The General Football Thread

Bringing Foden off after the red card, only 10 mins after coming on and leaving half the rest of the team who are shattered on the pitch.

 

Poor from Italy there - don't they know it gives England an advantage to go down to 10 men....

 

He’s terrible in-game. Absolutely terrible. Bellingham knackered and possibly injured. It’s taken him 83 minutes to make a second sub and they’ve been all over us this half. Insane.

 

Can’t deny what he has done in his time at England, but yeah he has made all the same poor in game choices since he started in the job. He is aware that he has had criticism for in game decision making, but rather than reflect and consider he appears to get defensive about it and ignore the feedback.

He deserves credit for getting us to the WC semi final and Euros final, but he also cost us both of those games.

 

This today is mind boggling. Phillips has played less than sixty minutes this whole season, and he’s leaving him on for 90 when he has plenty on the bench. Shaw should have been replaced before he was sent off too, because he did what Shaw ALWAYS does when he gets tired - he gets lazy abd makes stupid fouls. It’s such basic stuff.

 

Well done England for the first half. Excellent. A good team (which Italy aren’t right now) come back to beat us in that second half though because of managerial stodginess.

 

Game like a Domino's half and half pizza.

while Southgate's decisions like the Weatherspoon's mushroom risotto

 

In other news, Tuchel is replacing Nagelsmann at Bayern.

 

A point behind (a very good!) Dortmund in the league, and into the QFs of CL after demolishing PSG...can't say that's a move I'd have made.

 

Might be tempting for Spurs to go for Nagelsmann if Poch goes to Madrid.

 

The sort of tempting where you show up outside his window with an '80s boombox blaring cheesy music.

 

Starting to look as though Folarin Balogun might choose to play for the U.S. instead of England. Should have picked him and given him minutes against Ukraine just to make him an England player for good.

All the while you have Southgate complaining about lack of English players. He should have been forced to pick Balogun, seeing as he will likely not be manager after Euro 24 anyway.

 

From 10 years ago. Can’t believe it only received a yellow card.

 

Oh-oh ! - Adams off injured for Scotland.

 

England u21s beat France - who were unbeaten for two years - 4-0.

And that of course is without Bellingham, Chukwumeka, Livramento. Incredible generation coming through.

Won the game without playing a recognised striker too, since Balogun dropped out.

 

Does anyone have any theories as to why Southgate has stubbornly refused to call up replacement outfield players. He has lost five players since the initial squad announcement and only called up a replacement keeper

It can’t be that inspiring for players to know that he won’t even consider them even when he has chance to

Is there any other potential reason that I’m not aware of? Does it save the FA some money or something ?

 

His own reason is that any new player coming into the squad would have too much to catch up with, in terms of what has been worked on in training drills etc.

It sounds - to the layman - like a bit of a lame excuse, but considering we don't really know what goes on in training, I'm fairly okay with it. That said, it is barmy not including some extra names to at least provide cover for any in-game injuries, and in special cases (like Balogun), to get them on the pitch for five minutes to make sure they can't be lured away by any other national team.

EDIT: Just seen Foden is out now too.

 

I'm reading we're down to our last nine subs. There are fringe players previously in the squad, JWP amongst them, it would have been worthwhile calling up.

 

Fabulous from Saka.