England - Thomas Tuchel then…

[Aqualung]

A win is a win but I was far from entertained. Bore fest! 

[jim mk2]

4 minutes ago, davulsukur said:

Bellingham is our only actual world class player. He's going to be ridiculous in a few years time.

Some really poor performances tonight, Kane, TAA & Foden in particular.

Rice did the work of 2 players for the majority and had a decent game and Guehi was impressive.

Kane played the old pro tonight, particularly in the second half, winning fouls and free kicks all over the pitch and taking the pressure off.

As for Conor Gallagher international footballer. Really?

You need special players to win tournaments which makes the decision to leave Grealish at home difficult to understand 

[simongarnerisgod]

bellingham a class act,give him a free role behind the centre forward,he`s to good to be getting the ball off the goalkeeper

[RoverDom]

1 minute ago, simongarnerisgod said:

bellingham a class act,give him a free role behind the centre forward,he`s to good to be getting the ball off the goalkeeper

I thought he was going where he wanted to be fair. 

[chaddyrovers]

Kane hold the ball up and be target man type like Shearer used to. We always start slowly but also its only second win in the last 11 opening games at Euros

I thought Gallagher gave us what we wanted which we solid and shape good. 

13 minutes ago, RTM08 said:

Not at all, but play like that against any half decent side and they'll put 4 or 5 past us. 

Its the opening game and like others have said its the first game and the winner of these tournament tend to start slowly. 

10 minutes ago, roversfan99 said:

Only important thing is getting the win on the opening day and we are now in a position especially considering the current format where we have a foot in the last 16 already.

But the performance was really poor. We just dont have the ability to control the game. It was just endless hoofing the ball up to Kane against 3 big defenders. Foden is a totally different player when managed by Southgate.

We played alot deeper second half but Kane was much better second half and played like Shearer used to by holding the ball up, winning fouls, etc. 

[DE.]

Gareth certainly has plenty to think about after tonight. He'll be happy with the three points, no doubt, but he must be worried by the way our confidence evaporated once the momentum started swinging the other way - and never really came back. Foden and TAA in particular just continued making mistake after mistake, and if they can't even cope with the pressure against Serbia can they really be relied upon when we come up against top teams? 

We have enough talent with the likes of Saka, Bellingham and Kane to get out of the group even if we aren't playing at our best. It's when we come up against the top sides in the tournament that we'll need to step up, and we need to make sure at that point that every player on the pitch is strong enough to deal with the challenge. 

[roversfan99]

1 minute ago, chaddyrovers said:

Kane hold the ball up and be target man type like Shearer used to. We always start slowly but also its only second win in the last 11 opening games at Euros

I thought Gallagher gave us what we wanted which we solid and shape good. 

Its the opening game and like others have said its the first game and the winner of these tournament tend to start slowly. 

We played alot deeper second half but Kane was much better second half and played like Shearer used to by holding the ball up, winning fouls, etc. 

It isnt a tactic that suits these players to just lump the ball towards Kane, especially against 3 centre backs.

Just because there are examples of teams starting slowly in tournaments (not really relevant to us as we have never won this tournament for all those slow starts) doesnt mean we can dismiss concerns heightened by a poor performance even in victory.

The win is all that matters at the end of the day but im struggling to see why we are the favourites aside from blind patriotic gamblers.

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

Typical Southgate performance. Lots of walking football, no tempo. players passing it stood still to players that were also stood still . Same old story under this coach. Very lucky not to throw that game away. Played ok for half an hour and went to pot after that. In the second half the midfield vanished like snow when the sun comes out. We got outmuscled right across the pitch. The left back got stuck into Saka who decided that sort of game isn’t for him. . Foden  was Foden in an England shirt- just peripheral, TAA, did he come out after half time ?  Bellingham couldn’t get in the game again. Kane was completely isolated. Thank god for the keeeper, back four and Rice.

First good team we come up against we’ll get dicked.

 

[B16Rover]

This is a proper football manager take, so holding my hands up to it before I start it.  But I do think when Kane plays like he did tonight (wanting to drop deep, back to goal, arrive late etc) he could do a job in the 10 role with a Toney or Watkins infront.  Somewhat troubles the midfield situation as it forces Bellingham deeper though.  

[Dreams of 1995]

The only thing that matters is tournament football is that we win every game 

1-0 will do for me

We looked as poor as we have under Southgate during tournament football. I don’t think TAA helped in midfield. He isn’t one really. That experiment has failed. Would much rather see Mainoo in there

England will improve with better opposition. A win against Denmark and we may see young Adam Wharton play vs Slovenia. We can dream 

[Miller11]

It’s astonishing really that we are talking about 3 players being played out of position. It’s the first match of an international tournament, not a League one game in the middle of a December fixture like up! 2 of those 3 were dire. Trent and Foden shouldn’t be accommodated.

[Cherry Blue]

We did ok. Nothing special but enough to win. Kane was good even though he hardly touched the ball. Second half clearance and the free kicks he won when tracking back were top class. Without him we might struggle 

[Exiled_Rover]

9 minutes ago, B16Rover said:

This is a proper football manager take, so holding my hands up to it before I start it.  But I do think when Kane plays like he did tonight (wanting to drop deep, back to goal, arrive late etc) he could do a job in the 10 role with a Toney or Watkins infront.  Somewhat troubles the midfield situation as it forces Bellingham deeper though.  

