England

[joey_big_nose]

Bosh. Great finish by Maguire.

[roversfan99]

Going to be a lucky win here. Drab performance, no pace or tempo, balance of the team is all wrong. No way should Southgates England be favourites for the Euros.

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

Anybody fancy England after watching that, fill your boots. I thought the pen was a dive.

[Proudtobeblue&white]

Laboured, drab performance. I was talking to a Burnley fan today, and he was spot on, Foden/Mount etc play so well at club level, as soon as they put on an England shirt, they just get worse! Lucky, against a very average team.

[roverandout]

16 minutes ago, matt83 said:

Several. France, Belgium, Portugal, Germany. Probably Italy and Holland with a bit of tournament pressure.   

That's rubbish.  Italy are no great shakes. The dutch look vulnerable.  Germany are struggling.  

[roverandout]

3 minutes ago, Tyrone Shoelaces said:

Anybody fancy England after watching that, fill your boots. I thought the pen was a dive.

No. He definitely caught him

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

Just now, roverandout said:

No. He definitely caught him

I though not.

[roverandout]

13 minutes ago, roversfan99 said:

Going to be a lucky win here. Drab performance, no pace or tempo, balance of the team is all wrong. No way should Southgates England be favourites for the Euros.

When u are missing several players then it would affect any team. Sancho rashford grealish Henderson trent saka would all be key players.  

[matt83]

2 minutes ago, roverandout said:

That's rubbish.  Italy are no great shakes. The dutch look vulnerable.  Germany are struggling.  

But do you honestly think we’d beat any of them in a tournament as we are?

[roverandout]

3 minutes ago, Proudtobeblue&white said:

Laboured, drab performance. I was talking to a Burnley fan today, and he was spot on, Foden/Mount etc play so well at club level, as soon as they put on an England shirt, they just get worse! Lucky, against a very average team.

What?? Mount has been superb.  Do u watch the games? Foden has shown some good touches but be plays in an area where he can't affect the game. Better than average team. Southgate can't get the best out of them

[roverandout]

1 minute ago, matt83 said:

But do you honestly think we’d beat any of them in a tournament as we are?

Nope. Central midfield is lacking.  Philips isn't good enough.  I would have Mount just in front of rice. Both have really come on this season 

[matt83]

1 minute ago, roverandout said:

Nope. Central midfield is lacking.  Philips isn't good enough.  I would have Mount just in front of rice. Both have really come on this season 

So in spite saying it’s rubbish that those teams are better than us you concede that they’ll probably all beat us. 

[roverandout]

2 minutes ago, matt83 said:

But do you honestly think we’d beat any of them in a tournament as we are?

I would fancy beating Holland as they are pretty average without de ligt de jong vvd. Germany look poor. Italy just don't have the x factor.  No teams in these qualifiers have looked amazing.  France have just scraped through.  Germany lost. Spain narrowly won

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

2 minutes ago, roverandout said:

When u are missing several players then it would affect any team. Sancho rashford grealish Henderson trent saka would all be key players.  

I thought we missed Grealish tonight. I don’t like this way of playing were right footed players ( Stirling ) play on the left and left footed players ( Foden ) play on the right. Foden had a great chance second half and the goalie could have thrown his cap on his right footed shot

[roverandout]

Just now, matt83 said:

So in spite saying it’s rubbish that those teams are better than us you concede that they’ll probably all beat us. 

I said central midfield.  If we can sort out a better partner for rice.  We have better attacking players than Germany Holland Spain Italy 

[roversfan99]

8 minutes ago, roverandout said:

When u are missing several players then it would affect any team. Sancho rashford grealish Henderson trent saka would all be key players.  

From those players, only 2 will likely start at most, Henderson if fit and Rashford who for me shouldnt. Saka might make the squad at a push, Grealish will be a sub, Sancho will be a sub and Southgate doesnt rate Trent.

Dont get me wrong we do have a few really good players and I get the natural optimism going into a major tournament but I do think a strong bias shows at times from yourself. In certain areas we are lacking and a huge question mark lies in the dugout, he keeps changing formations and his team selections very rarely have any balance to them. Tonight and v Albania we were so dull to watch, the balance of the side was all wrong and it was played at testimonial pace. Our defence will always have a mistake in it, especially with Pickford behind it, our central midfield will really struggle against better teams and we lack a threat in behind with lots of similar players wanting to do the same things.

