In the spirit of making changes I wonder if we might might give Wharton a go next game. Hes got a left foot, would balance a midfield three of Bellingham and Rice, does what we need in terms of looking after the ball and passing it forward and decent at pressing and winning the ball. Plus Guehi from Palace has has been our best player dispelling the idea you need players with Champions League experience... Would probably mean Foden would be dropped though, and Southgate would have to go for him ahead of Mainoo... But just got a feeling...

Best game we ever played under Southgate I think was beating the Spanish in Spain during the first nations league in 2021... Thought that was the birth of Harry Winks and Ross Barkley as a top international players... We were real quality. That didnt turn out... Winks slipped away without a trace.

Its pretty mad a firm of this size can be the lead sponsor of a club in the Championship. Are other clubs at this level sponsored by local firms of a 50-100 headcount??

Yeah, Kane has looked really lethargic. Hes struggled to do anything really except a nice fox in the box finish against Denmark. Off the ball hes been atrocious. Hes getting on, never had be best stamina and he looks unfit to me. One element that no one is really talking about is in the last few tournaments hes played with Sterling and at Spurs he had Son as a two up front. They would always go well past him and hed drop off. None of our current forwards, apart from maybe Gordon, will look to do that... But can you drop your most likely goal scorer? The criticism of England has been totally justified. I think we may end up trying something different in the last game as we have to change something. Getting Gordon on the left side would seem the obvious move, and I do wonder if we might bench Kane to let him rest as effectively we're through... We're really suffering from not having figured out how we want to play months ago. Id go for a high press. Get the players with the physical ability to do it on the pitch. Tell Kane if he wants to get back in the team he needs to press, or he is going to be used as a sub late in games when the opposition tires and the press is less critical. Pickford Walker. Stones. Guehi. Trippier Bellingam Rice. Foden Saka. Watkins. Gordon Just go out and be relentless.

I thought the disallowed goal was fair enough, the Dutch player was completely blocking where the French keeper needed to dive. If it had been Rovers/ England and the goal allowed I would have been fuming. Also as much as England have looked unconvincing so have France. Based on the games so far it really is Spain and Germany who look well balanced, energised and full of quality. But if theres one trusim the groups of a major tournament are a very poor guide on who will go onto win it. Id still back France I think.

Out of tha attackers Saka has been the best so far for us imo, no way I would drop him. Anyway irrespective of who plays or how we setup next game we have to press and be intense across the front amd midfield. Its more important than who actually plays imo.

Putting aside formations and particularly players the weirdest thing is we didn't press at all. We didnt even try which is just very very strange. Everyone presses, it's probably the most important part of modern football.

Its all been very very good... Loads of trains and Trams.. whoever is planning the fabled Northern Powerhouse rail could take a close look at North Rhine Westphalia's rail and tram network. In the whole region of 10 million + people your virtually never more than a 10 min walk from a station and they were very quick. The combination of city centres (Cologne-Dusseldorf-Essen-Gelsenkirchen-Dortmund) is quite similar to what we need to do with Liverpool-Manchester-Leeds-Hull and surrounding towns... All through stations, no need to change, and you come out in the middle of the city. https://images.app.goo.gl/n41zWGdgR8xY42JT9 In terms of the issues transporting fans I think its been more a problem from siting the fan parks too far away from the stadium and massively under estimating the amount of Scots and English who would travel without tickets. The actual trains etc have worked well in our experience. (I did get a small tear of pride when on a train from Essen to Dortmund I realised that it was owned and operated by National Express a wholely British owned company based in Birmingham. Never thought id see a British company operate trains in Germany!)

Last game at the Euros for me last night.... Düsseldorf I remember from visiting a friend in NW Germany 15 years ago as a gritty industrial place... But I must have got it confused with somewhere else as its an absolutely gorgeous city on the banks of the Rhine. Lovely old town centre, has a Japan town area with great food, beautiful parks and a really charming (but loooong) walk along the river to the stadium. Stadium is top notch.... As with a lot for the tournament built for the world cup in 2006 and reused. I dont think I've seen anything at the euros that Germany have had to build specifically for this tournament... Smart. In terms of the game - I thought Austria were fantastic in defence and midfield. They beat the French press time and time again, passing the ball around neatly. Won the ball from the French well. Though Laimer was brilliant.... Unfortunately they lacked quality up front to finish the decent opportunities they made. France on the other hand were very poor up front and midfield but showed their quality in defence.. The recovery pace on its own when the other team is breaking is a sight to see. Probably Id say France played worse than England, and could easily have drawn the game. Mbappe missed a sitter, but then Austria spurned some golden chances. France only really got the game properly under control around the 70th minute. While obviously France have not hit their rhythm other teams will be looking at them thinking maybe they can be beat like the Swiss did in 2021.... Germany and Spain have set the early pace with France and England some way off. Will be interesting to see Portugal today, and how they get going.

