Euro 2020 (21)

[sussexpob]

Germany were absolutely brilliant going forward. Can't defend, but they tore Portugal apart

[sussexpob]

This Spain v Poland game has been funny. Spain have missed some sitters, missed a penalty, and been hacked and wrestled to death.....but still they can't get a winner despite playing Poland off the park for large amounts of the game.

If you think last night was bad, spare a thought for Spain. Their last two games must have been frustrating as hell for their fans

[Durhamfootman]

France got away with one too against Hungary, by the looks of it, so it's not just England who are being pathetic

[sussexpob]

France got away with one too against Hungary, by the looks of it, so it's not just England who are being pathetic

This group is the hardest there has ever been in an international competition, so it is simply not comparable. Its easy to look at the Hungary game as a free 3 points, but no team in this competition has played in front of a crowd of more than 10% full for 18 months ..... the matches in Budapest are literally the only ones in mainstream world football across the globe where full ticket allocations have been able to be sold.

Imagine playing in empty stadiums for all that time, then suddenly been thrown infront of 60,000 manically passionate Hungarians blowing the roof off the stadium to get behind their team! The noise sounded deafening on the TV. And it was 36 degrees at kick off. That is tremendously difficult. They had to add safety stoppages for water into the game.

France also should have won, and failed to take chances - England cant claim that, they hardly caused any problems

[sussexpob]

The Belgian round up of second round matches did a skit this morning on how useless Declan Rice is for England. The English press fall in love with this type of white, young working class boy who's all about rolling their sleeves up and putting in the tackle, the warrior battler wearing his heart on his sleeve, old-fashioned leave the fancy stuff at the door. I seem some papers gave him a match rating of 7-8/10, which is frankly ridiculous.... he did absolutely nothing. To prove that, they flashed up a stat - with the ball in international football, Rice is the only midfielder in the competition with an expected assist rating of 0 based on recent internationals.

These new "expected" metrics that you see a lot of are based on assessing where a player shoots, heads or passes from, like position and direction and result, and relates them in a sort of complex way between the average and the capability of the player. So someone like Messi misses more chances than any player in world football, and gives the ball away more than anyone, but the expected results from where he is shooting from or passing to are always ridiculously high compared to others. When taking all his opportunities, you end up finding he scores double the assists and goals for players in similar positions, which shows how truly great he is. He attempts the impossible all the time, and pulls it off all the time, even if he also fails all the time.

Rice rates 0 on every attacking qualifier. This means that the passes he completes are never expected to lead to anything to the point its deemed of 0 possibility. He rates 0 on goals expected, meaning he never gets in positions to take a shot, and when he does shoot the chance of scoring is deemed 0 from that situation. And that takes into account the follow up as well...so if he passes to another, who whips in a cross, his expected key pass metric would be more than the 0 it is. These stats show therefore that every pass he completes is either to someone who is in a situation where they have to then pass back or will lose the ball. Every single England player has more than 0 on passing metrics, even Mings who's defensive position is one of the most rigidly kept in the tournament (ie he is the defender who never goes forward).

You could then argue Rice is a DM and makes tackles. He apparently averages 1 tackle per game. When Scotland had the ball in the final third, Rice's position was on average on par with John Stones the cb. Stones made 5 tackles and 7 aerial clearances in comparison, Rice 1 tackle only. As a defender, he never wins the ball.

He is a giant waste of space

[sussexpob]

In fact, its fun to compare the rest of Europe's coverage of the tournament with England. The German press cant believe Southgate isnt playing Sancho and Bellingham, and wonder out loud if he has ever bothered to watch anything but English football. This is echoed in France, Norway, Holland and Belgium. Sancho ended the season playing insane football and hanst got a single minute from Southgate yet. All the England players come out and talk about how Grealish lights them up in training and how hes clearly our most skillful player, and Southgate gives him 15 minutes and no support.

Only a few months ago Pep Guardiola seen Bellingham play in the flesh for the first time; he is supposed to have spent an age after the game with the Dortmund manager talking about him. Pep joked at the presser after that Bellingham must be lying about his age because he looked a complete and mature player - then proceeded to spend 5 minutes talking about how unbelievable the kid is.

And yet, England have no decent CMs and he's got....zero minutes. I watch German football every weekend, I but Bellingham down as the most exciting prospect England have had in my lifetime. He's already good enough to boss a game against Man City in the CLs knockouts, yet not good enough to replace the to CMs in this team? Have some balls Southgate, play the kid. He's unreal.

But as the rest of Europe say.... Southgate clearly only watches the PL.

[yuppie]

Didnt Jude Bellingham come on for Harry Kane in the first match?

