A glorious turnaround but we'll need to pull our finger out on Saturday. Southgate very lucky tonight.
by rpgtraveller
30 comments
Is that last minute goal by bellingham better than beckhams last minute freekick against Greece?? I didn’t like football until Beckham scored that freekick when I was 8 so I’ve got to much nostalgia as that freekick was my favourite goal.
Thought it was over. I turned off the tele and was on my way to get some food. Mid journey my brother calls me screaming after Bellinghams goal and I thought it was a windup. It was not in fact a windup.
It was pathetic. Absolute shite. We scraped through and if we’d have got knocked out we’d have deserved it. If we play like that the Swiss will wipe the floor with us.
All that said, obviously I’m glad, relieved and this squad is wonderfully talented I’d love to see that translated onto the pitch but I have absolutely no faith that Southgate has the ability to do so, as I would genuinely love him to get them doing so.
The tried and tested English method of passing the ball backwards towards your own net very rarely brings opportunities to score a goal.
We did terribly and it was only the last minute effort that saved us.
More aggression next time please
Absolutely terrible. Jude Bellingham’s overhead kick glossed over an otherwise terrible performance. Southgate will spin it but we were so bad in 90mins. I don’t think he’s capable of firing this squad up or instilling belief in the players. He thinks negative, he sets up negative and those negative thoughts leak into the players. His substitutions are pitiful and he will not give up on that formation. As every game passes the need for a more attacking mindset becomes apparent, but he will argue we are into the quarter finals and that’s all that matters. I would argue that if we play the way we’ve played in the first 4 games, then Switzerland will comfortably beat us
Absolutely fluked it, Foden was so tired and Southgate had to sub him after 90 mins. The enforced subs Toney and Eze made the 2 goals (plus a great finish from Jude) exposing that Southgate has no clue.
I’ve watched football for 50 years, this tournament’s version of England is the most depressing and clueless we’ve ever been. Sack Southgate tonight and let Ian Wright / Neville manage. Anyone would be better. No changes at half time and then 48 minutes of passing backwards before he had to change it. WTAF?
Southgate only knows defence. Boring passing back awful style of football to watch. Surprise surprise the one time he gets desperate and starts urging an attack, England score. He refuses to learn this and he’ll just say something arrogant like “we got the win in the end that’s what matters”. The man should be defensive coach at most. We have an attacking squad but its being managed by someone who doesn’t know the attacking game unfortunately.
It’s almost as though the players go out with Southgate’s game plan in their heads and even they think it’s crap. Has he lost the dressing room?
No drive. No fight. Gutless.
Ivan Toney must have been overjoyed at coming on with less than 3 minutes left.
Play like that against Switzerland and we’ll be on the plane home Sunday morning. Or Saturday night if they get a move on.
Doesn’t mean much when it’s still a struggle for us to win against smaller population, lower gdp nations (with smaller amounts of money in their teams), while Germany and Spain absolutely annihilate teams of that level, blast 5 goals in, rarely concede goals during the group stages etc.
Doubt we’ll make the semi’s without a serious rethink on line up and shift in team mentality.
Stones is the root cause of all of our problems. 90 passes in the first half alone – more than either of the German CBs in their entire game. Always sideways. Stood with the ball a lot. Never found Bellingham when he was often in space. No pundits seem to be picking this up. He’s slowing out play to walking pace and preventing holes appearing in the opposition areas.
Yet another terrible anti attacking football performance that toney sub in the 93rd min was a slap in the face to every Englishman watching the game. I’m almost upset we have gone through as I’ll have to sit through something similar against Switzerland
Sack Southgate tonight and put my hamster 🐹 in charge !! At least he knows ,if it’s not working put different players on and change our approach. I honestly believe Southgate has lost it , we need Gordon starting and Palmer, I would leave Saka at LB. If that means dropping Foden then drop him , brilliant player, but these four games he’s been shite. At least have the bottle to change it , subs !!! And not with 3mins to go?? Come on Southgate you fkn wally.
