Football - Euro 2020 Championship

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p90fool said:

Hattigol said:

I'm not taking anything away from the victory, which was obviously fabulous, but I still think we are dull, plodding and largely unadventurous in comparison to other teams.

Playing to your strengths is the best thing to do, they'd be mad to let games run away from them at a pace they can't handle. 

I like Southgate, I think he's an honest, astute coach who handles the pressure very well, and he knows they can't hang with the top teams if he lets them play the flowing game they want to. 

Exactly. You can't fault how he's run this tournament so far. Not conceded a goal, topped the group and beat our all time bogey team in a competition for the first time in 65 years. If we win the tournament, no-one at all will be complaining about the style of football we played. 

No team has stood out, yet. Every one looks beatable. However, no-one has managed to score against us. Southgate really is managing each game individually, adjusting teams and tactics carefully. Notice how against Germany we hardly played the ball across the back, and back to Pickford. Whereas against Czech we did it a lot. I think we were all hoping they'd stop that against the Germans, and they did. He knew it wouldn't work.  We more or less snuffed them out. 

I think we will beat Ukraine, but I think it will be ugly.  Out of the remaining teams, only Belgium are FIFA ranked higher than us. They aren't that good either, struggled against Austria. Italy are iffy too. It is most definitely there for the taking.

AlbertC

This tournament is anyone's for the taking. Form, ranking, quality of players have had no bearing on result (okay, maybe except for North Macedonia ).
Every game is 50/50
Can England win? Yes...but it's equally conceivable that any other team left in the draw could.

p90fool

AlbertC said:

Can England win? Yes...but it's equally conceivable that any other team left in the draw could.

Precisely, given the exits so far pundits from every country left in it are thinking "this is our year". 

guitars4you

We are certainly in with a shout (obvious I know) - But don't dismiss the 'under dogs' - Denmark, Greece and the Czechs have all won in the past and all wins were unexpected without a team full of stars  

russpm

All the remaining teams have a chance. Ours will be aided by everyone getting behind the team and supporting them through the good, the bad and the ugly. 

scrumhalf

It's more the case with the Euros than the World Cup that the winner can definitely be the team with the most club-like mentality rather than the one with the most galacticos.

Southgate has prepared teams to win games, not include the fans' favourites. We absorbed what Germany had to offer, took off some of the players that had blunted them and brought on players to win the game against tiring opponents. The team isn't good enough to go out all guns blazing and be three up at half time, but they can play to a system.

England for the Euros, the T20 world cup snd the Lions to beat the Boks. I wonder what the odds would be. 

Hattigol

scrumhalf said:

The team isn't good enough to go out all guns blazing and be three up at half time, but they can play to a system.

How do you know? We'll never find out if we keep playing with effectively a back 5 plus 2 holding players with the likes of Sancho, Foden, Mount and Grealish warming the bench...

crunchman

AlbertC said:

This tournament is anyone's for the taking. Form, ranking, quality of players have had no bearing on result (okay, maybe except for North Macedonia ).
Every game is 50/50
Can England win? Yes...but it's equally conceivable that any other team left in the draw could.

Not every game is 50/50.

We are probably favourites againsts Ukraine - call it 60/40 in our favour.

For the semi, and the final, we will have home advantage at Wembley if we get to those games.  Those games would probably be about 60/40 in our favour as well.

That gives us about a 22% chance of winning the tournament - so the odds are that we will all be disappointed, except for the Scots on the forum.

TeleMaster

Hattigol said:

scrumhalf said:

The team isn't good enough to go out all guns blazing and be three up at half time, but they can play to a system.

How do you know? We'll never find out if we keep playing with effectively a back 5 plus 2 holding players with the likes of Sancho, Foden, Mount and Grealish warming the bench...

I don’t think it matters as long as we’re winning. I really don’t care who plays and what system is used. Just win the damned thing!

sev112

McSwaggerty said:

sev112 said:

Nothing to do with England mate, the whole of Europe has been playing every day for  couple fo weeks, I have withdrawal syndrome 

OK, apologies. .. My mistake.
 I'm not much into football and just think the coverage is a bit (way) over the top..... Why the reference to Scotland.?....l'm from Hamburg. 

