England outcast should tell them to ‘get f**ked’ after Kane insult and Carsley ‘arrogance’

The Lee Carsley trial is over after his Greece ‘arrogance’, while one England player should tell them to ‘get f**ked’. Maybe more. Villa fans aren’t happy.

Send your thoughts to [email protected].

Cars crash

Thanks Lee…..next.

Apparently some Catalan dude called Joseph might be interested.

That was the type of line up you come up with chatting to a mate who knows nothing about football when youve had one too many on a Tuesday night or when you’re trying not to shoot your load too soon on an ONS. The type of line up Carol Vauderman would pull out of a deck on countdown.

It was…..unfathomable.

If we do to Cole Palmer what we did to Hoddle and Scholes, Im applying for Spanish nationality.

If you wanna play Gordan, Saka, Palmer, Foden and Bellingham in the same side you do it like this:

Pickford

Livramento

Stones

Guehi

Lewis

Mainoo

Bellingham

Saka

Palmer

Gordon

Foden

BINGO!!!

Ben

Laters Carsley. One of the worst stereotypes of the English is arrogance. Your team assumed they would demolish the opposition. The team ranked in the top 5 was inferior. No leaders on the pitch. No plan. The most talented 11 England players I’ve ever seen on a pitch and we were second best. The future of the England team isn’t with you. I thought we had an England bootroom. But no, it develops morons.

We need a manager who improves the team. The manager just said there you go, run around a bit. It’s shameful. Harry Redknapp mark 2. The idea we can get any idiot to manage these talented individuals is clearly not true. What’s the answer? ETH will be out of a job soon.

Rob, now of Betsham

MORE ON THE ENGLAND MESS FROM F365

👉 False nines and false back fours – rating England’s players in that honking 2-1 defeat to Greece

👉 Carsley succumbs to England clamour in shambolic Greece defeat that ends managerial hopes

Deja vu

I was once asked to play for and take charge of a “representative” side for a students society sports day.  I had no idea of who the players were and so roped in a couple of ringers who I knew I could rely on.

We gathered in the changing room and I asked ‘Who plays where?”, I was relieved when one guy said “I’m a goalie”, I was less impressed when the next one said “can I be centre forward,  I’ve always wanted to be a centre forward”, and so our collective X1, who had never met before took to the pitch.

On taking to the pitch it was clear our opponents were actually a team (probably more ringers than we had) and for 90 minutes, myself and the two ringers did our best to keep hold of the ball for as long as possible, whenever we lost possession we were in trouble and relied upon our goalkeeper to help out.

Of course we lost but not by the margin it should have been.

I can only imagine that the same scenario happened tonight at Wembley, only no one asked to be centre forward and the guy claiming to be a goalie wasn’t!

If only I’d have had 20 minutes to work on a system!

Howard (still not as bad as 4-0 to Hungary) Jones

Too many MCs, not enough mics

Hello,

Not an England fan here but I do like the football. After flicking from the Ireland game (Phew) and the England game, I’ve come up with potentially an unpopular opinion… Bellingham could be the death of England. I mean he is world class but might not actually fit what is needed.

Ta

Luke

Worst England performance ever

We all wanted the handbrake taken off and to not play two holding midfielders at home against “weaker” opposition and to just give it a bit of a go. But what we didn’t want was to play 5 forwards, no right back, one central midfielder and be utter sh*t.

Playing this nonsense “style” might work at U21 but it’s insanity at full international level. Thanks but no thanks Lee. Cheerio

England have just equalised of course as I type this. But that doesn’t change how ridiculous Carsley’s selection and formation was and how sh*t England have been.

Toby

I’m a fully paid up, greggs-eating, Oasis-listening, 30+30 years of hurting #englandfan. But I celebrated Greece’s winner tonight. Partly because they deserved to win: if the ‘totting up process’ people talk about with yellow cards can apply to goals, then 2 is the absolute minimum Greece should have had.

