Gareth Southgate ‘gaslighting’ England fans as Harry Kane ‘wanders around like a granny’
England, Harry Kane and Gareth Southgate all get a pasting after that 0-0 draw with Slovenia. This is like Brexit all over again.
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Yawn
In my opinion, the issue isnāt England but international football. Itās rubbish.
My friend just messaged me to say itās like watching ātree racingā and he isnāt wrong.
Watching internationals is not fun, but an obligation.
Bring on the EPL, or The Championship, or Five Guys FC on YouTube, or FIFIA on Twitch.
Anything else but this dirge.
Alex
ā¦My wife fell asleep about 30minutes into the England game and Iām so jealous. What a boring waste of everyoneās time.
Ian
ā¦1. England are boring
2. England are boring
3. England are boring
4. Iām not doing 16 of these, watching us was bad enough.
5. Is there a single England player who can be happy with his performance?
6. Southgate out.
John, Chicago
ā¦The year is 2024. Authorities are worried football is a bit boring, so they introduce a new rule: a football game cannot end 0-0. If itās 0-0 at full time, the game continues until someone scores.
Cut to the year 2042: England vs Slovenia is still being played. England, fearing coming too close to the opposition penalty area, continue to pass sideways and backwards.
Authorities panic, and send the game to a penalty shootout. Slovenia win 3-0, as England pass all their penalties sideways and backwards.
Honestly, whatās the point? Like, what was the point in that 90 minutes? Is there a name for when you make a team less than the sum of its parts?
Robert Welbourn
MORE ON ENGLAND v SLOVENIA FROM F365:
š 16 Conclusions as England win Group C despite themselves: what does Southgate do now?
š England player ratings v Slovenia: Bellingham awful, Foden tries, hopeless Gallagherās Euro 2024 done
š England Euro 2024 knockout path: With Group C top spot triumphantly secured, what happens next?
Brexit vibes
All the pundits banging on about how we achieved what we set out to achieve by qualifying for the knockouts is like the Tories getting excited about eventually achieving Brexit. Sure, they did it, but it was slow, tedious and massively wasteful of resources. Hereās hoping life in the knockouts is better than life out of the Unionā¦
Jerome, Bristol Spur
Having a laugh. Gareth?
Heās just trolling us now, isnāt he?
Best.
Darren
Southgate out
Same old, same old.
No creativity.
No risk
Nothing too excite.
Pay him offā¦they donāt need him.
George Davies
Itās comingā¦home?
āOh god. Kane described it as their best performance.
That they grew into the game.
That the subs made a difference.
Itās Slovenia. And they all played horribly.
Apparently though according to Mr Kane is that we should āenjoy itā.
Sorry, but I sure as s**t wonāt. Itās not one bad game is it. Its 3 bad games at the tournament and 2 truly embarrassing ones in friendlies.
Will (England lucky if they beat a poor Netherlands team)
ā¦āFirst thing Harry Kane said in post match interview: āWe came up against a good teamā.
The gaslighting from the manager and these players has been a personal highlight of these Euros. While teams like Spain, Portugal make light work of considerably tougher opponents, England have really taken to toiling against tiny nations and then waffling about how hard tournament football is.
Yes lads. When the tactics and performances are crap, it does make tournament football hard.
Well done on winning an exceptionally tough group against Slovenia (population 2 million), Serbia (population 7 million), and Denmark (population 6 million).
Greg
Can we all agreeā¦
That, presently, Mainoo is a far better option than either Gallagher or Arnold? May well become a baller or fade in the future. Should start the next England match though.
That Cole Palmer is going to be an absolute baller (I donāt like to say āI told you soā, but hey). Needs to start the next match.
Optimistically,
Branmasterflash
Marginal gains?
I was stunned when Southgate announced the same team, with the exception being Gallagher for TAA. Just wondering what or how Southgate and his cronies watch these games. Clearly no zip in that group, passing sideways and back, not making space, missing passes, etc. And the first half was even more woeful than the previous two games.
Then, after bringing in Mainoo and, more so, Palmer, itās amazing how much better they started playing. More energy, movement, movement forward and chances created. They didnāt score but at least that was positive.
I heard one ex-player pundit say the fans getting āagainstā the team could be seen in Rice and Gallagherās reaction in not wanting to take the ball. And that heād been there himself. In that case, put your hand up and say I donāt want to play, for goodness sake! Play the guys who clearly do ā Palmer, Mainoo, Bowen and Gordon want to play. The pressing and movement improved dramatically with Mainoo on, and the inventiveness and positioning took another notch with Palmer. And Bowen showed how much he can inject into the game too.
Sir Kane of Totteringham and Baron of Munchen is the last spokesperson right now for this team, talking about wanting it and it going to plan. Really? What was the plan? He sounds more like a Conservative candidate now than a football player. Sure, you got through, but only because it was an easier group than, say, Spainās.
Kane looks like heās only half interested on the field. Always a step behind, not in the spaces needed when those creating (Foden, Bellingham, Palmer, etc,) are finally moving the ball quickly. I am sure it is not his intent. I donāt think he is trying not to play or that he really is only half interested. But that is how it looks. If heās not fully fit or he needs a break, give it to him or force it on him.
