Euro 20/21

[Armagh18]

Keane was bang on when he talked about managers gambling. England are a half decent team but they are too defensive when it comes down to it. They pretty much have two holding midfielders and Kane has to come deep to get the ball. I honestly think the ref not falling for diving last night curbed his game. Also they had no idea what to do with Chiesa- far too direct for them.

There are a lot of scumbags among the fans. When have you ever seen scenes like that in a major tournament this century anyway.

Yeah, early on he did give soft frees for Kane/Sterling dives, but he got wise to it after a while. Kane in particular was shameful.

Italy for all their possession, never looked like delivering that killer blow. A bit like Derry pissing about v Donegal, passing it around so much that the final whistle blew. Italy needed to mix it up. Should have lumped it up to Big Cas now and again to keep England guessing. At times this limited England team were shown up for their lack of quality.

[/b] A good manager, keeper and midfield away from being the best team in the world. An embarrassingly strong attack, Shaw absolutely world class and Slab head and Stones very good as well.

[Sportacus]

Keane was bang on when he talked about managers gambling. England are a half decent team but they are too defensive when it comes down to it. They pretty much have two holding midfielders and Kane has to come deep to get the ball. I honestly think the ref not falling for diving last night curbed his game. Also they had no idea what to do with Chiesa- far too direct for them.

There are a lot of scumbags among the fans. When have you ever seen scenes like that in a major tournament this century anyway.

Yeah, early on he did give soft frees for Kane/Sterling dives, but he got wise to it after a while. Kane in particular was shameful.

Italy for all their possession, never looked like delivering that killer blow. A bit like Derry pissing about v Donegal, passing it around so much that the final whistle blew. Italy needed to mix it up. Should have lumped it up to Big Cas now and again to keep England guessing. At times this limited England team were shown up for their lack of quality.

[/b] A good manager, keeper and midfield away from being the best team in the world. An embarrassingly strong attack, Shaw absolutely world class and Slab head and Stones very good as well.

Quite far away then!
I'd put them behind Italy, Spain, Belgium, France, Brazil & Argentina, and Germany will bounce back. Qatar will not go well and Southgate will be run out of town eventually. If he had any sense he'd step away now before the brick bats come out.

[weareros]

England have no creativity in central midfield. The fact that a safe pass the ball sideways merchant like Declan Rice is worth 75 million says it all. Grealish has creativity but as a winger but he spends more time trying to do over dramatic tumbles at the slightest contact. Italy totally bossed them around the middle of the field. England put so many back, and have a tremendous work rate and press, which makes them very hard to beat. But like a Jack Charlton team they are hard to watch. Won't be anywhere near winning a World Cup, even though can safely say after watching Copa too that the standard of international soccer has gone way down. How we are so off the pace in Ireland is shocking really.

[BennyCake]

Aye Rice valued at £75m is madness. Didn't see anything spectacular from him. He's no big miss to Ireland, even if Ireland are poor.

[rodney trotter]

No creativity has been a problem with England for a good while..Euro 2012 Pirlo ran the show against England.
Then in 2014 World Cup Pirlo ran the show again against England.

Scholes was probably the best they had and he was stuck left midfield

[shark]

England have no creativity in central midfield. The fact that a safe pass the ball sideways merchant like Declan Rice is worth 75 million says it all. Grealish has creativity but as a winger but he spends more time trying to do over dramatic tumbles at the slightest contact. Italy totally bossed them around the middle of the field. England put so many back, and have a tremendous work rate and press, which makes them very hard to beat. But like a Jack Charlton team they are hard to watch. Won't be anywhere near winning a World Cup, even though can safely say after watching Copa too that the standard of international soccer has gone way down. How we are so off the pace in Ireland is shocking really.

They will be rightly one of the favourites for the World Cup - mainly for the reason you outlined in the same sentence. Ireland are brutal, no doubt. Our poorest team for decades. Yes drew with Denmark home and away in qualifying, and were pushing hard for the win at the end of both games after getting late equalisers. The gap isn't that big. Mind you I don't see Ireland bridging it any time soon.
International football is not the highest standard in the game. It was once upon a time, when the most talented players were scattered across the globe. But now they are almost all playing in the Premier League + maybe 10 additional clubs in Europe.

[red hander]

Three years ago in Russia they behaved wonderfully.

They didn't have the balls to mess with the Russian police.

[sid waddell]

England will never be given another major tournament, WC or Euros.

2/3 of the selection process is greasing the wheels and corruption, after that the technical capability of the bid.

The English have no idea how despised they are the world over due to their colonial past, but now their "supporters" have stormed their way into the final of UEFAs showpiece event... end of days scenario.

