New International Football thread

[Durhamfootman]

what is it about Iceland?

[Durhamfootman]

what is it about Wembley?

1 shot on target all night against Iceland..... Hodgeson-esque

[Durhamfootman]

maybe if Sir G didn't insist on having 6 players sitting back all the time, they'd score more goals against teams much lower ranked than themselves

[Durhamfootman]

I see that the Argentina players continue to disgrace themselves and their country at every available opportunity

[Durhamfootman]

and I also note that when a minister suggested that the players should apologise for their behaviour, chainsaw man sacked him immediately

[Durhamfootman]

Current thinking seems to be that the FA would be interested in waiting a year for Pep to become available and might do what they did with Southgate and promote Carsley from U21 coach to head coach on a temporary basis.

Klopp has ruled it out

Eddie Howe has as good as ruled it out, without quite ruling it out completely. He's kind of closed the door, but left it ajar just a little.

Potter seems keen.... why wouldn't he, after having had a nice long rest?

[Gingerfinch]

Gotta laugh, Rice and now Grealish have scored!

[Durhamfootman]

It's a valuable lesson for all footy boo boys. It just inspires the targets of their booing. It always annoys me when Newcastle fans boo Pickford all the time... 9 times out of ten he just turns in MOM performances

[Durhamfootman]

I was interested to see what a post Gareth England looked like. First half I was pretty pleased. Lots of attacking intent, attacks down the left (which I'm sure must be a commie thing) and Rice so high up the field he probably kept getting nosebleeds. Second half, with the game more or less in the bag, they reverted to type a bit. Perhaps it's hard to shake off the fumes of Southgate.

TAA was dreadful and without the excuse of playing out of position this time. His defending wasn't great, his delivery was terrible and his set pieces were worse. It was by some margin the worst performance of the night, for me. Kane spurned 2 glorious chances, but otherwise was fairly innocuous. Rice played as well as I've seen him in an England shirt. Gordon and Grealish were lively. Sako and Mainoo were solid, as were those defenders not called TAA

Not quite the bright start to the new era that I was hoping for, but not a disaster either. A comfortable win secured with 2 excellent pieces of play. Not sure why Carsley waited so long to make changes... the game had been drifting throughout the second half

[Durhamfootman]

After criticising TAA after the weekend I thought he was much, much better tonight

He doesn't do any actual defending which would be problematic in group A, but his distribution was loads better against Finland, although his set piece delivery was still pretty poor

England kept the attacking theme up for the whole game tonight, perhaps because they didn't score their goal in the first half like at the weekend

I thought Konsa had a brilliant night until he was subbed off with an injury. Then Guehi came on for Stones and looked equally cultured.

2 goal Kane looked better than Saturday and much sharper than in the Euros

[Durhamfootman]

No Kane tonight and no other striker named in the starting XI

There is talk of Bellingham playing as a false 9, but Carsley used Gordon in that role for the U23's when they won the Euros last year, so I could see Gordon down the middle with Saka and Palmer out wide

[Durhamfootman]

Goodness..... what a poor first half from England

Whatever Carsley is trying to do with this formation, it isn't working. There's no focal point in attack; Gordon doesn't know whether to stay out wide or come into the middle. Meanwhile Greece are working hard, pressing better, closing everything down early whilst continually looking like they'll score from a counter down their left. Why the left? Because TAA is never there defending so the other 3 are constantly being dragged across out of position. It's a shambles atm. Lets hope he takes the bull by the horns and puts a striker on at half time

oh... and the less said about Pickford, the better

[Durhamfootman]

Well, what a dogs dinner that was

Greece had the ball in the net 5 times, mostly from long balls forward, which sliced England in two, time and again. Early goal in the second half, 2 ruled out for offside, then what looked like a late equaliser from Bellingham, before yet more calamitous defending saw an even later winner for Greece. First time they've beaten a top ranked nation for 20 years, the first time they've ever beaten England and the first time they've scored at Wembley.

England were awful tonight and they were outplayed in every single part of the pitch. Good luck to Greece, because they made the England players look like turnips tonight. If you didn't know, you'd never guess that it was Greece who were the side ranked 40 places lower

If there isn't a change of goalie at the weekend, then Pope might as well pack it in, because Pickford was absolutely dreadful tonight. Didn't make a save and watched the ball hit the back of the net 5 times. His distribution was appalling, he kept giving the ball away and he kept getting caught out in possession. He was as hapless tonight as he was unbeatable last weekend

[Durhamfootman]

It's a shambles atm. Lets hope he takes the bull by the horns and puts a striker on at half time

even though it was blindingly obvious what the problem was in the first half, Carsley waited until the 60th minute to do something about it, by which time England were a goal down. Crikey, I thought Southgate had gone; I didn't realise he was still phoning Carsley up to tell him what to do

[Durhamfootman]

I'm still trying to process that shitshow last night. Mindbogglingly bad, really