Why were the commentators bragging about Southgate making a change before the match? One player in, one out. Like he had done in several other games Alexander-Arnold for Gallagher, then for Mainoo. Hardly made a difference. Whyever Gordon didn’t get a run out is beyond me. Why not make more changes at half time? Terrible. Awful. Dull to watch. End of the day we were playing the 45th ranked team in the world and struggled.
Absolute dog poo! 4 games 4 awful performances, Slovakia deserved the win. When you need a player to make an impact , bring on Toney in the 94th minute !!! Southgate should be replaced before the next game!!
Rice need to be deployed further up field. He’s done fuck all sitting in between / front of Stones and Guehi. Second half he was closer to their goal and was able to influence the game more. He wasn’t a necessarily the reason we won but it helped. A lot.
Complete England performance, pretty much the last 5 games, with how Spain are dealing with the same low block against Georgia.
Spain, with wingers, pushing Georgia wide and stretching them after naming England performance look as pathetic as it is.
Southgate has created a team in his image, slow, ponderous, lack creativity, no energy, zero charisma, no guts.
First half was really very poor. Boils down to Southgate imo.
It’s blindingly obvious that the players have been instructed:
Hold your shape Don’t take risks Don’t get hit on the counter
So they play passes sideways and backwards. They don’t make runs into space. Most importantly, they don’t PRESS.
These are all things they already do at club level, but absent here. Obviously a tactical decision.
Don’t think Foden passed to Rice at all on the edge of the box, instead choosing to spam weighty crosses to Dubravka.
Kane runs like he’s stuck in toffee. No one overlapping, no one relieving him under pressure. We simply won’t beat Switzerland. Sorry guys.
We don’t need two sitting so deep against these teams , especially in possession. We need a Bellingham pushing in behind in order to link up with a Kane. Instead everything had to go wide and therefore had to rely on crosses because when they looked up there was no short pass option. Or when our centre mids didn’t go wide they had to try play long straight balls up field which were too long and straight and too easy for the defenders to cut out.
At times we had a high line of 4 but just needed one dropping off 10 yards in order to link up the play.
I’d love to know how many of Stones’ passes were to Pickford or Guéhi.
Utter garbage tbh, Palmer and Gordon have to start over Saka and Foden, haven’t done enough and we’re clearly lacking something
We’ve now all sat through 6hrs of England playing like a bunch of strangers who were introduced to the game of football 20 minutes before kick off.
A good manager can mould a team that performs greater than the sum of its parts. What we’re witnessing game after game is the complete opposite and Southgate continually manages to make 11 sow’s ears from silk purses.
Southgate is a terrible manager, truly catastrophically terrible or perhaps even worse than that. Defensive minded, tactically inept, uninspiring but uncontroversial and safe which is why the FA have stuck by him.
I have zero illusions about the prospects.of this England team under Southgate and fully expect them to be eliminated by Switzerland.
I’m an passive football fan, so take this with a pinch of salt:
It feels like we are trying to play continental football by holding possession and passing it around, but without people making runs off the ball. It’s as if the player things ‘I’m in space so I’ll stand still’.
My thoughts of Spain style (didn’t watch tonight’s match) is one where people pass and may a darting run which can result in a 1-2, or at least draws a player away.
Too often, when an English player does make a run they are incensed that they weren’t passed to.
I enjoyed watching Eze and Palmer try and take players on. Kane had more opportunities than usual but gave the ball away a fair bit through poor passes than usual too. At least some of those passes were trying to make something happen.
At this point after all the criticism over 4 games about subs and style of play, Southgate must be literally trolling.
Refusing to budge even tonight during the last quarter of the game. His stubbornness is now turning to arrogance.
He simply has to go.
Mistakenly suggested we play a drinking game where if England pass sideways or back, we drink. Despite drinking 0.01% kaliber, I’m absolutely smashed.
