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Sir, you have benefitted humanity by sharing that fine spreadsheet
Edit ... Belgium won
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[Football] EURO 2020 Thread
- Thread starter Mellotron
- Start date
Sir, you have benefitted humanity by sharing that fine spreadsheet
Edit ... Belgium won
crodonilson
He/Him
I'm inclined to agree with Swansman on this one, it was what went wrong against Croatia in the WC Semis, an inability to control the game from midfield and keep the ball meaning wave after wave of pressure. If our midfield is not good enough we need to have the intelligence to be able to play smart counter attacking football (and the potential pace we have in this side is breathtaking) but i fear our other achilles heel on that front is Southgate, as nice a guy as he is I don't think he is a particularly great manager or coach. We should do well but I think the semi's is probably the limit for us, but for a bit of luck on our side.
- Thread starter
- #63
My biggest concern is the decent chance of coming up against a Germany, France or Portugal in the first knockout game.
Would love more than anything for us to win a knockout game against a big, established side. It's still something missing from our recent (and even not that recent...) history at tournaments.
Well, it happened in 2018 and that’s assuming you can call Croatia a top team - certainly Rakitic and Modric are / were too midfielders. Is our midfield that bad though? In my mind I see something like this:
Foden, for me, is almost world class if not there already. Rice is also developing into a very good player and Henderson is defendable off unspectacular - he has Champions League and Premier League medals of his own to his name in recent years. On top of that you’ve got the likes of Mount and Grealish, the former who could be a Champions League winner by the time the Euros begin, whilst Alexander-Arnold and Chilwell have the energy to make up for the defensive width you can lose in the middle of the park.
You’ve also got the fact that Kane up top, supported by two of Rashford, Sterling and Sancho means teams are going to have to be cautious of commuting themselves going forward. All of that assumes of course that Southgate is adventurous enough to line-up in this way.
Granted, in an ideal world you’d have an Ngolo Kante type in there somewhere, but few sides are perfect and you can’t have it all. It’s hard to look at this objectively given my rose tinted spectacles of bias, but where we are less strong I feel we make up for it in other ways. I honestly think England CAN win it, whether we do of course will depend on many other things than raw talent alone.
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- #65
I think it'll be this side but Foden where you've put Rashford, Mount where you've put Foden, and Walker in for Trent, who according to The Athletic today might not be making the squad at all.
Bit concerned about Henderson and Rice both just back from injuries as well, you really want your 2 DMs to be 100% match fit.
You’re absolutely bang on about beating an established side in a knockout game. I’m racking my brains trying to think of when this last happened and I’m struggling to think of one in my lifetime (36 years).
The only one I can remotely think of is Spain at Euro 96, but I’m not sure they were ‘all that’ then. Looking back at the FIFA rankings at the time they were 6th in the world, to England’s 23rd, so I think it just about qualifies, but only just and it was by no means a convincing victory either.
Some decent wins in the group stages, but we seem to lack that mental robustness when the pressure is on. And that is probably my biggest reservation about our chances next month.
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re central midfield.
I've no doubt we'll be playing two defensive minded central midfielders. Southgate will get a tonne of stick for it from people who don't know a lot about football. They will be there to cover the gaps from our full backs, who will be very attacking.
Rice is a certain starter. He has a month to get up to fitness. I think he will play well. I don't see Jordan Henderson making it back in time. Phillips will start alongside Rice in most games. I've got a sneaky suspicion that Bellingham will go and will edge out Ward Prowse as the next cab on the rank in CM. Doubt he'll get much game time though.
Not totally impossible Southgate tries Mount in a deeper role in selected parts of some matches. Ie if we need a goal. No way from the start though
I've no doubt we'll be playing two defensive minded central midfielders. Southgate will get a tonne of stick for it from people who don't know a lot about football. They will be there to cover the gaps from our full backs, who will be very attacking.
Rice is a certain starter. He has a month to get up to fitness. I think he will play well. I don't see Jordan Henderson making it back in time. Phillips will start alongside Rice in most games. I've got a sneaky suspicion that Bellingham will go and will edge out Ward Prowse as the next cab on the rank in CM. Doubt he'll get much game time though.
Not totally impossible Southgate tries Mount in a deeper role in selected parts of some matches. Ie if we need a goal. No way from the start though
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I think it will be
--------------Pickford
Walker Maguire Stones Shaw
-----------Rice Phillips
------Foden Mount Sterling
----------------Kane
With Rashford coming on in pretty much every game.
Looks like a decent side to me, that could go all the way. Could say the same about 5 others though
--------------Pickford
Walker Maguire Stones Shaw
-----------Rice Phillips
------Foden Mount Sterling
----------------Kane
With Rashford coming on in pretty much every game.
Looks like a decent side to me, that could go all the way. Could say the same about 5 others though
You just know we're smash the group, sending mojo and expectations to the moon, before crashing back to earth when we lose against Germany in the next round.
Prove me wrong, boys
Its not a bad midfield. What I'm saying is that it is not as good as the top 5-8 best out there. How England manages to deal with Modric, Kovacic and Brozovic in the first game will give a decent hint of how far England could go.
