Euro 2020 Group Stage Thread

Hammerwombat

That was fairly poor. My congratulations to the catering staff at Wembley, and to Gareth Southgate for single handedly trying to resurrect the pack-a-Mac as a fashion item. Well done everyone.

yoyo

Dreadful, slow and clueless, sounds like a firm of solicitors

thornburyiron

So Southgate’s team talk was basically “whatever you do don’t lose”. I thought we were bang average on Sunday but tonight we were poor. Bereft of ideas, so many players completely inept such as Kane, Sterling, Mount and the rest not far behind.
I’m sure France, Belgium, Italy etc are quaking at the thought of meeting us. If the Czechs beat us and there’s a clear winner in the Croatia Scotland game we may not get out of the group.

Hammerwombat

I just had to fill in my euro wall chart. Anyone got any tipex?

yoyo

If only Antonio was offering himself upfront.

OldCastleSwift

Ian Wright made a good point. Looking for chances and goals and Southgate takes off Foden and leaves Sancho on the bench. Very odd.

buffybegood

OldCastleSwift said:

MrsGrey said:

That really was a pen. He got nowhere near the ball and stood on Sterling's foot.

See, I don't think it was a penalty.

But.

They've been given in the PL.

So who knows anymore.

Well, if we're being honest, they're given to some teams in the Premier League. As the TV ref (Peter Walton?) said (if it was someone outside of the big 6 clubs), "there's not enough in it for me, he went down too easily", but Salah, Sterling or Kane gets that in the Premier Leaque.

yoyo

God knows what kind of performance we'll offer on Tuesday knowing we only need a point

MrsGrey

Southgate out.


Too soon?

Yeoldhammer

thing is we know Coufal has had Grealish in his pocket before and Soucek is not going to get bulled by any of the midfielders we have at our disposal. It will take some magic to score past these Czechs.

Fortuneseeker

A draw and we get the supposedly easier route through the competition. 😉

OldCastleSwift

MrsGrey said:

Southgate out.


Too soon?

When you look at the talent he has at his disposal, the last two performances (and the warm up games) have been nowhere near good enough. So no, I'm not sure it is.

thornburyiron

It’s the same every tournament. We qualify in a group against countries with populations smaller than some of our local villages and go overboard about it. Come the tournament and we very rarely perform. They keep on about reaching the semi finals of the last World Cup but we didn’t beat any decent teams and struggled to beat those we did except of course the mighty Panama, better known for hats than football.

claretandbluesky

Southgate had a management post with Middlesbrough from 2006-09 and somehow finds himself England manager. Great guy, great frontman but not much of a manager.

I think the quality of the squad at his disposal should be able to break down Scotland. Kane was pedestrian in the extreme and anyone could see he needed taking off at half time, yet he hardly selected an in form confident replacement in Rashford.

thornburyiron

I’ll be surprised if Rice plays on Tuesday as he was poor tonight and never shows any invention unless of course that’s how he is instructed to play.

ianbishoplegend

What happened to world class Kane!! He’s only class against Southampton and West Brom

claretandbluesky

Strangely he could have been left out tonight as we needed be more attacking against a team like Scotland and Southgate does seem to be asking him to play deeper. Rice will be invaluable if we meet better teams and the defence need that support of an incredibly able defensive midfielder. This evening we needed push forward more and faster to really put it on Scotland.

alderz

thornburyiron said:

I’ll be surprised if Rice plays on Tuesday as he was poor tonight and never shows any invention unless of course that’s how he is instructed to play.

I thought was Rice did his job. He’s meant to be the deep holding midfielder, and he’s meant to let Mount and Phillips play. The problem is neither of them (nor any of the front players) did that.

My biggest bugbear is when set pieces don’t beat the first man. Honestly, it’s not good enough.

Hamstew

Rice did ok I think. Clearly been told to do a certain thing. Kane, sterling, foden, mount, Grealish, Rashford and Philips were miles worse than him.

ASLEFshrugged

I didn't see any of it

What happened to Calvin Phillips, he was the greatest thing since sliced bread 4 days ago

IronHerb

ASLEFshrugged said:

I didn't see any of it

What happened to Calvin Phillips, he was the greatest thing since sliced bread 4 days ago

He had Kane and Sterling in front of him, that's what happened.

WHU_Champo_league_in_7_years

Southgate is a lucky man

The World Cup was great for fans but if you actually look at it, apart from Sweden we never looked that good

Panama were rubbish granted, but needed last minute Winner against Tunisia and penalties against a Columbis without James Rodriguez

This squad could and should be around the Semis, this just isn't good enough

Why is it we always seem like we play in 2nd gear with no clue how to put it into 3rd....

Kuchinghammer

Rice must have been as bored as I was in the first half. Think he touched the ball three times, following instructions. He was very naughty late on though, nearly scrambled a goal. Expect him to be dropped for doing that...

Kuchinghammer

"Kuchinghammer">So far, Wales have been the best Home Nation. Both in support and team spirit. Tonight's match will decide if England and Scotland can reach that level. COYUK!

Ok, so Scotland did. England's turn next...

Slacker

My two penneth.
It wasn’t very good, Scotland were decent but not much more.
Some individual performances were poor, but if you remember ‘96 we started very slowly and then thrashed Holland went on to so nearly get all the way to the final. They say that in tournament football it’s about qualifying first and then pushing on.
Maybe I’m clutching at straws but hopefully we will improve.

yoyo

I can handle a draw if we had played well and were unlucky. But we were so poor. Nobody seemed to want the ball. We had no urgency or idea. Kane ( who I've defended ) looked uninterested , Stirling offered nothing. Rice not allowed to surge forward? Always passing sideways or back. Just no movement anywhere. It was simply a dreadful performance but well done to Scotland.

Kuchinghammer

I swear I heard the pitch-side mike pick up this in the second half: "Plan A isn't working, Gareth." Long pause for deep thought. "OK. Let's try Plan A then"

yoyo

We had a plan??

thornburyiron

According to Southgate we didn’t lack intensity but our problem was we were too frantic. I don’t know which dictionary he uses but if we were frantic last night I will hate to see us play when we do lack intensity.

OutcastLondoner

I get that Rice is supposed to sit but there were times when he could’ve taken a stride or two with the ball without getting too far out of position or played it forward instead of passing sideways. I just don’t think he’s brave enough in England games.

I’d like to see DCL start the next game. Apart from roaming all over the pitch, Kane looked so off when was on the ball.