Enjoyed the stadium fans getting ready to bottle Southgate before the equalizer, then salute the team at the end. The team look really tired and leggy. Walker looks like he’s carrying a knock, Kane looks a yard behind the pace – but at least he went looking for work and yet again when it’s only Foden OR Bellingham on, we look better. Didn’t we learn from Gerrard/Lampard?
When Kane and Bellingham stood there with their arms out I was enraged. They were shit for the other 99% of this match and Kane has done a grand total of fuck all in the group games. Standing there as if to receive the adulation of the crowd really did reinforce the fact that they are clueless simpletons.
I’m almost annoyed. I felt a great sense of relief throughout most of the game that at least it would result in us never having to watch Southgate’s horrific brand of football. We’re the least enjoyable to watch at the Euros. No confidence, no urgency. Other teams play with this fierce desire to win and Southgate has one of the most talented England squads we’ve seen in a while that he’s sucked the competitiveness out of.
Being a minute away from certain forced resignation is not the person we need in charge of a team that should be dominating games
Why do we watch football? Like for real.
Did you guys watch Spain v Georgia? Georgia is 1-0 against a team like Spain and they still push forward when they get the chance.
I can’t stand watching England playing. Fuck Southgate and fuck this strategy. It’s unbearable
Southgate is tactically clueless and a coward tactically too, he is frightened of his own shadow. England were terrible and after 80 mins he had made one substitute.
Very fortunate to go through, and we did that in spite of the wet blanket we have as a manager. Couldn’t stand him as a player and have felt he has been a tactical fraud right from the start of his reign as England manager, a job he was given after showing his managerial pedigree by getting Boro relegated.
Euro 96, WC 18, Euro 21 all have the hand of failure on them and that hand belongs to Southgate. Penalty in 96, and tactically clueless and outcoached in a WC semi and Euros Final.
Can’t even stand seeing his face on TV post game
A lot of lackluster football, some shocking defense, and probably the best goal since Gazza scored against Scotland by Bellingham. When Kane got the second, I thought here we go… we can knock in another two or three now… but we took the foot off the gas again. Job done though, a win’s a win, though they never do it the easy way do they.
Fucking awful. Southgate is so overrated it’s bordering on ridiculous. He’s shown at previous tournaments that he’s not a top manager and is out of his depth. With the squads he’s had available to him England should have won trophies.
Tactically inept and stubborn. Not good traits in a manager. He’s somehow made Bellingham and Foden look like Sunday league players.
Too scared to make changes – we’ve been crying out for changes to the line up every game but all he’s done is swap a single player in the same position (Gallagher for TAA, Mainoo for Gallagher). Why did it take him 85 minutes to make a second change when we’re desperately searching for a goal? Insane.
At least if he mixed it up a bit, we could say fair play, he’s tried to change tactically and he’s had a go. But watching the same boring shite for 4 games has been draining.
If you’re gonna play Foden on the left wing, you can’t play Kane. You need a striker (Watkins) that will make runs in behind, because otherwise the only player making runs is Saka. Either that, or you need to play an out and out winger on the left wing that has a bit of pace.
Personally, given how many strong midfielders we’ve got, I’d like to have seen us go 3 at the back. Stones, Geuhi, Walker. Saka and Eze/Trippier at Wing Back. Mainoo, Rice in front of the back 3, Bellingham and Foden at no. 10 – Foden’s best position – and Watkins at number 9 because Kane just doesn’t offer enough apart from the odd goal and Watkins will make runs in behind.
We had two extremely lucky goals that should have been scored way earlier. Am I happy we’re still in it? Yes, course I am!
But I’m not happy it took us 90 minutes to have a shot on target. That’s stupid. I’m also concerned that Switzerland seem like the better team so it’s going to be tough getting to the semis. Look, Bellinghams goal was a pure luck and Kane’s goal wasn’t any better.
AND THEN… we’re 2-1 up and we park the bus and let them attack for 20 minutes. It was just dreadful. The most uninspired, lacklustre football I’ve ever watched from England.
Southgate is terrified of making subs too. England had made 2 subs by the time Slovakia had made 6. In speechless at home poor the game management is.
