Nations League & Friendlies

[tulip]

Dutch made it to the final 4 last night having not lost a match. Looking pretty strong going into the WC.

[Ascotexgunner]

Dutch made it to the final 4 last night having not lost a match. Looking pretty strong going into the WC.

They can thank us for that. Caving in twice against them having virtually secured points against them.
Caved late in against Poland away as well considering we were leading and looking comfortable. Since Ashley Williams retired we just look so hit and miss in that area. Don't have much confidence in the keepers either. Ward has suffered a big dip in form and Hennessy just scares me.
Dan James is another. Managed to miss a one on one and then for some reason runs in front of Johnson's shot which looked like it was going in. He looks so unconfident at the moment.
A word for Poland....a good win but boy do they stink the place out with their play acting and feigning injury. One on the worst teams I've seen in a while doing that.

I think it's going to be quite a while before we see group A again with the impending retirement of Bale and Ramsay.

[South Coast Royal]

One good thing coming out of our poor performance in this Nations League is that the hype will surely be less than normal going into the World Cup although Declan Rice thought everything was fine in losing to Italy despite us not having scored for so many games.

What does annoy me about Southgate is that he hasn't kept to his earlier statement about only picking players in form.
The standout contradiction is the dreadful Maguire and then of course Shaw but also Rice hasn't looked the player that West Ham value at over £100 million.

He left out Mount who hasn't been playing well which would be fine if Southgate kept to his word about form players.

A couple of good things from the Italy game though in that Pope looks plenty good enough as does Bellingham.

One particular negative-Kyle Walker is not a good defender ( I have been saying so for years) and shouldn't be a right-sided centre-back -he does ok at right-back where his lack of defensive awareness is less exposed but there are other options as well for that position.
Also fatty Shaw- a decent game at the Euros doesn't guarantee him being up for selection surely when he has no club form at all and is not rated by yet another Man Utd manager.

Presumably Ivan Toney will now get just the one game tonight to show that he might be ok at international level or did Southgate just pick him for the squad to satisfy demands from the media?

[Zip]

Dutch made it to the final 4 last night having not lost a match. Looking pretty strong going into the WC.

Yep was impressed with the Dutch v Wales where they played a number of reserves but still looked good. Very comfortable on the ball and dark horses for the World Cup.

[tulip]

Dutch made it to the final 4 last night having not lost a match. Looking pretty strong going into the WC.

Yep was impressed with the Dutch v Wales where they played a number of reserves but still looked good. Very comfortable on the ball and dark horses for the World Cup.

Missing a few of the big guns last night too but beat Belgium fairly comfortably again.

[Winston Biscuit]

[Zip]

Wassup Winnyovic?

[Orion1871]

Good old SLOLabhead trying to unleash his inner Pele.

[Zip]

Southgate out

[Royal Rother]

Interesting how we can look toothless for 500+ minutes then suddenly dispense with Southgate’s tactics, just attack attack attack, and look like potential world beaters.

[Ascotexgunner]

Interesting how we can look toothless for 500+ minutes then suddenly dispense with Southgate’s tactics, just attack attack attack, and look like potential world beaters.

Not really, there was nothing riding on this game. It's when it gets competitive Southgate will click back into "safe" mode.

[Royal Rother]

Interesting how we can look toothless for 500+ minutes then suddenly dispense with Southgate’s tactics, just attack attack attack, and look like potential world beaters.

Not really, there was nothing riding on this game. It's when it gets competitive Southgate will click back into "safe" mode.

I think Southgate WAS in safe mode. I mean, we pretty much know that’s become his only mode. I’m suggesting it was the players who decided “fcuk this” and just threw caution to the wind, resulting in 3 quick fire goals.

But maybe I’m being a tad unfair.

Whatever, that 15 mins was a lot of fun. And Mount’s goal was just brilliant.

[windermereROYAL]

Puscas 2 for Romania last night. he`s a goal scorer no matter what the gimps say.

[URZZZZ]

Puscas 2 for Romania last night. he`s a goal scorer no matter what the gimps say.

