The Euro 2024 Thread

[Deutsch Wolf]

Well it can only be one of Germany, Spain, France or Portugal for a start...

 

[Wolftone]

Spain haven't won anything since the Euros in 2012 (a pretty long time in footballing terms)
Germany haven't won the Euros since 1996
France haven't won the Euros since 2000
Belgium have never won anything
Netherlands haven't won the Euros (or anything) since 1988
England have never won the Euros

Of all the international tournaments, it's the one that gets shared around most equitably. This year will very likely add to the list as I seriously doubt Italy are retaining their title.

There are barely any easy games in the euros, Wouldnt say anyone can beat anyone, but It's not far off that.

 

[PuntsWolf]

Although I take your broader point re seeding, there is still a lot of luck involved. We won our Group as did Germany. Their pathway to the Final would be something like Denmark, Spain, France. Ours Slovakia, Italy, Netherlands, that is lucky. In 2018 finishing second in the group got us Colombia, Sweden, Croatia, winning it was Japan, Brazil France.

We’ve definitely had a lot of luck.

We also piss qualifying so easily now because the talent gap at the top is so wide between teams like England and the next rung. Even if you struggle against someone like Czechia, it doesn’t matter as they slip up against the next rung whereas England breeze past them.

I look back at those tournaments from the golden generation and Sven had no luck at all. Sendings off, key injuries, penalty losses, tough draws, keeper howlers. Southgate had managed to avoid all that so far.

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

I look back at those tournaments from the golden generation and Sven had no luck at all. Sendings off, key injuries, penalty losses, tough draws, keeper howlers. Southgate had managed to avoid all that so far.

I liked Sven a lot but a lot of it was his own fault.

2002: Brazil really weren't great and down to 10 men. We barely had a shot after the red card because he wouldn't change anything. Also he failed to beat Sweden or Nigeria in the group which put us on that side of the draw
2004: It's bad luck that Rooney got injured when he was the best player in the tournament and we were 1-0 up but Vassell as a straight swap was a terrible sub
2006: Maybe when Rooney and Owen are both not really fit, take more than one other striker (that you aren't 100% sold on) and a child, plus change the team when it's obvious for multiple games that it isn't working

 

[Loki]

We’ve definitely had a lot of luck.

I look back at those tournaments from the golden generation and Sven had no luck at all. Sendings off, key injuries, penalty losses, tough draws, keeper howlers. Southgate had managed to avoid all that so far.

You need a bit of luck in the Cup. Who said that ?

 

[Elephant Pyjamas]

I look back at those tournaments from the golden generation and Sven had no luck at all. Sendings off, key injuries, penalty losses, tough draws, keeper howlers. Southgate had managed to avoid all that so far.

Has he?

We lost on pens to Italy, despite Pickford performing brilliantly in them.

We've had injuries too, look at LB and CB at the moment.

Avoiding tough draws has already been mentioned, like if you beat Italy home and away in the quals you deserve a better draw.

 

[Elephant Pyjamas]

The brass fucking balls of Ricardo still amazes me, tossing his gloves to the floor and saying I'll save your pens without them, and then smashing one in himself. Unbelievable.

At the time I hated the cocky prick, but looking back, my word what an incredible sportsman. He won that penalty shoot out on his own with his mentality.

 

[PuntsWolf]

Has he?

We lost on pens to Italy, despite Pickford performing brilliantly in them.

Fair enough. Had home advantage in that tournament which is another bit of “luck”. Got lucky beating Denmark in the semi’s though with a generous penalty.

We've had injuries too, look at LB and CB at the moment.

Wouldn’t even know who is injured at CB who would have played. And LB isn’t a big deal. It’s not like losing Beckham and Rooney etc.

We’ve got massive strength in depth now anyway. Before we were relying on Vassell, Danny Mills, whoever else.

Avoiding tough draws has already been mentioned, like if you beat Italy home and away in the quals you deserve a better draw.

As I said, the talent gap is bigger. Teams like Sweden used to be tough. We should be breezing past them these days. We’ve had favourable draws which we never really got before even if we did win our group etc.