And considering we have about 5 players that want to play #10.

Either Kane plays as a #9 or he doesn't play imo. Same with Alexander-Arnold - play him at RB or not at all. 

Bellingham getting a free role actually massively disrupts the side, no matter how good he is.

[Exiled_Rover]

10 minutes ago, Dreams of 1995 said:

The only thing that matters is tournament football is that we win every game 

1-0 will do for me

We looked as poor as we have under Southgate during tournament football. I don’t think TAA helped in midfield. He isn’t one really. That experiment has failed. Would much rather see Mainoo in there

England will improve with better opposition. A win against Denmark and we may see young Adam Wharton play vs Slovenia. We can dream 

Mainoo shouldn't see the pitch this tournament - neither should Bowen either. For some reason they were both brought on ahead of far better players. 

Blue and white glasses on or off, this team is crying out for a playmaker next to Rice (who's a fantastic destroyer, but doesn't dictate the play). Either bite the bullet and play A. Wharton there (and I think he'd absolutely thrive), or play Bellingham there and tell Rice to properly sit in front of the back 4 to accommodate him.

Alexander-Arnold is not a CM - he was awful tonight. Gallagher is a fine CM, but he's not a creative one - he's another Phillips (albeit significantly better). Mainoo simply isn't ready. 

[Colt Seavers]

24 minutes ago, simongarnerisgod said:

bellingham a class act,give him a free role behind the centre forward,he`s to good to be getting the ball off the goalkeeper

Everything about the way he plays football reminds me so much of Bobby Charlton. He takes up the same positions, moves with the same elegance, has the same drop of the shoulder and sprinkles beautiful passes around. What a magnificent talent!

[Exiled_Rover]

15 minutes ago, Miller11 said:

It’s astonishing really that we are talking about 3 players being played out of position. It’s the first match of an international tournament, not a League one game in the middle of a December fixture like up! 2 of those 3 were dire. Trent and Foden shouldn’t be accommodated.

Foden is such a good player that he absolutely has to play. On form so does Palmer imo. 

[Andy]

It was the usual Southgate routine, wasn't it?
Play quite well, score and then absolutely panic. Bring on players like Gallagher (formerly Henderson), fingers in the ears and hope for the best.

That second half was crying out for Wharton in the middle and Eze/Gordon down the left.

A win is a win, but we'll need to be better than that.

[Exiled_Rover]

Just now, Andy said:

It was the usual Southgate routine, wasn't it?
Play quite well, score and then absolutely panic. Bring on players like Gallagher (formerly Henderson), fingers in the ears and hope for the best.

That second half was crying out for Wharton in the middle and Eze/Gordon down the left.

A win is a win, but we'll need to be better than that.

Or a CF that can get in behind. Kane is sooooooo slow.

[roversfan99]

Hes a great talent and deserves to be in and around it but bias aside, Wharton doesnt make a massive different there IMO. The gameplan was clearly to keep going long regardless of if it stunted our main attacking players. 

[Exiled_Rover]

Just now, roversfan99 said:

Hes a great talent and deserves to be in and around it but bias aside, Wharton doesnt make a massive different there IMO. The gameplan was clearly to keep going long regardless of if it stunted our main attacking players. 

Someone getting their foot on the ball in CM and breaking the lines with a turn or a pass around the corner would have split Serbia wide open. 

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

1 minute ago, roversfan99 said:

Hes a great talent and deserves to be in and around it but bias aside, Wharton doesnt make a massive different there IMO. The gameplan was clearly to keep going long regardless of if it stunted our main attacking players. 

Once we’d lost the initiative in the second half it wasn’t a game to bring Wharton on. He would have nobody to pass to because his team mates would all have been stood next to him. Everybody was in the last third of the pitch.

[roversfan99]

2 minutes ago, Exiled_Rover said:

Someone getting their foot on the ball in CM and breaking the lines with a turn or a pass around the corner would have split Serbia wide open. 

But he wouldnt have got a kick unless the tactics changed massively from Pickford going straight up to Kane.

[simongarnerisgod]

1 minute ago, Exiled_Rover said:

Someone getting their foot on the ball in CM and breaking the lines with a turn or a pass around the corner would have split Serbia wide open. 

there are loads of options with this group of players,a better manager would come up with a proper plan to get the best out of them

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

4 minutes ago, simongarnerisgod said:

there are loads of options with this group of players,a better manager would come up with a proper plan to get the best out of them

He’s just so negative. We go 1-0 up by playing quite well and then hang on for our lives. Against mighty Serbia.

[matt83]

I’ve always said the worst manager England ever had was sven goran eriksson. With the players he had at his disposal 04 we had the best team/squad (kick in the nuts lowly Greece won it) and in 06 Portugal did us again. He just could not get a tune out of top players. 

Controversially, I still maintain Southgate is the 2nd worst manager England has had. He’s the 2nd most “successful” England manager but given the players at his disposal, the groups we’ve had, the knock out routes we’ve had and the fact euro 2020 was “at home” during the business end. Had Southgate been the manager in 1993 I’m sure his face would be in the form of a turnip.

That being said despite the hype before the tournament I said we have that same chance of winning the euros as Man U had of winning the fa cup. 🏆. About the 4th best side with a punchers chance. 

Its could happen if not on this display…

Edited June 16 by matt83