Also I lived in Wood Green (North London) in summer 2004 and the place was like a Tarantino movie (without the unending teenage dialogue) for 48 hours post-Euros. And their George Baldock tributes last night were beautiful.

But from over here, a defeat and fan/media pile-on is unfortunately the only way England will be forced to learn anything. A global army of Liverpool fans screaming about Trent has finally got him into England’s back 4. The result? Of the 2 goals, 3 disallowed goals, and 1 nearly goal that England gave up tonight, 5 of the 6 moves started down England’s right. Obviously we all have to pretend that a right sided defender shouldn’t be expected to do anything about this, so I’ll await the official line on whose fault it really was.

I’ve watched England for 40 years and the one constant – apart from ITV being awful at broadcasting – is England managers being powerless to resist creative midfielders who refuse to play well. Jim Davidson was sat in the ITV studio back when Hoddle and Wilkins were doing nothing in the 80s; maybe Lee Dixon will get around to commenting on Foden being pointless when we finally drop him in 2031.

Lastly, as a Villa fan, I think it’s time Watkins told England to get f****d. We’ve enough trouble with injuries as it is, 2 weeks of rest and prep for his club is miles better than this clown act he’s being invited to. Being behind the best striker in Europe in the pecking order is one thing; being behind him when he can’t run is something else. Still being behind him when he’s not even playing is an insult. Tell them to stick it mate. And pass it on to Morgz and JJ as well, they think they’re too good for Villa players? F*** them then.

Neil Raines

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Is Carsley trying to get Southgate the united job?

So we need a couple of goals – he starts with no strikers and the useless foden in the no10 role where he has done nothing for england but waste space – did carsley not watch england before.

He then brings on madueke who is on fire at the moment and puts him on the right as a straight swap for saka – good. Then we need a goal – now confused as he brings solanke on for foden and leaves him in the same position – wtf – and moves madueke to the left, palmer to the right – is carsley blind?

We lost all attacking momentum from then – madueke nullified by the coach, Palmer MUST be at the number 10 not solanke. He plays rice again as a deepest mid – foden constantly running into everyone else’s space and neither of these players look any good in those roles. thought carsley might be better but he is making some basic errors and got out coached by a golem with to much hair ffs – credit greece as they played a blinder

Michael

Hmmm. Perhaps Harry Maguire wasn’t the problem after all

To paraphrase an old Liverpool song:

“If Trent can play for England so can I”

Gordon O’Connell, Manchester

Next time someone says the women’s game is technically inferior to the men’s,  show them Greece’s winning goal and in particular Levi Colwill’s contribution.

Howard Jones

Half-time thoughts

I can’t believe we’re drawing 0-0 with Greece at half time; they’ve even had one cleared off the line and a goal disallowed!

This is ridiculous! Southgate has to go, and we must start Gordon and Palmer.

Oh wait…

Rob

Full-time thoughts

lol

#SouthgateIn

Rob

MORE ON THE ENGLAND MESS FROM F365

👉 False nines and false back fours – rating England’s players in that honking 2-1 defeat to Greece

👉 Carsley succumbs to England clamour in shambolic Greece defeat that ends managerial hopes

What do you think they’re smoking over there at the Emirates?

I expected a certain level of revisionism from Liverpool fans – Klopp’s early years were ages ago, and time plays tricks on even the most sharpest of minds. But now we have Rich, an Arsenal fan, claiming the style of play and general upward trajectory was always clear under Arteta? The thing is, because Arteta has only been in the job five years it is much easier to find evidence to the contrary. In fact, let’s play a game to liven up the boredom of an international break.

Who, in Dec 2021 (2 years into Arteta-ball), said this in the mailbox (Same old Arsenal, says the Mailbox. Arteta out…): “Well, lots to write about from that Everton v Arsenal game last night. Two pretty poor teams fighting it out to see who was the least worst”?

Any ideas? From the same mail they also said, “If any team is on a long winless run, just pray you get Arsenal at home because we’ll get the crowd on your side and you can beat us through simply being a bit determined, its far too easy”.