Only challenge I have to that is Bowen, I thought he was very good. I was surprised when he came on, but he immediately caused them problems I wonder if we could put Palmer on the left as he is left footed and could give us some width. We should use the next two games to try that out.

I was at the game... Great atmosphere. Englishs belting out Phil Fodens on fire to the tune of dancing in the dark in the concourse was quality, very atmospheric... First time I have seen England play in a major tournament and I assumed from all the press etc it would be a tightly policed operation with segregation... But actually once in the ground all the English, Sebs and neutrals were completely free to wonder around and mix together. Atmosphere was a positive one... A bit of booing of the national anthem by both sides but that was the extent of provocation really... We were sitting with Serbs one side and English the other, all good. Almost like a rugby game mixing of fans. Food waaaaay better than at English grounds that Ive experienced.. the watered down beer was pretty minging though.. In terms of the game a typically unconvincing England performance. Thought TAA was coming in to act like a quarter back but he didnt do that, instead pressed on into the final third. Really confused me as if that was the plan why pick TAA when you have better players for that more attacking role? So we ended up with a really disjointed central midfield which ended up relying on Bellingham to drop deep and help out which considering how defensive Serbia was should not have been necessary... Basically Saka and Bellingham were brilliant and won us the game. Bellingham ability in the air (alongside everything else) is going to beba major asset for us. Everyone else passable but not inspiring. One other positive is that Guehi looks like he could be a very good partner for Stones. Beyond that the lack of any left sided width is a major issue, and how we pass and move the ball in midfield compared to Germany or Spain is so far off. We need to solve those two things quickly....

More Ive thought about it playing Bellingham at 10, Foden left and TAA in midfield makes sense. Bellingham has a physical dimension the other attacking mids and will give teams a lot more to think about if theyre sitting deep and we're getting the ball in the box. Think the rumoured line up is the right call. TAA needs to sit deep and get pinging the ball around.

Was just at the Albania v Italy game - incredible atmosphere. Probaby more of a home game for Albania than playing in Tirana... About 80% of the stadium red shirts.... What was a shame was after the fantastic build up and getting the early goal both the Albania team and the fans seemed to lose all their intensity. Very easy for the Italians except the last 10 mins... Shame as after the first 10 mins felt like it could be a classic. Chiesa and Barella are quality players though. Anyway great experience and Signal Induna Park is some stadium...

We need to take a page out of Germany's book for me.... Kroos dropping so deep and spreading the play against an ultra defensive side is was so effective... German'ys way of playing is exactly how we should have setup against Iceland. I think thats maybe Southgates plan with Alexander-Arnold. His long passing is the best we have, should get the nod ahead of Mainoo, Wharton or dropping Bellingham into midfield two.

Wow, I can't believe someone is going to buy Wahlstadt for a million euros after the season he had.

Arguably five really as JRC has been in midfield (Tronstad, Travis, JRC, Buckley, Garrett). Im sure one of our loans will be a centre mid too.

Hes been playing injured most of the season... He was very good first year here, so I would expect if he gets himself fit again he will get back to where he was. That Bristol away performance was absolutely unbelievable though. So so so so so bad.

Yeah looking at how the squad has shaken out I would say everyone needs to moderate their expectations a bit... Semis would be a good performance imo. QFs par. Its frustrating as with a top CB to partner Stones and fit left back I think we could have genuinely expected to win. But you look at the defence compared to the other top teams and we will need something extraordinary to get to the final.

I think Southgates a decent manager. Over performed with average squads in the past. That said whats going to kill us at this tournament is our defence. It really looks very makeshift. Think any of the big teams (France, Spain, Germany, Italy, Portugal) will really fancy their chances. That we had a gap at centreback has been known for a while and we have done little about it. And a horrendous run of injuries at left back has left us very weak there.

Every year I say pretty much the same thing.... Any club with limited resources will struggle to sign any more than four players that go straight into the first team squad and three loans. Its not impossible to do more than that, but its rare.... So given we probably need seven signings just to fill out the squad from where we are now i cant really see us selling anyone whose had decent first team minutes (except Szmodics as we will get an offer too good to refuse).

20 million zloty is about £4m quid which would be poor compared to incomings but more than many expect.... Maybe 20 million rupees would be more accurate?

I definitely wouldn't start Gallagher - id play Mainoo or Wharton instead. Or drop Bellingham or Foden deeper and bring Palmer in. I cant see why when we have so many good players why Gallagher would get in. Also not a huge fan of Trippier on the left... But Shaw isnt fit and also not sure about Gomez.

Must all be driven by Waggott / Sunhal bringing back someone they know (Park) and clearing the deck. What will be interesting if the key factor is cost cutting or if it is a genuine turn over of personnel. We will be able to tell by who Park brings in.

Do we really know he's on 20k a week?

I mean thats really not cricket if we made a reasonable offer and he doesnt give us a go even on a short contract