EURO 2020 FINAL. England v Italy. At Wembley. Thread.

[Babylon]

Southgate tries not to lose rather than trying to win. At every stage in this tournament he’s taken the cautious, negative option. Today it caught up with him where it didn’t before.

[BlueSi13]

Just now, Babylon said:

Southgate tries not to lose rather than trying to win. At every stage in this tournament he’s taken the cautious, negative option. Today it caught up with him where it didn’t before.

Just like the Croatia game, scoring first (and early) was almost the worst thing that could of happened to us.  

[The boy Linacre]

3 minutes ago, chrisfox said:

Yeah you can poit blame at the penalties but in my opinion taking off Declan rice for a completley ineefective Henderson is worthy of a maassive smack in Southgates ugly mug, oh and honeslty i dont care how knackered hge looked I'm sure he wouldve been better than henderson.

 

Quick side note, stop stuttering your run ups you idiots

Maguire, run up, twat it

[Guest bennytwohats]

Italy are a good team. Those of you bemoaning Southgate are indicative of most of what I dislike about football these days. So easy to criticise, yet who would have predicted us in a final?! Just an outlet for your miserable existence. Have a moan but anyone who thinks Gareth or our boys have done us anything other than proud can **** off tbh

Edited 11 July 2021 by bennytwohats

[STUHILL]

1 minute ago, Babylon said:

Southgate tries not to lose rather than trying to win. At every stage in this tournament he’s taken the cautious, negative option. Today it caught up with him where it didn’t before.

Absolutely. Warning signs were there. What absolutely killed our attacking intent tonight though, was the lack of subs when they were desperately needed, to gain back the attacking momentum. Hope he learns from this and is much much braver in the future. 

[SouthStandUpperTier]

That was a hard watch. One of the worst games of the tournament. All the substitutions and the stoppages for injuries completely stifled any flow the game had.

[RowlattsFox]

Southgate has clearly done Enough to keep him in a job but eventually it will go against us as we waste a really talented generation. He needs to be braver moving forward to the world cup. 

[MANFACE]

Oh well..... World Cup next. We'll win it without Southgate the Handbrake.

[foxfanazer]

I think it's also acceptable to think that Southgate has done a good job with this side but that he's also not the right man to take us forward long term. He's created a decent culture and has won over a lot of fans for the national side but I feel we'd benefit from a more tactically astute manager (like Mancini for example). 

Sometimes you can do a good job but it still be the right time for you to leave. Only slight problem with that is the world cup now only being a year away

[Unabomber]

Did we create a chance after our goal? 

[lanefox]

So Grealish is £100million player but can’t score from 12 yards

[CrispinLA in Texas]

Make Grealish Captain! End of story

[Guest]

Probably about right. Always likely they'd improve after the break and start to really assert themselves but the degree to which we allowed them to do so was pretty alarming if not entirely surprising and the subs did nothing to help that. It felt very much like we hadn't planned for actually being ahead and you could see everyone visibly beginning to crack under the pressure e.g. Maguire starting to just belt the ball out for throws. Not the penalty takers I'd have chosen either but I know it's very easy to say that in hindsight. Already getting Kermorgant/Waghorn flashbacks with people deciding what the right and wrong ways to miss penalties are.

 

Said it already but think it's worth repeating - referee was superb in my opinion and I wish more games were allowed to flow like that. So many times someone went down under basically no pressure and it was refreshing to see him take one quick look and wave it away rather than caving and constantly giving soft free kicks. Maybe went a bit too far the other way occasionally but preferable to the alternative for me.

 

I wonder if Mancini not only winning but doing so with a recognisable, coherent and entertaining style will cause wider changes. Received wisdom is that international managers don't have the time to really put a stamp on their team and hence resort to more cautious and reactive stuff but he's managed to carve out a real identity in a relatively short space of time.

