Barry Cartman Posted July 9, 2021 Share Posted July 9, 2021 They had the chance to change it to 1 country due to Covid, they decided against it, can't blame Platini for that oneĀ 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
skybluedave Posted July 9, 2021 Share Posted July 9, 2021 Or just don't pick Azerbaijan Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Unknown Hacker Posted July 9, 2021 Share Posted July 9, 2021 (edited) 4 minutes ago, skybluedave said: Or just don't pick Azerbaijan Is the correct answer. You could host a tournament across the whole of Western Europe and there would be less travelling involved than there was for the Brazil World Cup. The problem is choosing to host games in a different continent. Especially knockout games. Edited July 9, 2021 by Unknown Hacker 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
enigmatic Posted July 9, 2021 Share Posted July 9, 2021 28 minutes ago, skybluedave said: Or just don't pick Azerbaijan This. They're miles away, they neverĀ qualify, they're not a nation that either gives much of a **** about football or it would be a big deal if they did and UEFA don't really need their oil money. France/Spain/Italy would make more sense than sending any more games to Baku. Actually **** it, Finland/Greece/Iceland would... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
EnterUsernameHere Posted July 9, 2021 Share Posted July 9, 2021 52 minutes ago, Barry Cartman said: Ā Even UEFA being salty nowĀ How's that salty? It's got nothing to do with England. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Barry Cartman Posted July 9, 2021 Share Posted July 9, 2021 Ā Ā Ā 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
TM Posted July 9, 2021 Share Posted July 9, 2021 if people can't find something to watch on Saturday evening some TV listings don't seem to have changed yet though, although I can see it on the Freeview EPG Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob1981 Posted July 9, 2021 Share Posted July 9, 2021 14 minutes ago, Barry Cartman said: If only we'd beaten Scotland in that group game. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
skybluedave Posted July 9, 2021 Share Posted July 9, 2021 (edited) I remember Shaws little back flick. I still panicked when we lost it as minute to go still Edited July 9, 2021 by skybluedave Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob1981 Posted July 9, 2021 Share Posted July 9, 2021 42 minutes ago, Barry Cartman said: Ā Ā Ā Also, "found their inner Brazil" ffs. The last four World Cups Brazil have either gone out in the quarters, or stumbled through to the last four with home advantage and then shipped seven goals When is this sycophantic nonsense going to end.Ā It's 20 years since they have been any good. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Amazing Dale Watkins Posted July 9, 2021 Share Posted July 9, 2021 3 hours ago, Barry Cartman said: Ā Ā Ā Not to shine a negative light on everything, but let's not go overboard. That was in the final minutes against an exhausted Danish side with a man down who could barely press anymore. 4 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Barry Cartman Posted July 9, 2021 Share Posted July 9, 2021 Can't enjoy anything Didn't say we are peak BarcelonaĀ Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Astafjevs Posted July 9, 2021 Share Posted July 9, 2021 2 hours ago, Rob1981 said: Also, "found their inner Brazil" ffs. The last four World Cups Brazil have either gone out in the quarters, or stumbled through to the last four with home advantage and then shipped seven goals When is this sycophantic nonsense going to end.Ā It's 20 years since they have been any good. Give it a rest. They've played some great football at various tournaments, and have won more World Cups than anyone else regardless of their recent record. How dare a nation with one of the greatest histories in the sport is referenced. 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anthrax Dave Posted July 9, 2021 Share Posted July 9, 2021 I am going to spend the evening licking random lampposts, in the hope that my NHS Track and Trace app pings so I can isolate (after getting shitfaced) for a few days. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
enigmatic Posted July 9, 2021 Share Posted July 9, 2021 "Inner Brazil" just makes me think of the time Brazil did that to one of our better teams for about 40 minutes after Ronaldinho scored the fluke and then got sent off 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
aggressive minor Posted July 9, 2021 Share Posted July 9, 2021 6 hours ago, Rob1981 said: Also, "found their inner Brazil" ffs. The last four World Cups Brazil have either gone out in the quarters, or stumbled through to the last four with home advantage and then shipped seven goals When is this sycophantic nonsense going to end.Ā It's 20 years since they have been any good. Gosh you will be miserable if England lose! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
EnterUsernameHere Posted July 9, 2021 Share Posted July 9, 2021 Found this interesting: Ā Ā 3 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
skybluedave Posted July 10, 2021 Share Posted July 10, 2021 6 hours ago, EnterUsernameHere said: Found this interesting: Ā Ā Thanks. This is exactly what I was looking for the another night. Coz I was thinking it felt like their were players from most parts of countryĀ in squad.Ā Well except south westĀ 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