When I wrote in before about Woodwardās 1% and the idea of eking out every advantage, and the irony of doing that while picking a player who is clearly underperforming, I now think Southgateās version of marginal gains is to get your team to play so badly in the first half, that any slight improvement is seen as a marginal gain.
England has been given another golden opportunity of the easier half of the draw after topping the group. But Southgate needs to give the players willing to take a chance, give it a real effort, their opportunity ā and not a few minutes near the end.
Paul McDevitt
ā¦Pre-match thoughts: feck. A single and the least inspiring change possible, exactly as we expected.
Prediction: a late goal to secure a 1-0. Scored by a sub.
First half thoughts: Slow and ponderous attacking, loose passing, occasional fleeting glimpses from Foden, but only him. Our press is hilariously poor. Theirs is effective. Depressing.
Pretty much only excitement has come via Foden. Unfortunately, he just doesnāt want to beat his man on the wing. Itās not his game. Nice free kick.
Seems like Bellingham has been instructed to switch with Kane. Odd. Why not use Palmer if thatās your plan, and let Bellingham sit deeper instead of fly #1?
What is the point in Kane when he plays deep? Heās just wandering around like a granny at a car boot sale, getting in peopleās way or hiding behind defenders.
Please make changes. Please! For the love of football, you grim-faced succubus.
Second half thoughts: OMG, Mainoo on! Donāt let me down lad!
His introduction seemed to act like a dynamo or maybe a chaos element of his movement, but definitely some sort of spark. And weāve not had to defend as much. Who knew? Itās even woken the fans. Hell, itās even woken Kane! Suddenly itās a fluid attack.
Still struggled for lack of pace though, although Saka kept trying.
Palmer comes on with 20m to impress (it wonāt matter lol). Taking on his man on left and right. Lovely linking up with Mainoo for a perfect cut back toā¦ absolutely no one in acres of space in the penalty area. *Facepalm* These two seem to be immediately on the same wavelength though. And Bellingham got involved too.
So much Slovenian play acting, you can see theyāre more rattled now.
Trent on for 8 minutes at right back. Gordon on for 3ā¦
ā¦but he manages one attempted run at his man, and then a sublime long pass up to Mainoo, who touches it beautifully to Kane, who instead invites Palmer to shoot but probably should have taken it himself. Trent manages a few decent passes and a long shot off target.
Summary: In the end, some positives. Kind of.
Mainoo in midfield made a huge difference; his movement and ability to find space just sparked the team. Palmer also looked very lively, with some lovely darting and passing, although Saka did much the same. Thatās how you use a substitute, though.
Foden did some lovely stuff throughout.
Gordon was what we expected, lively and that pass late on was a gem. With more time, maybe something could happen!
Defence was dodgy in first half; thatās why we donāt want to invite pressure.
Kane was mostly pointless. Just play an actual striker, or even Palmer as a false 9 as heās hungry, mobile and a lot faster.
Badwolf
MORE ON ENGLAND v SLOVENIA FROM F365:
š 16 Conclusions as England win Group C despite themselves: what does Southgate do now?
š England player ratings v Slovenia: Bellingham awful, Foden tries, hopeless Gallagherās Euro 2024 done
š England Euro 2024 knockout path: With Group C top spot triumphantly secured, what happens next?
Is Southgate playing poker?
While itās stingy to send on Gordon at the 89th minute, I do hope itās a preview of the Round of 16 match intent to bring on Gordon and Palmer, but perhaps at the 70 minute mark next time. The older players are getting a little worn and some like Kane are a little slow to the strike. Trippier did a decent left full back shift with that cross to the far postā¦ and Kane is just too slow.
The only benefit to keeping back runners like Gordon for the third match is that opponents canāt quite see how England will play with those winger/dribblers in it. The most charitable interpretation of bringing on Palmer or Gordon so late in the match, is that Southgate is not tipping his hand too soon! Tip his hand he will have to do though. Kane is a spent card and fresh trumps are needed so good chances are properly seized.
Dan McG LFC
Would you prefer to be Scottish or French?
Thatās about the only positive we can take from the Group Stage.
Topped the most underwhelming Group in the tournament, the draw may have opened up for us. Russia ā18 vibes without the positive performances thus far.
I got back from Cologne on Sunday and must say the Scots were everywhere, even in DĆ¼sseldorf where I watched the Ukraine v Slovakia match; they were brilliant as were all of the other fans from many other nations we spoke to out there but they did stand out. I only wish I felt I could have worn an England shirt the whole time with the same confidence that I wouldnāt have been labelled as a twat but from what I have read and seen the England fans have been very well behaved so time will heal all wounds hopefully!
Iād still like to see Wharton start but think that boat has sailed having not appeared so far. I am sad to say Iām swaying towards the Southgate out camp now. I read somewhere that the unreplacable Phillips had played only 5 International matches and hadnāt played a Premier League match prior to Euro 2020(1) so I do not get his reluctance to play Wharton who smashed the Premier League after his transfer.
Going into the tournament we all thought that defence was our weakness and attacking was our strength. The former was wrong due to Guehi being our best player, the weakness is linking defence to attack, Wharton is the solution.
We have a myriad of options up front, recycle the starters and adopt the āfinishersā philosophy of Wiegman and Hayes.
Brian (Scotland fans must travel light as they only wear a kilt and a Scotland shirt) BRFC
