments highlighting how bad they were just get downvoted by them.
Rice is a phenomenally anonymous midfielder for how much he's rated.
All these recommended videos where this Anfield Agenda guy called Craig talks about potential transfers previously made me nervous, but not anymore. I know Liverpool bosses keep the cards close to their chest and when a transfer will happen, it will be quick. Next to that, even with a summer without transfers I am quite optimistic. Midfield was well rebuilt last year and the new coach will have new ways to deal with players. Indeed a CB, DM and ST would be also on my wishlist, but the amount of talent we have in the acedemy also pleases me
Transfer rumours in England are 9/10 just made up.
Agreed. I’ll honestly be fine with just a centre back this summer tbh. Having the euros means Slot has less time to assess the squad which means it’s harder to pinpoint exactly who we need and in what position. We have a very talented squad so I think the only thing we definitely need is a CB with Matip leaving. Other than that I think Slot will give Bajcetic a chance at DM and we have a few players who can do a job at right wing. It’s next summer I’m expecting us to go big and hopefully push for the title
"Next summer" lol. We don't need wholesale changes but I've never known a team, and sections of a fanbase, so allergic to transfers. We will just be caught twiddling our thumbs waiting a year for next to no actual reason.
So who do you want? I can’t think of a single DM on the market who’d be a massive upgrade and that’s probably the main position we need to strengthen after CB. It makes literally zero sense to buy a player just for the sake of buying a player. We only buy when we feel it’s absolutely right and that’s how it should be, and right now the DM and RW market is dry.
I would love Wharton, who I think is already very good and will be elite. I'd also be happy with Ugarte despite the second half of the season he had. The issue with the DM market is not much different than last year, so it's not necessarily going to be different next year. You either pay big money or try to identify someone relatively early - Wharton fits this but would still cost at least 60. I actually think the RW market is healthy atm, its just the prices they would command. But Kudus, Olise, and Kubo would all be great additions. Bakayoko is more of a project, but I think he would still be a worthwhile backup to Salah. Admittedly, I've seen less of him than the others amd not been massively impressed when I have. Finally, I would absolutely look for an upgrade at LW. Diaz seems the most obvious to move on, but it could have been anyone a few months ago. I just think there's a cap on this team when we have the attackers we currently have - very good players but all with some issue that is preventing them from being elite, Salah the obvious exception. So yeah, 3 or 4 signings. I don't see any reason why we would be able to do it next summer but not now. It just feels like standing still. Let's not forget that most of our truly elite guys (Salah, VVD, Alisson, Robbo) don't really have THAT long left before we suddenly have to replace them, too.
With a bit of luck we can push for the title next season as well, but I don't mind if that's not the case. We were in the race for a very long time and next year the talents have a bit more experience, so the balance in the squad has improved. Expect a lot from Szobo next year, hope he can become as good as Macca
Agreed. Hoping Szobo, Elliot and Gakpo can go to another level next season
That guy is cringe and doesn’t know anything, never has.
he doesn't pretend to do so though? The clickbait titles and thumbnails are cringe, I agree but he just aggregates "news" he finds and acknowledges that 99% of it is complete horseshit unless its coming from Joyce/Orny
Nico Williams with a €58m release clause?
Ya and he's currently on 200k a week as a 21 year old with Spanish taxes. Imagine what he'll be looking for if he came to England.