sedge11 Posted July 10, 2021 Share Posted July 10, 2021 (edited) 22 hours ago, skybluedave said: I still can't believe England are in the final. Like in my mind I'm aware England are in a big game Sunday but I can't compute it's the actual final. My mind is like 'you wanna double check, you sure it's not a Semi Final'Ā I've sat through so many terrible tournaments in my life. I'm going to enjoy and saviour every moment Sunday, win or lose.Ā See Iām the opposite, I can believe it, as with the teams we have faced and the quality of ourĀ squad I expected it. Now the final is different as Italy are a strong mentally tough team, if we winĀ Sunday then it will be just mental. 21 hours ago, Bigwig said: Some of the schools around here are offering flexible start times so you can eitherĀ drop kids off at normalĀ time or if they need a lie in they can start atĀ 10.00am.Ā My sons school done the same, my work have also offered us to come in 2 hours late Monday or will give usĀ 2 hours off somewhere else during the week, which is nice. Edited July 10, 2021 by sedge11 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smallen Posted July 10, 2021 Share Posted July 10, 2021 Not sure about the first tweet mind š¬Ā Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob1981 Posted July 10, 2021 Share Posted July 10, 2021 Come on Southgate donāt lose it now Ā Going a bit Mike Bassett there Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RTHerringbone Posted July 10, 2021 Share Posted July 10, 2021 Current status: over confident. Not sure why but I've distilled the game down to who does better - our attack against their defence or their attack versus our defence. I just think our forward line with its movement and pace causes them more trouble because our defence is arguably better equipped to deal with their attacking strengths. I also want Mancini to lose his mind and start Berardi ahead of Chiesa, because Berardi is ****ing useless.Ā This all conveniently ignores the disparity in midfieldĀ Ā Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smallen Posted July 10, 2021 Share Posted July 10, 2021 Granted Spain are the best in the biz, but Italyās midfield wasnāt impressive at all in the semi-final. A couple of themĀ also looked knackered. Mount will nullify Jorginho, Barella is knackered and Verratti will get sent off after headbutting Phillips in the knee. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
The_jagster Posted July 10, 2021 Share Posted July 10, 2021 8 minutes ago, RTHerringbone said: Current status: over confident. Not sure why but I've distilled the game down to who does better - our attack against their defence or their attack versus our defence. I just think our forward line with its movement and pace causes them more trouble because our defence is arguably better equipped to deal with their attacking strengths. I also want Mancini to lose his mind and start Berardi ahead of Chiesa, because Berardi is ****ing useless.Ā This all conveniently ignores the disparity in midfieldĀ Ā Hopefully he listens to the Zonal Marking podcast who think Chiesa just runs and shoots from poor positions so is pretty wasteful. Berardi fails on the use your eyes test. I think their midfield is a 9/10 and front three a 7/10 and we are the other way round, so we could still cause problems even if we lose the midfield battle. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
skybluedave Posted July 10, 2021 Share Posted July 10, 2021 If you gamble on the game being a slow started it might be better to start Berardi and then freshen up with Chiesa 2nd half. Don't think that will happen but the subs against Spain didn't really work for Mancini Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
EnterUsernameHere Posted July 10, 2021 Share Posted July 10, 2021 12 minutes ago, Smallen said: Granted Spain are the best in the biz, but Italyās midfield wasnāt impressive at all in the semi-final. A couple of themĀ also looked knackered. Mount will nullify Jorginho, Barella is knackered and Verratti will get sent off after headbutting Phillips in the knee. Not a chance England can win the midfield battle. If they try to, they'll lose. They'd do better by just skipping it. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RTHerringbone Posted July 10, 2021 Share Posted July 10, 2021 Just now, EnterUsernameHere said: Not a chance England can win the midfield battle. If they try to, they'll lose. They'd do better by just skipping it. I don't see why we can't compete if we setĀ up correctly. Barella isn't outrageously good. Jorginho is very good at what he does and Verratti is outstanding. I think the energy of Mount, Phillips and Rice can absolutely disrupt them. The English midfield is inferior but they aren't incompetent carthorses with no finesse or technique.Ā Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
EnterUsernameHere Posted July 10, 2021 Share Posted July 10, 2021 5 minutes ago, RTHerringbone said: I don't see why we can't compete if we setĀ up correctly. Barella isn't outrageously good. Jorginho is very good at what he does and Verratti is outstanding. I think the energy of Mount, Phillips and Rice can absolutely disrupt them. The English midfield is inferior but they aren't incompetent carthorses with no finesse or technique.Ā Hmm. I can't say I agree. Italy's midfield copes pretty well with the press. You can limit their effectiveness but they'll run rings round that English trio if that's the aim.Ā I think they'll put Mount on Verratti or Jorginho and forget about winning it overall.Ā Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
