Euro 2024

[The Hallucinating Goose]

JUUUUUUUUDE!!! EASA!!!! EASA!!!! EASA!!!!!

[Maximus Decimus]

42 minutes ago, The Hallucinating Goose said:

JUUUUUUUUDE!!! EASA!!!! EASA!!!! EASA!!!!!

Decent enough first half until the last 10.

Look comfortable without being too flashy, but let them in a bit towards the end. Hoping the half-time break does us good and we get an early second goal or it might start getting a bit squeaky.

[The Hallucinating Goose]

1 minute ago, Maximus Decimus said:

Decent enough first half until the last 10.

Look comfortable without being too flashy, but let them in a bit towards the end. Hoping the half-time break does us good and we get an early second goal or it might start getting a bit squeaky.

I've been really impressed with Saka on that right wing, a player who is actually driving the ball forward and getting into the box rather than the usual England tactic of getting to the edge of the box and then passing all the way back to the defensive line.

[The Hallucinating Goose]

Kane has been completely locked out of this game, we've barely seen him.

[Maximus Decimus]

4 minutes ago, The Hallucinating Goose said:

Kane has been completely locked out of this game, we've barely seen him.

Yep, not been good this first 15. Like we're treating them like France, and trying to protect what we have.

[The Hallucinating Goose]

2 minutes ago, Maximus Decimus said:

Yep, not been good this first 15. Like we're treating them like France, and trying to protect what we have.

It's that ridiculously cautious, possession based football that we've always got under Southgate's England.

[The Hallucinating Goose]

Serbia are bloomin physical, we've barely fouled them, seems like we're getting a free kick every couple of minutes.

[RayCee]

Does England have the confidence to win the Euros? 

[Maximus Decimus]

First 30/35 minutes absolutely fine. After that, it was definitely England of old.

We've won and that's that. I think the commentators overegged how much danger we were in, but we didn't play well. Apparently we were 'indebted to our number 1'. I can't think of a proper dangerous save he actually had to make?

[The Hallucinating Goose]

I can't stand Southgates cautious approach to play, I mean just about that whole second half our whole team was in our own half, not leaving one player up field at all, for example Kane was putting tackles in on the edge of our box not receiving through balls on the edge of their box. 

I suppose all that matters though is getting the win but I would say we will definitely need to play much more positively against Denmark if we want to get anything out of that game.

[Maximus Decimus]

5 minutes ago, RayCee said:

Does England have the confidence to win the Euros? 

If there's one thing under Southgate, we tend to play our way into tournaments. Reality is we only need another point to qualify and a win on Thurs prob wins the group.

[The Hallucinating Goose]

7 minutes ago, RayCee said:

Does England have the confidence to win the Euros? 

It's questionable going on this performance.

[Futtocks]

2 minutes ago, Maximus Decimus said:

If there's one thing under Southgate, we tend to play our way into tournaments. Reality is we only need another point to qualify and a win on Thurs prob wins the group.

They can be a bit too steady and safe for the badge-kissing element of the tabloid press. But their "PRIDE AN' PASSION!" alternatives have always failed, so meh.

[Maximus Decimus]

1 minute ago, Futtocks said:

They can be a bit too steady and safe for the badge-kissing element of the tabloid press. But their "PRIDE AN' PASSION!" alternatives have always failed, so meh.

Exactly, at the end of the day we won. Only the second game we've ever won to start a Euros.

If the next two games are the same then I'll be concerned, but hopefully we've learned a lot from tonight.

[17 stone giant]

I'll judge them over the entire tournament, not the first game.

[bobbruce]

Good enough first game unlike England to win the first group game in the Euros. My only criticism is not about losing control in the second half this is international football you aren't going to have it all your own way. It’s just when that happens and we are pushed back I think that’s the time to take Kane off and bring on someone with a bit of pace like Watkins or Toney. Who would at least give the defenders something to worry about going the other way. 

[Maximus Decimus]

So it turns out our number 1 kept us in the game by making 1 save.

There was some hyperbole from the commentators I think. Serbia had pressure without making any real clear chances.

The problem for me was that we offered nothing and invited them towards us. 