Colonial pasts - or presents, for that matter - don't seem to be be a barrier to winning contests to host major tournaments

Russia, France, Germany, Portugal, Belgium, the Netherlands, the USA, Japan, all are colonial powers who have hosted major tournaments in the recent past and two of them are hosting tournaments again in the near future

Russia and Italy have far worse hooligan problems than England

The old but themmuns argument gets everywhere

The facts I presented seem challenging to you

Serie A attendances have collapsed over the last 25 years because mostly right-wing hooligan groups in Italy are allowed to run rampant

Last night's goalscorer Bonucci refused to support his then Juventus team mate Moise Kean when Kean was racially abused by such hooligans, he blamed Kean

[Captain Obvious]

UEFA team.



Italy goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma Player of the Tournament. Young player of tournament Spains Pedri.

[BennyCake]

I thought the Swiss keeper was excellent.

Schmeichel too.

[yellowcard]

Pedri was the outstanding midfield player of the tournament. He was streets above Xhaka who probably got in on the back of one good performance against France.

Maguire was one of Englands better performers during the tournament but was a beneficiary of how defensively England set up. He was definitely not better than Bonucci though, he's just not on the same level as a defender. Spinnazola was the best left back of the tournament up until he got injured but Shaw probably got in after having a decent final and scoring the goal.

[David McKeown]

I am going to buck the trend a little here. I think that England team have a great shot at the next World Cup. They are strong defensively particularly at full back with plenty of options and have plenty of exciting options moving forward. They are also very young and in 17 months could really challenge. They don't have the greatest midfield but Bellingham will be older by then and may improve that area. I really hope I'm wrong.

If you were to offer me any squad for the next WC I'd probably take the French squad with the English squad slightly behind.

[Armagh18]

England have no creativity in central midfield. The fact that a safe pass the ball sideways merchant like Declan Rice is worth 75 million says it all. Grealish has creativity but as a winger but he spends more time trying to do over dramatic tumbles at the slightest contact. Italy totally bossed them around the middle of the field. England put so many back, and have a tremendous work rate and press, which makes them very hard to beat. But like a Jack Charlton team they are hard to watch. Won't be anywhere near winning a World Cup, even though can safely say after watching Copa too that the standard of international soccer has gone way down. How we are so off the pace in Ireland is shocking really.

Yeah Italy a decent team but no world beaters either. Nothing worth talking about in South America either.

[yellowcard]

I am going to buck the trend a little here. I think that England team have a great shot at the next World Cup. They are strong defensively particularly at full back with plenty of options and have plenty of exciting options moving forward. They are also very young and in 17 months could really challenge. They don't have the greatest midfield but Bellingham will be older by then and may improve that area. I really hope I'm wrong.

If you were to offer me any squad for the next WC I'd probably take the French squad with the English squad slightly behind.

What these 2 tournaments have shown is that there is no outstanding team in international football and in cup football a lot depends on the draw, conditions, suspensions, injuries etc. This same Italy team failed to even qualify for the 2018 World Cup. England are probably one of several countries who could potentially win the competition (there are up to 10) but they would probably need a lot of these things to go in their favour again, particularly the draw. I definitely wouldn't put them as the second best side in world football.

Because of where we get our sports news, we are fed a constant diet of hype around English players some of whom are really very ordinary. They do have some excellent full backs and an abundance of attacking talent but in other areas of the pitch they have shortcomings. I don't know much about Bellingham but they badly need an improvement in centre midfield particularly in the heat of Qatar where an ability to retain possession will be even more important. I just don't think they produce those types of technical players who are capable of dominating the ball and who are invaluable in summer tournament football.   

[Solo_run]

The Italians were very clever last night in how they went about the game tactically. England were probably hoping to have Italy worn out towards the end of the game but it was the complete opposite. Italy kept possession, they changed their tactics, probed England's defence and eventually found a way through albeit a little fortunate. Another impressive feature of this Italian team is there ability to pass the ball when space is tight and keep control of the ball. I have yet to see an England team capable of doing that but there are a lot of teams out there who can use such tactics for a full 90 minutes. Kane and Sterling were kept very quiet and it didn't come at a cost to the Italians tactically either.

England are a decent team but I am not convinced by them. They are held back by Southgate as others have said on here and they play very middling teams. However, when they went up against a balanced team that can defend and attack they were well and truly dominated as shots and possessions stats would suggest. One of the Italians, I think Verratti had more touches of the ball than Rice, Mount and Philips put together.

Italy: 19 shots (6 on target); 65% possession 
England: 6 shots (2 on target); 35% possession

I thought it was a big mistake putting on Sancho and Rashford late and then making them take penalties. Off you go lads, you haven't touched a ball for the last 130 minutes of football but off you go and take a penalty.