England v Italy | Nations League | Sat 11th June '22

[yerwot?]

very intelligent pressing from italy, no blue-arsed - fly -stuff, and well-co-ordinated. I would say they have the better potential. England would need to field a settled team to improve, to move from "deliberate" to instinctive, it was a non-event excitement-wise, the non-crowd got lucky

 

[willipp]

WTF is Southgate going on about, clueless.

Said we played well and weren’t conservative and then highlighted his keeper and CB as his best players.

 

[citymad]

Roberto Mancini is furious after press reports state his goalie was spotted eating a Kebab in Wolverhampton late last night. He demanded to know who started the Doner Rumour?

On top of that there are reports he refused to pay and Donnarunna

 

[Avlk]

England tactics going forward are bewildering, and not in a good way. Too often players make the same run or occupy the same space (particularly frustrating on the left as Grealish is attracting loads opposition players but his own teammates are also being drawn into the same space so there's no out-ball). All very safe and in front of the opposition.

And I still can't believe there's no natural left back in the squad. Trippier's pretty solid and reliable but he's the safe, dull choice and unlikely to contribute much going forward.

Ramsdale's imperfect but to my untrained eye more reliable than Pickford, and considering his youth I think he'll hopefully improve over the next few years to be a decent England number 1.

Okay debut from Tomori. Looked pretty comfortable until a couple of tired errors late on, I assume he's not fully fit?

Disappointed Grealish wasn't really able to capitalise on the Germany performance. Feels like he's getting mixed messages from the manager and he's torn between his natural game of running at teams, and wanting to prove he can be safe and sensible and retain possession (also great work from the channel 4 commentators on the same message... rinsing him out for trying a pass on the edge of the Italian box that got intercepted, saying he needs to be more careful with the ball, then a few minutes later criticising the rest of the team for not taking risks going forward).

Italy looked pretty good. Obviously a young side and I think they could be got at, but some nice stuff going forward.

 

[dennishasdoneit]

very intelligent pressing from italy, no blue-arsed - fly -stuff, and well-co-ordinated. I would say they have the better potential. England would need to field a settled team to improve, to move from "deliberate" to instinctive, it was a non-event excitement-wise, the non-crowd got lucky

Very well said.

 

[RayCTID]

Its too bad Italy totally shitting the bed when qualifying for the World Cup. They looked they could of been one of the dark horses.

 

[applejuice]

What is missing today is Stones&Walker's long ball switches and composure on the ball. James is a good player but his way of playing means limiting Sterling's space on the right wing. Tomori is not bad as a young player but he does not offer as much long balls and passes like Stones.

 

[SamBlue]

....Disappointed Grealish wasn't really able to capitalise on the Germany performance. Feels like he's getting mixed messages from the manager and he's torn between his natural game of running at teams, and wanting to prove he can be safe and sensible and retain possession (also great work from the channel 4 commentators on the same message... rinsing him out for trying a pass on the edge of the Italian box that got intercepted, saying he needs to be more careful with the ball, then a few minutes later criticising the rest of the team for not taking risks going forward)......

They doubled up on him every time he was supposed to receive a ball, many times there would be even the third Italian defender/MF player when he was trying to do something. Our positional play and movement is disgustingly bad when in attacking phase of the game, it doesn't help that Rice is an old school defending MF who doesn't get involved in the persistent attacking game apart from occasional forward run with the ball. We never manage to do what Pep call 5-5, to get ourselves in positions to attack with five players in and around the box. Phillips looked much better than Rice when he was on, we were automatically 10 yards further up the pitch. I know I'll be derided here, but Henderson is for me the best option here, if he can do it for Klopp he must be able to do it for England. Rice is ultra defensive for me. James is no no in back four, extremely poor in tight places and I am still trying to figure out what MM does for us. Any suggestions?

 

[Uffa]

Its too bad Italy totally shitting the bed when qualifying for the World Cup. They looked could of been one of the dark horses.

It hurt a little less than last time but it was still bewildering for us. And to think it could have been so fun with all these new young guys we're lining up in this Nations League (though maybe they wouldn't have been given a chance if we'd been in the WC)

 

[Brewster's millions]

Terrible game.

Feel sorry for the kids who were given free tickets.