It was the manner of the performance though. They're playing slick, fluid football. It's not boring and is very easy on the eye. They're confident.
They convincingly put away Croatia, and beat Albania with their 2nd string side pretty much, which shows their strength in depth.
That the normally very positive @Stan I know and love has made a joke this dark over a football match is 100% proof that Gareth Southgate is a fucking terrorist.
People are far too critical of individual players. It's all on the manager for how shit England have been. Swapping the odd individual won't change anything
! Bellingham!
There is a lot of talk here in Brazil about Vini getting the Balon d'Or, but depending on how England advances in this Euro, that goal could put Bellingham on top.
Alexander-Arnold had people foaming at the mouth for misplacing a few passes in midfield and Stones, Walker and Tripper are playing like they're in a K-hole ffs.
Crazy right?? With all the performances that have gone before this and being a goal down and only 45 minutes left to try and salvage something and he still won't change anything..
*edit
Foden scores totally justifying his selection today.. always had faith in Southgate
*edit
No goal, Southgate is a useless frightened dick who needs to put on his big boy pants and hoof some of these players or we are going out..
Mainoo excelling because he's used to playing in a poorly coached side with several team mates underperforming or out of position.
Players like Foden, Saka, Rice all look completely ineffective because they're overly dependent on having a nerd manager like Pep or Arteta creating a system that makes their job as simple and straightforward as possible and they can't adapt when it's taken away.
Then you've got the out of position mess. Trippier and Foden are both out of position on one side completely nullifying any width. It's like when Everton were fielding Godfrey at right back with Ashley Young in front of him at times this season. Might as well not bother.
I'll be more surprised if England even score here than I was when I turned the television on and saw Slovakia were leading after 30 minutes.
Since the moment Bellingham scored in the opening game, England have done nothing at all to justify their place in this competition beyond this stage let alone be contenders to win it.
Unbelievable how poor Italy looked. They don't have the talent of previous sides, but they have a team with at least decent players in every position, mostly pretty good players, and even one or two great players.
It is hard to understand how they can just be thrown about like that and offer almost no competition.
I agree, we can't be writing off the 20 year kid already, there's still plenty of time for him to improve. He's done well at United this season under the circumstances.
You can delete it from the Stuttgart thread as well. And if you don't mind, scour the internet for me and delete it everywhere you see it so that it doesn't happen.