England - Lee Carsley Takes The Reins

[Ewood Ace]

12 minutes ago, M_B said:

Nowt to do with luck, England topped their group and did the job. 

Others didn't, so end up where they belong. 

Spain, Germany and Portugal (the best 3 teams so far in my opinion) also all topped their group. England's 5 points would not have topped any other group.

[BigBar]

Not enough managers have the balls to ring the changes. I do believe that if England did just go for it (and not in a naive sense) and throw in Wharton, Palmer and Gordon it would improve you lot massively. 3 games and 3 poor performances. 

It's the equivalent of a boxer happy to do the 12 rounds and see what happens. Not willing to take a risk. Depends what you are into I guess.

[lraC]

Putting tonight’s game to one side, there is an interesting scenario tomorrow and one that has the bookies running for the hills.

Romania play Slovakia and a draw sees them both qualify. The draw is less than evens and 0-0 around 7/2. 
No guarantees but it could be as good a bet as the general election one, that is in the news at the min.

[matt83]

Apparently folk were throwing their empty plastic pint pots at Southgate at the end. Disappointing to hear. Could have filled them up with piss. 

[M_B]

6 minutes ago, ABBEY said:

What about England caps ?

Do you get them for winning tournaments now? 

[Admiral Nelsen]

Just looked at the different permutations for the next round. I think it basically comes down to the Czech Republic result. They win, we play 3rd place from Romania, Belgium, Ukraine and Slovakia. They don't win, and we'll be playing the Netherlands. 

 

 

[BigBar]

2 minutes ago, Ewood Ace said:

Spain, Germany and Portugal (the best 3 teams so far in my opinion) also all topped their group. England's 5 points would not have topped any other group.

Very valid. Considering the group you had and the quality available to you it's quite a poor return.

[M_B]

5 minutes ago, Ewood Ace said:

Spain, Germany and Portugal (the best 3 teams so far in my opinion) also all topped their group. England's 5 points would not have topped any other group.

What's that got to do with anything? 

England won their group, France didn't. It's tournament football, you get what you get.

Would we have been unlucky if we'd come second and ended up in the other half? 

 

Edited June 25 by M_B

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

3 minutes ago, BigBar said:

Very valid. Considering the group you had and the quality available to you it's quite a poor return.

To be honest the points return was better than the performances. We’ve looked  like 11 blokes who turned up for a Sunday morning kick about after a good drink on the Saturday night.

[wilsdenrover]

4 minutes ago, Admiral Nelsen said:

Just looked at the different permutations for the next round. I think it basically comes down to the Czech Republic result. They win, we play 3rd place from Romania, Belgium, Ukraine and Slovakia. They don't win, and we'll be playing the Netherlands. 

 

 

Does it matter whether we’re the fifth or sixth best group winner?

[Herbie6590]

28 minutes ago, Ewood Ace said:

For the next game I'd go with the following. Get Stones in to midfield where he is very comfortable and allow Rice to play further forward. The left side is a huge problem thanks to the idiot manager so I'd play Saka there to try and bring a bit of balance.

                           Pickford

               Walker  Guehi   Gomez

                            Stones

TAA         Rice                 Mainoo       Saka

                          Palmer

             Bellingham         Kane

 

There is a slight problem with this team…😉

[wilsdenrover]

2 minutes ago, Herbie6590 said:

There is a slight problem with this team…😉

Maybe the ref wouldn’t notice.

[Ewood Ace]

2 minutes ago, M_B said:

What's that got to do with anything? 

They won their group, France didn't. It's tournament football, you get what you get. 

 

You said others (plural) hadn't done their job when I said England had got lucky with the side of the draw they are on. I am merely stating that the best 3 teams in the tournament so far to my mind have all got the job done and by the luck of the draw England have avoided being in their half.

[joey_big_nose]

23 minutes ago, Ewood Ace said:

For the next game I'd go with the following. Get Stones in to midfield where he is very comfortable and allow Rice to play further forward. The left side is a huge problem thanks to the idiot manager so I'd play Saka there to try and bring a bit of balance.

                           Pickford

               Walker  Guehi   Gomez

                            Stones

TAA         Rice                 Mainoo       Saka

                          Palmer

             Bellingham         Kane

 

If we were able to field 12 players it would ease our selection issues, but dont think the ref will go for it.

Also Gordon looked exactly what the doctor ordered on the left so has to start for me.

If we were picking on performance I would actually probably switch to a 343

                       Pickford

         Walker.   Stones.   Guehi

TAA.       Rice.       Mainoo     Saka

       Palmer.     Kane.    Gordon.

Walker and Guehi are so pacy to recover we can probably go quite gung ho..... Taking Bellingham out clears out the number 10 role for Kane to drop into and Palmer and Gordon will get beyond him which he needs. Feels like it suits everyone better. Saka is not going to offer much cover at LWB, but going forward him and Gordon down the left could be devastating.

But Southgate is not fond of changing systems mid tournament...while be has played three at the back a lot Ill be amazed if we move away from 4231. And dropping a big name player like Bellingham is not something Southgate has ever done.