[DJ Barry Hammond]

6 minutes ago, Bert said:

As much as I’ve been positive from the start and throughout, I have to be honest and say the game management was poor. To sit on a 1-0 Lead and try and close the game out after 2 minutes was dreadful. Poor use of substations. It’s so so disappointing, because we have come so near, yet so far. 

I get why he held - who brings on a winger for a defender when leading 1-0 (which was what was needed, we had to revert to 4 at the back to re-establish some balance)?

 

Yet, I never felt he played what could have been our best team.

 

Sancho could and should have had a much bigger role - and certainly should have been in the team ahead of Saka.

 

The use of Grealish was sporadic and to the detriment of him performing at the level he can. He was never given enough time to establish a real rapport with the forward line.

And how Mount stayed on in the final for so long given how ineffective he was - is beyond me.

 

Don’t get me wrong, Southgate has done a lot of positive work as England manager… but maybe there’s a key ingredient lacking that turns us into winners.

 

 

 

[peach0000]

1 minute ago, RowlattsFox said:

Southgate has clearly done Enough to keep him in a job but eventually it will go against us as we waste a really talented generation. He needs to be braver moving forward to the world cup. 

Exactly, Southgate is way out of his depth. Don’t let getting to a final fool you. It was pretty much handed on a plate to him with the draw and tournament format. You can see when games are going the wrong way he doesn’t have a clue what to do.

[kingfox]

Now Southgate’s just said that, this is all on him, choosing Saka as the 5th penalty taker is horrendous management.

[Ian Nacho]

I’m genuinely pleased for Chiellini. 

[foxfanazer]

1 minute ago, CrispinLA in Texas said:

Make Grealish Captain! End of story

The guy who didn't step up for a penalty? Nah....

 

I enjoy taking the piss out of Maguire but fair play to him for this tournament. He looks like the natural captain

[Tielemans63]

Jorginho's 'injury' in the first half was classic shithousery. We were battering them and they knew it. Shame no England player thought to do the same around the hour mark.

[STUHILL]

Strongly dislike Grealish but just his runs and falling over antics alone, can change the momentum of a game. I would have actually started him as Italy were fouling anyway and so he would have won at least 893 free kicks in their half 

[Samilktray]

Not sure I’ve ever felt as gutted after a game of football as I do now. Proper done me that has 

[Guest ttfn]

1 minute ago, foxfanazer said:

The guy who didn't step up for a penalty? Nah....

 

I enjoy taking the piss out of Maguire but fair play to him for this tournament. He looks like the natural captain

Great penalty by Maguire as well.

 

If we won that penalty shootout that would have gone down in folklore.

[foxfanazer]

1 minute ago, Samilktray said:

Not sure I’ve ever felt as gutted after a game of football as I do now. Proper done me that has 

Chin up mate. Daka's gonna bang in 30 goals this season.

[Duquesne Whistle]

3 minutes ago, bennytwohats said:

Italy are a good team. Those of you bemoaning Southgate are indicative of most of what I dislike about football these days. So easy to criticise, yet who would have predicted us in a final?! Just an outlet for your miserable existence. Have a moan but anyone who thinks Gareth or our boys have done us anything other than proud can **** off tbh

Do you agree with throwing two young players on, to take a penalty, with 90 seconds left, when they've barely played in the tournament? Still seems an odd decision to me. The team has done well to reach the final, as has Southgate, but his conservatism looked like it cost England tonight, coupled with those odd substitutions. Mancini used his subs in the 90 minutes and extra time. Mancini tried to win the match by altering things, Southgate didn't. I don't think that is harsh, I think it's true. 

[wardyfox86]

20 minutes ago, ScrumpyJack said:

Marcus Rashford is a disgrace.

 

Top man, bottom footballer.

A disgrace for missing a penalty!? Christ! 

 

Have some perspective

 

A sorry situation to be in that we can't even have 3 people on a field of 11 players that'd happily take a penalty.

 

Perhaps because there's too many people with your viewpoint.