skybluedave Posted July 10, 2021 Share Posted July 10, 2021 Italy will have more of the ball because their midfield is better at that. I assume that's what you mean by winning midfield battle.Ā But Mount can press Jorginho into mistakes hopefully, Rice can track Barella's runs and hopefully Sterling and Saka can exploit the full backs who like to get forward.Ā Against Denmark we worked it down the wings all the time and didn't really go through the middle.Ā There are ingredients there for England to have success buy vice versa too with Italy. Which makes it really hard to call for me and probably why everyone has it 50/50 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
EnterUsernameHere Posted July 10, 2021 Share Posted July 10, 2021 5 minutes ago, skybluedave said: Italy will have more of the ball because their midfield is better at that. I assume that's what you mean by winning midfield battle.Ā But Mount can press Jorginho into mistakes hopefully, Rice can track Barella's runs and hopefully Sterling and Saka can exploit the full backs who like to get forward.Ā Against Denmark we worked it down the wings all the time and didn't really go through the middle.Ā There are ingredients there for England to have success buy vice versa too with Italy. Which makes it really hard to call for me and probably why everyone has it 50/50 Yes pretty much what I meant. I think if England go into the game trying to have more of the ball, they'll lose.Ā I don't think Southgate will even try to dominate though, so agree it's near 50/50. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
TalkSport Posted July 10, 2021 Share Posted July 10, 2021 Game possession will be 50/50. Not one side will dominate ball more than other, and will come down to who uses it the best, and Iām confident we will get our fast attackers one on one more than they will.Ā Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
The_jagster Posted July 10, 2021 Share Posted July 10, 2021 Mancini talked about how he knew they weren't going to win the midfield battle with Spain and planned around it. I don't know how much is revisionism, did Mancini really tell them "look, Spain are better on the ball so don't worry". Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smallen Posted July 10, 2021 Share Posted July 10, 2021 Spain played through their midfield with relative ease at times. I don't think that was deliberate tactics from Mancini somehow. Spain forwards, Olmo in particular,Ā were taking up spaces between the lines and Italy didn't cope well with it at all. It's why I'd like to see Foden play but I think Mount will start for his defensive contribution, which is fair enough. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
EnterUsernameHere Posted July 10, 2021 Share Posted July 10, 2021 23 minutes ago, The_jagster said: Mancini talked about how he knew they weren't going to win the midfield battle with Spain and planned around it. I don't know how much is revisionism, did Mancini really tell them "look, Spain are better on the ball so don't worry". Doubt he was extreme as that but don't he'd have tried to dominate in the middle, just like I don't think Southgate will.Ā England are better out wide than centrally, a Rice-Phillips midfield isn't going to dominate possession over Italy's trio. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
enigmatic Posted July 10, 2021 Share Posted July 10, 2021 Mount sitting on Jorginho evens up the numbers. I've seen Mata do that job effectively against Chelsea before Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
craigcwwe Posted July 10, 2021 Share Posted July 10, 2021 Italy had just 30% of the ball vs Spain and imo Italy's midfield is better than Spain's.Ā To say England can't compete against Italy in CM is farcical. I'd expect possession to be pretty even for the most part for the final.Ā It's such a complex battle when you start putting our attack vs their defence or our defence vs their attack before you even get to the midfield battle.Ā Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony85 Posted July 10, 2021 Share Posted July 10, 2021 (edited) Foden sat out some of the training today. Apparently picked up some minor injury in training yesterday. Edited July 10, 2021 by Tony85 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
The_jagster Posted July 10, 2021 Share Posted July 10, 2021 It's interesting to me that most non-English pundits have said that even when we've had the ball it has been quite slow and conservative rather than building pressure on the opposition, if we do keep the ball it will be a bit like how the Czechs did against us, fairly deep and unthreatening. If England get ahead the midfield battle isn't as important imo, if we are behind I could see Kane being anonymous again. Mount is the only one in midfield who is really capable of receiving the pass and creating space in the same move, and I don't really know how good Barella is. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pukey Posted July 10, 2021 Author Share Posted July 10, 2021 (edited) Loads said we'd have no chance against Croatia and German's midfield. I know Italy's is exceptional but Rice and Phillips are so much better than people are making out.Ā I don't think we'll be going into it specifically trying to win the midfield battle, but this isn't championship cloggers.Ā Edited July 10, 2021 by Pukey Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