[EagleEyePie]

The first game of a tournament tells you nothing about a teams chances overall. Just look at Argentina in the World Cup. You just don't know how things will pan out and sometimes the best result is to get a win but identify areas you need to work on and things that aren't working as soon as possible rather than coast the group stage and then get caught out in your first real test.

One positive is that England kept a clean sheet. The defence is definitely an area that could be a weakness but a bit of confidence can count for a lot. Guehi looked good although he will face much sterner tests.

I'm a bit sceptical as to whether our player of the season trio of Bellingham, Kane and Foden can actually all play well together at the same time. Bellingham was as good as you'd expect but Kane and Foden were poor. They all seem to want to play in the same areas of the pitch. Trippier did his best to provide width as Foden kept moving inside but at times it showed that he's not as comfortable using his left foot. Would someone like Anthony Gordon on the left provide more natural width and a willingness to take players on to provide a bit more room for Bellingham and Kane in the middle?

There's no need to panic but I think despite our abundance of quality attacking options I'm not sure the balance is there to have a settled starting 11 that you could trust pretty much every game. I think each game may require specific selections to get the most out of the team and that's not always ideal.

Edited June 16 by EagleEyePie

[unapologetic pedant]

1 hour ago, The Hallucinating Goose said:

Serbia are bloomin physical, 

The following is a quote from the Wiki page on Yugoslavian football -

"The national team participated in eight World Cups and four Euros and developed a reputation for skilful and attacking football, leading them to be dubbed the Brazilians of Europe"

This chimes with my own recollection that until the Dutch brought us "Total Football", Yugoslavia were perceived to be the most exciting and technically-proficient team outside South America.

After the State disintegrated, curious to see such a glaring contrast in styles between Serbia and Croatia.

1 hour ago, The Hallucinating Goose said:

we've barely fouled them, seems like we're getting a free kick every couple of minutes.

Harry Kane falls over if a defender breathes on him.

Shearer loves it, cos he was the same.

[gingerjon]

9 hours ago, Maximus Decimus said:

First 30/35 minutes absolutely fine. After that, it was definitely England of old.

 

I think that's harsh as England did still create chances and very rarely looked rattled even when soaking up pressure. It wasn't glorious but it was quite straightforward.

[Maximus Decimus]

After the dust has settled, my gut is quite negative about the performance. 

Even though we opened in a similar vein in 2020/1 with an uninspiring 1-0 (albeit against better opposition) something just didn't click last night. We've heard so much about having the best attack, but they didn't seem to gel and something was off.

I was actually quite pleased defensively but can't see anybody seriously thinking we're favourites after round one. 

Hopefully we grow into the tournament, but we'll definitely need to.

[The Hallucinating Goose]

1 hour ago, gingerjon said:

I think that's harsh as England did still create chances and very rarely looked rattled even when soaking up pressure. It wasn't glorious but it was quite straightforward.

What we can say is, we put in a solid performance, we did everything right, cos even though Serbia had a lot of the ball they weren't actually able to do much with it against our strong defence, which is the area of the field people have been most unsure about of course. Cos when you think, Serbia had a heck of a lot of the ball, were camped on the edge of our box for long periods of time but get very few shots away cos our defence easily stripped them of the ball and comfortably got it out of harms way.

[Gerrumonside ref]

Kane was too easily marked out the game by Milinkovic-Savic who is a good defender in Serie A.  He seemed to get frustrated too or was told to drop deeper in the second half, but still couldn’t get in the game and left us no outlet to release the pressure.  I think you’ve got to concede it was a good tactical ploy by Serbia to try and negate our main goal threat.

I also thought they got much tighter on Saka in the second half and he too wasn’t able to make those runs with ball that he had been doing in the first half.  Phil Foden on the other side just had one of those games to forget generally all game with some loose ball control and not quite the right movement at the right time.

I think too in that second half the midfield were guilty of dropping too deep after Dusan Tadic came on and we ceded a lot of territory in our own half to the Serbians who thankfully couldn’t make too much of it.

All in all I’d rather have a bad performance and a good result than the other way around in the group stage.  Plus I think you have to give some credit to Serbia for their press and tactical adjustments second half.

[bobbruce]

Some of the footage of the Dutch fans  over there is superb. 

[gingerjon]