UEFA Euro 2024: Mod Note Added 2/7/24

klose

Yeah nothing on show there to make you think England have it in em to win this, but only the first game and winning that and getting off to a good start is more important.

Like the above poster said the amount of goals in this side and to only muster 3 shots on target against an average ageing Serbia side is pretty bad.

nullzero

Comically easy group for England, if they continue performing like that you'd fancy them for an early exit in the knockout stages.

Dick phelan

A wins a win but England by far the least impressive of the supposed favourites so far

klose

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122267440#Comment_122267440

Serbia kept falling for it, Trippier did it too on England’s box too, shield the ball and wait for a Serbian player to touch you in the back, go down and free awarded. Not a fan of refs awarding them types, but Serbia should be noting it and changing it up.

~Rebel~

With the lack of a proper option beside Rice, think they'd be better off pulling Bellingham deeper to play as an 8 - was the only one looking to get a bit stuck in in the middle. Then Eze left, Foden centre, Saka right. Think Watkins would actually be more effective up front in this team, but of course it'll be Kane.

Xander10

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122267034#Comment_122267034

Didn't quiet get the 3-0

Turgid but a win and on the way to playoffs where they will face first real test

y0ssar1an22

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122267461#Comment_122267461

he should have given serbia a pen for a similar push in the back by trippier

briany

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122267447#Comment_122267447

England have never really beaten anyone. In Euro 2020(1) and WC 2018, their routes to the final and semi-final, respectively, relied on not meeting a team in form, and they'll probably need the same kind of luck to get to the final in this case. Well, if that performance is anything to go by. However, a win is a win and will do to build on, but build they really need to do.

If he starts Trent at CM again then they might as well go home.

CalamariFritti

For all their undisputed talent on the pitch England have been poor. Few ideas and even started to get nervous towards the end. Hate to jump the bandwagon but Southgate seems to have little concept other than lump as many of his big names into the starting 11 as possible. No one will be worried about them playing like that. They'll be eaten alive in their media tomorrow too.

crushproof

God the BBC is so bloody annoying, thank god for Fabregas having a dosh of reality.

Rio - "Have any of you played with a youngster who looked and played like a captain from day one?”

Cesc- "Well yeah, Messi…."

gormdubhgorm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122267443#Comment_122267443

I watched bits of the BBC Shearer and the co-comentator were very confident verging on arrogance in the first half. It quickly changed to slight surprise, slight concern, then real worry as the match when on. It was funny to listen to the change in tone.

gormdubhgorm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122267512#Comment_122267512

Hamman over on RTE did not pull any punches saying that Southgate did not want to make difficult decisions. Basically saying he was afraid to drop Foden even though he was playing poorly.

McFly85

Poor game and poor performance by England. Nobody will fear playing that team.

RTE mentioned it a few times, there was no running happening to create attacks, it was all sideways ball and then maybe out to the right to try and burn a defender with pace. They look they’ve been thrown together last minute and haven’t developed any idea about why should be doing what at any stage.

It’s actually incredible Southgate has kept his job as long as he has.

Weepsie

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122267490#Comment_122267490

It wasnt really a push in the back. They showed a pretty decisive angle eventually. They were shoulder to shoulder at mitrovic made an absolute meal of it. I thought it was until they showed the angle from behind the goal

breezy1985

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122267474#Comment_122267474

Fell back and invited attacks and room for confidence to grow from the opposition like they do against the top teams. Only difference was Serbia were not good enough to punish.

Xander10

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122267546#Comment_122267546

Agree but like others have said, no different to some of the contacts Kane was given frees for all night

Anyway, on to the next game....

eagle eye

The problem isn't the players, it's the coach. Southgate is truly awful. Trent wasn't playing the way he normally does, neither was Foden or Saka.

Why wouldn't you set things up to get the best out of these world class players?

rob316

Its southgates 4th tournament and the same problems persist. Beggars belief how he gets so little out of the array of attacking talent he has.

sonofenoch

Beggers belief given the talent they have how ordinary they are and always have been under Southgate at tournaments, they'll do the same and flat track bully their way to a semi again

Carcharodon

I thought England looked great at the start, had a swagger to them, Bellingham is a beast, he just has that something extra that you can’t quantify.
Then they looked so ordinary and a bit lost, i agree with others, Southgate should take some blame, he doesn’t seem to have that tactical skill to make this team click, he is obviously a great manager in respect to forming a bond and all that but that only gets you so far.

Not sure how England will do but I was never as high as some about them, especially there defence, they will give up some bad goals I think. As good as their attackers are, countries like France and Portugal have great attacking ability, I feel like the media is just pushing the narrative the Englands is un matched

josip

Foden is such an annoying whingebag the way he scrunches his face like a 4 year old.

