The Euro 2024 Thread

[Tredman]

But he’s the best there’s ever been! And even he fails when he doesn’t have his key pieces

And we fail when we do have our key pieces

Edit - total apologies, my bad. We absolutely 100% were unable to cope without a good replacement for Kalvin Phillips

 

[b3h]

And we fail when we do have our key pieces

We'll never know what would have happened with Phillips in

 

[Sniffer]

The formation was the problem all tournament. It didn’t work with four at the back with the front four of Saka, Bellingham, Foden and Kane. It sort of worked with three at the back but you can understand his fears with Spains wide men tonight. It needed width with a back four and we didn’t have it on the left hand side. Wise after the event but a 4-2-3-1 with Gordon on the left and Saka on the right would have at least posed them problems.
Another what might have been. I felt sorry for Mainoo tonight as he just couldn’t get into the game having been our best player in the last two. I was a fan of Southgate before this tournament but he seemed blind to our problems in this one and the bucks stops with him.

 

[jd1981]

Booked tomorrow off hoping I’d be suffering an alcohol related hangover instead it’ll just be a “what if” football hangover.
Two finals we’ve lost and the feeling is just awful, I take zero consolation in coming second. Personally losing finals are up there with Bolton 95, 2002 fuck up, and Watford 2019.

 

[Sniffer]

Booked tomorrow off hoping I’d be suffering an alcohol related hangover instead it’ll just be a “what if” football hangover.
Two finals we’ve lost and the feeling is just awful, I take zero consolation in coming second. Personally losing finals are up there with Bolton 95, 2002 fuck up, and Watford 2019.

I can take this far more easily than Watford or Italy as we should have won both of those games. Spain deserved to win tonight they outplayed us.

 

[jd1981]

I can take this far more easily than Watford or Italy as we should have won both of those games. Spain deserved to win tonight they outplayed us.

It’s the fact we got level with 20 minutes left and proceeded to go back to type

 

[GLASGOWOLF]

Best team won, Fucking feel horrible..bwtter tean afte they scored and did what we should have done all game get the equaliser and then decide to sit back and be defensive so fuxking shit

 

[Tony Towner]

I don’t deny the guy in the dugout has a role.

But Walker/Foden/Stones don’t make city tick. It’s the manager and Rodri (Bernardo/KDB also). Take those 3 out and it doesn’t make any difference, Rodri doesn’t play and they go to bits.

Rice doesn’t make Arsenal tick either. They have a ridiculously strong CB pairing as a solid foundation allowed to defend 1 v 1 and Odegaard pulls the strings. Rice has been great is role but he’s not running it.

The others are crucial members to their weaker teams but he didn’t play them, Palmer being the most crazy decision you’ll see. Most goals and assists was it for a bang average Chelsea?

We had that today though, such an opportunity missed. We've not really had the decisions go for us before, penalty defeats, Beckham red, Campbell disallowed goal, Lampard scoring and it not being given. We've had that this tournament, penalty win, ridiculous penalty in the semi, best opposition player go off at half time in the final ...and still lose.

 

[Tony Towner]

Booked tomorrow off hoping I’d be suffering an alcohol related hangover instead it’ll just be a “what if” football hangover.
Two finals we’ve lost and the feeling is just awful, I take zero consolation in coming second. Personally losing finals are up there with Bolton 95, 2002 fuck up, and Watford 2019.

It's an interesting conversation. Losing to Coventry hurt me more than tonight and tbh it's not particularly close. I really want England to win, it's not close to Wolves contextually though.

 

[PuntsWolf]

And we fail when we do have our key pieces

Edit - total apologies, my bad. We absolutely 100% were unable to cope without a good replacement for Kalvin Phillips

Well this is it. We don’t have the key pieces required. Rice has been moved further forward for Arsenal as he can’t pass water, and then we’ve had no one to partner him until we’ve ended up with Mainoo who was poor tonight.

We had that today though, such an opportunity missed. We've not really had the decisions go for us before, penalty defeats, Beckham red, Campbell disallowed goal, Lampard scoring and it not being given. We've had that this tournament, penalty win, ridiculous penalty in the semi, best opposition player go off at half time in the final and still lose.

City don’t have another Rodri. Spain already had Ruiz and Olmo running things and the new guy just slotted in and did the same. They Had defenders and the GK pinging it into forwards feet bypassing our press. Rodri didn’t seem that important to Spain tonight, barely noticed him first half.

Our main issue was Kane was useless. He didn’t run in behind, didn’t get on the ball, didn’t cause a nuisance. We’d have been better off with Diego Costa. If we’d have made Spain drop off with Watkins pace or lamped some balls up to Toney and play for seconds, who knows.

