Spain v England - Sun 14th July, 20:00 | Euro 2024 Final

[Magicpole]

A better manager wins against Italy and possibly Spain too. Gareth was the difference against Italy, Croatia and Spain. End of. Wonder if the FA will waste these players completely with their next appointment.

we probably had the best players in the tournament, unfortunately the worst manager in the world!

I fail to see how you can think that when they all looked pish. If it hadn’t been for an easy path you wouidnt have got anywhere near the final. I think an honest assessment of how good you actually are needs done. You are nowhere near as good as the hype. Until the next tournament finals and you will again probably start favourites, well with British bookies at least, no one else. The problem seems to me your English players are better with nine foreigners in their team. Bring them all together and you see why the Prem is so good. The foreigners. Spain are now setting out on their journey snd if anybody thinks England can match or beat them is probably a few weeks away from being sectioned. Delusional.

 

[BamberBridgeBlue]

I fail to see how you can think that when they all looked pish. If it hadn’t been for an easy path you wouidnt have got anywhere near the final. I think an honest assessment of how good you actually are needs done. You are nowhere near as good as the hype. Until the next tournament finals and you will again probably start favourites, well with British bookies at least, no one else. The problem seems to me your English players are better with nine foreigners in their team. Bring them all together and you see why the Prem is so good. The foreigners. Spain are now setting out on their journey snd if anybody thinks England can match or beat them is probably a few weeks away from being sectioned. Delusional.

lol, sweaty sock emerges from his night of shitting himself on the Tennents Super to turn agreeing with me into an argument.

How fucking Scottish lol.

You stick to having a party just qualifying.

 

[Akira]

In a final, Spain's 2.31 XG to England's 0.63 is atrocious, when quality-wise (at least on paper) both teams are actually fairly equal. England had an equalizer and quickly retreated into their shell. Instead of taking the game to Spain like they did against Netherlands, they are more afraid of what Spain could potentially do to them.

Conversely, Spain scored 1 goal, rode the momentum and England were fairly fortunate to not concede a 2nd. They came out swinging in the 2nd half like they sniffed blood and for a good 10-15 mins, England looked like they didn't know what hit them.


IMO Southgate should bow out. 4 tournaments is enough. He has taken England as far as he could.

I'd like to see a cleverer, or at least braver mind in place who could hopefully better utilize these talents. It pains me to see our Foden, knowing how talented he is, put in underwhelming performances for England and gets derided with terms such as 'system player'. We City fans know he is more than that, and can be more than that for England.

A squad as talented as England have being underutilized is painful to watch, even as a neutral.

 

[Bozzie]

I think this tournament has pretty much finished my diminishing interest in England. As successful as Southgate has been in eliminating much of the cliques inside the squad the tribal divisions amongst the fans and within the media has reached an unprecedented level which is beyond tedious.
From a playing perspective my own view is that several players (and definitely the manager) have reached the end of the line with England. Pickford isn’t good enough for this level of football, Walker, Tripier and Kane are of an age where they should concentrate on the remainder of their club careers. We are not equipped to play hoof it to the big man football albeit God knows we’ve given it a bloody good try over the last 7 games. Kane doesn’t play that way and didn’t win one first header and the midfield barely managed to pick up any second balls. We need to decide on a playing style and pick the players to suit it. I realise that’s simplistic but we don’t seem to know what the fuck we’re doing most of the time. Not sure who would want the job tbh which might be what condemns us to at least 2 more years of Southgate.

 

[Akira]

non City fans:

1. Not playing that Alexander-Arnold fella as he's a better footballer than Walker who just runs fast.

Not playing TAA was the right move, Southgate did him a favor. He would've been torn a new arsehole by Williams. At least Walker still have some defensive sense about him.

 

[Magicpole]

lol, sweaty sock emerges from his night of shitting himself on the Tennents Super to turn agreeing with me into an argument.

How fucking Scottish lol.

You stick to having a party just qualifying.

Wasn’t shitting myself, that would have been daft. You are shit and had no chance. I don’t think I was quite agreeing. I thought you were gash from the off. As I said, if you were in the other half of the draw you would have been home shortly after us. What England are great at, hyping themselves up to be real contenders. Fucking Ace at that. Tragically, you don’t have the players to back it up. Even with a better system.

 

[mancity2012_eamo]

Seriously folks, this is how little sense it makes not just to keep him on but that he ever got the job in the first place:

Southgate was appointed Middlesboro manger despite not having gained the required professional coaching qualifications, or even taken the exam. Boro successfully argued that his international commitments (as a player) meant that he had not had the time to do the course.

In his first season his team lost away to all 3 promoted teams, and didn't win an away game until January, against struggling Charlton who were relegated that season. His first 4 signings were defenders. The club spent some time in the relegation zone but finished 12th, and the following season finished 13th. The season after that they were relegated. Southgate kept his job - just - but was sacked the next season after failing to get the club promoted back to the PL.

He then spent 4 years out of the game completely, before being appointed manager of the England U-21 team, from where he eventually got the full England manager's job after Big Sam was set up by the press and lost his job as a result.

On what basis does the FA figure that this guy was ever the best man to take the England manager's job? One short and unsuccessful stint as a club manager then 4 years out of the game? You couldn't make it up.

Why do you always have to pick an Englishman for manager anyway.
Is it because they are manageable themselves.
There are very good foreign managers out there that may not bow to the FA system as much, or cave in to media pressure either.

What’s Mourinho doing these days? ;-)

 

[Eccles Blue]

Basically Spain did to England what City do all the time. They played in 1st gear whilst England played in reverse!
How many times have we said we never needed to get out of 1st gear or it was like a training session over the season?
That was last night’s match IMHO

 

[mancity2012_eamo]

Pickford is a great keeper but his distribution is very poor. It only takes a few games watch City to understand why Pep feels this is so important. Hoof the ball to Spain, they have the possession, this is minutes and opportunities lost to score for us. They turn possession into attack, gain corners, have more chances to score. We have no possession. They din't score - Pickford gives it back to them. Repeat possession and chances for them - lost minutes for us. We've wasted a lot of time giving them possession from Keeper.

This is the managers responsibility to tell him this is not your strength, pass it to a Def- Def to Mid - more possession for us - less chances for them - leads to attack from Mid - more chances to score. It's simple stuff but I feel watching City every week makes this stuff seem simple.

It’s pretty much what Spain have done all tournament, but not just them. Watching Turkey and Austria and na few others playing calmly from keeper to defender back to keeper to defender and in tight situations until space opens up, was like seeing an international endorsement of Pep’s philosophy.

 

[Akira]

Why do you always have to pick an Englishman for manager anyway.
Is it because they are manageable themselves.
There are very good foreign managers out there that may not bow to the FA system as much, or cave in to media pressure either.

What’s Mourinho doing these days? ;-)

Probably, the FA felt they got burnt with Capello, and started doubting foreign coaches' commitment.