[Admiral Nelsen]

3 minutes ago, wilsdenrover said:

Does it matter whether we’re the fifth or sixth best group winner?

 

No. It's all about which groups the four best 3rd place teams are in. 

It's either going to be A, C, D & E - meaning that we play the 3rd placed team in group D (Netherlands).

 

OR the Czechs (group F) win tomorrow, replacing Hungary (Group A). Which means we then play whoever comes third in group E, who could literally be any of them as things stand!

[bluebruce]

17 minutes ago, Ewood Ace said:

Spain, Germany and Portugal (the best 3 teams so far in my opinion) also all topped their group. England's 5 points would not have topped any other group.

Ours was an incredibly shit group, stunk up the whole tournament - 6 games, 5 of them draws! 😴

The only other result a 1-0. No game involving more than 2 goals total, no side scoring 2 goals in a game, no side scoring more than 2 goals in total in the whole group stage. Utter yawnfest.

Edited June 25 by bluebruce

[Exiled_Rover]

1 hour ago, BigBar said:

Not enough managers have the balls to ring the changes. I do believe that if England did just go for it (and not in a naive sense) and throw in Wharton, Palmer and Gordon it would improve you lot massively. 3 games and 3 poor performances. 

It's the equivalent of a boxer happy to do the 12 rounds and see what happens. Not willing to take a risk. Depends what you are into I guess.

He's got a lad with 40something goals / assists on the bench. Sat next to a lad that earned Olise a £60m move to Bayern Munich.

I genuinely can't fathom how he's so stubborn. 

Edited June 25 by Exiled_Rover

[Exiled_Rover]

Just now, joey_big_nose said:

If we were able to field 12 players it would ease our selection issues, but dont think the ref will go for it.

Also Gordon looked exactly what the doctor ordered on the left so has to start for me.

If we were picking on performance I would actually probably switch to a 343

                       Pickford

         Walker.   Stones.   Guehi

TAA.       Rice.       Mainoo     Saka

       Palmer.     Kane.    Gordon.

Walker and Guehi are so pacy to recover we can probably go quite gung ho..... Taking Bellingham out clears out the number 10 role for Kane to drop into and Palmer and Gordon will get beyond him which he needs. Feels like it suits everyone better. Saka is not going to offer much cover at LWB, but going forward him and Gordon down the left could be devastating.

But Southgate is not fond of changing systems mid tournament...while be has played three at the back a lot Ill be amazed if we move away from 4231. And dropping a big name player like Bellingham is not something Southgate has ever done.

Baffling people don't want to start Wharton (he literally had Mainoo in his pocket when they played each other) or Foden (THE best English player in the PL this season) but want to persist with Kane.

It's a funny old game isn't it?

To me you stick with the 4-2-3-1, drop Gallagher for Wharton and Kane for Palmer. Stick Bellingham up front and play Foden behind him. 

[Ewood Ace]

1 minute ago, Exiled_Rover said:

Baffling people don't want to start Wharton (he literally had Mainoo in his pocket when they played each other) or Foden (THE best English player in the PL this season) but want to persist with Kane.

Harry Kane has produced time and time again in an England shirt, Phil Foden has worn the shirt nearly 40 times now and has done barely anything of note.

[joey_big_nose]

5 minutes ago, Ewood Ace said:

Harry Kane has produced time and time again in an England shirt, Phil Foden has worn the shirt nearly 40 times now and has done barely anything of note.

Fodens a great player but it just feels him, Bellingham and Kane are all trying to live in the same area of the pitch. Gordon and Palmer can play wider which is why I went for them.

[M_B]

12 minutes ago, Ewood Ace said:

You said others (plural) hadn't done their job when I said England had got lucky with the side of the draw they are on. I am merely stating that the best 3 teams in the tournament so far to my mind have all got the job done and by the luck of the draw England have avoided being in their half.

Others haven't, there is only one team in each group which can win it. The rest are runner up at best. 

The draw is what it is, I don't remember anyone particularly fearing Germany coming into the tournament.Didi Hamann was talking down their chances on the eve of the tournament. Were Scotland lucky to get into their group? 

 

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

6 minutes ago, joey_big_nose said:

Fodens a great player but it just feels him, Bellingham and Kane are all trying to live in the same area of the pitch. Gordon and Palmer can play wider which is why I went for them.

I thought Foden had his best game tonight. 

[Ewood Ace]

Just now, M_B said:

Others haven't, there is only one team in each group which can win it. The rest are runner up at best. 

The draw is what it is, I don't remember anyone particularly fearing Germany coming into the tournament.Didi Hamann was talking down their chances on the eve of the tournament. Were Scotland lucky to get into their group? 

 

A German team in a tournament on home soil are always going to be hard to beat.

[Gav]

Whilst England top the group and qualify at a canter, shout out to the fans tonight who never stopped singing from start to finish, in fact they’ve never stopped singing since they got to the airports and ports across the U.K heading to Germany.

Brilliant support, I salute you all.

 

[Tugay-is-God]

Get Wharton in there, I don't care about the rest. He'll get something going.