We were very poor in the second half. We needed to change things about 10 minutes after half time, but Gareth’s careful, defensive mindset stopped him doing what was necessary. Everyone could see the goal was coming but he waited until after it did before making changes. If I was Jack Grealish I’d be livid at the lack of game time in this tournament.
Racist abuse of England players Marcus Rashford, Jadon Sancho & Bukayo Saka condemned by FA https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/57800431 This was so predictable. And so utterly disheartening. Morons coming out of the woodwork to anonymously abuse three young players. Social media platforms will wash their hands of it, as they always do. They must tighten their procedures for registering the people who use their sites to post abuse. We need stronger laws to make this happen, if they won't do it themselves (for fear of losing market share to less regulated rivals).
Too gutted to post last night, but @Ubedizzy got it right for me. You knew Italy would have moments of brilliance, but we let them overrun us for too long without making changes. Gareth got us to a final and the team did us all proud but there is a nagging feeling we gave them too much respect. Grealish on sooner would have at least given us an outlet. It was a fantastic journey, but a sad ending.
Well done England, great tournament. Anyone can miss a penalty if the goalie guesses right. Southgate got everything right up until then, but two players who had hardly touched the ball being asked to step up in such nerve-shredding circumstances? No way. Anyway, you've got a young talented team, who will be a threat at the W/C, and they have grown through the tournament. BTW, worth having a look at de Maria's goal which won the Copa America for Argentina on Saturday.
Well done to Gareth Southgate for getting us to a major final. Italy were better and more experienced than us. We have got a very young group of players who will only get better after this experience.
so gutted by the result. we didnt even try and play our game. we setup to nullify theirs. we were weak. italy were worse than both germany and denmark, but we sunk to even worse. the pace we had should have took advantage of their older defenders. we couldnt even keep the ball for 30 seconds or more. our best chance of a trophy in 55 years and we setup like the underdog. it's no wonder people went out on the rampage after the game. doesnt make it ok - but can understand the anger (not the racism.... that's disgusting).
Not a fan of international football, but watched the first half of yesterday's game. England scored the goal and immediately resorted to delaying tactics to play down time, understandable. However, perhaps this was not the best tactics against a team of Italy's class. The palice prick needs to remain in charge as he has had two very good tournaments and deserves time to progress further.
Agreed. There's not really anyone who could do a better job tbh but I just wish he'd show a bit more attacking intent. I reckon if we'd have come out for the second half with Grealish and Saka on the field, we'd now be European Champions. And to put the pressure of the 5th penalty on a 19 year old, in the final of a major tournament, was just wrong. Surely better to have someone like Shaw, Henderson, Walker or even Pickford have that responsibility. You don't need to be technically gifted to score a penalty - you just need the right mentality - just look at Maguire's penalty.
Add those together and you get Priti Patel. Who should certainly stay out of football politics, and any job beyond checkout at Tescos.
I'd be amazed if the subject of racism rears its ugly head during the Lions' tour of South Africa. It doesn't happen in cricket either, with the Barmy Army.
for every one racist post there'll be a 1000 supportive posts. it's the way it's all presented that's the real embarrassment to this country. i think it was our new goalie who posted it - but there's a petition to get social media accounts verified before you can use it. brilliant idea. would stop 99% of the nasty stuff instantly.
Blimey. That doesn't sound like you Ken. Perhaps it's because I live in West London, not far from Wembley. Look in any branch of Tesco there and you'll find 90% of the people on the checkouts are Asian women. I accept you didn't mean your comment to sound like a racial slur. But from my perspective it did appear to come across a bit like that. For what it's worth, I think Tyrone Mings is bang out of order. His attitude is to view everything as totally polarised. According to him, if you don't like players taking the knee you're a racist. And if you express disapproval of racist events like the abuse of the England players who missed their penalties, then you're a liar as well. I'm sure it hasn't escaped Tyrone's attention what colour Ms Patel is. She has probably suffered as much vile racist abuse in her life as he has in his. I've never spared a thought for Mings in the past. Not liked him or disliked him. Don't know the man. But he's just called me a racist and a liar, along with millions of other people, including Priti Patel. That isn't going to promote race equality. It's just going to earn him more enemies.
Another thing abahrt rugby is that the fans don't booo the national anthems, and the opposition fans get on fine, even when they're pi55ed.