EnterUsernameHere Posted July 10, 2021 Share Posted July 10, 2021 6 minutes ago, craigcwwe said: Italy had just 30% of the ball vs Spain and imo Italy's midfield is better than Spain's.Ā To say England can't compete against Italy in CM is farcical. I'd expect possession to be pretty even for the most part for the final.Ā It's such a complex battle when you start putting our attack vs their defence or our defence vs their attack before you even get to the midfield battle.Ā England's midfield is nowhere near as good as Spain's.Ā It's different too, by not competing I just mean they aren't going to out-pass Italy. Rice and Phillips isn't set out to command the midfield but to disrupt the opposition.Ā I think Italy will edge possession overall, and in midfield will dominate it. I don't think that'll dictate who wins though. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
craigcwwe Posted July 10, 2021 Share Posted July 10, 2021 (edited) 4 minutes ago, EnterUsernameHere said: England's midfield is nowhere near as good as Spain's.Ā It's different too, by not competing I just mean they aren't going to out-pass Italy. Rice and Phillips isn't set out to command the midfield but to disrupt the opposition.Ā I think Italy will edge possession overall, and in midfield will dominate it. I don't think that'll dictate who wins though. Technically no, if we assume we're starting with Phllips, Rice and Mount ahead of them.Ā I don't think we're going to set up to out passĀ Italy specifically in midfield as that's unlikely to happen, I can see England having a good amount of possession in deep areas though at the back, that's been the case for most of these games so far. Slow build up, keeping the ball moving around the back and the two DMs. I think we'll try to do that and then get in down the sides and not try to play through Italy's centre.Ā Edited July 10, 2021 by craigcwwe Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
EnterUsernameHere Posted July 10, 2021 Share Posted July 10, 2021 1 minute ago, craigcwwe said: Technically no, if we assume we're starting with Phllips, Rice and Mount ahead of them.Ā I don't think we're going to set up to out passĀ Italy specifically in midfield as that's unlikely to happen, I can see England having a good amount of possession in deep areas though at the back, that's been the case for most of these games so far. Slow build up, keeping the ball moving around the back and the two DMs. I think we'll try to do that and then get in down the sides and not try to play through Italy's centre.Ā Yes, agree, I think that'll be the plan too.Ā Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Astafjevs Posted July 10, 2021 Share Posted July 10, 2021 Spain were able to control things because they play a particular way. Not because their three are better players than Italy's. I'd expect Italy to be able to impose their game a bit better than the SF because England don't play like Spain. And they don't have the players to play like Spain either Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
CMOZZA Posted July 10, 2021 Share Posted July 10, 2021 This made me laugh because this could easily be a genuine Talksport caller Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Barry Cartman Posted July 10, 2021 Share Posted July 10, 2021 1 hour ago, EnterUsernameHere said: England's midfield is nowhere near as good as Spain's.Ā What utter nonsense Spain played with a false 9 which gave them more of the ball, nothing to do with somehow having a better midfieldĀ Ā Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
EnterUsernameHere Posted July 10, 2021 Share Posted July 10, 2021 2 minutes ago, Barry Cartman said: What utter nonsense Spain played with a false 9 which gave them more of the ball, nothing to do with somehow having a better midfieldĀ Ā Busquets/Pedri/Koke isn't better than Phillips/Rice/Mount? Wake up. 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
craigcwwe Posted July 10, 2021 Share Posted July 10, 2021 1 minute ago, EnterUsernameHere said: Busquets/Pedri/Koke isn't better than Phillips/Rice/Mount? Wake up. Not being bias but I take the England three there.Ā Busquets is past it, Koke is a nothing player, Pedri is something special though and the best of the 6 there but on the whole, England's midfield for me. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Administrators Lucas Posted July 10, 2021 Administrators Share Posted July 10, 2021 Not really sure the two midfields are comparable given they play completely different and offer different things to the side.Ā Ā 7 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
VP. Posted July 10, 2021 Share Posted July 10, 2021 Annie Mac's Mini Mix -Ā MelĆ© 'It's Coming Home' Mini Mix https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p09nyx87 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
aggressive minor Posted July 10, 2021 Share Posted July 10, 2021 34 minutes ago, EnterUsernameHere said: Busquets/Pedri/Koke isn't better than Phillips/Rice/Mount? Wake up. Iām with EUH. England are a very good team, attack and defence are brilliant. Letās not kid ourselves over midfieldĀ ā¦itās decent, but nothing compared to SpaināsĀ 3 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now