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I like the guy, even most of the players seem decent enough for young millionaires.
They made France look ordinary. Their problem is when on top in these games they don't take advantage. Whether that's mental, tactical or a combination of both I'm not sure.
They have a squad more than capable.
England has a never-ending supply of 8 out of 10 international players but one 9/10 in Kane or even a sniff at truly world-class 10/10. So then it's about the manager devising a system to maximize what they do have.
The academies are now producing attacking midfielders for fun, Wales would build a team around any one of Mount,Madison, Foden, Grealish, or Saka but they are so undermanned on defensive midfielders if you want to play with a single or double pivot and Southgate does seem trapped by having to play the "right way"
Bellingham from what i have seen looks like a throwback to the Lampard and Gerrard era of a proper central midfielder running beyond the striker, he is not a sitter and that and centre half are their problem positions.
So IMO they are a top 10 team who need a bit of luck to win big games and to win tournaments you need to ride your luck three or four times in a row whicj is a big ask
The best line i’ve read in this thread is “flat track bullies” That’s what England are. They will more often than not beat the teams they should be beating, but more often than not will lose to teams equally as good, or better than them. It’s the perfect description.
By that logic the Netherlands aren’t miles better than Qatar, Brazil aren’t miles better than South Korea, Germany aren’t miles better Costa Rica, etc.
We’re not close to England’s quality. They’re miles better than us. Just compare where their players play compared to ours.
But that’s all hyperbole. No country has XI world class players. You don’t have to have XI world class players to win tournaments.
England have as many elite footballers as the rest of the teams in the competition. Players who have been winning premier league titles and winning / playing in back stages of the champions league.
In my opinion if they had a manager who wasn’t so pragmatic then they would have won a tournament by now.
Also, his loyalty to Maguire and Pickford needs to be seriously questioned. They are not the best players available for their position.
They are miles better than us, they just need a Griesmann, Pirlo Modric type midfield playmaker Foden or Grealish could be that player, Grealish needs to stop inviting contact and falling down and get on with playing
would they swap any of their 1-11 for any of ours doubt it as for 10 I'm sure they could have scored more than three had they needed to i for one was glad they stopped at 3
Maguire is shit, overhits long passes out of defence thinking he's Beckenbauer, in his post match interview he still believed they were the better team and were unlucky, Pickford excludes panic France played and sat back on the lead once they scored much like Argentina did against the dutch and teams have done forever in football, their second was class