Still no clue? Well, the same person was extremely irked at a lack of coaching of the most basic of actions in Dec 2020 (Mails on two unsung Man Utd heroes, Arteta ultimatum…) when he raged, “Bellerin had his 5th foul throw of the season.  What the hell is happening there?  The guy has been playing professional football for 10 years, and must have thrown the ball in thousands of times, how can he suddenly be making so many foul throws, and why is no one sitting down with him and correcting it?”

If you guessed Rich (AFC) for all three quotes then you are…drumroll…completely correct! Can anyone else hear that loud beeping noise? That’s the sound of Rich reversing reality.

But the fun doesn’t stop there, because the mailbox was littered with critical Arsenal fans enraged at everything from style of play, to tactics, to players signed etc. My top 5 include the following headlines:

All the reasons Arsenal should axe Arteta… (Nov 2020);

Klopp must leave now, Arteta out and more… (Aug 2021);

Sh*tty coach Arteta won’t stop incredible Arsenal rot (Dec 2020);

‘Arteta out’ just one game in from Arsenal fans (Aug 2021);

and my personal favourite, as we can guess who the mail was from (Hi Stewie!):

Arteta and Wengeresque ‘incompetence’ at ‘soporific’ Arsenal (Feb 2021).

Seems not all was rosy in the garden of Arteta’s Arsenal after all, eh Rich.

Garey (ah the memories) Vance, MUFC   

End of an error

It’s hard to argue with your assessment of the mistakes Ratcliffe has made thus far. Much of it isn’t a surprise. Billionaires don’t become billionaires by being good people. Or so I tell myself anyway.

There is a fatal flaw with your number one mistake though. How can you say that United are buying players to fit Ten Hag’s game model when pretty much all serious punditry regarding the situation is based around the idea that we don’t know what game model Ten Hag is looking to implement, let alone what the club are trying to do? I have a suspicion that the club have something in mind which Ten Hag is trying to implement, thus far to little success. Any time Ten Hag has tried to implement anything other than a pragmatic counter attacking style it’s gone Pete Tong. This probably suggests that either the game models he is trying to implement don’t work or that he isn’t capable of implementing them. Or both.

Regardless, I don’t think you have the information available to make the assessment you have. You would’ve been fine with:

Allowing Ten Hag any say in player signings after Antony.

That one’s undeniable.

Whether United sack Ten Hag or not, we aren’t going to challenge for the title in the next three years. I think most United fans accept that. We want to see some sort of progression to entertaining, competitive football and increased integration of quality young players. Neither Liverpool or City, or even United back in the day became the all encompassing behemoths they are/were overnight. It’ll be three years until we can properly judge the INEOS experiment. We’ll know then whether that title challenge is looking more or less likely.

To be fair, from here, it can’t get much worse.

Ash Metcalfe

Faves

Favorite player: When I lived in England and first came to love football, poverty and the PL’s paywalled broadcasting package meant I saw more Serie A than Premier League matches. And George Weah…wow. His pace and power bowled me over, and he seemed the most electric player on any pitch. Honorable mention goes to Paolo Maldini (AC Milan was on a lot back then). Smoovest player I ever saw.

Favorite PL player: Alan Shearer, duh. The Premier League’s all-time scorer, and he played for my club. NBC gave me a surprise meeting with him in Washington, DC a few years back, and I lost my mind.

Favorite goal: This is a tough one, but for its sheer joy, I have to choose Phillipe Albert’s chip of Peter Schmeichel in 1996, the fifth goal in our 5-0 rout of the Manchester United side that had beaten us to the title in the previous season. At the time, I was a member of Newcastle United email server limited to just 300 users, perhaps the only foreigner in the group. A member posted me a VHS tape of the match (bless him), and a tech in the A/V center of the university I worked at transferred it from PAL to NTSC for me. I watched that tape until it actually broke.

