SEE YOU! A brand spanking new modern fitba thread 2023/2024

Yes but did you sit through the post-match inquisition? Henry VIII couldn't have come up with that shit. They had Harry Kane in there like he was Anne Boleyn. Firing every charge at him. "He scored and that threw his team mates off", they as-good-as-said

 

Don't know if you listened to Shearer, a turncoat bandagoner who was saying nice things at 0-0 and 1-0 then getting palpably angrier and more and more personal as the evening drew in. It was almost as if he wanted to distance himself from his own earlier praise.

Once the mood turns toxic like that you can forget it. It starts to permeate everything. Players -against better advice- listen to the punditry and read the papers and react accordingly.

England need a big win soon or they'll be dead in the water. What I've just seen from Spain offensively and Italy defensively will be the end of them on the evidence seen this far....

They all sat down on the turf at the end. Physically worn out from playing a system they don't understand.

 

Yeah, not sure what that was all about. It's Southgate who needs to field all that crap. Did you hear him after the game? Said the problem is that there is no-one available to replace Kalvin fucking Phillips...

MTF

 

A 'system'??!? I must have blinked and missed it.

Shearer is a tit.

MTF

 

Yup. Sometimes they even lose to Saudi Arabia and have the whole world laughing at them before lifting the trophy.

 

So England doesn't have two DMs?

Then why are they still playing the same 4-2-3-1 formation? Is that all Southgate knows?

 

That's the crux, right there. Southgate got some success playing with two CDMs. It's not like he had a tactical masterstroke. He built a system around what he had at that time. It is a mark of how fucking useless he is that, having somehow fluked his way into a winning formula with the players he had in 2018, he's still trying to shoehorn players into it when they are massively different blokes.

He's got a wealth of elite forwards, one good CDM and almost no good defenders. Yet he's still setting them up with four defenders and two defensive midfielders. It's absolute madness. You build a system around what you've got to play with. How does he expect them to press or attack fluently when he's got SIX defensive players set up in a low block against Denmark's one centre forward? He's too scared to even try and fill his own system properly, wasting elite attacking CMs by playing them as emergency wingers when he's got actual in-form, high quality left wingers sat on their arse in the dugout and trying to fit left backs into a position they've not played in since they were kids.

It's garbage. And when England face a decent side, they're going to get absolutely buttfucked for it.

MTF

 

I now have the feeling that this is a burgeoning crisis. The worst sort. A crisis of confidence. England have a 20% chance of getting over this and gaining traction- they did in Russia in 2018 and in Euro 2020 (2021) where burgeoning dismissal gave way to a rampant optimism- and an 80% chance of suffering a Denmark in Mexico 86 style collapse.

That's where it is now. But tonight I got a real feeling of sharks circling.

 

Wheres @whiskey?

You watching Argentina vs Canada in Copa America?

 

For those that don't recall........

Well whatever passed for a system.

 

That had me fuckin fuming. I don't understand how the cunt just doesn't get it.

 

For being a hockey nation, Canada has actually become decent at football. Holding their own with Argentina.

 

Spain through. Awful performance from Italy, though. WTF were they doing?

I picked France to win it all but Germany look like the best team so far.

 

You've probably seen more of them play than me.

I suppose they have become better, but not getting obliterated by a powerhouse team doesn't mean a whole lot. Even back in 1986 they nearly held an excellent French side to a draw.

You don't have to play "enterprising" football but i think often more is learned and advanced in your game than if you just try to stay solid and rue the one missed opportunity you had.

 

Read the result and it was Spain 1 Italy 0 with the decider being an OG. Figured it was a cagey affair with both having little to work with. Holy shit, watched highlights and Donnarumma was man of the match. That could have been a very ugly score line for the defending champions.

Maybe Germany and Spain have looked the two best sides thus far, but Spain got their wins against better opposition.

 

David Moyes is available. Offer him a mansion in Toronto with a nice wine cellar and he'll have Canada in the KO round in two years time.

 

A mansion in Toronto? How aboot Regina.

 

Dreadful performance from start to finish. Southgate hasn't got a scooby.

 

Southgate should go and fufill his soul's calling doing VAT accounts

 

Cant speak for the rest of the team but our candanian player Alistair Johnston is one of like 3 players we have who can actually hang at a decent level. Real solid & we got him from Montreal for ~£2m

 

It's always been there, in the background. Everyone knows that Southgate plays a turgid style of football and there have been loads of scrappy 1-0 wins, but he had gotten a tune out of them results-wise so the wolves have been kept from the door for a long time. The Croatia 18 and Italy 21 losses were desperate. It's not that they were lost. Both are good sides and England have no right to just beat them. It's the manner of them. In both, England scored early and then retreated into a shell, waiting to get beat. He got a pass because they were massive KO games, but if they'd been qualifiers, he'd have been pilloried.

The 'too conservative' charge has always been there. It's manifesting itself now.

And he's responsible as the manager, because the exact same players simply don't play that way except on his watch. Seeing a £500m midfield retreat into a low block against Denmark yesterday was awful. These are players who usually rip teams apart at club level, pressing and attacking constantly. Is there anyone who doesn't honestly believe that if Pep or Klopp had this group of players they would be anything other than an elite side?

Look. Southgate is a good bloke and a proud Englishman. He's built a good spirit around the team and had gotten very good results overall. He's just not an elite manager and he's not getting a tune out of elite players.

MTF

 

He's got a £500m midfield on the pitch and he's crying because he's not got Kalvin Phillips. Honestly...

MTF

 

It was more the quality of Spain, rather than Italy being poor TBF. Spain were absolutely excellent - it was a 1-0 hammering.

MTF

 

It was an absolute hammering. Spain absolutely slaughtered Italy. They look a very, very good side.

MTF

 

I didn't think it was an awful performance from Italy, the same effort would have yielded a better result against most of the teams in the competition but Spain are just better in almost every position...and they have a gameplan. Their only possible downfall is lack of goals.

 

So tonight im gonna punt it like its 1999 - Pickford

x.com

 

For Xplosive

x.com

MTF

 

Looking forward to the Netherlands-France game tonight.

 

Sweet Jesus. Lmao!

Yeah, she could have accurately said "players like Bellingham, Vini, Mbappe" are now better.

But fuckin Pulisic???

No. Geriatric Messi is still better.

 

I get embarrassed watching my fellow Yanks call this sport. Fox should just hire a European crew to cover all of it like ESPN does.

We have no business analyzing this sport. It's like a British crew covering the NFL playoffs.

Americans are only knowledgeable at talking about basketball, baseball, American football, boxing and MMA.

Everything else, we should leave to other nations to discuss.