Tragic Football Stories - Let us Kick Around the misshapen Jabulani that is English football right here

I'm glad I didn't hear that given that this was the first time ever I've been happy to watch an England football absolutely mollicate another team.

... football team ffs!!!!!

lmao at the U21s

lol beautiful

jinxed it

ach

AHAHAHAHA they've equalised again!!

and it finishes 3-3, you LOVE to see it

Oh my word hahaha

Innovative triple right-back formation being tried out today.

Didn’t really want Grealish playing 3 games in a week while carrying an injury; otoh of course fuck that cowardy custard Gareth Southgate, that has obviously not factored into his selection today at all, I hope we snooze our way to a 2-0 defeat and the pressure ratchets up on the arsehole

Southgate specifically said that his selection for the Wales friendly was about players's fitness and how much they'd played so let's assume more Big Club bullshit and etc etc

Lol, Dier.

Is that his fourth of the season?

Sad that England have finally conceded a goal with Connor Coady playing tho

There has to be a better option than Dier at CB but lord knows who. Tarkowski maybe?

Not sure about CC in a back 4 tbh but I'm happy for him if the caps make him proud

England have three or maybe four creative attacking midfielders who could make something happen here and none of them are on the pitch.

i thought Southgate was a thoughtful coach at first but he's moving a lot closer to the terrible coward zone with every game

oh ffs random Anglo-Pen

Carrasco lol.

Coady and Mings at CB could do no worse than this bunch of clowns imo. You'd hope that Stones is done at this level for the time being (don't count on it), Gomez was so severely awful against the Villa the other day, he could probably do with some time out of the spotlight. Tarkowski only just coming back from injury, I think?

There are no issues here though, it's 1-1 going into halftme, obviously two evenly matched teams out there. England would obviously be running away with it if only Kane and Sterling were out there

well the main ish is that for all Southgate's new broom new approach he's still a sucker for the "the best players are all at the big clubs with the biggest media narrative" Roy of the Rovers bullshit

ofc, tha'ts a given. incredibly frustrating to watch, even with the personnel limitations of this squad you can imagine a back four and a Henderson-Phillips/Rice-Grealish midfield trio and Sancho wide on the right offering so much more on the ball. can only imagine the pressure continuing to build the longer Southgate persists with playing 5 at the back and a pair of cloggers in the centre while there's all this talent performing on the weekly at club level

although i suppose being shit but getting goals from set pieces and penalties got us to a WC semi-final so tonight's performance has been about par for his undeniably successful tenure as national team boss

i just feel like a neutral observer with England and it's largely for those reasons

well that and obv i support Portugal now :D

Stunning from Mount. Jack Grealish could never

might need to turn 5 Live off shortly now England are the best team in the world again

Coady and Mings at CB could do no worse than this bunch of clowns imo

Gold and Black specs aside i don't think this is *wrong*

also Southgate is pretty fucking clueless as a tactician i think

Southgate is pretty good when it comes to working with the limitations of a squad but it's the refusal to use a number 10 when Grealish, Maddison and probably Foden are all performing for their clubs that's galling.

i don't even know where he's got the double defensive mid obsession from, obvious answer might be Middlesbrough but it's genuinely weird, he seems smarter than that, i do think it's mostly a commitment to the Usual Suspects

Playing two holding midfielders together was very fashionable a decade or so ago. Holland nearly kicked their way to a World Cup with De Jong and Van Bommel sitting in front of the back four, Spain had Xabi Alonso sitting next to Busquets at the base of midfield, Germany had Khedira and Schweinsteiger both playing in deep defensive roles, all at a time when England were still trying to play Gerrard and Lampard together. There's nothing wrong with two holding midfielders as a tactical approach.

The difference is that these were all elite midfielders - not Jordan Henderson and Declan Rice. Henderson is an excellent team player, generally his boundless reserves of energy and discipline and willingness to play exactly the role that's asked for him, and he has plenty of big game experience at the highest level (and this does matter, whatever anyone says), but he is not at the same level as any of the above. Never been convinced by Rice.

I don't think I can remember seeing two holding midfielders played with a back five though, which suggests that Southgate has no real confidence in his CBs (and why shouldn't he? He's right not to). But most importantly all those 2010 teams had a double holding midfield to allow more to happen further forward. Spain had the small matter of Xavi and Iniesta, and those four in midfield could circulate possession endlessly as a defensive and attacking strategy, the best midfield there has ever been at doing so - while this is probably the worst England midfield I can remember.

The other teams had two holding midfielders providing the solidity that enabled hugely talented but flaky creative players to really do their thing unencumbered in front of them - Germany had Mezut Ozil, Holland had Wesley Schneider. That's the player Southgate's England don't have (they don't have a decent box-to-box runner either but that's a different issue). That's the gap waiting to be filled by a Grealish or a Maddison I reckon, or even a Foden or at least theoretically Dele. Grealish has only really played at EPL and Championship level but he's also just managed to make himself look like Maradona up against a Premier League and Champions League-winning defence, and he's never going to displace Sterling, Rashford or Sancho in wide areas.

love the original copy pasted points in this thread. esp the darragh 6 - wilshere,walcott,young etc none of whom turned out to be anywhere near as good as gerrard, lampard, or even barry.

they never let thudd run the midfield

The idea of Huddlestone trying to operate in England's midfield in the high pressing era is hilarious.

13-goal Agbonlahor was certainly a suggestion

The first four years or so of this decade were probably the worst crop of English players there's been, regardless of how unbalanced the current squad is, surely everyone has to agree that as an attacking force it's immeasurably better that when pretty much everything was dependent on whether or not Rooney could be arsed to turn up.

may just be a generational fluke but english academies have been producing decent numbers of potentially excellent attacking players + full backs but I haven't seen corresponding depth in CBs or DMs. It could be that clubs are more likely to take chances on inexperienced forwards rather than defenders but i dunno.

lol could have copy pasted myself from 6 years ago

Still think Eng have v good talent in the front end of the pitch. They have no elite defenders and not much coming down the pipeline, but you could maybe patch together a borderline competent defence if they had some protection in front of them. They have zero even anywhere near elite central midfielders. NONE. And none of the young tyros coming through play there. The best might be Ox-Chamb. and I'm not sure he's ever going to play central and if he does it will be as frwd CM not deep lying.

― pandemic, Friday, June 20, 2014 9:13 AM (six years ago) bookmarkflaglink

except not sure any midfield could mitigate england's defence now.

he robbed Shilton of god knows how many caps but still a trooper, RIP Ray Clemence

good news everybody

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2022/aug/01/time-to-retire-three-lions-anthem-after-euro-2022-win-says-david-baddiel

“I’m very happy to think the song would, in a way, be put to bed.” Fans, however, may feel differently the next time England loses, he said

had to spoil it, didn't he?

wish somebody loved me as unconditionally as Southgate loves Maguire

looking fwd to Maguire starting in the world cup on the back of a couple of league cup appearances for utd between now and then

Wow they actually showed that lad running on the pitch, lovely bit of nostalgia

harry maguire doing harry maguire things

... followed by Nick Pope doing Nick Pope things.

sancho, whats happened there