30 comments
Is that last minute goal by bellingham better than beckhams last minute freekick against Greece?? I didn’t like football until Beckham scored that freekick when I was 8 so I’ve got to much nostalgia as that freekick was my favourite goal.
Thought it was over. I turned off the tele and was on my way to get some food. Mid journey my brother calls me screaming after Bellinghams goal and I thought it was a windup. It was not in fact a windup.
It was pathetic. Absolute shite. We scraped through and if we’d have got knocked out we’d have deserved it. If we play like that the Swiss will wipe the floor with us.
All that said, obviously I’m glad, relieved and this squad is wonderfully talented I’d love to see that translated onto the pitch but I have absolutely no faith that Southgate has the ability to do so, as I would genuinely love him to get them doing so.
The tried and tested English method of passing the ball backwards towards your own net very rarely brings opportunities to score a goal.
We did terribly and it was only the last minute effort that saved us.
More aggression next time please
Absolutely terrible. Jude Bellingham’s overhead kick glossed over an otherwise terrible performance. Southgate will spin it but we were so bad in 90mins. I don’t think he’s capable of firing this squad up or instilling belief in the players. He thinks negative, he sets up negative and those negative thoughts leak into the players. His substitutions are pitiful and he will not give up on that formation. As every game passes the need for a more attacking mindset becomes apparent, but he will argue we are into the quarter finals and that’s all that matters.
I would argue that if we play the way we’ve played in the first 4 games, then Switzerland will comfortably beat us
Absolutely fluked it, Foden was so tired and Southgate had to sub him after 90 mins. The enforced subs Toney and Eze made the 2 goals (plus a great finish from Jude) exposing that Southgate has no clue.
I’ve watched football for 50 years, this tournament’s version of England is the most depressing and clueless we’ve ever been. Sack Southgate tonight and let Ian Wright / Neville manage. Anyone would be better. No changes at half time and then 48 minutes of passing backwards before he had to change it. WTAF?
Southgate only knows defence. Boring passing back awful style of football to watch. Surprise surprise the one time he gets desperate and starts urging an attack, England score. He refuses to learn this and he’ll just say something arrogant like “we got the win in the end that’s what matters”. The man should be defensive coach at most. We have an attacking squad but its being managed by someone who doesn’t know the attacking game unfortunately.
It’s almost as though the players go out with Southgate’s game plan in their heads and even they think it’s crap. Has he lost the dressing room?
No drive. No fight. Gutless.
Ivan Toney must have been overjoyed at coming on with less than 3 minutes left.
Play like that against Switzerland and we’ll be on the plane home Sunday morning. Or Saturday night if they get a move on.
Doesn’t mean much when it’s still a struggle for us to win against smaller population, lower gdp nations (with smaller amounts of money in their teams), while Germany and Spain absolutely annihilate teams of that level, blast 5 goals in, rarely concede goals during the group stages etc.
Doubt we’ll make the semi’s without a serious rethink on line up and shift in team mentality.
Stones is the root cause of all of our problems. 90 passes in the first half alone – more than either of the German CBs in their entire game. Always sideways. Stood with the ball a lot. Never found Bellingham when he was often in space. No pundits seem to be picking this up. He’s slowing out play to walking pace and preventing holes appearing in the opposition areas.
Yet another terrible anti attacking football performance that toney sub in the 93rd min was a slap in the face to every Englishman watching the game. I’m almost upset we have gone through as I’ll have to sit through something similar against Switzerland
Sack Southgate tonight and put my hamster 🐹 in charge !! At least he knows ,if it’s not working put different players on and change our approach.
I honestly believe Southgate has lost it , we need Gordon starting and Palmer, I would leave Saka at LB. If that means dropping Foden then drop him , brilliant player, but these four games he’s been shite. At least have the bottle to change it , subs !!! And not with 3mins to go?? Come on Southgate you fkn wally.
