Euros 2024

Spain v France
Netherlands v England

Spain v France
Netherlands v England

BenE wrote:I was watching the shape of the team tonight and when England attack the only player in the box is Kane and he makes zero movement. Hence we just pass from side to side. Hopefully he's done his ankle in that fall and we can play with a forward who runs about and pulls the defence around.
If I had my way I'd drop Walker too. He slows every potential attack down. He's had every ounce of enterprise coached out of him.
But I expect we'll grind our way to the final.

Kane looks a busted flush in this tournament - he has been a flat track bully for some time and is now giving defences an easy time (despite his snide fouling). Toney deserves his chance to start. Foden has been another huge disappointment and must be trying the patience and loyalty of even this manager.
Perhaps an exciting looking Dutch team will finally get England playing - personally I couldn't care less if they win the tournament or not but I do expect to be entertained and seeing the ball back with Pickford from a corner is not my idea of how the game should be played.
And then we had the sight of Lineker and his pals trying to make out at ht that there had been a huge improvement - presumably they were under orders to be more positive but surely they were kidding no one. In that dreadful first 45 minutes at least Shearer was calling it as it was but by the end he was in full flag waving mode.

What a game. We really are hitting peak form when it matters. Group stages who cares about performances. Germany played 10/10 against a very weak Scotland yet are out the tournament after not handling the knock out football pressure. We're playing better match by match. So proud of Southgate and the way he has handled the carnage the internet and press has throw at him. Yesterday we played 8/10 and will improve more in the semi final. What a country. Come on England.

Paul1978 wrote:What a game. We really are hitting peak form when it matters. Group stages who cares about performances. Germany played 10/10 against a very weak Scotland yet are out the tournament after not handling the knock out football pressure. We're playing better match by match. So proud of Southgate and the way he has handled the carnage the internet and press has throw at him. Yesterday we played 8/10 and will improve more in the semi final. What a country. Come on England.

(but I do agree about Southgate - a decent bloke who should walk away from this circus after the tournament)

Spain v France
Netherlands v England

comrade powell wrote:

Paul1978 wrote:What a game. We really are hitting peak form when it matters. Group stages who cares about performances. Germany played 10/10 against a very weak Scotland yet are out the tournament after not handling the knock out football pressure. We're playing better match by match. So proud of Southgate and the way he has handled the carnage the internet and press has throw at him. Yesterday we played 8/10 and will improve more in the semi final. What a country. Come on England.

(but I do agree about Southgate - a decent bloke who should walk away from this circus after the tournament)

I admire the youthful enthusiasm of WSP (young compared to comrade and me or should that be comrade and I? )

Impressive penalty performance, but "peak form", I think not.

SPAIN V France
Netherlands V ENGLAND

SPAIN v France
Netherlands v ENGLAND

I actually thought we played better first half and worse second half until they scored. Saka created chances first half and there was no one getting on the end of them. Saka rescued us second half. No one else was likely to do it.
In my opinion Bellingham is not a No10 (using the latest parlance) he should play alongside Rice. Foden should play 10 or possibly Cole Palmer although I'm not totally convinced by him yet. I'm not convinced by Eze or Gordon or indeed Toney either, we actually started with our best 11 apart from Shaw just not in the best formation.

BenE wrote:we actually started with our best 11 apart from Shaw just not in the best formation.

I think we started with 10, both Kane and Foden offering 0.5. What is Kane providing? He is little more than a nuisance value.

Beau Nash wrote:

Impressive penalty performance, but "peak form", I think not.    

gradually building to peak form Beau. hit peak against dutch and in the final. might as well play average in the group stages and get through to the proper knock out football. germany might have entertained beating the mighty scotland but are out. why waste energy in group stages when we beat below average teams without getting out of first gear. end of the day were in the last 4. enjoy it, i certainly am. if we can't enjoy this why bother watching it. Proud to be English. well chuffed for saku. takes balls that did like stuart pearce in euro 96. great team spirit too like bath city. coming from 0 1 down twice shows guts and real english spirit. even shearer swallowed his pride and admitted we have team spirit worth its weight in gold.

