****England v Italy Euros FINAL 11/07/21 8pm*****

[FightingIllini]

I think utd stunted his progress

Instead of signing Zlatan they should have played Rashford at centre forward

Yeah he's a victim of Ole's amateur hour and Greenwood will soon be too if they don't change.

United might be scary good if they got a real manager.

 

[Fattynomates]

Rashford completely bottled it. He's far more to blame than Sako.

Should have been practicing penalties instead of politics

 

[Go on son]

I'd love to know why he didn't get one of Trippier, Grealish, Walker, Sterling or even Stones to take a penalty.

I'd also say that there is bugger all point in practising penalties - obviously doesn't make a blind bit of difference and if anything, it probably mucks with your head.

Trippier was off

 

[NorseYid]

As a sort of neutral I don't really see how and why Mount has played so very many minutes.

Same goes for Trippier.

 

[Blanchflower]

Yeah he's a victim of Ole's amateur hour and Greenwood will soon be too if they don't change.

United might be scary good if they got a real manager.

I worry that they will get Conte - he'd be brilliant there

 

[FightingIllini]

As a sort of neutral I don't really see how and why Mount has played so very many minutes.

Same goes for Trippier.

Trippier played very well when he played.

Mount was worthy of the chance on his club form, but as the tournament rolled on it just became more about Southgate's unwillingness to change his team, and his commitment to the idea of Grealish as super-sub.

And yet Grealish doesn't come on in the 90 minutes. It was not Gary's night.

 

[NorseYid]

I think with De Bruyne available, he'd still be sitting on the bench into extra time waiting for Mount to get subbed off.

If a peak career Platini was available, he'd still have to wait because a team with 3 centrebacks really do need 2 defensive midfielders in front of them...

 

[FightingIllini]

Penalty taking order last night was based on historic penalty conversion rates and stats from training. So there was logic.

There was data. There was not logic.

 

[Ginolaflair]

looked like he was dancing

But has a 15 and 2 record so........
Jorginho and Fernandes have equally stupid run ups and they score most pens so.....
Rashfords pen and run up sent the keeper the wrong way but lack of touches meant he pulled his shot an inch left and that ment post not goal...such things happen.

 

[Ginolaflair]

Trippier played very well when he played.

Mount was worthy of the chance on his club form, but as the tournament rolled on it just became more about Southgate's unwillingness to change his team, and his commitment to the idea of Grealish as super-sub.

And yet Grealish doesn't come on in the 90 minutes. It was not Gary's night.

I feel like mount and his lack of anything has gone unnoticed right?
Not being a Chelsea fan (obvs) I can't comment on what he actually does but I wonder if anyone with Chelsea mates can relate what they say about mount and how he played....from my pov, he came across as overrated

 

[Blanchflower]

As a sort of neutral I don't really see how and why Mount has played so very many minutes.

Same goes for Trippier.

I don't get Mount - just pretty average at everything

Sancho and Grealish offer far more, but I guess don't listen to Southgate as he seems to hate them

 

[FightingIllini]

I feel like mount and his lack of anything has gone unnoticed right?
Not being a Chelsea fan (obvs) I can't comment on what he actually does but I wonder if anyone with Chelsea mates can relate what they say about mount and how he played....from my pov, he came across as overrated

He declined as the tournament went along, the guy has played a shitload of football this year.

And I don't understand starting him out wide at all, he's best dictating play from the middle of the field. Trouble is, Kane also occupies that area.

It would have made entirely more sense to start Grealish in Mount's place as a more natural wide player, and then keep Mount for if and when the moment came to revert to a back 4 and bring in a number 10.

Then you can use Saka to replace a tiring Sterling, and Rashford or Sancho can naturally sub off Grealish in the course of game rather than shoehorning them in for penalty purposes.

It was a cascade of poorly thought out strategic decisions.

I understand a hesitance to use Ben Chilwell who hasn't kicked a ball all tournament, but there was just nothing to be done about Luke Shaw finally running out of gas with 5 subs? Could that be the spot to get Saka on?

Gary managed as if he had no flexibility when he actually had a ton.

 

[Bazali]

Theres are world cup next year. FA shouldnt be tolerating Gary's negative football for another big tournament. First time in a while we have many excellent players in the national team. Cant let gary fuck it up.

My biggest fear this Summer was that we might get this gutless clown or Martinez

Thankfully we’ve got Nuno but although he wasn’t my first choice, he’s preferable to those two

And to those who say that he didn’t do a lot wrong the England team was booed off the field, quite rightly, after their poor performance against Scotland who only just qualified

Yes he got us to the final but never looked like winning it despite a dream start

 

[Bazali]

I don't get Mount - just pretty average at everything

Sancho and Grealish offer far more, but I guess don't listen to Southgate as he seems to hate them

Mount puts the effort in but no end product and even overshadowed by Rice who was decent as was Walker

 

[Bazali]

It's a decent system that needs tweaking, not throwing out. The system that beat Germany and thrashed Ukraine, then overcome a strong Denmark. He needs to tweak it to bring Kane into the game.

Germany were meh Denmark were ok and Ukraine poor

 

[Bazali]

Maybe he was looking at the others and Saka was the most confident of the lot though? Says a lot about the rest of the side that Saka ended up taking that kick, there's just no way that there were 6 other guys were busting to take that kick but the manager turned them all away in favor of Saka.

Whatever you think about his managerial capabilities, that would be a ridiculous level of self sabotage.

Grealish asked to take one

Saka was terrified and I felt sorry for him

 

[Barmby]

Germany were meh Denmark were ok and Ukraine poor

In response to how England played. It didn't happen in isolation.

 

[Bazali]

Spot on

 

[Bazali]

Shocking from Southgate. All England needs are better tactics.

Or a decent manager whose PL cv doesn’t consist of taking Middlesbrough down

 

[Bazali]

Can't blame the pen takers and don't know enough about the process for choosing them and the conversations last night to really start pointing fingers.

I thought tactically the 343 worked really well initially so the manager must take credit for that. However once italy started exerting control and increasing the pressure either side of half time, he really needed to go 433 to give us an extra body in midfield, get hold of the ball (which kept coming back) and relieve the pressure. He did it but only after Italy scored and I hope with hindsight he learns his lesson between a reactive and proactive approach during games.

The formation change got England back into the game rather than any of the individual subs, none of whom were particularly good.

He does lots really well as manager and although tactics isn't his strongest suit, he should still be in place for the world cup, his approach to each game shows some detailed thinking and sense, I just feel he's a bit loath to make changes to tactics during games until it's a bit late.

Great tournament overall and looking forward to the next one.

I can blame Rashford for trying to be clever
He isn’t but should have been brought on earlier to actually win the thing without penalties but Gary didn’t have the guts