England at the Euros 2024

[Worthless Recluse]

The game was a good fit for Tony off the bench.

[the grumpy old man]

I thought England were very poor last night, if we play like that against Denmark we will get beaten.

I didn't realise Foden was playing in the first half, never heard his name mentioned once. In the second half for the few times he touched the ball it was in defence. Did he go forward all night? As for Kane, words fail me, he couldn't wait to get off screen when he was interviewed after the game, even he knew he was sh*t, and he should have buried that header.

We never had any attacking thrust down the left, did Trippier get over the half way line? - twice we should have scored with balls from the right but there was no one to finish them off. I was quite pleased when Bowen came on as I thought he would at least attack their right sided defenders, but no he was just another defender for us.

The only highlights for me were Bellingham's goal and Pickford's save and JP would be my man of the match. One of the pundits at the end called him Jason Pickford.

A 100% improvement needed on Thursday - time to unleash the Toney?

[singcobb]

A poor dull performance. The first 35-40 we looked pretty good, but we still seem to lack that killer instinct. Sat back when we should have been pushing hard to extend our advantage. Against any serious side playing like that we are doomed.

[Bingers]

Well taken goal from Bellingham, who got the rough treatment all night. Kane barely got a sniff all night, apart from one well saved effort.
Foden had a poor game, and I would have hooked him for Gallagher instead of Trent. MOM for me was Rice who just did the dirty work and tidied things up.
Onwards to Thursday and Denmark. Lets see how many people have got the afternoon booked off for this one.

I think I agree with Tabby here.

[GrangeParkCobbler]

Group stages are all about getting the points to qualify for the knockout stage but my word wasn’t it boring? Hopefully the shackles are loosened when it really matters.
Time and time again they passed around at the back, a pass into space and then instead of the player running into the 20 yards in front they just knocked it back.
The likes of Foden, Gallagher, Alexander-Arnold and Palmer don’t play like that week in and week out. Rice adopted a Henderson type role and made very few forward runs….
Overall very restrained and dull, yes playing like that against a good team is bad news, however if they are allowed to play with a bit of freedom they can match anyone in Europe.

[Winslow Lee]

Time and time again they passed around at the back, a pass into space and then instead of the player running into the 20 yards in front they just knocked it back.

How many times did they pass it back to Pickford only for him to hoof it straight to Serbia.

[BackOfTheNet]

Overall very restrained and dull, yes playing like that against a good team is bad news, however if they are allowed to play with a bit of freedom they can match anyone in Europe.

That's the thing, isn't it? I really like Gareth Southgate as a person and think he's a thoroughly decent human being, and I guess you have to say he's been relatively successful in his time as England manager (even though we still haven't won anything!).

To put that success into context though, look at the quality of player he has available to him right now,  especially in attack. Some of them are genuinely world class and tear teams apart, week in, week out.

Not for England though because the shackles are on and they are utterly wasted "doing a job for the team". There's been plenty of former England managers who have had to ask players to play in a way or position they are unfamiliar with when they haven't had the best of options available to them,  but Southgate has an embarrassment of riches available to him,  only for some reason seems determined not to play to their strengths and instead blunt them by setting the team up to grind out results.

[Terryfenwickatemyhamster]

They're young lads, with tons of talent. What is the point in going with maverick type players then insisting they follow a Sunday driver mentality. We haven't had a passionate manager since Venables. Might have got it with Allerdyce, but...whoops.

[Tabasco Kid]

I see Foden and Bellingham as the Lampard and Gerrard scenario. Both too good to leave out, but one is going to have to play in a role that they are not fully comfortable with. Both play in teams that are set up to their best abilities, but that is not possible in this current England team. Chuck in Trent playing in midfield, and you have at least two outstanding players that are playing in roles that they are not familiar with.

[EB Claret]

I see Foden and Bellingham as the Lampard and Gerrard scenario. Both too good to leave out, but one is going to have to play in a role that they are not fully comfortable with. Both play in teams that are set up to their best abilities, but that is not possible in this current England team. Chuck in Trent playing in midfield, and you have at least two outstanding players that are playing in roles that they are not familiar with.

You were proved correct today in a really weary England performance, it looked like the Walking Football Euros!
Foden, Bellingham and Rice, our three best players were all below par.
We also looked unbalanced with only Trippier out left struggling to provide an attacking outlet. Surely Gordon should have come on as he's been so effective there for Newcastle this last season.
We know these are good players so changes have to be made while there's time to save our tournament.

[Winslow Lee]

You were proved correct today in a really weary England performance, it looked like the Walking Football Euros!
Foden, Bellingham and Rice, our three best players were all below par.
We also looked unbalanced with only Trippier out left struggling to provide an attacking outlet. Surely Gordon should have come on as he's been so effective there for Newcastle this last season.
We know these are good players so changes have to be made while there's time to save our tournament.

Isn’t it the case that somehow Southgate manages to make a lot of players that look really good for their clubs play so bad for England. It’s not just the three you mentioned Pickford always seems determined to give the ball to the opposition, Stones seems incapable of bringing the ball out from the back, Kane looks like he’s just run a marathon before the match, I could go on!. Even when the subs came on we somehow managed to look worse. The odd bit of tinkering is going to make zero difference we will need to get very lucky to have any chance in the tournament.

[Terryfenwickatemyhamster]

Southgate is the best cure for insomnia around.

[Lizard68]

We'll come good, we always have at least one dodgy game in the group stage. Last time it was Scotland and in the World Cup against USA. Keep the faith.

[Winslow Lee]

Southgate is the best cure for insomnia around.

They play too deep, passing is slow, safe and negative before ridiculous long balls straight to the opposition. I keep hearing people talking about changes in personnel but that will make zero difference in the same way the substitutions haven’t. The problem is the way they are coached and told to play not the players who have been doing so well all season

[the grumpy old man]

We'll come good, we always have at least one dodgy game in the group stage. Last time it was Scotland and in the World Cup against USA. Keep the faith.

We've had two dodgy games in the group stage, have you forgotten the Serbia game?

It was absolutely dire last night and I am beginning to think the players are nowhere near as good as the hype surrounding them, in particular Foden and Alexander-Arnold, and against Denmark, Bellingham, who spent most of the night acting like a spoiled brat. If it wasn't for Kane's rather lucky goal we would have lost.

Let's see what happens against Slovenia and hope we don't come up against Spain, France or Germany in the next round.

[Deepcut Cobbler]

We'll come good, we always have at least one dodgy game in the group stage. Last time it was Scotland and in the World Cup against USA. Keep the faith.

We've had two already?

[Lizard68]

We've had two already?

I did say "at least one" 😉

The time to come good is in the knock-out stages like we have in the last 2 or 3 tournaments. I hasten to add that in all three it still wasn't good enough to win.

[Tabasco Kid]

Same team, but Gallagher in for TAA. as predicted.
Not over keen on ITV choice of summarisers, but it is what it is. #comeonengland

[Winslow Lee]

A win would be really helpful as we’d avoid the Spain, Germany, France & Portugal half of the draw

[CobblerForever]

Southgate looks worried and doesn't exude confidence.