One goal in 17 league starts doesn’t constitute a “goal scorer” so that’s a strange comment

[URZZZZ]

Interesting how we can look toothless for 500+ minutes then suddenly dispense with Southgate’s tactics, just attack attack attack, and look like potential world beaters.

Not really, there was nothing riding on this game. It's when it gets competitive Southgate will click back into "safe" mode.

I think Southgate WAS in safe mode. I mean, we pretty much know that’s become his only mode. I’m suggesting it was the players who decided “fcuk this” and just threw caution to the wind, resulting in 3 quick fire goals.

But maybe I’m being a tad unfair.

Whatever, that 15 mins was a lot of fun. And Mount’s goal was just brilliant.

Do like Rice and Bellingham as a midfield two, good balance and mix of attributes. But the defence is a major cause for concern, really dislike the Maguire scapegoating (how is that supposed to help him), but he’s so far off it currently. Agreed with SCR that Walker always has a mistake in him, as does Stones

For those that want Southgate to change, I think you have to look at the bigger picture and realise the defensive options just aren’t there to supplement a more free flowing attack

[South Coast Royal]

I suppose sportsmen and women shouldn't be interviewed as they are geared up to just think positively about everything but I expect pundits to be more considered.

Channel 4 had Joe Cole as a so-called pundit last night as well as Jermaine Defoe.
For Cole everything was fine and dandy but you could see that Defoe was holding back on what he really thought and it was left to the German to give an honest and sensible appraisal of his team.

As for the game, in the first half it was all passing back to Pope as if to demonstrate the weakness in his game of kicking and we played like an away side looking to hold and break against superior opposition when this German side is no great shakes.
Unfortunately for Pope it wasn't the best of nights but for Mount and Saka it was a good night as they aimed to prove that they should be starters .

Trent wasn't even in the squad and yet Shaw who is a similar player but on the left-good going forward, a decent passer but not great at defending gets in the side even though he doesn't play for his club.

Even though recent results have been poor with most of last night's starters playing in most of the games I fully expect the likes of Maguire to be starters in the first game in Qatar with their selection in a number of cases based on what they have done in previous tournaments.
Pele was great in 1970 but Brazil won't pick him and, more seriously, Kante might not start for France nor Gunter for Wales just because they have "never let their country down" to use the often spouted phrase.

As posted earlier, last night's performance may be a good thing in showing that there is work still to be done but with the one big plus that Bellingham has cemented his position as our most important player at age 19 leading to comparisons with Duncan Edwards by people even older than me (the few that are still alive).

[bcubed]

Trent wasn't even in the squad and yet Shaw who is a similar player but on the left-good going forward, a decent passer but not great at defending gets in the side even though he doesn't play for his club.

Of all the criticisms of Southgate not including TAA seems the most inexplicable

[Ascotexgunner]

Trent wasn't even in the squad and yet Shaw who is a similar player but on the left-good going forward, a decent passer but not great at defending gets in the side even though he doesn't play for his club.

Of all the criticisms of Southgate not including TAA seems the most inexplicable

James Madison should be included....I think he is a good option for England and when tight defences need unlocking he is a great option. If he played for a bigger and better club he would be an automatic pick.

[YorkshireRoyal99]

Trent wasn't even in the squad and yet Shaw who is a similar player but on the left-good going forward, a decent passer but not great at defending gets in the side even though he doesn't play for his club.

Of all the criticisms of Southgate not including TAA seems the most inexplicable

James Madison should be included....I think he is a good option for England and when tight defences need unlocking he is a great option. If he played for a bigger and better club he would be an automatic pick.

I don't think we can go a tournament with 12 defenders in our squad, whether we play 5 at the back or not, it's just simply too many. There is one thing having a tactical strategy, but at International level you need to flexible and we have the opportunity to do this by picking the best players in the country. Maddison is someone who can change a game, so, even if he's not an automatic inclusion in the XI, he certainly should be on the bench because he can create something from nothing and is an asset for us. JWP is similar with his free kick taking ability.

[Zip]

Joy in the Silver McFox household as Scotland are promoted to the top division of the Nations League.
Thoughts are with a certain poster with a proud Ukrainian heritage