Comment deleted by Site Moderator

We were never going to be able to defend that slender lead for 45 minutes in the second half. It seems that the only person in England who couldn’t see that equaliser coming was our manager.

comment by GTWI4T- some people deserve to get trolled (U6008)
posted 2 minutes ago
I thought first half it worked very well. Its very hard to change formations in a final when you're 1-0 up and, even though you're not having as much of the ball, are still pretty comfortable.
----------------------------------------------------------------------

We had two shots in 120 mins. We chose to play for 1 nil and that's on the manager. He's a coward. We could have scored more goals had we attacked them.

Didn't do enough in normal time

Didn't do enough in ET

Might as well have not turned up for the pens if we put boys in and specialist bottlers

First 20 minutes, when Shaw and Trippier were making forward runs it did work.

Once they took control and started to pen us back, we needed an outlet and we essentially playing a back 7 with rice and Phillips sitting so deep.

Mount should have been taken off early in the second half and it shouldn’t have been for Saka, who looked nervous and second to everything from the moment he got on the pitch.

A threat in behind is what was required.

Whilst what you say may be true, another argument says that they didn't create a real 'clear cut' chance from open play - Chiesa's low shot which Pickford saved was about their best and I'd only call that a half chance.

Their goal came from us defending a set piece extremely poorly. Basic defending - don't let them get the flick on, stay goal side of your markers just in case they do etc. Unforgiveable really, and very uncharacteristic of us in this tournament. Nothing Gareth could do about that!

Germany absolutely destroyed Portugal with a 3-4-3. There's nothing wrong with the system and it's not inherently defensive. It's all about execution. The wingbacks were finding a lot of space in the first 20 or so mins. This should have allowed England get their 3 forwards into the box where they like to be, but for some reason, Kane spent much of the game falling down and Sterling and Mount had poor games. Regardless of England's formation, Italy were always going to have more of the ball cos they have the more technical midfield.

I've been very critical of Southgate's in game management and this time it was exposed. We were too reactive to Italy coming back into the game, and seemed to play for penalties afterwards, which was farcical.

comment by Glazers_Out (SE85) (U21241)
posted 44 seconds ago
comment by GTWI4T- some people deserve to get trolled (U6008)
posted 2 minutes ago
I thought first half it worked very well. Its very hard to change formations in a final when you're 1-0 up and, even though you're not having as much of the ball, are still pretty comfortable.
----------------------------------------------------------------------

We had two shots in 120 mins. We chose to play for 1 nil and that's on the manager. He's a coward. We could have scored more goals had we attacked them.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
This.

Might as well have not turned up for the pens if we put boys in and specialist bottlers

-

All three of them chose to step up when others shirked. Got more bottle than any of you lot having a go.

We played what has been the best team in the tournament, which has gone unbeaten in three years, and contains not only hugely talented players but leading players who are hugely experienced in elite football. I thought the first half was pretty comfortable: Italy had plenty of 'safe possession' but were reduced to shooting from distance while we looked quite dangerous on the break.

In the second half Italy looked consistently dangerous, but that was down to Mancini's changes in personnel and our inability to make our own changes to combat them (or lack of confidence that changes would help) rather than because the formation didn't work.

I think there are legitimate questions about whether England could have been braver throughout the tournament. Could we have had more of our attacking talent on the pitch? Could we have deployed a less safety-first approach? Maybe, but we got further than anytime in my lifetime, so it seems churlish to assume that shifting the balance away from defensive rigour would come at no cost.

Overall, I don't feel inclined to find someone to blame this morning. Southgate and his England team have brought us much needed joy over the last month, they've done better than successive generations, and they're easily the most likable and admirable group of England players I can remember. And last night they lost by the finest of margins against a team most sensible people considered better than them. I'm proud of them.

Comment deleted by Site Moderator

comment by Sheriff John Brown - Arteta OUT!!! (U7482)
posted 3 minutes ago
Germany absolutely destroyed Portugal with a 3-4-3. There's nothing wrong with the system and it's not inherently defensive. It's all about execution. The wingbacks were finding a lot of space in the first 20 or so mins. This should have allowed England get their 3 forwards into the box where they like to be, but for some reason, Kane spent much of the game falling down and Sterling and Mount had poor games. Regardless of England's formation, Italy were always going to have more of the ball cos they have the more technical midfield.
----------------------------------------------------------------------

Whenever we did run at them they brought us down with cynical fouls. They were scared of our pace.

Southgate played the only way that suited Italy. Sit deep and let them have the ball. He's just a poor coach who has been a bit fortunate with some favourable cup draws in two tournaments.