Why were the commentators bragging about Southgate making a change before the match? One player in, one out. Like he had done in several other games Alexander-Arnold for Gallagher, then for Mainoo.
Hardly made a difference. Whyever Gordon didn’t get a run out is beyond me. Why not make more changes at half time?
Terrible. Awful. Dull to watch.
End of the day we were playing the 45th ranked team in the world and struggled.
Absolute dog poo! 4 games 4 awful performances, Slovakia deserved the win. When you need a player to make an impact , bring on Toney in the 94th minute !!! Southgate should be replaced before the next game!!
Rice need to be deployed further up field. He’s done fuck all sitting in between / front of Stones and Guehi. Second half he was closer to their goal and was able to influence the game more. He wasn’t a necessarily the reason we won but it helped. A lot.
Complete England performance, pretty much the last 5 games, with how Spain are dealing with the same low block against Georgia.
Spain, with wingers, pushing Georgia wide and stretching them after naming England performance look as pathetic as it is.
Southgate has created a team in his image, slow, ponderous, lack creativity, no energy, zero charisma, no guts.
First half was really very poor. Boils down to Southgate imo.
It’s blindingly obvious that the players have been instructed:
Hold your shape
Don’t take risks
Don’t get hit on the counter
So they play passes sideways and backwards. They don’t make runs into space. Most importantly, they don’t PRESS.
These are all things they already do at club level, but absent here. Obviously a tactical decision.
Don’t think Foden passed to Rice at all on the edge of the box, instead choosing to spam weighty crosses to Dubravka.
Kane runs like he’s stuck in toffee. No one overlapping, no one relieving him under pressure. We simply won’t beat Switzerland. Sorry guys.
We don’t need two sitting so deep against these teams , especially in possession.
We need a Bellingham pushing in behind in order to link up with a Kane. Instead everything had to go wide and therefore had to rely on crosses because when they looked up there was no short pass option. Or when our centre mids didn’t go wide they had to try play long straight balls up field which were too long and straight and too easy for the defenders to cut out.
At times we had a high line of 4 but just needed one dropping off 10 yards in order to link up the play.
I’d love to know how many of Stones’ passes were to Pickford or Guéhi.
Utter garbage tbh, Palmer and Gordon have to start over Saka and Foden, haven’t done enough and we’re clearly lacking something
We’ve now all sat through 6hrs of England playing like a bunch of strangers who were introduced to the game of football 20 minutes before kick off.
A good manager can mould a team that performs greater than the sum of its parts. What we’re witnessing game after game is the complete opposite and Southgate continually manages to make 11 sow’s ears from silk purses.
Southgate is a terrible manager, truly catastrophically terrible or perhaps even worse than that. Defensive minded, tactically inept, uninspiring but uncontroversial and safe which is why the FA have stuck by him.
I have zero illusions about the prospects.of this England team under Southgate and fully expect them to be eliminated by Switzerland.
I’m an passive football fan, so take this with a pinch of salt:
It feels like we are trying to play continental football by holding possession and passing it around, but without people making runs off the ball. It’s as if the player things ‘I’m in space so I’ll stand still’.
My thoughts of Spain style (didn’t watch tonight’s match) is one where people pass and may a darting run which can result in a 1-2, or at least draws a player away.
Too often, when an English player does make a run they are incensed that they weren’t passed to.
I enjoyed watching Eze and Palmer try and take players on. Kane had more opportunities than usual but gave the ball away a fair bit through poor passes than usual too. At least some of those passes were trying to make something happen.
At this point after all the criticism over 4 games about subs and style of play, Southgate must be literally trolling.
Refusing to budge even tonight during the last quarter of the game. His stubbornness is now turning to arrogance.
He simply has to go.
Mistakenly suggested we play a drinking game where if England pass sideways or back, we drink. Despite drinking 0.01% kaliber, I’m absolutely smashed.
Enjoyed the stadium fans getting ready to bottle Southgate before the equalizer, then salute the team at the end.
