***England V Czech Rep 22/06/2021***

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So who do we fancy - France, Germany or Portugal?

Which of those would we give a good game to?

I'd like Germany even though I think they're probably the hardest for us....

But England v Germany at Wembley..... Doesn't get any better than that.
 
So who do we fancy - France, Germany or Portugal?

Which of those would we give a good game to?

I'd like Germany even though I think they're probably the hardest for us....

But England v Germany at Wembley..... Doesn't get any better than that.

I'd fancy us more against Portugal, especially if they defend anything like how they did against Germany. We have a chance against anyone if we play well. In football anything can happen in one off games. We'll need to give our best performance of the tournament so far if we are to progress, but nobody can see that we've played anything like to the best of our ability yet.
 
Do not want Germany.. sorry but them losing to France was the worst possible thing! Made them wake up and they looked crazy good!
 
If I were an England fan, the thing that would really concern me is the inability to generate a decent volume of quality chances. I read they have something like 7 SOG in their first 3 matches. They have no clear attacking strategy and aside from a few short stretches in matches, don't really look all that dangerous.

It's sort of like periods for us under Jose where we were getting results without generating many chances, when those chances dried up or we played quality opposition, we really struggled.

It'd be one thing to say, sure, we've only scored 2 goals but we've had a lot of chances and it's only a matter of time for them to start going in. That's not the case though. England are barely generating chances and it seems strange to me people would think they would start doing that as the quality of opposition increases.

It's not strange at all really. Kane obviously isn't at the level we know he can play at yet. Foden is yet to really shine and produce a standard Man City performance. Same goes for Sancho, if he's actually given a chance. But basically if these players find their usual club form then England will create more and play better. The better sides will give England opportunities to counter attack as they'll be trying to win the game more than sides like Croatia and the Czech's did too. Obviously the chance of England conceding goes up too against the better sides. But take the game last night into consideration - The Czech's were more concerned in the second half about stifling England's attack than they were of actually attacking and getting back on level terms. They barely created a thing in the second 45, same as England.

In my opinion, I feel like we've been content to be doing just about enough. You don't get extra points for scoring more goals or creating more chances in the group stages. Plus if England had been winning games by a few the expectation would have gone through the roof which is never a good thing. There's no middle ground with idiotic England supporters. It's either "It's coming home!" or "We're fucking abysmal, mate!".

Other Nations get applauded for being efficient, for winning games and qualifying rather comfortably when not being at their best and/or expanding more energy. Not England. Our fans riot if we're not beating sides 3 or 4 if they're not one of the top countries in world football.
 
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Do not want Germany.. sorry but them losing to France was the worst possible thing! Made them wake up and they looked crazy good!

They were much better than they were in their opening game but Portugal's back line certainly helped them. They were hopeless, and Germany took full advantage.
 
It's not strange at all really. Kane obviously isn't at the level we know he can play at yet. Foden is yet to really shine and produce a standard Man City performance. Same goes for Sancho, if he's actually given a chance. But basically if these players find their usual club form then England will create more and play better. The better sides will give England opportunities to counter attack as they'll be trying to win the game more than sides like Croatia and the Czech's did too. Obviously the chance of England conceding goes up too against the better sides. But take the game last night into consideration - The Czech's were more concerned in the second half about stifling England's attack than they were of actually attacking and getting back on level terms. They barely created a thing in the second 45, same as England.

In my opinion, I feel like we've been content to be doing just about enough. You don't get extra points for scoring more goals or creating more chances in the group stages. Plus if England had been winning games by a few the expectation would have gone through the roof which is never a good thing. There's no middle ground with idiotic England supporters. It's either "It's coming home!" or "We're fucking abysmal, mate!".

Other Nations get applauded for being efficient, for winning games and qualifying rather comfortably when not being at their best and/or expanding more energy. Not England. Our fans riot if we're not beating sides 3 or 4 if they're not one of the top countries in world football.
Fella.. we've all endured 18 months of crap football under Jose.. and watching the wheels fall off for Poch before that.

Now its the Euros.. forgive us for wanting to be Entertained. Tournament football should be all about going for it. If Southgate doesn't step up in the knockouts then I think I will pass.
 
It's not strange at all really. Kane obviously isn't at the level we know he can play at yet. Foden is yet to really shine and produce a standard Man City performance. Same goes for Sancho, if he's actually given a chance. But basically if these players find their usual club form then England will create more and play better. The better sides will give England opportunities to counter attack as they'll be trying to win the game more than sides like Croatia and the Czech's did too. Obviously the chance of England conceding goes up too against the better sides. But take the game last night into consideration - The Czech's were more concerned in the second half about stifling England's attack than they were of actually attacking and getting back on level terms. They barely created a thing in the second 45, same as England.

In my opinion, I feel like we've been content to be doing just about enough. You don't get extra points for scoring more goals or creating more chances in the group stages. Plus if England had been winning games by a few the expectation would have gone through the roof which is never a good thing. There's no middle ground with idiotic England supporters. It's either "It's coming home!" or "We're fucking abysmal, mate!".

