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

If the third place teams come from groups C,D, E and F then England will play group E's 3rd place. Any other scenario and they'll play Netherlands. Essentially as long as the Czechs and Georgia don't win England will play Netherlands.

Bellingham, Trent, Foden, Rice, Kane.

All given criticism when it's quite obvious Southgate is the problem. They can't all be playing badly purely because they're all 'overrated'.

And by the way, Southgate is also a scapegoat merchant. Trent was the scapegoat, being the only change. Then Gallagher was the first sub, at HT, even though anyone could've come off. He's trying to tell everyone that if he had player who doesn't exist (apparently, a fit and in-form Kalvin Phillips, lol) then all would be OK. "It's not my fault".

Utterly clueless, and the type, I'm convinced, who'd be the one in the schoolyard to grass you up for doing something wrong.

Oh yes I forgot the scenario where Czechs hammer Turkey and put them below Hungary.

On itv, Ange talking about being a head coach, and says to Keane and Neville 'you've been a head coach, you know what it's like' 😂.

Is he trolling?? 2 utter failures as headcoaches, perfect examples of why you shoild not hire former players based on their playing careers.

One of the luckiest international managers ever is Southgate, has managed to get into the easy side of the bracket 3 times out of 4

There’s simply no system there. He wants to play the same way they always do, 2 defensive mids soaking up pressure and breaking on the counter, but he didn’t bring players for that. It’s basically putting the best rated players out and hoping their talent is enough to do the job by itself.

The overriding impression I get from Southgate is one of utter cowardice. He’s too cowardly to bring players that would suit the way he wants to play so the media can speak about how progressive he is, he’s too cowardly to leave one of the stars on the bench for better balance so he’s not blamed for not playing them if it doesn’t go well, and he’s happy to scapegoat players with early subs when they’re not the problem.

England will be much better off without him.

Roy Keane wasn't a failure

they have been criticised, but as i said all that criticism is caveated by then criticising the manager.

like you are doing the exact same thing.

All given criticism when it's quite obvious Southgate is the problem. They can't all be playing badly purely because they're all 'overrated'.

this is different from criticising rom (for example) for missing loads of chances.

Bookies will set initial odds I guess, not sure, but after that the odds are determined by the bets placed. So if a large number of people bet on England they will appear to be the favourite.

With England being a traditional betting country and most other European countries not being that this wouldnt be a surprise. In Germany for instance it's only a recent development that private bookies are being licensed. For many decades the only gambling available in Germany was the state lotto and state football toto.

Toto was actually not bad. It was a weekly game, typically on the weekend coinciding with the lotto draw and of course with the Bundesliga gameday. You had 11 matches on a toto slip, typically the 9 Bundesliga matches then a couple of 2. Bundesliga matches, some weeks it might be cup, depending, whatever. On the slip you had to predict an outcome for all 11 matches. Not exact results but 1, 0 or 2 for home win, draw or away win. Prices were similar to the lotto as in you had to have a minimum of 9 right for like 100 quid or so and all 11 would be similar to a lotto win only with the money being smaller and of course smaller again depending how many people got a winner on any given weekend. But still, IIRC a full 11 could win you a couple of hundred grand. The cost to enter was small, say a fiver per toto slip, again a bit like playing lotto.

Agree with you. Couldn't believe it, 2 days ago you could get Italy at 25:1 on the exchange.

After the comments Southgate made regarding Philips, he should be sacked on the spot. After the last few games, you think he might be a bit more adventurous, but no, he'd actually double down with a second holding midfielder if he could.

I think people over rate their squad somewhat, but they are very good, and far better going forward if let by Southgate. You must be tearing your hair out if your an England fan, watching this generation pass by, not even operating close to their level.

But you keep on holding out with hope, that Southgate might take the shackles off, only to hear the Kalvin Philips comment, he actually wants to double down defensively. He's a laughing stock, long may it continue from an Irish point of view.

Before the England job, I can only remember him managing Boro, and he was atrocious. 2 or 3 years of keeping them hovering above relegating if I remember correctly, playing brutul football, only for him to swap with Curbishly before one of them was relegated in his last season. And he walks into this job, with the money he's been given, you actually couldn't make it up. Literally any other half decent manager was more qualified

Portugal really need to drop that donkey Ronaldo if they are to have any chance. Absolute tap in merchant, a whole teams system put out of joint, to accomodate him, to place the ball at his foot for tap ins and his "stats". We seen how Juve and United both struggled, when they had to change systems to accomodate him. Dybala had to play a different role, and lost form and confidence, when he was pulling all the strings for Juve until that donkey arrived.