But I just don’t agree we have better players than this Spain team. Certainly not trying to play possession football. Play Gordon instead of Foden. Gallagher instead of Mainoo and just play direct then maybe we could have.

 

[PuntsWolf]

It's an interesting conversation. Losing to Coventry hurt me more than tonight and tbh it's not particularly close. I really want England to win, it's not close to Wolves contextually though.

Not really into England at all nowadays. Probably how Mark alledgedly is about Wolves.

I don’t know why it’s happened. I cared in 2021 and before that. But I don’t watch the qualifiers or friendlies unless it’s on and I’m doing nothing else.

I was more emotionally involved for the T20 semi final last month.

 

[Tony Towner]

But I just don’t agree we have better players than this Spain team. Certainly not trying to play possession football. Play Gordon instead of Foden. Gallagher instead of Mainoo and just play direct then maybe we could have.

I disagree, I think we do. I mean we have the best player in the Spanish league playing for us, the best in the English league and numerous others. They are just better coached

 

[PuntsWolf]

I disagree, I think we do. I mean we have the best player in the Spanish league playing for us, the best in the English league and numerous others. They are just better coached

Bellingham didn’t show anything in this tournament though. Coaching or not he didn’t look a world class player. Cole Palmer barely played. Whatever Harry Kane was on paper, he wasn’t in this tournament. And then I’ve already covered the issues in CM.

I’m no Southgate lover. I’ve thought he was rubbish since god knows when. He massively holds us back, agreed. But the players aren’t clearly better than what Spain can put out. Having great AMs and wide players is all well and good when you can only play 3 and you can’t get the ball to them and they are paying alongside a traffic cone

 

[jd1981]

It's an interesting conversation. Losing to Coventry hurt me more than tonight and tbh it's not particularly close. I really want England to win, it's not close to Wolves contextually though.

Just depends how you view it just wanted that experience tonight of winning a major trophy, if I’ve got one in me before I die I’ll be happy whether it’s England or Wolves.

 

[darlowolf64]

I watched the game hoping for an England win, was hopeful then we equalised but then the inevitability of Southgate having us sit back, hoping for extra time sank in.

Full time was just a bit "meh", it's how Southgate wants them to play and it's a fucking waste of some excellent players. The sooner he goes, the better for the national team, depending on if the FA can be trusted to select a manager who can help these players thrive and play to their full potential... I won't be holding my breath!

 

[Tyrannosaurus Dan]

As someone else mentioned, the fact that he was about to bring Trippier and Gallagher on just before they scored sums Southgate up.

 

[AndyWolves]

I don't think it really hurt as much was say the Watford semi is because it was so very predictable and expected. The game itself went how most of us thought it would

 

[Tredman]

As someone else mentioned, the fact that he was about to bring Trippier and Gallagher on just before they scored sums Southgate up.

That’s the thing I’m most angry about - we basically gave up after we scored.

 

[White Wolf]

Watford hurt a lot more, the manner of the defeat was devastating when we should have won and normally saw out games like that comfortably. Two goals up, conceding the equaliser in injury-time. The confidence completely went after they pulled one back and I found extra-time a complete misery. While we were on an upward trajectory under Nuno it still felt like we missed potentially our one chance to get to an FA Cup final. Man City were excellent but you do have that lingering what if, we did the double over them the following season too. I'm 25 and am unsure if I will ever see us in a final, I don't expect us to win a major trophy in my lifetime.

As for England, as disappointing as the defeat is we now have made it to three semi-finals and two finals since 2018. We have had more than one chance, not taken any. It makes you more frustrated at how we have missed those opportunities.

 

[nimrod]

Would have been nice to win one, god knows it feels like we’ve earnt it over so many years of disappointment. but I don’t feel the same joy at an England win or the same crushing feeling at a defeat any more. I can get close to it occasionally but never in an all consuming way. I’ve wondered if it’s a generational issue, or because we’re now in the Prem and up against these players, or because I support a team of mainly non English players, or because gamesmanship is the norm and taken the game’s integrity away. Compared to that, until a season is effectively over, mid table obscurity, any Wolves defeat can leave me devastated for a few days. Any injustice we face is a major crime.

I think if we could have swapped Rice for a top of his game Gazza we’d win things. When the Prem league started I thought we’d end up just importing all the talent but we have so many good players that have come through I was wrong about that. But I don’t know if we have produced many of the game controllers yet, and as the pundits like to say, is that in our dna. Mad as he was off the pitch, it was why we loved and embraced Gazza so easily. He sort of came from nowhere.

Of course there are ways to win football games without that sort of player. Sitting back and staying in the game waiting for a mistake, some luck, penalties can do it but I don’t think that’s our dna either and it’s fkin tedious to watch at times.