Off Topic International Break Thread

Real shame about Son. Wishing for a swift recovery.

It really went wrong for England in CM last night. Neither Dier nor Ox seemed to know what their roles were. Dier was trying to play a more aggressive, pressing game and that left Ox hopelessly exposed, and the Arsenal man is not at all capable of playing a deep central role at that level. Poor all round. I also thought that Sterling and All weren't getting close enough to Kane enough of the time.

Going back to Onomah, he really fills me with hope. What I like is that we all got to know him, I think, as this silky, maybe a bit lightweight, technical attacking midfielder. Now he's over 6 foot and seems to have build up some strength, without losing his technical qualities. So we have a tall, strong player with a good lick of pace, who looks confident in using his physical ability to dominate a midfield, and has the footballing ability to back it up. He's got a great coach to guide him now as he continues to develop into his 20s, and two of the best players in the league in their positions - Dembele and Wanyama - to learn off too, in terms of how to play that position. The future could be very bright there and I hope we see more of him and Winks next season.

 

Agreed. It's just strange that Poch seems fixated on using him as an AM - a position we are well overstocked in, and not a CM - a position we sorely lack depth in. Hopefully the WC will have changed his perspective somewhat.

 

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Big moment in the U21 game between England and Sweden.
Ben Chilwell gives away a penalty, which Pickford not only saves, but then catches the follow up, too.
Still 0-0, but the new Everton signing is grabbing the headlines, as it stands.

 

0-0 FT. Pickford will be hailed as the hero, but he nearly threw it away shortly afterward, dropping a catch under no pressure.
A largely boring game, which lacked much creativity or threat on goal, as both sides rarely looked like scoring.
Boothroyd needs to go back to the drawing board, if England are to progress.

Poland and Slovakia make up the group and they play later on this evening, if anyone's really, really bored.

 

Yeah, very poor.
We all get sucked into believing that players on good wages at top PL clubs must be world beaters. The reality is that they are very ordinary and many lack experience of meaningful competitive games outside of the lower leagues. The U-20s did very well, but what progression will there be for those players? Those who were at top clubs are not considered ready enough to displace first team players. When they get to the age of 22 or 23, they are moved on. Only exceptional players seem to make it - and many of those bypass the U-21 team, such as Alli and Rashford of the current crop.

 

A slowish day at work has allowed me to work out that I have seen England play over 450 times since the first time I remember watching England at the 1970 world cup. I have actually attended 22 international matches at Wembley and 1 at White Hart Lane and that's the only one that we lost!

 

I must be your antithesis. I've been at nearly every game we've lost at home over the years, starting with West Germany '72. Gave up in 2004. No more!

 

Most of the matches I went to, were between 1988 & 1996 and to be honest I went to a lot of qualifiers seeing the likes of Denmark, Albania, Poland (several times), and Turkey, so not many against the top nations. I have only been to new Wembley once to see England.

 

This actually happened...

 

No wall for that?

 

Trump won't like that

 

Was that the Gunter Netzer show ? If so, I was there that night. Awesome display from the man.

 

That's the one. A rare anarchic German talent. Ran that game and showed that we'd been overtaken, seriously overtaken. Internationally, we've never really come back. Two semi-finals out of the blue but surrounded by failure. 66-70 was our finest hour, maybe our only hour.

 

England U21s comeback from 1-0 down at HT to win 2-1 against Slovakia.
Still not a particularly good performance though, especially in the first half.
Goals:

Chrien:

Mawson:

Redmond:

 

England U21 to face Poland:
Pickford; Holgate, Chambers, Mawson, Chilwell; Chalobah, Ward-Prowse, Baker; Swift, Gray, Redmond.

No strikers in the side and Boothroyd needs a win to qualify for the next round.

Poland: Wrabel, Jaroszynski, Jach, Bednarek, Kedziora, Linetty, Murawski Frankowski, Moneta, Kownacki, Piatek.

I think that I may have drunk some of them.

 

I think I had a Moneta when I was in Warsaw, she was nice.

 

1-0, England. Gray. That's a lovely finish.

 

Slovakia 1-0 Sweden. Deep cross, badly defended and the keeper doesn't do himself any favours.