That would suggest Gareth trusts him a lot with the help of defending a 1-0 lead. Sure it was only a cameo but it was a lot of responsibility for him. He now has 5 caps as well. 30 games for Dortmand and 5 caps for England. He is part of the future. Gareth has done a great job of bringing in the youth. the next manager will have an abundance of players to choose from who are young and already have a lot of caps behind them. .

Phillips justified his selection in the first game. Rice seems to be picked so I'm not sure if Jude will start. Certainly i think Henderson's international time has come to an end.

Grealish is interesting as he started the 2 warm up matches but has not started in the tournament.

Who does Sancho and Grealish replace? Mount and Foden are both exceptional talents. Sterling who has not had the best seasons by all accoutns has justified his selection in the time i have seen him play this tournament. From what i have seen i think Kane has been underwhelming.

Ive not watched much Footy in the last year but it seems there is an abundance of talent going forward for England but a lack of it at the back.

[Durhamfootman]

The Belgian round up of second round matches did a skit this morning on how useless Declan Rice is for England.

He is a giant waste of space

I entirely agree

[Durhamfootman]

Gareth has done a great job of bringing in the youth. the next manager will have an abundance of players to choose from who are young and already have a lot of caps behind them.

I agree with that too.

It's a pity that he's tactically clueless. That's why he needs an astute asst manager to tell him what's going on and how to change things around

[Gingerfinch]

When Capello was in charge, all I wanted was someone to come in and show a bit of pride in the job. Southgate has done that but is too negative when it comes to the 90 minutes. He is though a good man, who I'm happy to have in charge of England.

[Durhamfootman]

When Capello was in charge, all I wanted was someone to come in and show a bit of pride in the job. Southgate has done that but is too negative when it comes to the 90 minutes. He is though a good man, who I'm happy to have in charge of England.

but it would be better if he had an astute asst manager to do the match thinking for him. Everything else he's good at... the players like him, the players seem to respect him, he's unafraid to bring young players into the side, he's good with the media and he's a safe pair of hands for all the PR and political stuff. Imagine how good he'd be if he understood how to play football

[Durhamfootman]

whereas Capello was supposedly pretty tactically astute, but the players didn't like him, they hated his methods, they were afraid for their careers most of the time and so never felt able to play at their best, he wouldn't learn English and nobody was allowed to talk to him or bother him in any way..... whilst salting away a fortune in filthy lucre

pretty much the opposite of Southgate

a technical assistant is such an easy thing to arrange.... I have no idea why nobody else seems to to be able to see it

[Gingerfinch]

When Capello was in charge, all I wanted was someone to come in and show a bit of pride in the job. Southgate has done that but is too negative when it comes to the 90 minutes. He is though a good man, who I'm happy to have in charge of England.

but it would be better if he had an astute asst manager to do the match thinking for him. Everything else he's good at... the players like him, the players seem to respect him, he's unafraid to bring young players into the side, he's good with the media and he's a safe pair of hands for all the PR and political stuff. Imagine how good he'd be if he understood how to play football

A tactically wise coach would be of help, I just feel Southgate needs to either play on the front foot or counter. We do neither most of the time. Too slow at getting the ball forward and once forward, teams like Scotland are back and in position.

[mikesiva]

Group A

Italy beat Wales 1-0
Switzerland beat Turkey 3-1

Italy first
Wales second
Switzerland third with four points and a GD of -1

[sussexpob]

When Capello was in charge, all I wanted was someone to come in and show a bit of pride in the job. Southgate has done that but is too negative when it comes to the 90 minutes. He is though a good man, who I'm happy to have in charge of England.

"Showing Pride" seems like such an empty concept, it doesn't mean anything. Are you doubting the professionalism of a man who has 11 Serie A winners medals, 2 La Liga titles, 7 domestic cups, and a European Cup? Sorry, you dont win all that in a career without being insanely driven.

Being a good man means nothing in the pressure of the big moments. In Southgate's three biggest moments of his football career he has fallen apart - The defining moment of his England playing days was to pass a penalty to the keeper, knocking out England in the only tournament in my lifetime they have been actual favorites. The biggest moment of his club career, he had one of the worst games I have ever seen in a club final, on the way to Sevilla absolutely embarrassing Middlesbrough 4-0 in the UEFA Cup Final. It could have been 12-0. And the biggest moment of his management career, he single handedly blew England's chances by changing his tactics to allow a Croatia team, who had been outplayed for 45 minutes, to regroup and attack a totally passive England team.

He is also as boring and uninspiring. Does he show any passion at all? The only flair he displays is in his choice of dapper clothing