nah champs dont play sh|te 100% of the time lol

You would think even Southgate’s incredible luck would run out at some point, but maybe not.

England master of scoring with only shot on target after 90 minutes.

Winning?

Not won in 90 mins since Serbia, five games ago.

comment by Cinciwolf-----JA606 NFL fantasy champ 2023 (U11551)
posted 5 minutes ago
Winning?

Not won in 90 mins since Serbia, five games ago.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Portugal lucked their way to it in 2016 winning one game in 90 mins, and that was against bloody Wales. There is precedent.

His record against top 10 nations is absolutely awful. He's now really struggling to beat minnow nations and mid tier ones too.

Not sure how we are in the semi final. We've been so so poor in every single game.

A lot of haters here must be seething! He’s England's best manager in living memory ladssssss.

If Turkey win this they’ll spank England but I’ve been thinking that since the second England game and yet here we are..

It is better to be lucky than good.

Imagine the scenes when England are knocked out to a team fielding Weghorst and a guy wearing that headband

comment by House - Mainoo is Free! (U17162)
posted 1 hour ago
Imagine the scenes when England are knocked out to a team fielding Weghorst and a guy wearing that headband
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Imagine shoes. Made of wood

Kobbie Mainoo Match Stats VS Switzerland:

100% tackles won
97% pass accuracy
49 touches
33/34 passes completed
4/5 duels won
3 interceptions
2 shots
2 tackles
1 key pass

comment by Posh Mufc Great Hafi Not Arrogant Just Better (U6578)
posted 1 hour, 56 minutes ago
It is better to be lucky than good.
----------------------------------------------------------------------

Luck eventually runs out

comment by House - Mainoo is Free! (U17162)
posted 1 hour, 50 minutes ago
Imagine the scenes when England are knocked out to a team fielding Weghorst and a guy wearing that headband
----------------------------------------------------------------------

I don’t think England are that lucky to be honest other than being clinical with shots on target to goals record. I remember Chelsea 2011-2012 winning the FA Cup and CL with high efficiency taking the few chances they created and conceding tons of chances every game and big chances but somehow not conceding. I think they probably outperformed XG for and against by 30 to win both cups.😂

It's a double-edged sword. Ultimately in international football, it's whether you win the Euros or World Cups. If you look at what are considered the major powerhouses in international football, and I mean this in terms of success generally over the decades, then the likes of Germany, Spain, Italy, France have been winning things, as have Arg and Brazil. It would be fair to consider that England is the missing team from that list, where more would have been expected of them but they have a poor win record.

Such is the desperation for another major victory, that how it is done is secondary to actually winning - if they win, people will generally not care how they played.

Of course if they don't, then I think Southgate does deserve criticism for the team's style of play (or lack of it), and in this tournament in particular, they have really looked like a team of strangers relying on individual bits of brilliance (sound familiar on here? )

My gut tells me England will prob struggle but will get past Holland, and maybe a better performance in the final against France / Spain.

If England had a few tournament wins under their belts, I don't think Southgate would still be in charge, because the feeling for having an entertaining team (especially with these players) would be a lot stronger than the 'need to win'.

I do think their performances at the Euros has had a strong galvanising effect on this squad players, and that could actually spur them on rather that feel the pressure of wanting to win.

I'll be surprised if we get through against Netherlands. As we've progressed through the tournament we've found it harder and harder to get the job done and they will be the best team we've faced. We've gone from taking leads and hanging on in the group stages, to going a goal down and hanging on and then scraping through to win it - last game in ET, yesterday's game on pens.

Looking back over the Euros and WCs of my lifetime, probably more than half were won by a team that was playing cautious, defensive football, and usually by a team that didn't look like it was the best at the tournament. Didn't I read that Southgate and his staff when he was appointed commission a study of how winners of these tournaments had got it done, and set about building a strategy based on that template?

I thought England were marginally the better team against Switzerland yesterday and that was our best performance of the competition. Not a very convincing performance but long spells of dominance, moving the ball forward quicker with more courage to hit early passes through narrow gaps. And let's not forget that Switzerland were one of the teams that had impressed most over the group stage and round of 16.

I've never cared about the style of play under Southgate - happy to put up with a month of bad football if it means we win.

the difference this time is that it's not even been boring but effective, we're so fortunate to have gotten this far. the left hand side has been a disaster from minute one and his refusal to change it is completely comical.

He just did change it!

how, by moving trippier to left wing back instead of left back

we basically played the exact same way, Trippier was already pushing up whilst walker stayed back as a 3rd CB.

comment by Christopher (U20930)
posted 6 minutes ago
I've never cared about the style of play under Southgate - happy to put up with a month of bad football if it means we win.

the difference this time is that it's not even been boring but effective, we're so fortunate to have gotten this far. the left hand side has been a disaster from minute one and his refusal to change it is completely comical.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
It's funny, the Southgate apologists have started coming out of the woodwork again since we made another semi-final, saying he's done well to get us far, how you can only beat who is put in front of you etc. But the moment you ask them if they'd take Southgate at their club we know what the answer would be.

England are reminding me of AVB Spurs at the moment, playing drab, boring football with little chances created while relying on moments of brilliance from Bale to scrape through.

comment by Christopher (U20930)
posted 25 minutes ago
how, by moving trippier to left wing back instead of left back

we basically played the exact same way, Trippier was already pushing up whilst walker stayed back as a 3rd CB.
----------------------------------------------------------------------

We shifted to a back three. Trippier was limited (and if we can bring in Shaw for a whole 90 it will make a big difference) but in this formation we were able to find Saka in space way more often. It's too timid for my liking and still not great but it was objectively a different shape with some players in different roles, and was our best performance of the tournament (a low bar to clear) against the best team we've played so far.

I really don't think it made a difference at all in possession - Saka was already managing to get past his fullback in the earlier games. We still created basically nothing at the end of the day.

it helped out of possession though which helped us have more control of the game - matching their shape made it easier to press them, they didn't have a spare man a long their back line line Denmark and Serbia did

comment by Red Russian (U4715)
posted 4 hours, 19 minutes ago
Looking back over the Euros and WCs of my lifetime, probably more than half were won by a team that was playing cautious, defensive football, and usually by a team that didn't look like it was the best at the tournament. Didn't I read that Southgate and his staff when he was appointed commission a study of how winners of these tournaments had got it done, and set about building a strategy based on that template?

I thought England were marginally the better team against Switzerland yesterday and that was our best performance of the competition. Not a very convincing performance but long spells of dominance, moving the ball forward quicker with more courage to hit early passes through narrow gaps. And let's not forget that Switzerland were one of the teams that had impressed most over the group stage and round of 16.
----------------------------------------------------------------------

Never knew about the commission, would explain his staunch approach every game, when considering subs, particularly.

True, Swirzerland could’ve been the dark horses this year, they were playing well enough, so maybe ‘playing sh*’ for us was harsh - for that game.

We’ve had some great tussles in the past with the Dutch so hopefully Wednesday will be the same.

Shinjury, I think generally critiques of Southgate are fair, particularly around lack of reactivity (let alone proactivity!) with substitutions, and while I understand the safety-first mantra, England have made life harder for themselves by being over cautious and ponderous in build-up. My intention was to qualify those criticisms rather than contradict them.