Other Nations get applauded for being efficient, for winning games and qualifying rather comfortably when not being at their best and/or expanding more energy. Not England. Our fans riot if we're not beating sides 3 or 4 if they're not one of the top countries in world football.
It does seem a bit of an England thing to play at the level of the opposition, be it San Marino or Brazil. By quality of players, we should have put 3 or 4 past both Scotland and the Czechs.
 
Fella.. we've all endured 18 months of crap football under Jose.. and watching the wheels fall off for Poch before that.

Now its the Euros.. forgive us for wanting to be Entertained. Tournament football should be all about going for it. If Southgate doesn't step up in the knockouts then I think I will pass.

In football results should always come before performance. Obviously if you get both then that's wonderful.

In the past when England's group games were full of highs and lows I remember the general opinion was "Why can't we ever do things comfortably and without drama?". Now that we've finally done that, a lot of people aren't pleased because they aren't seeing end to end action. It's utter madness.

I said at the beginning of the tournament that I expect England to play better, to create more, when we play the better sides. Simply because the better sides will generally leave more space to be exploited by committing more of their own men forward. Now that we're about to play one of France, Germany and Portugal the proof will soon be in the pudding.
 
I said at the beginning of the tournament that I expect England to play better, to create more, when we play the better sides. Simply because the better sides will generally leave more space to be exploited by committing more of their own men forward. Now that we're about to play one of France, Germany and Portugal the proof will soon be in the pudding.

I really hope so.. I get your point and get why the set up gets the results. I really want to see us being the threat though.. I want others to fear us and have to drop an attacking talent in favour of defence!
We shall see what is what next game... only a week to go!
 
It does seem a bit of an England thing to play at the level of the opposition, be it San Marino or Brazil. By quality of players, we should have put 3 or 4 past both Scotland and the Czechs.

We're capable. We beat the Czech's 5-0 (or 4-0, I can't remember) the last time we played them at Wembley prior to last night. But they're a better team than they were then and have had some really good results over the last year or two also.

There's no getting away that the performance against Scotland was poor. But every side either at club level or internationally has a bad game, better sides than England, at some point. The other two games were pretty comfortable wins in solid performances. I don't believe for a moment that Southgate and all the players think the performance level they've given so far will be enough to go through in the next round.
 
I really hope so.. I get your point and get why the set up gets the results. I really want to see us being the threat though.. I want others to fear us and have to drop an attacking talent in favour of defence!
We shall see what is what next game... only a week to go!

I want that too. That's why I keep saying we should never be playing Rice and Phillips together, It's not required against the sides we've played in the group stages, and against the better teams it just won't be good enough.

I just think the reaction to how we've topped the our group and the solid but certainly not spectacular performances is over the top by some. It seems people think we have a right to just turn up and beat sides by 3 or 4. Despite the fact that very few teams beat either Croatia or the Czech's ever by such a margin.
 
Saka was good in 1st half but not much after that. Apart from some fouls and the cross for the goal, grealish pretty anonymous....definitely not brilliant
I thought Saka was the bright spot in the game. His control was excellent, and it was his driving runs that got us on the front foot when we attacked. He was my MoM yesterday. I felt the 2nd half was tepid because we didn’t get the ball to him enough, the same for Grealish really.
 
I was pretty underwhelmed after that second half performance, but I do have a certain belief that we are playing well within ourselves so far and things so far haven't clicked in attack that eventually will, hopefully at just the right time going into the knockout phase.

We plainly look better and more dangerous with players like Grealish and Saka who are willing to take the ball and run with it. My main concern is that Southgate will just revert to 3 workhorses in midfield against the better sides and we will just not offer enough going forward to trouble them.
 
Phillips has impressed me more than Rice so far. More mobile and a better passing range. Rice looks Dier-esque by comparison, which surprised me as he's looked much better than that this season.

I think Southgate should consider Phillips-Henderson for the next game. Equally Saka deserves to keep his spot ahead of Foden on current form, and I think that's a real possibility as Southgate will value Saka's better defensive discipline / tracking back against a top team.
 
Phillips has impressed me more than Rice so far.

I think Southgate should consider Phillips-Henderson for the next game. Equally Saka deserves to keep his spot ahead of Foden on current form, and I think that's a real possibility as Southgate will value Saka's better defensive discipline / tracking back against a top team.
Good points.
Phillips has played every minute yet he was still fresh towards the end of the game.
Saka was great up and down the pitch and the passes he received when he went on his runs were excellent.
Schick has been one of the most in form strikers in the tournament until tonight. Stones and Maguire didn't give him a sniff, and it wasn't because he's not decent.
They both were great. Mings was good in the games he played, too.
GS has a great squad and let's hope he keeps getting the selections and tactics right.
 
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Saw an Opta stat that England have progressed the ball upfield 0.98 meters per second on average... which means nothing as a stat... however it is the slowest of all the countries involved who have completed 3 group games.

Is this the manager, the players, no idea but it is a tough watch at times.
 
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