I think it was naive of Serbia to put such effort into chasing a game after they had gone behind. The England match was unlikely to define their tournament. That will be Denmark and Slovenia. After the earlier 1-1 draw, if they beat Slovenia, draw with Denmark, they'll probably go through. Instead they'll be tired going into the Slovenia match and have picked up a few yellows for key players who will have to be careful not to pick up another in the Slovenia game.

As bad as England are, they will probably beat everyone in the group, that's what they do.

SlickRic

Bellingham needs a bit of reining in. Watching that, it's actually a problem.

He is absolutely incredible but he insists on doing everything. He doesn't do that for Madrid. So what ends up happening is he steps on the rest of the team's toes.

Let others build up play, and just let him be a difference maker up the pitch.

NITRO95

Think somebody said it last night but that England team is incredibly unbalanced. Again an England is trying to squeeze all his "big stars" in rather than make a difficult decision to drop one of them. A narrow front 3 of Kane, Bellingham and Foden/Saka all interchanging positions like we see Madrid do, with a midfield 3 of Rice, Mainoo & TAA/Gallagher would be so much more balanced and dangerous. Let Walker and the LB provide the width and keep the central players near one another and let them play football and they could be rampant. Instead Southgate plays with fear and selects his XI to appease the masses

TitianGerm

https://twitter.com/OptaAnalyst/status/1802439324694118400?t=BJXu-htHE__Cyt66x_hk0g&s=19

Absolutely nothing out wide left all game. Gordon would have been a better choice out there I think. At least he'd have the pace to beat a man out there.

NITRO95

Not taking Mitchell and instead playing Trippier at LB is such an unnecessary problem of Southgates own making

pavb2

First game in the tournament 3 points, I wouldn’t overanalyse it, with only 8 teams going out in the group stage England have a foot in the next round. Historically They do seem to have relatively easy groups both in qualifying and in tournaments I wonder if this works against them as they consistently fall short against the bigger nations. Did the commentator say that they’ll face Germany at some stage if the seedings and path to the final go to plan?

SlickRic

On a lighter note, the best moment of last night was when Rio asked Cesc, all pompous as ever, whether he'd ever seen a young player control a game like Bellingham.

The answer? Messi.

I love Cesc.

McFly85

If Shaw comes back then England will probably look a good bit better but would still think they’ll fall short when against some of the big boys.

Their defending was ropey enough against Serbia, could imagine Musiala or Yamal having a field day against them, not to mention Mbappe.

happyoutscan

How in the **** is Southgate still the manager?

Only thing I can think of is the English FA don't want to win anything.

ArmaniJeanss

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122268440#Comment_122268440

If England & Germany win their groups (likely) then they would be on opposite sides of the draw. Here's the bracket, obviously no teams through as yet but you can see the layout.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UEFA_Euro_2024#Bracket

For England it's (theoretically) Win Group C and play a 3rd place team, then the winner of the tie between the runners up of Groups A and B (odds would suggest this will be Spain or Italy), then France in the semi-final. But obviously all it takes is a couple of shock results to turn the planned bracket upside down.

bucketybuck

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122268440#Comment_122268440

If the exact thing that people predicted happens in the first game then I'd suggest Southgate should be analysing it quite a bit.

jacool

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122268445#Comment_122268445

Can't stand Rio. btw, this implies that Cesc was pompous, but I'm guessing you meant Rio?

McFly85

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122268393#Comment_122268393

He himself isn’t the problem, but it looks like both him and Foden have been given free roles behind Kane, which is a fancy way of saying they haven’t been given any instructions.

He was involved in almost everything, especially in the first 30 mins and he took his goal very well, but there was very little created from his play otherwise - big chances came from the right either through a counter attack or Saka burning the full back with pace. Englands best chances were straightforward crosses into the box.

When he had the ball the rest of the team was so static - everything was reactive, waiting to see what Bellingham would do instead of knowing what he would do and making a run for him. Same with TAA, nobody was making the type of runs that he would be able to take advantage of with his ability, so he looked pointless out there just passing sideways.

That’s really on the manager. He’s been there so long but doesn’t really have any discernible style of play, he’s risk averse and relies on individual talent to win games - and most of the time it’s enough. But there are squads with similar talent that have been coached far better that I can’t see them living with.

SlickRic

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122268772#Comment_122268772

you are correct.

also, for all of the fact that Bellingham was superb, on reflection, Saka was actually the difference for me. he's the one who got to the byline multiple times and gave England their best opportunities - and it wasn't because of clever coaching or intricate patterns. he beat his man and created.

i think he's actually underrated because of how simply he plays the game.

pavb2

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122268800#Comment_122268800

Agreed us Villa fans can relate to that our style of play in the Championship was to get the ball to Grealish and let him work his magic, it was fine it got us promoted but that can only take you so far. Now Emery’s come in and it really is a systematic much more organised approach, one of our better players Luiz will probably leave this summer but it’s not a complete disaster as I’m sure Emery will find a player to suit his system.

