Euro U21 Championships

It was all down to tactics and mentality for me.

England simply didn't look like they knew how to pass it out from the back and through the centre of midfield.

England's passing out from the back from pretty horrendous for International football, if you ask me. Jenkinson, Moore and Gibson are 6 foot strong players without good technical ability. A CB pairing of Stones and Chambers has to happen, as soon as they're both fit. That'll make a big difference.

Being comfortable on the ball and playing it out from the back is the foundation for good passing football and England have somehow completely ignored that.

How is Southgate England U21 manager anyway? What has he done as a manager? A former player shouldn't be able to walk into a role like that, it's ridiculous, no wonder England never come close to winning anything.
 
^ Can't say I agree with all that, some of it I agree with, but to put it all down to tactics is completely glossing over the problems we have developing the players technically and from a footballing intelligence point of view. Defenders frequently get stick for not being able to pass it out from the back, but the key to that is the midfielders actually moving around and giving them options, which English midfielders so rarely do. That was where england really struggled, with the first two or three passes after getting the ball back.

If you compare the way Carvalho and Sergio Oliveira made themselves constantly available for the pass out from the back and the way they are so comfortable collecting it under pressure and then simply finding a teammate and getting rid of any pressure, to the way england were having to try and force difficult passes into tight areas and just not being able to get out of their own half, that's the problem imo. Once we were able to get past that initial pressure and play using the whole pitch, instead of just our own half, we were pretty good and looked relatively threatening.

Someone of the ridiculous skill level of Bernardo Silva helps as well tbh, as much like Spanish Dave, you know you can kick the ball at him and he will almost certainly bring it down immaculately and then hold it up, turn away from people and not lose it, almost every time. It just releases all the pressure to have someone like that who you can rely on to keep the ball so you can move up the pitch. He looks the natural heir to Dave's thrown
 
From someone who watched most of the qualifying games leading up to this tournament the one quality we desperately lacked was a really presence in central/ attacking midfield, and whom could dictate the play as well as link up the defence to the attack.

Who do we have eligible for this team and is not there? Barkley and Wilshire! Put them in that team and we have a midfield that looks like it could take command of a game.

I don't want to hype up Stones too much because I think he has a long way to go still yet but the drop off from him to the rest in our squad is quite significant if you ask me, Stones is arguably the best defender in the competition.

I am not writing this team off just yet because we still have plenty of quality, but we really need to address that midfield if we want a chance of doing something in this competition.

It would be a shame because for me we have the best overall strike force at the tournament.
 
" Someone of the ridiculous skill level of Bernardo Silva helps as well tbh, as much like Spanish Dave, you know you can kick the ball at him and he will almost certainly bring it down immaculately and then hold it up, turn away from people and not lose it, almost every time. It just releases all the pressure to have someone like that who you can rely on to keep the ball so you can move up the pitch. He looks the natural heir to Dave's thrown " .... was thinking exactly the same while watching the game last night , Bernardo Silva would be perfect for us and an ideal eventual replacement for David Silva
 
Barkley should be there. He's had a difficult season, in and out of the Everton team and not really established with the senior England side. But he is fit and this tournament would have been beneficial for him.
 
Falcao said:
Barkley should be there? He's had a difficult season, in and out of the Everton team and not really established with the senior England team. But he is fit and this tournament would have been beneficial for him.
Click to expand...

Are you going to change your name now that he's going to Chelsea? Or are you going to change teams.
 
I like the 'this result won't bother us, we're still confident'.

Tell you what lads, if getting beat doesn't bother you, then you're in the wrong job. Fucking cunts.
 
Guidetti to knock England out with a couple of well taken goals which will then start a mad scramble by mid-table premier league teams for the "Man City reject".
 
England really should of taken their best available squad. Southgate's sentimental reasons for keeping with the squad that got them there are respectable but there's no room for sentiment in football. The likes of Wilshere, Sterling, Barkley and Oxlade-Chamberlain in the midfield would win this competition.
 
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