Danny

Suppose it has nothing to do with how success has been monopolised within the Premier League, just completely down to teams in the north being shit. The league really isn’t missing out from your Bolton’s or Blackburn’s not being in it, not to mention your Burnley’s, Hull etc. If any clubs are then I’d say it’s your Sunderland’s, Leeds and a Sheffield club. And for quality of atmosphere you could definitely drop a Bournemouth, Brighton or Fulham.

L’Equipe reporting this. Tbh I’m not surprised and it is probably about time we cash in on him however we have a 3 year deal still left so we’re in a position of strength. Heard people mention £40m and it feels low, we have no need to sell and I think the feeling at the club is that Bryan can go on to become a 15-20 goal a season striker with a decent amount of assist thrown in too. Which then makes me think neither Liverpool or Newcastle can afford what we will ask and unless someone with silly money comes in, he will likely stay with us for another year. Who knows, maybe I’m wrong.

I think it’s implied a lot of it will be down to Osimhen leaving

£80-£100m?

Shame to see as I was looking forward to watching Bologna under him in the Champions League, but will be interesting to see what he does with Juve now they’re back in it as well

I always find England discourse weird. I don’t know many people personally that think we should be winning this competition, or any of the previous ones. But then you go online and see your TalkSport types and think they must be out there

Yeah I get what you’re saying about Bellingham and it wouldn’t surprise me to see us do that. But I just feel that countries like France, Spain or even the Netherlands have a Tchouameni, Rodri and De Jong, players who can sit infront of a back line, protect it and help dictate possession and play balls through defensive lines, we don’t have that in Rice,m. He’s a great defender, also a great dribbler, but not a playmaker. For me we have to sacrifice Foden to the wing, where he has previously done well for England in fairness, to get a playmaker in Trent involved. With that said if we start with Rice, Bellingham and Foden I won’t be unhappy lol. Think you’re right about Rashford, had it all to play for and has given it away to Anthony Gorden.

Bellingham and Foden have played in the same position to the same standards this season though? Difficult one to split. I just think that you need a creative player at defensive mid, and because Rice just isn’t that sort of player, you need someone next to him that can spray the ball around and help dictate play from deep. I don’t think either of Jude or Foden are those types of players, and at club level Foden plays in front of Rodri and Kovacic and Jude plays in front of Tchouameni and then Kroos or Modric.

A lot of good young talent there, think the tournament will be a bit too much for them but they could be a dark horse.

Can’t help but think this is a silly move, but with Leicester’s potential deductions it might actually make sense for him

I think that’s why integrating Trent and Mainoo into the midfield is so important, think it‘s also why Wharton has made the wider squad. If you watch all the goals we score under Southgate, in open play, they are pretty much all either an overlapping wing-back creating or a winger getting to the byline and sticking it to the back post. We rarely ever score through the middle, and when we did it was because we had someone (Phillips in Euro 2020) who was somewhat capable of passing to that standard. I think it’s too soon for Mainoo and he should be managed as a sub, so much pressure to put on an 18 year old who has had his inconsistencies (completely fair to have) at club level. Trent I think needs to be given the chance to integrate as a centre mid, really we have no one who can play passes from a deeper position outside of him. I think Mainoo’s running at defenders is what opens passes up for him and it’s probably better he does that in the later stages of a game, especially if it’s in a knock-out round.

I would bet on them to stay up tbh. I don’t think the team they had that went down was that bad, just a bit naive and they had the same manager for too long. A lot of the players there will be ready to step up a level, it’ll be interesting to see the player profiles they sign now and if there are any similarities to when we went up seeing as Ankersen is still DoF.

