Euro 2020 Group Stage Thread

nychammer66

yoyo said:

A draw sees us get the slightly easier draw in the latter stages, should we be so lucky to get that far. I just want to see us play better but will be happy with a draw. Portugal won the competition last time out without wining a match in 90 minutes. In the end that's all that counts. But Please!!!! Lets look like we're interested!

I hate all the talk of what gets us the easier draw. We are in the spotlight in a prestigious tournament, second only to World Cup. We should be playing to win every game. Problem with England is we don’t. For 50 years I’ve been watching us run forward then stop and pass back/sideways. It really looks like we don’t know what to do. It’s not just southgate, it’s every manager since Greenwood.

OldCastleSwift

Fortuneseeker said:

He could asystematic or hydromatic but is he “greased lightning”! 😄

Finally!

ASLEFshrugged

UEFA have denied Munich mayor Dieter Reiter's request to light the Allianz Stadium in rainbow colours tomorrow night to protest against the Hungarian government passing a law similar to our Section 28 (Local Government Act 1988)

Germany thrashing Hungary will have to do instead

ASLEFshrugged

Pickford
Walker Stones Maguire Shaw
Phillips Rice
Saka Grealish Sterling
Johnny X the Invisible Centre Forward

Harsh on Mings who hadn't done much wrong as far as I could tell

Slacker

Is it just me or is Billy Gilmore becoming a better player the further we go from the England- Scotland game? He’s now a superstar since he was found Covid positive.
As for his performance against us was he that good? Tbh I don’t remember him being anywhere near “outstanding “ in a dire game.

steve

England winning if anyone cares

whupathman

pre match, Grealish , Grealish, first half Grealish Grealish Grealish, half time Grealish, wonder what they will talk about in the second half ?

thornburyiron

Declan off at half time for Henderson.

whupathman

thats a bad move

OldCastleSwift

I hope it's just to keep him fresh for the next round.

I fear it's because of injury, because, you know, West Ham.

yoyo

Henderson is likely to have a pop at goal if it's in his sights. Rice has been quite underwhelming in this competition so far and I'm a great fan of his

OldCastleSwift

Thought he, like England as a whole, was much better tonight.

whupathman

why Rashford

whupathman

Grealish climbs out of Coufals pocket and is subbed

OldCastleSwift

OldCastleSwift said:

Thought he, like England as a whole, was much better tonight.

Though the second half has been pretty poor. Southgate looking to 1-0 his way to the trophy?

ASLEFshrugged

Just finished work, walked into the pub and the first thing I see is Alex Kral in profile

That's some hooter he's got there

whupathman

whupathman said:

Croatia must fancy putting a hatful against the Scots

looks like I was right on this one

OutcastLondoner

Don’t know why Sancho doesn’t get more of a chance and surely this would’ve been the time to try out what DCL could do with Kane offering nothing.

Saka was great though.

Kral’s fee certainly won’t be what his club are asking for after this tournament.

BubblesNeverDies

ASLEFshrugged said:

Just finished work, walked into the pub and the first thing I see is Alex Kral in profile

That's some hooter he's got there

And that remark is very noseist.

Hamstew

Rice was decent tonight I thought.

Bazshuayi

Tony Currie and Declan Rice, what a tasty combination (tell me you dont want a curry right now!)

claretandbluesky

I am not sure how Southgate can play Kane again after three performances in which he has done nothing of note, and how is Rashford getting minutes ahead of sancho? I wonder if Southgate is afraid of big calls? He also seems to make Rice an overly defensive player and loses that bit of magic from him in which he is able to get a bit further forward and break up the opposing teams play more as he does for us.

Hamstew

When Rice came off the team was a shambles. I'm not saying it's all down to him but our shape was all over the place. Henderson seemed to be playing right middle for some reason. Will be interesting to see if he was being rested or if now Henderson is back Rice will be out of the team.

BubblesNeverDies

If Rice is out of the team at least he won't get injured on England duty again.
I'd rather he didn't play if it means him having to play in the way he has been doing (Southgate's instructions?) and not as he does for us.

OldCastleSwift

Personally I don't think it was a coincidence. First half it was Rice sitting and Phillips more advanced. Second half I think it was supposed to be Phillips sitting and Henderson more advanced, but Phillips can't do that role as well as Rice, IMO. And to be honest I'm not convinced that Henderson is better than Rice in the more advanced role (I've never rated Henderson, TBH).

I think Southgate wanted to give Henderson minutes ahead of the knock-out rounds (or round, as I suspect it will be in England's case), and doing so allowed him to rest Rice. I'd be surprised if Rice didn't start the next game.

OldCastleSwift

claretandbluesky said:

I am not sure how Southgate can play Kane again after three performances in which he has done nothing of note, and how is Rashford getting minutes ahead of sancho? I wonder if Southgate is afraid of big calls? He also seems to make Rice an overly defensive player and loses that bit of magic from him in which he is able to get a bit further forward and break up the opposing teams play more as he does for us.

On the Kane thing, I fully expect Southgate to stick with him. That's three games now where he's contributed little, but after Southgate's comments the other day I can't see him dropping him.

Rashford hasn't done anything, either. Granted, it's only minutes from the bench, but for what I assume to be an impact sub, he made little to no impact on the games.

And despite Sterling's two goals, I really don't think he's done much generally. He seems to have carried his Man City form into the tournament but I guess his goals have made him un-droppable too.

Just think Southgate suffers from the same thing that many of his predecessors have; picking players on reputation rather than form (despite his claims to the contrary). It's possible that he's hoping they can play their way into form, but I'm not sure that's the right approach in a knock-out tournament.

Hamstew

Grealish, Sako, Watkins, Bellingham, Lingard, Foden (in his correct position), Sancho are all players bang in form. He's mostly being playing those out of form and for some reason desperately trying to shoehorn in a very average Henderson. I was a Southgate fan but he has definitely ended up doing what all England managers end up doing.
I can't believe Watkins wasn't included in the squad. I think we're crying out for him.

yoyo

Rice doesn't appear to be given permission to push forward like he does for us. His game is being stifled

ScotHammer

Oh well, Scotland are portrayed as “plucky liosers” yet again!

IMO they can’t be faulted for effort, bur just aren’t good enough to really compete at this level consistently. They have a couple of great players (e.g. Robertson), and created a lot of chances, but never really looked like scoring. It was a combination of the passion and a poor England performance that allowed us to get a 0-0 draw from that game. I don’t know him as a player, but Lyndon Dykes did not seem to do anything but give the ball to the opposition.

I only switched over to the England game a few times to see what was happening. Every time I did the name Grealish was mentioned, most fouled player EVER, etc. Was he that great, or is he just the latest poster boy for the media?

In saying that, the media were portraying Billy Gilmour as the Lionel Messi of the Highlands, so the Scottish media seem to have the same bug!

IronHerb

Grealish did play well and so got the accolades. Vlad 'left one on him', as they say, but he kept running at their defence which always causes concern.