Spain v France
Netherlands v England

Paul1978 wrote:

Beau Nash wrote:

Impressive penalty performance, but "peak form", I think not.    

gradually building to peak form Beau. hit peak against dutch and in the final. might as well play average in the group stages and get through to the proper knock out football. germany might have entertained beating the mighty scotland but are out. why waste energy in group stages when we beat below average teams without getting out of first gear. end of the day were in the last 4. enjoy it, i certainly am. if we can't enjoy this why bother watching it. Proud to be English. well chuffed for saku. takes balls that did like stuart pearce in euro 96. great team spirit too like bath city. coming from 0 1 down twice shows guts and real english spirit. even shearer swallowed his pride and admitted we have team spirit worth its weight in gold.

So it’s crawling home!

comrade powell wrote:

Paul1978 wrote:

Beau Nash wrote:

Impressive penalty performance, but "peak form", I think not.    

gradually building to peak form Beau. hit peak against dutch and in the final. might as well play average in the group stages and get through to the proper knock out football. germany might have entertained beating the mighty scotland but are out. why waste energy in group stages when we beat below average teams without getting out of first gear. end of the day were in the last 4. enjoy it, i certainly am. if we can't enjoy this why bother watching it. Proud to be English. well chuffed for saku. takes balls that did like stuart pearce in euro 96. great team spirit too like bath city. coming from 0 1 down twice shows guts and real english spirit. even shearer swallowed his pride and admitted we have team spirit worth its weight in gold.

So it’s crawling home!

Almost knocked out twice; 2 games in 4 days, 3 games in 8 days possibly, all the extra time;  I can hear the excuses if we fail to win the Euros.  
Agree about team spirit which is nothing less than can be expected from anyone playing competitive sport.  

We still motivate each other playing lawn bowls which helped both our men's teams gain promotions last season to Somerset Premier Division 2 and East 1 (football equivalent - Championship and Division 1). Currently 2nd in Prem 2, dare we think of another promotion?  

Team spirit should be expected from professional but it certainly isn't in every team. sometimes there's cliches like past squads with little gangs of all liverpool players hanging round together. all man u players hanging round together. all chelsea players hanging round together. we seam united no matter who your club team is. never underestimate team togetherness. good bunch of lads and praise to southgate for making every player bond. it can crawl home for all i care. the videos of saka goal and penalty shoot out win were immense. all over the country an outpouring of joy from many english supportrers. go on you tube to see how much it means to everyone. stunning scenes of joy and celebration. almost knocked out but not knocked out. were still in it. fantastic spirit and fight to come back from 0 1 down twice with time running out in both games. were used to heartbreak with england but it would be amazing if we win the euros. arsenal won many a league title winning 1 0. who cares how we win it. would be a week long party i think. gonna be painful if we lose to holland or in the final. im excited for wednesday.

comrade powell wrote:

BenE wrote:we actually started with our best 11 apart from Shaw just not in the best formation.

I think we started with 10, both Kiiane and Foden offering 0.5. What is Kane providing? He is little more than a nuisance value.

I agree but he is Captain and isn't going to get dropped so his place is not up for grabs. I debated long and hard whether to include a comment about Kane in the post but decided to just keep it simple.

This isn’t cricket where the captain is the most important person in the team. Although I concede that Kane does a pretty good job at moaning to refs, most of the officials have been strong and ignore the whinging. If the manager is continually going to sub a player then the time will come when he should question starting with him.

Spain v France
Netherlands v England

SPAIN v France
Netherlands v ENGLAND

comrade powell wrote:This isn’t cricket where the captain is the most important person in the team. Although I concede that Kane does a pretty good job at moaning to refs, most of the officials have been strong and ignore the whinging. If the manager is continually going to sub a player then the time will come when he should question starting with him.

This is an interesting point. I remember when Kane was appointed, the media made a huge thing about it and I thought at the time, what does a football captain actually do apart from pick ends? But for the captain it seems it usually means they are pretty assured to play every game they are fit for.

The media is obsessed with everything to do with the England team - whether it be the captain, manager, fans or logo on the back of the shirts. I'm sure managers would say that the captain is their voice on the pitch, but as most spend the entire match screaming at the team from the touchline that doesn't wash.

Very entertaining semi final tonight with Spain just doing enough to win and we saw the goal of the tournament from the wonder kid. Let’s hope England and the Dutch can provide something similar tomorrow.

Bletso is the Euros champion (we'll never hear the end of it! )