Match Day Thread Italy v England

good spot! i don't even remember typing that!

 

He did what we needed

 

I’m not sure that Naples is the best place to test the **** About / Find Out theory

 

That’s a great result, regardless of how that second half panned out.

 

another good point!

 

yes he had great movement

 

It's a great result.
No one is more delighted than me.
But why do we go out of our way to make things more difficult.
From the second half kick off, we set up to knock it long into the three players lined up on the left wing.
We didn't.
We feigned to knock it long and then Stones passed it backwards and wide to Shaw.
We lost possession in our own half within 20 seconds of the kick off, and that set the precedent for the rest of the half.

 

We need someone to control the ball in the middle of the park. We have done for decades. Surely Ward Prowse is the nearest thing to that?

 

Cracking result that
Can't believe how poor Italy were 1st half. 2nd half we never got going but thankfully held on for the win.

 

A really weird game was that. Not just a game of 2 halves, but a completely different approach by the players. I’m not sure it was southgates tactics second half, but we just seem to be trying to get decisions from the ref all the time and complaining when they never came. If we concentrate on taking Italy apart like we did in parts of the first half,we win at a canter, possibly 4 or 5. Greilish did us no favours, going down to easily all game, such a waste of his talent. I just hope Southgate shows the contrast between the first and second half to the team to show them what they could have done in this game.

BUT, we won!! How many times in the past would we have conceded late on in a game like this. Have to say we defended the last 10 mins pretty well. Hopefully part of the Southgate evolution of England, but jury still out. Just need to get a top team and take them apart for a full game ( like Germany 7 Brazil 1) then I’ll believe. I think we are good enough.

 

Did we get 3 bookings for time wasting ?

 

I completely agree about Grealish. I think he's a very good player but I don't think he'd be in my first 11 for the reasons stated above, it feels like he's always looking to go down rather than actually get the ball into good positions. At the end of a game that's an asset, but its not any earlier.

I do think many England fans have this superior attitude that because we have a talented squad, we should be swatting teams aside. Italy are a decent team and of course their attacking ability was going to come out more in the second half. We did really really well to defend for so long and only concede one goal - despite being down to ten men.

Yes we all want to see attacking football and loads of goals, but defensive work is important as well. I was really impressed at how we handled Italy in the second half last night. I'd put that up there with one of Southgate's best performances.

 

What was conte saying something about not having a winning mentality and culture.

I think Southgate has turned the whole England set up around on a few levels. It just doesn’t feel like typical England anymore. You can no longer accuse any of the players of not caring or giving 100%.

 

Definitely when you consider the quality of the opposition - it's up there with beating Germany in the Euros. If England are going to win anything then they have to be able to beat the likes of Germany, Italy, France, Spain and Portugal. Maybe (at last) we have a squad capable of doing that. It's amazing that we went about 18 years between beating Argentina in 2002 WC without beating major opposition at a major tournament until we beat Germany in the Euro 2020.

 

First half good
Second half bad

 

The only thing that matters was good. The result.

 

their attitude in the second half doesnt fill me with confidence for the rest of the matches

 

Notice how many times he lost the ball?
Some slating Philips (who I don't usually rate), yet Bellingham getting caught in possession time and again, then as you say, going missing.

Kane gave a master class in doing what the Italians are usually so good at.

Walker and Shaw both quality. Ridiculous bookings, particularly Shaw's first.

V good result. #itscominghome (well someone had to say it .... didn't they?)

 

Kane is so good at holding the ball up, creating chances and scoring