Dave

None of us making three rounds is absolutely hilarious.

Wtf.

1 hour ago, Rick said:

There are only two sane options for Southgate to make.

Either play Bellingham next to rice, put Foden in the 10, and start Gordon on the left. Or you drop Foden, play Mainoo next to Rice and Gordon on the left. 
 

It’ll be the shitiest 1-0 win and boo’s afterwards. 

Funnily enough I think going 4-3-3 so we play similar out of possession to Spain might be the way forwards. Three average sides have just put there wide center backs out very wide in possession to confuse us on who to press on. We wouldn't have that issue in a 4-3-3.

That would probably mean dropping Bellingham given he's the only one that doesn't play in a 4-3-3 for his club. Which, judging by his body language against Slovenia, may not be a bad thing.

It should be a close game this. Italy are well organised but haven't kept a clean sheet and not of the midfielders or attackers have had a stand put tournament. Switzerland on the other hand lack the star power on paper but are well organised and have been playing above perceived ability levels.

If there's an 'upset' it's probably here.

This is the game I'm looking forward to watching the most as a neutral given how Georgia have played against Turkey and Portugal.

Not sure how Spain will play given how different they set up in and out of possession against Croatia and Italy, which adds to the intrigue really.

If Spain win this convincingly then you'd have to want whoever gets through out of them and Germany to win the thing if you're not playing them in the final. It would be a criminal offence if one of the teams on our bracket ends up winning the whole thing at present.

Fourth chance for Southgate to get the country on side. All it will takes is one convincing victory.

I imagine Slovakia will not play to dissimilar to how they set up against Belgium, which worries me a little as I wonder whether we'd be more suited to play against sides that like to keep possession. Nethertheless we should have enough 'star power' to get through, I'm going for a pragmatic 1-0 which wont get the nation fired up.

Whilst I expect Germany to win despite the injuries in defence I am more interested to see what kind of fight Denmark put up.

Will there three at the back and combative midfielders be hard to get past and Germany win by the odd Fullkrug goal? Or will Musiala, Wentz, Gundogan and Havertz run riot early and we have to concede that the standard of attacking quality in Group C was Championship level.

1 hour ago, Devil said:

Stop being so touchy it's an opinion. Mainoo is going to go and be a world star its clear as day. 

Eze and Bowen are excellent pros, but in my opinion Bowen especially isn't top level. I don't think he will make it to a Champions league club. Eze on the other hand has really impressed me when I've seen him play, he will likely get a move.

League positions are irrelevant in the conversation.

Wasn't being touchy. Just speaking the language of facts.

You think it's a joke that Mainoo doesn't start. At the same time you think Eze is too untested, even though he has similar experience to Mainoo at international level. You also think Bowen isn't at the level, even though he's played for a side that's finished higher than 8th on more than one occasion, unlike Mainoo.

If you can't understand those points, then, well, that's on you.

I bet Ronaldo didnt expect this when he opened a football academy in Georgia ten years ago.

Mamardashvilli robbing me of the perfect score here.

On 25/06/2024 at 09:07, Stan said:

Saturday 29th June, 2024
Switzerland 1 vs 1 Italy, 17.00
Germany 2 vs 0 Denmark, 20.00

Sunday 30th June, 2024
England 1 vs 0 Slovakia, 17.00
Spain 2 vs 0 Georgia, 20.00

Monday 1st July, 2024
France 1 vs 0 Belgium, 17.00
Portugal 1 vs 0 Slovenia, 20.00

Tuesday 2nd July, 2024
Romania 1 vs 2 Netherlands, 17.00
Austria 2 vs 1 Turkey, 20.00

16 hours ago, Smiley Culture said:

Yeah, that’s great and all but my question remains, does xG take into account the other side of things and who is taking the shot at goal?

It's just based on quality of chance creation. So every penalty will be something like 0.8 and you get players like Messi and Vardy who did regularly outscore there xG season upon season.

15 hours ago, Stan said:

The other way of looking at it is you've conceded more goals than England. And one of those being against Scotland. So who does have the better defence...?

Amazing they didn't voluntarily resign from the tournament after that. Embarrassing and pathetic.

10 hours ago, Devil said:

Firstly Mainoo must start the next match, why he didn't start the tournament is a joke really

10 hours ago, Devil said:

Eze is a great player but so untested at this level

10 hours ago, Devil said:

Bowen shouldn't have been on the plane, he's West Ham level

Man United finished 8th.

West Ham finished 9th. 

Crystal Palace finished 10th.

Both teams also beat Manchester United last season. Crystal Palace did it twice, with a 4-0 victory without having to move to second gear.

Its not the 90's anymore. The gap between the three of them is not as big as you think.

This is a great sign.

Defensively minded teams often win tournaments and we have the quality upfront to create a moment of magic to beat anybody.

This, along with us avoiding the best five teams to the final, just strengthens my belief it's coming home.

53 minutes ago, 6666 said:

5 draws out of 6 games. Total of 7 goals for the whole group. No game had more than 2 goals. No team scored more than 1 goal in a game. No team scored more than 2 goals in the group.

This might be the worst group in the history of major tournament football.

Roy Hodgson would be proud of how well drilled and organised everyone has been.

51 minutes ago, Rucksackfranzose said:

You mean like the English fans did let go the dodgy decision in their fgavour in 1966?

 

This was taken from a friend of mine out there.

To quote our great Queen Elsa: "Let it go".

1 hour ago, Tommy said:

@The Palace Fan & @Bluewolf

Lowest xGC in the tournament. You can't sing that.

7 minutes ago, Tommy said:

Bringing their shitty football from one shitty city to the next shitty city. 

I'm sorry that we absolutely decimated you in the last Euro's, but you got the dodgy goal decision in 2010, now is time to let it go.

This feels like when we drew to Slovakia in 2016. We have a favourable route to the final but an organised team will fancy there chances against us and we will struggle to break them down.

It's very Roy Hodgson Palace at the minute. You want to take positives from the solid defending but you know if you play a team in form you're probably not going to win because you haven't got the attacking nous to break them down.

Even if we do advance to a semis or a final I think Gareth should take the Terry Venerbles route and resign. He should always be remembered for changing the culture of the players and the optimism of the nation, but he's on borrowed time with the media and it's not going to change. Let a Poch come in and build a squad for four years that can win this tournament on our home turf.

9 minutes ago, Fairy In Boots said:

So was £23.5m for Ryan Brewster, £80m for Anthony, this is the market, I agree it’s ridiculous and the top end pushing it higher prices out fans. I’m still for £10 a ticket and wage cap’s personally 

I also made the point that if the FA are going to review transfers they're going to have to look at historical deals.

1 hour ago, Fairy In Boots said:

Seriously we raised about £60m last year, also all transfers have always been subject to PL processes, it’s a way of generating click bait that headline from the Mail. 
 

I can’t be bothered to go and grab all the athletic podcasts about Villa’s youth strategy since NSWE took over but Villa fans have known about this for 3-4 years it’s within the rules of the game. You can laugh about it all you like, Villa picked up Kellyman from an ailing Derby for £600k he’s 18 has played several games for us and an England U20 international. £19m is about right considering market values nowadays, he will be a top player.

I haven't disputed that Aston Villa have built a good academy at the expense of EFL clubs. I said the 19m fee Chelsea are paying for a player they could have got for 600k two years ago is ridiculous.