England Football Fantasy...............

[10ClarionSt]

.............comes round again tonight, where everyone has this "willing suspension of disbelief" and dons their Emperors' New Clothes in thinking that England might win the European Championship. All fuelled by the useless "pundits" on BBC, ITV and the tabloid media. Not a chance people! Not a chance! I'd love to be wrong, but I think I'm being realistic. Hey Ho!! :o)

[emmie]

i agree with you, not a chance.

[douglas9401]

That's the spirit.

[ToraToraTora]

well we are still in me old china unlike the sweat1es

[10ClarionSt]

Thanks. I knew I could count on some support on here. Others can see it too. I want to be wrong on this. I want England to win this tournament, but so far I've seen nothing from them that suggests they can. They aint good enough. In the meantime everyone, keep wearing The Emperors' New Clothes.

[Bobbisox1]

Clarion I’m agreeing with you, they won yes, but they played average for such a big competition, too much back passing to the goalkeeper , it wasn’t really edge of your seat stuff

[Ken4155]

I would love to be wrong, but right from the beginning, i had them going out in the QF or SF - home advantage being the key to getting us that far. I put my money down on Belgium, with Italy as my 2nd choice and i have seen nothing yet that gives me cause for concern. Signed, 'quietly confident' :-)

[Ken4155]

Have to disagree with you, Bobbi. I thought we were quite brilliant in that first 45 mins, last night. Going forward at every opportunity, attacking down both flanks and playing some very good football. It was only in the second half when we began to tire that the back-passing began to irritate. And Pickford appeared to be posing for photographs before he made his mind up where to punt the ball. The main thing is we won the group. The trouble is, that means we face a tougher opponent than we would had we finished 2nd?

[Bobbisox1]

Ken I’d say anything was an improvement on Fridays performance

[10ClarionSt]

If you want to win the tournament, you've got to play against top teams. The first 45 minutes mean nothing against unranked opponents. I thought the Manchester defence was quite scary last night. Southgate needs to drop the lot of them. All together now: One pass forward, two back: One pass forward, two back.

[Ken4155]

I'd actually give us an outside squeak were Kane firing on all four cylinders. But he still looks quite jaded. Could it be his potential transfer playing on his mind, i wonder?

[Bobbisox1]

They’re paid too much to be thinking anything but playing for their country Ken, he should be 150% focused on the job in hand

[Ken4155]

Yeah, 10C, we know that to win tournaments you have to play the top teams. But it would be preferable to play them later in the competition than in the first knockout stage.
Southgate is far too defensively minded and he only picked such an attacking line-up last night because we had already qualified for the latter stages. I very much doubt both Grealish and Saka will be lining up next Tuesday.

[10ClarionSt]

I don't know Ken. But so far, I think the England performances are a reflection of how a lot of teams finished the Premier League season, which seemed to sort of, fizzle out, with all issues settled except 1 CL place. I want England to win it, but I can't see it happening.

[Bobbisox1]

Grealish is being likened to Gazza, even he thinks he plays the same football as Gazza did, me? I’m not sure !

[Ken4155]

Bobbi, i don't know how much players are paid for donning an England shirt, but i did read a few years back that they donate all to charity. Don't know if that applies to the current squad.

[Bobbisox1]

Maybe so Ken but they’re there to do a job and to give it its full attention

[Ken4155]

Totally agree, Bobbi. Maybe he really is a tad worn out after trying to carry Spurs all season.
Having singled him out, watch him bag a hat-trick in the next match :-)))))

[ToraToraTora]

10cs: "If you want to win the tournament, you've got to play against top teams." - you mean like the world cup finalists we beat in our first game?

[10ClarionSt]

That's true, TTT, but Croatia aren't a force in world football. And when they got to the World Cup Final in 2018, it was after a series of unbelieveable group matches that saw virtually all of the major teams eliminated. I hardly think we'll see that again. England were ranked 4th in the world before this tournament, but I haven't seen anything from them to warrant that so far. I do want to be wrong. And I want them to win it. On paper, we have some fantastic players but in all the years of watching England, when we've always had fantastic players before, they never seem to produce it when it matters. I hope, and want, to be wrong but I'm not holding breath in anticipation.

[ToraToraTora]

well France or Germany next that'll be a test. Probably end up in a penalty shoot out and we know what happens there!