 

[Tony Towner]

Has he?

We lost on pens to Italy, despite Pickford performing brilliantly in them.

We've had injuries too, look at LB and CB at the moment.

Avoiding tough draws has already been mentioned, like if you beat Italy home and away in the quals you deserve a better draw.

He's compounded the left back issue by not not taking any real cover, whilst having Gomes there as 4th choice right back, 3rd choice left back and 5th choice centre half.

 

[Lupo]

Gutted there are no games for a couple of days. I missed most of the group games as I was on holiday, got back yesterday to see the Portugal game then nothing!

Wanted to watch the Italy game on Monday night when I got back from Spain but TV wasn't working as WIFI was down in Vilamoura until gone 10

 

[Alan]

We may be talking about different things.

Don't hate on Triple G, we've had way worse.

I'm rescinding this.

 

[Sniffer]

Talk that Mainoo for Gallagher will be the only change. If true he’s either too stubborn or too blind to see the obvious flaws on view in the 3 games played so far.
Not only is he giving up a sixth of the pitch as an attacking option he’ll be running players into the ground.

 

[The Bear]

Talk that Mainoo for Gallagher will be the only change. If true he’s either too stubborn or too blind to see the obvious flaws on view in the 3 games played so far.
Not only is he giving up a sixth of the pitch as an attacking option he’ll be running players into the ground.

He's too shit scared of dropping the likes of Saka, Foden and/or Bellingham. Weapons grade simp.

 

[Tony Towner]

Talk that Mainoo for Gallagher will be the only change. If true he’s either too stubborn or too blind to see the obvious flaws on view in the 3 games played so far.
Not only is he giving up a sixth of the pitch as an attacking option he’ll be running players into the ground.

Or too weak to drop those that need dropping.

 

[Wolftone]

As I said before the tournament kicked off Saka or Foden on the right?
Lots who said 'play both, Foden on the left':
Congratulations, for backing the manager.

 

[Tony Towner]

As I said before the tournament kicked off Saka or Foden on the right?
Lots who said 'play both, Foden on the left':
Congratulations, for backing the manager.

No, you said Foden had never played on the left for City and had your arse handed to you

 

[Wolftone]

No, you said Foden had never played on the left for City and had your arse handed to you

Ok, I was wrong and accept he"s had limited success on the left, against moderate opposition, but he's miles more effective on the right and fairly useful in the middle..
You said play both, with Foden on the left.
For England it's been abject failure and unbalanced. Foden playing there has nullified Bellingham (compounded by Kane dropping back into a similar area at times).

 

[Sniffer]

Ok, I was wrong and accept he"s had limited success on the left, against moderate opposition, but he's miles more effective on the right and fairly useful in the middle..
You said play both, with Foden on the left.
For England it's been abject failure and unbalanced. Foden playing there has nullified Bellingham (compounded by Kane dropping back into a similar area at times).

I don’t want him on the left but if you had Shaw behind him who can be a threat outside him, it would certainly work better.

 

[MARKakaJIM]

I think the biggest problem you get with Foden for England, and similarly but perhaps to a slightly lesser extent with the likes of Saka and Rice, is that they're used to playing a very established system at club level which is no longer there to support them at international level. When he plays for City he'll know the routine, the spaces to exploit, the runs to make etc and everyone around him will be on the same page so it meshes together and it works. If he's playing off the right at City you know there will be plenty of times when he can drift inside and de Bruyne will drive into that right hand channel to whip stuff across the box. If he make similar moves for England there isn't a central playing moving out wide to exploit the space so you just end up with the centre of the park getting congested.

I think with players like Eze, Gordon or Palmer you've got individuals who are more used to taking matters into their own hands, improvising and just being a bit cavalier. I think this England side is more reliant on that sort of behaviour to be threatening than repetitive, rehearsed routines that probe and pick at opposition until they find a tell tale gap.

 

[YoungWolf]

He’s not going to start experimenting in the knockouts. He should have rotated more in the groups for sure though. Mainoo is the right call I think anyway.