I think the thing that gets me against Spain is their midfield. We have two great match winners in Jude and Foden but we don’t have the control of passing that Spain have, and tbh it’s similar with France too. A miracle is a bit too dramatic, but beating France who on paper are stronger than us would be a massive achievement we are yet to achieve in tournaments, not only is their midfield more balanced and better than ours imo, but Mbappe is levels above anyone we can play up front. I think Croatia, Spain (or Italy) could be a great opportunity to lay down a marker. Croatia you don’t know what you will get, World Cup Croatia are a different beast who I think would chew us up, but they weren’t great at the last Euros and they’re ageing now, but still could have one more left in them. I think Spain and especially Italy will be tougher than people think. Spain have arguably the strongest and well balanced midfield in the competition whilst Italy could try and successfully replicate Inter’s back 5. But like us they both have weak spots. Italy’s attack doesn’t look amazing, Spain’s defence can be got at, plus their forward line is still quite young in places (and those places seem to be their best forwards). If we get to the semi’s having beaten one of those three I’ll be pretty happy, if we beat France it would then arguably be the best tournament we’ve had in my lifetime. I think for France though, if they play us in the Semis and win, it’ll be another day in the office. Same for Croatia.

We will likely have to play Croatia or Spain in the QFs, and France in the SFs. Not to mention the other side of the comp will have Portugal, Netherlands and the home nation Germany. Making the final will be nothing short of a miracle tbh.

I think you’ve got to throw Croatia in too. Completely a wildcard of a shout here as well, but I think if Italy line up in that Inter back 3 then they may be a lot harder to beat than anyone would expect.

Yeah, just a solid performance under pressure. Condolences to @Lucas but if you keep Farke I think you’ll be back up very soon, I don’t think this is a lost opportunity just one of many to come

Fucking hell Dan James

If Saints were to go up this is the type of performance that I think will keep them up. Reminds me a bit of our rigid change from a 4-3-3 to a 5-3-2 midway through our promotion season.

Saints in control of the game really, Leeds have had most of the ball but Southampton have controlled the key moments throughout the game

A thread for the pessimists. If you dont have a country at the Euros just pick a country you most want to win. From an England perspective, other than decades of consistent failure, I would say our biggest problem split between us not having more quality in defence and not having a playmaker. In terms of the defence Walker is great, best RB in the world, Stones is up there as one of the best centre backs, but then imo there is a pretty big drop off after that at CB, LB and GK. Pickford is great at what he does best, but then his wider game isn’t up there with the best. Shaw and Chilwell not particularly great, Maguire does the basics well but can be turned inside out. In terms of a playmaker, Foden and Bellingham aren’t that. They can create yes, but they are goal scorers and match winners. Rice just doesn’t have the capacity to break teams down, he has the occasional switch but you need more, look at Rodri and Tchouameni, they do it all. Rice severely lacks imo when it comes to his passing game. He is a galloper, wants to run, be that to cover space and defend or to progress the ball forward. He’s no playmaker imo. Reality is that we really only have Trent that can do that, and I’m not sure if he will start. I was set on an England midfield of Rice, Bellingham and Foden but the more I think about it, the more Foden needs to play on the left, put Bellingham in the attacking mid and let Rice and Trent try to control things from deep. That’s what I would go with, but I’m not sure we will. Overall, I think our biggest problem since Southgate took over, and it has included the above issues, is that we don’t overachieve. We don’t win enough against the bigger nations (or smaller nations who overachieve) and realistically we will never win anything whilst we can’t beat those teams. I’ve said it before but I don’t think success at this tournament means having to win it, but there is a chance we’d have to play Spain/Croatia in the QFs and France in the semi’s just to get to the final. Beating those teams (highly doubtful) would represent success even if we were to lose the final.

They have to be contenders surely? Took Argentina to a penalty shoot out in the World Cup and that defence is mega, not to mention it will have de Jong and de Roon say in front of it. Defence wins these types of competitons, then throw in players like Frimpong, Maatsen, Simons and Depay going forward. The attack isn’t as good as the defence but with that said they can still hurt teams

That is a seriously good squad from Portugal. Cancelo, Dias, Pepe, Palhinha, Fernandes, Silva, Jota, Leao, Ronaldo. They are going to cause serious problems.

Catteral gets the win he finally deserves. Should be a world champion. Taylor is shameless, didnt win that at all

Tell you what I’m happy for Amrabat, massive game for him, hes had a tough time since the Summer after a great World Cup and I think he came into a United side that due to injuries wasn’t ready to get the best out of him. Top performance, I hope he gets a good move in the Summer wherever that is

Fair play to United, that was a solid performance and a great second goal. City never really got going, looks like the league took it out of them