England vs Spain, Sun 14/7 @ 8pm (BBC & ITV)

[1927]

England squad valued at 1.52b euros Spanish squad valued at 965.50m euros

Which proves what everyone has said fir years, English players are overvalued.

 

[Elpenor]

Which proves what everyone has said fir years, English players are overvalued.

Inflation for you I suppose

 

[magneze]

Turning point: the England throw-in that encapsulated 58 years of hurt | Jonathan Liew

Tired, muddled thinking soon after equaliser handed momentum straight back to Spain

www.theguardian.com

This article did sum it all up quite well with imho.

 

[Zapp Brannigan]

And now live we cross over to Zapp's Tactics Truck.

* football novices watching the game, read this word for word and have your friends wondering when you found the time to get your FIFA coaching badges *

England's 3-4-2-1 (which has worked) is in essence very similar to the 4-2-3-1 with the same personnel (which really didn't). The main difference is just Trippier really high and wide (mirroring Saka), to allow our best players going forward to form a central block of 4 (Rice and Mainoo as the base, Bellingham and Foden in front) with multiple passing options from the overload against midfield 2s and 3s.

Another more subtle difference is that instead of just bringing Foden narrower he's actually swapped with Bellingham, forming a pair of inside forwards to allow each to be facing up towards goal on their preferred foot - think Foden cutting inside to hit the post vs the Netherlands.

This makes the key match ups out wide. Yamal is a playmaker and goalscorer from wide, drifting inside, so Trippier will be the first player with responsibility to look after him, but with good communication needed as it will likely be Declam Rice's area that he moves into.

On the other side, Nico Williams is a much more direct classical winger, the kind to relish a 1v1 match up with a fullback. In that sense, Saka will be more looking to Kyle Walker for help.

England's first problem then: if either of these 2 matchups has Spain in the ascendancy, we're effectively being pushed back into our 4-2-3-1 (Trippier and Walker as orthodox full-backs) which renders Bellingham and/or Foden ineffective and leaves Kane isolated. In fact it could be even worse than the early version, since it would be Bellingham who finds himself relegated to the problem left wing.

If we're struggling in this way, instead look for Bellingham to become a more traditional midfielder deeper with Rice and Mainoo, to go man for man against Rodri, Fabian Ruiz and Dani Olmo - cut off the supply lines to the wide men and you'd start to back Saka and Trippier, letting them stay more forward and giving Yamal / Williams more to think about in terms of defending.

Set pieces, as ever, are key. One area we have a distinct advantage is goalkeeping. Pickford has his critics but the stats don't lie, he's been very good for a long time and he's vocal. Simon is a good shot-stopper but can have a mistake in him - pile crosses right under his crossbar all game and one of them is getting dropped.

2-0 England Kane, Palmer the goalscorers. COME ON ENGLAND!!!

I hate to say I told you so...

Yamal and Williams played so high up the pitch, almost beyond Morata's usual position. We changed our positions to match them with Shaw and Walker going 1 vs 1, but that meant Bellingham lost out on the left and our central numerical advantage gone. Putting Bellingham into an orthodox centre midfield 3 would have given Spain something different to think about, it might have been them having to go to Plan B instead - who knows, my admittedly slightly optimistic score prediction might have come in too.

 

[smmudge]

Southgate stepping down, well there goes any chance they had of winning anything anytime soon!!

 

[ID47]

And he's gone and hopefully Kane with him. Get a proper manager in, Bielsa, if only:

 

[ska invita]

And he's gone and hopefully Kane with him. Get a proper manager in, Bielsa, if only:

Replace Southgate with someone who moans about grass?

 

[ID47]

Replace Southgate with someone who moans about grass?

And give him any bucket he wants while you're at it.

 

[Bahnhof Strasse]

Spain team chant 'Gibraltar is Spanish' at Euros celebration

Spain won Euro 2024 in a match against England on Sunday and returned to Madrid for a celebration.

www.bbc.co.uk

A quick glance at Wikipedia would show them that they've got this wrong, can't believe they hadn't bothered to check tbh.

 

[Hollis]

Was listening to 'The Rest is Football' last night - suprisingly good. Totally damning of England's performance in the final... but interestingly Shearer was adamant that it was right for Kane to start every game..

 

[Zapp Brannigan]

Was listening to 'The Rest is Football' last night - suprisingly good. Totally damning of England's performance in the final... but interestingly Shearer was adamant that it was right for Kane to start every game..

Shearer is wrong on a lot of things, but not that. Kane is undoubtedly one of the very best centre forwards in the world, and all the "he's past it" talk is plain nonsense - it's barely a month since a 46 goal season finished.

He had a really poor tournament, but Southgate wasn't wrong to keep playing him - hoping to play back into his usual form, and when it still wasn't really happening he took him off.

 

[BristolEcho]

Shearer is wrong on a lot of things, but not that. Kane is undoubtedly one of the very best centre forwards in the world, and all the "he's past it" talk is plain nonsense - it's barely a month since a 46 goal season finished.

He had a really poor tournament, but Southgate wasn't wrong to keep playing him - hoping to play back into his usual form, and when it still wasn't really happening he took him off.

The talk of him being past it was so stupid. Football fans are so black and white at times.

I would have rested him for the Slovenia game though and given someone else a chance.