Chris C, Toon Army DC

Glorious mailbox topic, what a joy to read about the memories of great players while I’m holed up with a cold.

My favourite player was Yoann Gourcuff – I lived in Bordeaux in 2009 when they won the league, and I was convinced he was the next Ronaldinho. Seriously, find some highlights of him that year, he glided around the pitch and scored some incredible goals.

In the PL, maybe Zola? I’m another channel 4 Italian football child, and he brought the magic here first.

Netherlands 2-3 Czech Republic, Euro 2004. Not sure any other answer is valid for a favourite game.

And my favourite goal was James McFadden away to France in 2007. We’re an hour into a classic Scotland backs-to-the-wall performance, if we’re lucky we can snatch a draw. The goalie hoofs it forward, hoping for a few minutes of respite. It finds McFadden, and the French defenders conveniently forget that he’s a f**king magician, so he’s obviously going to pull it down, turn and smash it into the top corner from 40 yards. I was at uni, watching that in a pub full of nervous Scotsmen, and everyone went absolutely mental. Grown men giggling giddily at what they’d just seen.

Thanks everyone who’s contributed to the nostalgia!

Ollie, Bristol

If I could add my conflicted 2p worth to this. My favourite ever Prem goal (and International goal) were scored by Bergkamp. If you don’t know which goal I am referring to I really don’t think you should be watching football. He is also my favourite player by a mile. I believe that he is the most talented player, in the way Ronnie is to snooker, to ever play in the prem.

I am a 40+ Manchester United Supporter. Season tickets for some of those years I could afford etc. Cantona and his collar, Ronaldo against Porto, Ruud against Fulham, Rooney against Newcastle, United as a team against Arsenal in the CL. Epic goals, I don’t think they touch Dennis against Newcastle. I hate Arsenal. Hate them, more than Liverpool actually. Was at OT when they won the league, watched Henry score that over the shoulder filth of a goal. Giggs in 99, my god what a run after a save to contradict me. But that goal by Bergkamp. I just don’t think you can show me a better one.

It is art and it should, and has for me transcended any bias, ingrained rivalry or bitterness. Some things you see on a pitch you know in a moment of fluke or brilliance a player at any level could pull off once. Not that goal.

Dave, Manchester.

Great question from Danny and some lovely initial responses to boot.

I too was influenced by the early Italia C4 coverage and had a particular soft spot for one Franco Baresi – a relatively small guy in stature who was a giant on the pitch and 2-Kool-4-Skool – owned the defence at a great AC Milan team.

There was another player in that Milan team who was in equal awe of – Ruud Gullit – could play in attack, midfield or defence and be equally as impressive and dominant in any of them (apparently his cutting up of oranges at half-time was second to none as well ..). Loved watched him as a sweeper in the latter years at Chelsea .. just so good.

I could have picked Ruud as my favourite prem player, but that honour has to go to genius that is John Barnes. To stand on the Kop and watch him consistently skin people down the left was frankly well worth the £4 entry fee back in those days !

A scorer of beautiful goals as well as being a beautiful scorer of goals.

Nods to other names mentioned in responses so far:

Paul McGrath – phenominal player (read his book for a deeper understanding of the man …highly recommended)

Dennis Bergkamp – that hat-trick against Leicester at the old Filbert Street has to be one of the best ever. Class act.

Jay-Jay Okocha – skills to die for. I have a good Nigerian mate who I played football with for a number of years who swears he was in his late thirties when he signed for Bolton (and apparently Kanu was close to 30 when he signed for Arsenal too !).

Almost forgot – favourite goal

(Motson) “Radford …. Now Tudor’s gone down for Newcastle …. Radford again …. OOOHHH WHAT A GOAL .. WHAT A GOAL !!!”

Hereford FA giant killing of Newcastle back in the early 70’s on a freshly ploughed pitch – goosebumps everytime.

Sparky, LFC

(Owen’s goal in Saint Etienne against Argentina takes me to another place too)

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