Italy v England | Euro 2020 Final

[Cheesy]

But yes Southgate is good enough.

Teams he's beaten in competitive games...

Malta
Scotland
Lithuania
Slovakia
Tunisia
Panama
Sweden
Croatia
Czech Republic
Bulgaria
Montenegro
Kosovo
Iceland
Wales
Belgium
San Marino
Albania
Poland
Germany
Ukraine
Denmark


Outstanding!

 

[M18CTID]

Before the tournament I didn't think England would get past the semis but as things developed and with the benefit of an easy group and subsequent favourable draws, winning became a more and more realistic possible achievement. I would say England played well in only 2 games - Germany and Ukraine. They were merely efficient in the others - except the drab draw v Scotland - based around a very solid defence and set up.
Did Southgate get the best out of his squad - probably not. Did he show a willingness to change and adapt his tactics and players during games ? Not really. He played a limited, restrictive game based to reduce mistakes and opposition chances to a minimum.
Yesterday, after half time - when being dominated in midfield, the obvious call seemed to be to bring Grealish on. A player who can get on the ball, carry it forward and link with the forwards in areas that could hurt the Italians. He should have been on a lot earlier.
Penalties are always a lottery - could have gone either way. Pickford did well and overall had a much better tournament than I was expecting.
I don't imagine Southgate will do much different in the next World Cup. We have a group of very talented players but I I don't think we have a good enough manager.
England did well to reach the final but having got there, blew the chance to lift the trophy. Chances like that come along very rarely.

We were totally dominant against Croatia as well. The Czech game was a bit closer but we deserved the win in that one too, and created plenty in the Denmark game. The only game we rode our luck in was the Scotland game, but England were deserved winners of all our knockout games, and as good as Italy are, they can count themselves fortunate to get past Spain in the semis. Few teams play well in every single game on the way to a final, and I can't think of any other teams who deserved to be in the final more than England and Italy.

 

[west didsblue]

Yep. I get some of the criticism of Southgate such as not changing things a bit earlier when Italy were on top, perhaps being a little too defensive in the tournament, not giving certain players enough game time, etc, but what I won't have is this notion that he "parked the bus" in the 2nd half because Italy came back into it and had us on the ropes. It always makes me laugh when people assume that a team that does well in the first half of a game and takes the lead, only for the other team to come back into it in the second half, means that the former deliberately stopped playing the way they were playing. No - that's football and the other team are actually entitled to play well themselves at some point in the game. There are passages of play where one team is dominant and then the other team come back into it. And if that latter team happens to be a very good team with a very good manager - like Italy - then they have a better chance of forcing you onto the back foot and getting back into the game. Italy pushing us back in the second half doesn't equate to us parking the bus, and if it is then that means Mancini parked the bus in the first half hour when England were causing them all sorts of problems. But he didn't - it just so happened that England started off better and Italy were struggling to get a foothold until later in the half. The second half was, in effect, a reversal of roles.

Agree with that up to a point but in the second half when it became clear that an Italy goal was only a matter of time, I would have liked to see our manager react and do something even if it didn’t work. As it was, he just sat on his hands until they scored then appeared to double down on the “what we have we hold” strategy by making negative substitutions.

On the other hand we were up against one of the game’s best in-game tacticians as we know from our own experience when he was our manager.

 

[goalmole]

Typical Little Englanders...fucking entitled twats!

Good job I didn't buy one then.

 

[shemnel]

Teams he's beaten in competitive games...

Malta
Scotland
Lithuania
Slovakia
Tunisia
Panama
Sweden
Croatia
Czech Republic
Bulgaria
Montenegro
Kosovo
Iceland
Wales
Belgium
San Marino
Albania
Poland
Germany
Ukraine
Denmark


Outstanding!

do you happen to know what teams he has lost to in competitive games? (in 90 mins and ET)

 

[Citizen in Pakistan]

If you have as much talent as England have and you play 5 at the back with hoping to catch the other team on counter you gotta feel disappointed. Sountgate didn't trusted the talent in his ranks and paid the price

 

[BobKowalski]

The difference is that you're talking about replacing a manager who has just got to a final and got to a semi-final last time, who clearly has a great relationship with the players. It reminds me of Spurs getting rid of Poch because they think he's the reason they aren't winning stuff, only to find that the proven manager they bring in to replace him is actually much shitter. It's a level of entitlement that England fans have no right to have given our history.

I don’t rate Southgate as a manager when it comes to tactical nous or in game management, but he is very good at building a cohesive squad that works for each other and that alone is invaluable at a tournament.

We were a penalty kick or so away from winning the bloody thing and we haven’t said that for fifty years.

 

[Trevor Morley's Tache]

Tournament stats for this team tell a story.

John Stones tops the passing stats - 453 completed passes with an accuracy of 94.3%. That's 112 more completed passes than the next best, Maguire on 341 (although Maguire did play 169 minutes less than Stones). Walker was 3rd on 318.

Player stats | UEFA EURO 2020 | UEFA.com

 

[mac]

The arrogance of Rashford with that penalty. Not remotely good enough to pull a stunt like that. Just a hype machine.

Sergio got more shit for his miss against Chelsea. At least Sergio had his fantastic career in the bank. Rashford thinks he untouchable. The rag deserves every bit of shit which imo will not materialise as it will be swept under the rag carpet

 

[kippaxwarrior]

Another thing for the Southgate lovers, him picking the penalty takers is madness in my eyes. Forcing players to take a pen if they want to or not is a recipe for disaster surely. If a player is confident enough to take one, let them. I have no doubt Sterling would want to take one, despite being shit at them for us he still steps up.

There is zero evidence that Southgate "forced" players in taking a penalty. He confirmed he knew the first 5 before full time based on the penalty taking in training and when penalties arrived he probably asked that 5 if they were up for it and all 5 would of said yes. So no need to change the line up