Top five possibly, but are there eight better midfields than that at the Euros? Add to that probably the best front three and a top five back line, it’s enough to put us in the top three or four sides overall I’d say.
I do agree with you though that if we come unstuck it’s likely be be the midfield that does for us - I’m just hopeful that our firepower going forward can at least offset that to some degree and that lessons have been learned after we unravelled against Croatia at the WC.
Pavilionaire
Well-known member
- Jul 7, 2003
- 30,586
I think we'll win our group and we might even beat the runner up of the group of death (Germany?) in the Last 16, but I have us facing Spain in the Quarter-Final, and I fancy that might be a bridge too far.
Spain to beat France in the final.
Spain to beat France in the final.
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I'd expect us to deal with the Croatia midfield pretty well. I quite like Croatia, a gnarled, streetwise side. But surely their best years are behind them. Three years is a long time in international football. I certainly don't see them over-running our midfield.
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I'm definitely more concerned about the defence that the midfield.
Of course, Stones and Maguire can be brilliant, but they can also be god-awful. One poor defensive display is all it will take to sink us if we get to the knockout rounds.
Inconsistency rather than lack of ability is our problem
- Thread starter
- #75
I think it’ll be this except I reckon he trusts Chilwell over Shaw.
We'll see. France, Germany, Portugal, Spain, Croatia and Belgium all got better midfields than England imo, while Denmark, Turkey and Italy got similar levels.
Rakitic is gone but Kovacic is a very good replacement. Brozovic is still only 28 and Modric might be old but still a very good player. I think you are going to struggle against them.
Swedish squad. Zlatan Ibrahimovic out with a knee injury, unfortunately.
Målvakter:
Karl-Johan Johnsson, FC Köpenhamn
Kristoffer Nordfeldt, Genclerbirligi
Robin Olsen, Everton
Backar:
Mikael Lustig, AIK
Victor Nilsson Lindelöf, Manchester United
Andreas Granqvist, Helsingborgs IF
Martin Olsson, BK Häcken
Ludwig Augustinsson, Werder Bremen
Filip Helander, Rangers
Emil Krafth, Newcastle
Pontus Jansson, Brentford
Marcus Danielson, Dalian
Mittfältare:
Sebastian Larsson, AIK
Albin Ekdal, Sampdoria
Emil Forsberg, RB Leipzig
Gustav Svensson, Guangzhou
Ken Semam Watford
Viktor Claesson, Krasnodar
Mattias Svanberg, Bologna
Kristoffer Olsson, Krasnodar
Dejan Kulusevski, Juventus
Jens Cajuste, FC Midtjylland
Forwards:
Marcus Berg, Krasnodar
Alexander Isak, Real Sociedad
Robin Quaison, Mainz
Jordan Larsson, Spartak Moskva
Målvakter:
Karl-Johan Johnsson, FC Köpenhamn
Kristoffer Nordfeldt, Genclerbirligi
Robin Olsen, Everton
Backar:
Mikael Lustig, AIK
Victor Nilsson Lindelöf, Manchester United
Andreas Granqvist, Helsingborgs IF
Martin Olsson, BK Häcken
Ludwig Augustinsson, Werder Bremen
Filip Helander, Rangers
Emil Krafth, Newcastle
Pontus Jansson, Brentford
Marcus Danielson, Dalian
Mittfältare:
Sebastian Larsson, AIK
Albin Ekdal, Sampdoria
Emil Forsberg, RB Leipzig
Gustav Svensson, Guangzhou
Ken Semam Watford
Viktor Claesson, Krasnodar
Mattias Svanberg, Bologna
Kristoffer Olsson, Krasnodar
Dejan Kulusevski, Juventus
Jens Cajuste, FC Midtjylland
Forwards:
Marcus Berg, Krasnodar
Alexander Isak, Real Sociedad
Robin Quaison, Mainz
Jordan Larsson, Spartak Moskva
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You've got a few there that have been around a very long time. Think you'll do well to get out of the group .... said in the nicest possible way
You've got a few there that have been around a very long time. Think you'll do well to get out of the group .... said in the nicest possible way
Yup... its the Swedish way of building national teams whether its in football, handball, ice hockey or whatever: go with the same team for like 10-12 years. Continuity first. This will be the last journey for plenty of these.
Agree making it out of the group stage will be difficult (though could see it happen as one of the four best third placed teams). Spain is going to beat us comfortably, anything else would be remarkable. We should be able to beat Slovakia though. Key game is the last game in the group vs Poland. I think they are a bit stronger but its not entirely impossible to beat them.
brighton_tom
Well-known member
- Jul 23, 2008
- 4,842
--------------Pickford
Trent Maguire Stones Chillwell
-----------Rice Henderson
------Foden Mount Grealish
----------------Kane
This is the team i'd like to see, with Sterling as an alternate for Grealish. Difficult to also pick which goalkeeper to go with, all 3 options are similar in quality.
Trent Maguire Stones Chillwell
-----------Rice Henderson
------Foden Mount Grealish
----------------Kane
This is the team i'd like to see, with Sterling as an alternate for Grealish. Difficult to also pick which goalkeeper to go with, all 3 options are similar in quality.