At the world cup, we snook past some inferior teams via a very fabourable draw through set piece goals, if we win our group as I would probably expect then we would likely face Portugal or France in the first knockout round.

[matt83]

6 minutes ago, roverandout said:

I said central midfield.  If we can sort out a better partner for rice.  We have better attacking players than Germany Holland Spain Italy 

We’ll see I suppose. Bound to play someone half decent in the knockout phase unless we choke in the group. I just don’t see us beating any of the teams mentioned above. 

[roverandout]

54 minutes ago, joey_big_nose said:

Classic Stones... Can't afford madness like that at international level.

I read somewhere what a poster said. The defence clearly has no confidence in pope's kicking. Had that been ederson it would have been straight back to him

[roverandout]

Just now, matt83 said:

We’ll see I suppose. Bound to play someone half decent in the knockout phase unless we choke in the group. I just don’t see us beating any of the teams mentioned above. 

Portugal yes France definitely Belgium sure. But I have no fear over the others. Why do u think Germany and Holland are anything special.  Neither have pulled up any trees 

[matt83]

1 minute ago, roverandout said:

Portugal yes France definitely Belgium sure. But I have no fear over the others. Why do u think Germany and Holland are anything special.  Neither have pulled up any trees 

I don’t think they’re anything special just more than good enough to see us off.

Not good enough for north Macedonia though. 😂

Edited March 31, 2021 by matt83

[roverandout]

2 minutes ago, roversfan99 said:

From those players, only 2 will likely start at most, Henderson if fit and Rashford who for me shouldnt. Saka might make the squad at a push, Grealish will be a sub, Sancho will be a sub and Southgate doesnt rate Trent.

Dont get me wrong we do have a few really good players and I get the natural optimism going into a major tournament but I do think a strong bias shows at times from yourself. In certain areas we are lacking and a huge question mark lies in the dugout, he keeps changing formations and his team selections very rarely have any balance to them. Tonight and v Albania we were so dull to watch, the balance of the side was all wrong and it was played at testimonial pace. Our defence will always have a mistake in it, especially with Pickford behind it, our central midfield will really struggle against better teams and we lack a threat in behind with lots of similar players wanting to do the same things.

At the world cup, we snook past some inferior teams via a very fabourable draw through set piece goals, if we win our group as I would probably expect then we would likely face Portugal or France in the first knockout round.

I agree with all that but there are no outstanding teams right now.  Some big nations are really struggling 

[roverandout]

Just now, matt83 said:

I don’t think they’re anything special just more than good enough to see us off 

How? Holland conceded 4 v Turkey. Germany lost at home to Macedonia.  The dutch have a poor attack.  The German defence is worse than ours 

[Blue blood]

Decent first half, poor second imo. Anyone decent will be very confident playing England. Yes we were missing some key players but I think that's the nature of the season - all teams will have absences. 

Also feel our centre backs always have an error in them which doesn't help and we aren't as ruthless as we should be. Both big obstacles to any success. 

[roversfan99]

2 minutes ago, roverandout said:

I agree with all that but there are no outstanding teams right now.  Some big nations are really struggling 

Qualifying is a much of a muchness really, teams click when the tournament gets going. England regularly fly through qualifying but it means very little as long as you get there which barring occasional exceptions they all do.

Holland and Italy you mention and I agree we may fancy our chances against (both have better midfields mind you) but they are outsiders too. Belgium are one of the favourites although like us they are handicapped by a poor manager. France and Portugal stand out id say and we are likely going to face on in the first knockout round.

[rigger]

8 minutes ago, Blue blood said:

Decent first half, poor second imo. Anyone decent will be very confident playing England. Yes we were missing some key players but I think that's the nature of the season - all teams will have absences. 

Also feel our centre backs always have an error in them which doesn't help and we aren't as ruthless as we should be. Both big obstacles to any success. 

Sound familiar ?