I'm actually a footballing genius
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England vs Scotland 18.6.21
- Thread starter not-bono-ever
- Start date
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Athos
Well-Known Member
Yeah, the new format is crap. I'd a straightforward eight groups of four, with top two from each going through, then first from A meets second from B etc.WC semi-finals. Easy as you like qualification for the Euros, unbeaten so far and as good as through to the last 16. Results! You can't have it both ways.
tbh because of the format, this tournament doesn't really get started properly until the knockouts. But you can't do much better than qualifying for the knockouts after two games.
Athos
Well-Known Member
Yes, that is undeniable. But it tells us next to nothing about his abilities as a manager. Notwithstanding that the luck of the draw plays a big part in how far a team gets, in the long run you're better off picking proven succesful managers than trying to pick lucky ones!
Athos
Well-Known Member
How much of that progress has come from Southgate, and how much from his club games? I'm not sureinternational managers get enough time with players to develop them that much; their principal impact is tactical and man management.
littlebabyjesus
one of Maxwell's demons
For the World Cup, that's perfect. The Euros at its best is a 16-team tournament - four groups of four then the quarters. Also adds jeopardy to qualification (which the money people don't like, of course). Eight teams wasn't enough. 24 is too many. There aren't 24 good teams in Europe.
strung out
💩 🤣 🍆 💦 🧐 👻 🐝 🐈⬛
Not sure about that, though I guess it depends on your definition of 'good' - the four lowest ranked teams in the tournament are North Macedonia (beat Germany in WC qualifying in March), Finland (just beaten Denmark, albeit under unusual circumstances), Scotland (just been the better side in a draw against the world number 4/World Cup semi-finalists), and Czech Republic (drawn with the last World Cup finalists).
You've also got Iceland, Northern Ireland, Serbia and Norway who all could have done something in this tournament without affecting the quality too much.
I would boot out Spain, Russia, Switzerland and Turkey for being boring/shit, and invite the four above next time.
littlebabyjesus
one of Maxwell's demons
It's true that there have been some impressive performances from lesser teams so far - just had another one from Hungary. In 2016, that wasn't really the case, though. A few very ordinary teams. Best Euros for me was 2008 - you could make the case for virtually all the 16 teams for progression. I also like the idea that qualification should represent a significant hurdle for everyone.
The39thStep
Urban critical thinker
Of course but those young players wouldn’t have had the opportunity to benefit from what has been a nurturing style of man management or indeed the adaption to his style of play unless they were in the squad over the past year or so
Maguire needs to be back on. Good with Stones but mostly, he is vocal and can take a fair bit of control of a game. Not really placing great hopes in Grealish (kinda like Calvert-Lewin) and think he shoulda been brought on. I dunno. I think Scotland played to their max - if England had managed the same cohesion and effort,the score woulda been 6-0 but well...what do I know.
Athos
Well-Known Member
I don't see the adaption to his style of play as a good thing!
not-bono-ever
meh
I don’t think getting a draw was a plan for England- you really should be up there with 6 points on paper. That Czech game is going to be pretty serious for England. Obvs.
still leaves it open for us. Kinda out of our hands now but I wouldn’t warrant the silky skills of England to pop up in that final game by magic .
still leaves it open for us. Kinda out of our hands now but I wouldn’t warrant the silky skills of England to pop up in that final game by magic .
Ted Striker
Foot's on the other hand
Putting my undying 25 year devotion to him asideSouthgate has a mammoth task ahead of him in the long term. He's trying to undo a decade of terrible England psychology, with "star players" having the weight of the country on their shoulders and the rest of the squad overlooked. And you can tell he really cares about the wellbeing of his players. You could see it in Mings' pm interview. He was all about the accountability of the whole team, the intensity having to come from every player, not one talisman or lucky charm goal-scorer who wasn't on form. Yet whoever was asking the questions kept asking about Kane
They're a young team. How many people on the pitch last night had been at anything as charged as that international Derby? Yeah maybe they choked a bit. It's all experience.
For me, I'm excited by this team, this new approach. I've got some pride in them again, after the Rooney (Owen, Beckham..) years, because a lot of the time they look like they're having fun. They're encouraged to do things they believe in and are backed by their manager. Southgate could put 10 full backs on for our next game and I'd have his back, fuck it, read his statement on taking the knee.
It's coming home (eventually).
I think what he's doing eclipses football. I similalry love him, win lose or draw.
The note he wrote about taking the knee should be studied as one of the best examples of public intelligent moral leadership.
Ted Striker
Foot's on the other hand
They should make it so you get a pick. This is silly, no team should be worse off for winning
Rebelda
Nearly as bad as Badgers
Yes. Ted knows.
Lord Camomile
Yipchaa!
Football linked to 2,000 Scottish Covid cases
Most of the 1,991 cases were people who travelled to London for Scotland's game with England on 18 June.
www.bbc.co.uk
<insert something sarcastic here>
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