Haaland getting hammered for being "just a goal scorer", yet this lad has been standing in the box contributing fcuk all else, other than whats set up for him, and gets away with it, since his last season at United. For a man that's supposed to be one of the two best players ever, he has absolutely no ability to get on the ball and playmake. Surely thats a basic requirment for anyone rated so high? Even Suarez in the season where he scored all those goals for Liverpool, was dropping deep, starting, creating and linking all the attacks he'd then get on the end off. His 30+ goals season, was far better than Ronaldos, he offered so much more in general play.

How the younger generation has Ronaldo on a pedestal anywhere close to Cruyff, Maradona etc I'll never know. Ye he's a great goal scorer, but that's where it ends, unless all the greatest goal scorers are regarded as the greatest ever in general.

When Portugal won the Euro's, he was nothing but a hindrence when on the field, they may as well have been playing with 10 men. Him going off, was the best thing that could of happened for them. Yet his fanboys try and equte this Portugal victory to him, akin to Maradone in 86. Absolute delusion

Southgate wants England to be tight at the back - an area a lot of people would say is the weak link when they look at the players in their back 5. His game plan is clearly keep it tight at the back and hope the front line nick a goal.

It's worked for the Italians in plenty of tournaments. Before winning the last Euros, Italy needed ET in the last 16 before beating Austria, a penalty in normal time for 1-1 and a penalty shoot out before getting past Spain and the same again in the final against England. That's tournament football. Similarly Portugal won Euro 2016 after scraping through to the last 16 by finishing 3rd in a fairly mediocre group behind Hungary and Iceland.

The issue is going to be what happens if a decent team takes the lead and England has to chase an equaliser. That scenario or penalties again seems the most likely way England exit the tournament.

Southgate isn't a top manager but who is at these Euros? Naglesman is probably the obvious one but it's a pretty sharp drop after that to Martinez, La Feunte and Deschamps (admittedly a World Cup winner).

Where would they land if they went looking for a club job? Definitely no where that they'd be managing the same caliber of player they have now.

As others have mentioned previously, England's group turned out to be absolutely dire. Seven measly goals in 6 games is awful.

I just had a look and it's actually identical in every way to Ireland's 1990 WC group. Exact same number of wins, draws and losses, every game being either 0-0, 1-0 or 1-1. Same number of goals for/against in each position, it's uncanny! (The only difference being England top the group this time with 5pts as opposed to 4pts in 1990 given a win was only worth 2pts back then).

He's the next Deli Ali

probably could do with a topic of its own but hands up if you heard the media say anything positive about VAR in the last 2 days as it corrected two egregiously wrong decisions by the referee:

The 2 incidents were the Croatia penalty not awarded which was obviously a penalty and even worst, depay’s goal which had an on pitch decision of handball which didn’t happen.

that’s why VAR is there and why it’ll stay there and why the players want it there

I really hate when pundits still call it the "no.10" position. It's a very antiquated sounding way of looking at positions. And that's not because players wear mad numbers these days.

Those stats though are absolutely shocking for a player in any position. You would expect almost every player to get at least an attacking pass and a few tackles won.

England playing muck but are through as group winners. Crazy that people are looking for him to get sacked. Careful what you wish for.

I expect them to get stronger as the tournament progresses and will be very hard bet.

Dele Alli got an awful lot of extra credit for his output because the English media insisted he was doing it from midfield, when he was essentially playing up front.

Talk of sacking him is pointless at this late stage.

But if England think they are going to get stronger later on then they are likely to be in for a shock. In tournaments if you aren't performing then that later doesn't come, you just end up on the plane home wondering what went wrong.

England are a prime candidate for being on the wrong end of a 1-0 and nobody will care if they might have played better later on against the big teams that would attack them and give them space.

There's no bonus points for playing well in the group stages it's all about getting out of the group, their defensive style of play like the Italians will be well suited to the knockout stages.

This tournament ended the back pass. Egypt were basically keeping the ball between thevl defender and the keeper for most of the game. They made it an awful watch.

Roy Keane took Sunderland from last place in the Championship to promotion in the same season.

Keane's only issue in management was his tough style and attitude which players didn't appreciate. He learned this from Alex Ferguson but it was different times and things had changed nearly everywhere. Fergie could do it because of his success rate.

Keane does have a losing record as a manager.