Comment deleted by Site Moderator

comment by GTWI4T- some people deserve to get trolled (U6008)
posted 13 seconds ago
comment by Glazers_Out (SE85) (U21241)
posted 1 minute ago
comment by Sheriff John Brown - Arteta OUT!!! (U7482)
posted 3 minutes ago
Germany absolutely destroyed Portugal with a 3-4-3. There's nothing wrong with the system and it's not inherently defensive. It's all about execution. The wingbacks were finding a lot of space in the first 20 or so mins. This should have allowed England get their 3 forwards into the box where they like to be, but for some reason, Kane spent much of the game falling down and Sterling and Mount had poor games. Regardless of England's formation, Italy were always going to have more of the ball cos they have the more technical midfield.
----------------------------------------------------------------------

Whenever we did run at them they brought us down with cynical fouls. They were scared of our pace.

Southgate played the only way that suited Italy. Sit deep and let them have the ball. He's just a poor coach who has been a bit fortunate with some favourable cup draws in two tournaments.

----------------------------------------------------------------------


----------------------------------------------------------------------

Does Klopp shut up shop after going 1 up after 2 mins? Does Pep?

He's just negative.

Comment deleted by Site Moderator

Marco Verratti had the same # of touches during 90 mins (127) as Kalvin Phillips, Declan Rice, Mason Mount & Jordan Henderson combined

I thought the alarm bells were there in the first half too tbh. We were relying way too much on certain players as the systems were favouring Italy and that was even worse after Mancini had done his corrections.

Results wise though, semi final followed by a final can never be sniffed at and that guarantees Southgate a long contract extension. Personally, I’m not particularly happy about that, but for now, I’m more feeling sympathy for the team last night.

comment by meltonblue (U10617)
posted 1 minute ago
I thought the alarm bells were there in the first half too tbh. We were relying way too much on certain players as the systems were favouring Italy and that was even worse after Mancini had done his corrections.

Results wise though, semi final followed by a final can never be sniffed at and that guarantees Southgate a long contract extension. Personally, I’m not particularly happy about that, but for now, I’m more feeling sympathy for the team last night.
----------------------------------------------------------------------

Same here melts.

We took the cowardly approach and it backfired. Why if our country is so notoriously awful at penalty shoot outs would you play a way that made penalties more likely to happen?

We should have gone for the throat. Sure we may have conceded one but we could have scored another at least ourselves.

Look back at the last 20-30 years of international football tournaments and you'll see that most of the ones that haven't been won by sumptuously talented teams were won by teams that focused on being very hard to break down. You don't often get champagne football in international football because players have about a 20th of the time training together to work on set patterns of play and to read each others' games. If Southgate could have picked a midfield consisting of players of the quality of Verratti and Jorginho, he probably would have done. You could argue for Bellingham but it's probably just a bit too early for him.

We were a penalty shootout lottery away from winning the tournament, and even in defeat it's England's greatest achievement since 1966, and people are acting like Italy were there for the taking and Southgate's a joker. Yes, maybe in retrospect maybe there were missed opportunities to change the game against a talented, committed and experienced Italy side. But Southgate doesn't need to take any lectures from an armchair fan whose track record includes having to run away from the forum for six months out of embarrassment when his own views were quoted back to him.

comment by The Lambeau Leap (U21050)
posted 20 minutes ago
Might as well have not turned up for the pens if we put boys in and specialist bottlers

-

All three of them chose to step up when others shirked. Got more bottle than any of you lot having a go.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
indeed they did...& all credit to them...but Southgate has no right allowing this predicament to be so...there are three or four other more seasoned pros' there who should have stepped up...ok they might have missed, but it was their time....it wasn't two lads who are barely out of school's time

and Rashford...sorry, irrespective of all the school dinner stuff, and stepping up...if you step up you have to put your best though process into it.....you can't try to mug off a world class keeper with the eyes whilst not looking at the fackin ball

Comment deleted by Site Moderator

Allowing Italy the possession wasn’t the issue IMO. It was sitting too deep and not being aggressive at all for counter attack opportunities. England just didn’t want to push up when they had chances. That gave momentum to them and it was over once that happened.

comment by Red Russian (U4715)
posted 1 minute ago
Look back at the last 20-30 years of international football tournaments and you'll see that most of the ones that haven't been won by sumptuously talented teams were won by teams that focused on being very hard to break down. You don't often get champagne football in international football because players have about a 20th of the time training together to work on set patterns of play and to read each others' games. If Southgate could have picked a midfield consisting of players of the quality of Verratti and Jorginho, he probably would have done. You could argue for Bellingham but it's probably just a bit too early for him.

We were a penalty shootout lottery away from winning the tournament, and even in defeat it's England's greatest achievement since 1966, and people are acting like Italy were there for the taking and Southgate's a joker. Yes, maybe in retrospect maybe there were missed opportunities to change the game against a talented, committed and experienced Italy side. But Southgate doesn't need to take any lectures from an armchair fan whose track record includes having to run away from the forum for six months out of embarrassment when his own views were quoted back to him.
----------------------------------------------------------------------

What an absolutely awful take on that game. Clueless.

We had 34% of the ball. It was men Vs boys down to our manager.

You're wrong....as usual

Comment deleted by Site Moderator