The team look really tired and leggy. Walker looks like he’s carrying a knock, Kane looks a yard behind the pace – but at least he went looking for work and yet again when it’s only Foden OR Bellingham on, we look better. Didn’t we learn from Gerrard/Lampard?
When Kane and Bellingham stood there with their arms out I was enraged. They were shit for the other 99% of this match and Kane has done a grand total of fuck all in the group games. Standing there as if to receive the adulation of the crowd really did reinforce the fact that they are clueless simpletons.
I’m almost annoyed. I felt a great sense of relief throughout most of the game that at least it would result in us never having to watch Southgate’s horrific brand of football. We’re the least enjoyable to watch at the Euros. No confidence, no urgency. Other teams play with this fierce desire to win and Southgate has one of the most talented England squads we’ve seen in a while that he’s sucked the competitiveness out of.
Being a minute away from certain forced resignation is not the person we need in charge of a team that should be dominating games
Why do we watch football? Like for real.
Did you guys watch Spain v Georgia? Georgia is 1-0 against a team like Spain and they still push forward when they get the chance.
I can’t stand watching England playing. Fuck Southgate and fuck this strategy. It’s unbearable
Southgate is tactically clueless and a coward tactically too, he is frightened of his own shadow. England were terrible and after 80 mins he had made one substitute.
Very fortunate to go through, and we did that in spite of the wet blanket we have as a manager. Couldn’t stand him as a player and have felt he has been a tactical fraud right from the start of his reign as England manager, a job he was given after showing his managerial pedigree by getting Boro relegated.
Euro 96, WC 18, Euro 21 all have the hand of failure on them and that hand belongs to Southgate. Penalty in 96, and tactically clueless and outcoached in a WC semi and Euros Final.
Can’t even stand seeing his face on TV post game
A lot of lackluster football, some shocking defense, and probably the best goal since Gazza scored against Scotland by Bellingham. When Kane got the second, I thought here we go… we can knock in another two or three now… but we took the foot off the gas again. Job done though, a win’s a win, though they never do it the easy way do they.
Fucking awful. Southgate is so overrated it’s bordering on ridiculous. He’s shown at previous tournaments that he’s not a top manager and is out of his depth. With the squads he’s had available to him England should have won trophies.
Tactically inept and stubborn. Not good traits in a manager. He’s somehow made Bellingham and Foden look like Sunday league players.
Too scared to make changes – we’ve been crying out for changes to the line up every game but all he’s done is swap a single player in the same position (Gallagher for TAA, Mainoo for Gallagher). Why did it take him 85 minutes to make a second change when we’re desperately searching for a goal? Insane.
At least if he mixed it up a bit, we could say fair play, he’s tried to change tactically and he’s had a go. But watching the same boring shite for 4 games has been draining.
If you’re gonna play Foden on the left wing, you can’t play Kane. You need a striker (Watkins) that will make runs in behind, because otherwise the only player making runs is Saka. Either that, or you need to play an out and out winger on the left wing that has a bit of pace.
Personally, given how many strong midfielders we’ve got, I’d like to have seen us go 3 at the back. Stones, Geuhi, Walker. Saka and Eze/Trippier at Wing Back. Mainoo, Rice in front of the back 3, Bellingham and Foden at no. 10 – Foden’s best position – and Watkins at number 9 because Kane just doesn’t offer enough apart from the odd goal and Watkins will make runs in behind.
We had two extremely lucky goals that should have been scored way earlier. Am I happy we’re still in it? Yes, course I am!
But I’m not happy it took us 90 minutes to have a shot on target. That’s stupid. I’m also concerned that Switzerland seem like the better team so it’s going to be tough getting to the semis. Look, Bellinghams goal was a pure luck and Kane’s goal wasn’t any better.
AND THEN… we’re 2-1 up and we park the bus and let them attack for 20 minutes. It was just dreadful. The most uninspired, lacklustre football I’ve ever watched from England.
Southgate is terrified of making subs too. England had made 2 subs by the time Slovakia had made 6. In speechless at home poor the game management is.