I appreciate Southgate has had injuries and it is international football but I also don’t see a preferred starting 11 he’s still experimenting and trying to play square pegs in round holes.

siblers

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122268654#Comment_122268654

Worst thing to happen to England was getting to the Euros final. It gave him a free pass after the Qatar world cup, had they been knocked out in an earlier round at the Euros, odds are he'd be long gone

pjohnson

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122268949#Comment_122268949

Square peg in round hole perfectly sums up Trent for me tbh. I've said before that I think Klopp butchered his development. He could be world class if he had any positional sense. Instead he's a liability that wastes his talent.

finno

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122269071#Comment_122269071

Are all your posts in here just about Trent?

We get it you don't like Trent, surprise surprise by a Man Utd fan.

jacool

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122268896#Comment_122268896

Saka was the main threat alright. He took a fair amount of kicking each time he released the ball, but the referee seemed happy to let that kind of stuff go. (Except for Kane, so maybe you have to throw yourself to the ground each time.)

CalamariFritti

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122269132#Comment_122269132

I think Trent suffers from the Kimmich syndrome. Come to think of it Lahm was like that too. They look at those guys and think they're too good to be fullbacks and they're sort of right but it's still their best position. And then the players start to believe it themselves but stick them into midfield and they're neither here nor there.

I think AA needs to stick to fullback. It may seem like a lesser position but as Trent has shown and others before him you can own that position and still be a main man. Hell Lizarazu ran the whole show for Bordeaux/Bilbao from left back captain and all, not a bother. Even for Bayern to some degree. Nothing wrong with being a fullback the definition of that position has changed so much anyway.

bucketybuck

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122268800#Comment_122268800

People have been saying for weeks that Foden should be dropped, that he never performs for England and that Southgate shouldn't be shoehorning him into the team. To not replicate the Lampard/Gerard/Scholes dilemma and just pick the one playmaker.

So what does Southgate do?

He puts in Alexander-Arnold as well, he tries to shoehorn 3 playmakers into the team. Its actually bizarre. Add in Kane always dropping back deep and it becomes hilarious. All these creators and nobody for them to create for.

Any competent manager would ignore the media and put Foden on the bench, put out a balanced side. But this is Southgate. There is a reason United fans had nightmares whenever there were rumors about INEOS wanting him.

SlickRic

if you don't think Trent is unreal, I'm afraid you're blind or biased.

the only reason he is in the team in midfield is because Southgate is petrified. He will not drop Walker's pace, even though he putting Trent back there opens up more possibilities going forward. Either drop Trent or put him instead of Walker.

you cannot have Saka, Foden and Bellingham in the same team unless you trust Bellingham to be a semi-disciplined 8, because someone will suffer from not being involved. none of them can play LW properly. one of them needs to be sacrificed - it's the giant elephant in the room. you need to have Gordon there, or bring Rashford/Grealish on the plane.

Southgate has fúcked off the left side of his team for some reason I can't understand. Why didn't be bring Mitchell as cover for Shaw? Why didn't he bring actual LWers aside from Gordon?

From what he has, and if you can keep Bellingham from taking up other players' spaces, the only way he gets a semblance of balance is…

Pickford

Trent/Walker Guehi Stones Trippier/Shaw

Rice Bellingham

Saka Foden Gordon

Kane

Id pick Walker over Trent every single time as a RB as there is questions over his ability to defend imo. No idea why Southgate is putting him in midfield.

~Rebel~

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122269573#Comment_122269573

I don’t even think it’s a player problem. Those same players (well, except ideally with an actual left back for Trippier) could be fine together. Germany could have a similar potential issue for instance, with Havertz, Wirtz, and Musiala all ideally liking to come into similar AMC spaces. But they have a tactical plan, and the lads do what they’re supposed to do, and it all works.

Southgate on the other hand seems to have just given all the attackers a free role so they’re all on top of each other. The two midfielders look to have been told to hang back as another bank of 2 in front of the CBs, as neither were stepping out into tackles, or even just running around a bit, creating a black hole in the middle that just sucked all their attackers into it. Looked like clueless stuff.

eagle eye

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122268393#Comment_122268393

You might not have been watching him closely for Madrid at the end of the season. He was all over the pitch working very hard. It's why he was taken off in games.

callaway92

Kenny Cunningham seems to think, in Spurs' team in the late 80s/90s had an influx of Romanian players they had success with apparently included Dan Petrescu. Only correctly named Popescu who didn't even play a full season.

SlickRic

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122269662#Comment_122269662

yes of course, but in possession, he wasn't trying to be the fulcrum of everything - possibly because Kroos is there. Last night's performance was him in full hero-ball mode at times.

SlickRic

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122269615#Comment_122269615

If Trent can't defend, neither can Walker at this stage. He's all recovery pace, so it depends what you want.

Either way, Trent shouldn't be in midfield. Leave him and Walker as your options at RB.

gormdubhgorm

Jayus, the Romania and Ukrainian anthems make Amhrán na bhFiann seem like a catchy tune.