I’d didn’t even realise the Mac in your nickname until just now.  I was just surprised how Scottish coverage and interest over that one game v England was massive.  Good luck to them, though , as it made a lot of people happy

sev112

Is this like the probability thread - we’ve got 50% chance of winning the Euros because every game is 50:50 , no matter how many games we have to play  

AlbertC said:

This tournament is anyone's for the taking. Form, ranking, quality of players have had no bearing on result (okay, maybe except for North Macedonia ).
Every game is 50/50
Can England win? Yes...but it's equally conceivable that any other team left in the draw could.

Oops sorry @crunchman  you beat me to it

ewal

sev112 said:

McSwaggerty said:

sev112 said:

Nothing to do with England mate, the whole of Europe has been playing every day for  couple fo weeks, I have withdrawal syndrome 

OK, apologies. .. My mistake.
 I'm not much into football and just think the coverage is a bit (way) over the top..... Why the reference to Scotland.?....l'm from Hamburg. 

I’d didn’t even realise the Mac in your nickname until just now.  I was just surprised how Scottish coverage and interest over that one game v England was massive.  Good luck to them, though , as it made a lot of people happy

Scotland's abject failure against Croatia more than wiped out any enjoyment from that draw... Still not over it. It's shite being Scottish etc,etc,etc

pigface

ewal said:

Scotland's abject failure against Croatia more than wiped out any enjoyment from that draw... Still not over it. It's shite being Scottish etc,etc,etc

Try being Scottish and German :-)

scrumhalf

Why has Scottish football declined so badly? When I was a lad pretty much every first division team had at least one or more Scottish players, typically a large centre half, centre forward, winger or midfield dynamo. 

guitars4you

scrumhalf said:

Why has Scottish football declined so badly? When I was a lad pretty much every first division team had at least one or more Scottish players, typically a large centre half, centre forward, winger or midfield dynamo. 

I recall 74 WC team and supporting Scotland in the tournament - Partly as it had a strong Leeds contingent in the squad - Even named my dog after the #4

TTony

scrumhalf said:

Why has Scottish football declined so badly? When I was a lad pretty much every first division team had at least one or more Scottish players, typically a large centre half, centre forward, winger or midfield dynamo

When I was a lad, pretty much every first division team had about 11 British players.

The Scottish (and English, Welsh and Irish) players have been replaced with French, Spanish, Portuguese, African, Asian, Martian, et al ....

guitars4you

TTony said:

scrumhalf said:

Why has Scottish football declined so badly? When I was a lad pretty much every first division team had at least one or more Scottish players, typically a large centre half, centre forward, winger or midfield dynamo

When I was a lad, pretty much every first division team had about 11 British players.

The Scottish (and English, Welsh and Irish) players have been replaced with French, Spanish, Portuguese, African, Asian, Martian, et al ....

A) it would be an interesting question to find who lasted sent out a team in the top flight, be it Div 1 or PL, with 11 British Players and I'd accept R o I within that 

Last year in the PL I wonder who can claim the most British Players to start a match and again accept R o I

guitars4you

TTony said:

scrumhalf said:

Why has Scottish football declined so badly? When I was a lad pretty much every first division team had at least one or more Scottish players, typically a large centre half, centre forward, winger or midfield dynamo

When I was a lad, pretty much every first division team had about 11 British players.

The Scottish (and English, Welsh and Irish) players have been replaced with French, Spanish, Portuguese, African, Asian, Martian, et al ....

Looks like Bournemouth or Soton in the last 2 years have fielded the most English players in a match with 6 or 7

1999 was the last time 11 English players started a match - John Gregory's Villa

TTony

guitars4you said:

1999 was the last time 11 English players started a match - John Gregory's Villa

TBH, I’m surprised.  I assumed it would have been longer ago than that.

ewal

scrumhalf said:

Why has Scottish football declined so badly? When I was a lad pretty much every first division team had at least one or more Scottish players, typically a large centre half, centre forward, winger or midfield dynamo. 

Quite a few decent young players coming through. I'm not sure their development is necessarily being managed well. But given the players available for this tournament, we badly underperformed. Formation appeared to be all about finding a place for Tierney and Robertson and that meant we suffered badly in other areas of pitch. Should never have played Croatia with just three midfielders. Anyway it's history now...