Can’t wait, gotta find a way to get the best of guys like foden and Bellingham in midfield As they are going to carry us with our out of sorts back 4
Branthwaite has another big game. He has a good understanding with Pickford . I would pair with him Stones .
Counting down the days until #EURO2024! 🤩 pic.twitter.com/KjM6rzMioC— England (@England) April 25, 2024
Excited but unsure how we will do. So far under Southgate we've been pretty good until we meet a big team, if all goes to plan that would be Italy maybe in the QF. I'd hope we have more than enough firepower to beat them, but France is the team to beat IMO. Will be very hard to do that and despite our incredible talent up front we still struggle to create against good sides and haven't found out the best way to make use of Foden yet.
He has to make sure the best players are free to play attacking football and not hide behind a negative way of playing we have so many attacking weapons that a lot of teams will not be happy to play us
I'm pretty low on our chances of winning the tournament but even I think we'll get to the semi-finals. Without sounding arrogant and dismissive of other nations, if we win our group we'll probably get Italy or Croatia in the quarter-finals, and I think it would be an abject failure if we failed to beat an Italy side we proved in qualifying we're clearly better than, or an aging Croatia side that have had their time in the sun. I think even honest Italian and Croatian fans will tell you there's no way England should be losing those games. I don't give us much chance at all of beating the French, though.
I actually think we'd be pretty 50/50 with France, their style kind of suits us more than other top teams. I'd be more concerned about Portugal, Germany, or possibly Spain who all have the capability of dominating the midfield which is traditionally our issue against the "top" nations.
I agree broadly, I just wouldn't fancy our chances against France either, as well as the names mentioned above, especially after rewatching our quarter-final with them a couple of times.
These journos don't half write some tosh. Why waste one of our extra 3 squad places on yet another Harry Kane understudy, when our defence and midfield urgently need reinforcing? If any forward is going to benefit it will be surely be someone who can operate across several positions like a Maddison, Palmer or Gordon.
Most the journalists seem to think we should take a squad that is half forwards, see that terrible Matt Law squad the other day. Easy work if you can get it, churning out opinion pieces on the status of Englands back up strikers still a month out from the squad. Quite funny to see Andy Dunn, who's easily one of the worst journo's covering England, claiming Watkins has to be a must go, and the fanfare over Toney's return being bizarre when he wrote himself: After the last international break....
Some of it is searching for clicks. Watkins has a loud online Villa led fanbase who will click on and share anything about his Euro chances. If he is omitted it will be the most discussed story unless Palmer is omitted. Even ahead of Rashford (Who no longer has much of an online fanbase as a lot of Man United fans don’t think he deserves the Euros.)
Kane is going to start and play the full 90+ET of any KO match as he is a world class finisher. Any backup striker will get 10/15 minutes max per game yet alone a third choice. We also have Bellingham/Palmer/Foden who could cover that role as a false 9 if required
Agree with this. Unless we get games where we're coasting and Kane can be subbed with no risk, the backup striker is there if Kane is injured, we're trailing and throwing everything at it, or to be part of a penalty shoot out. Barring a Kane injury, they'll likely get under an hour total game time in the tournament.
Very much looks like the Curtis Jones ship has sailed for this summer. Unused sub today. I'd still like him to go personally but can't see Southgate being convinced with just three games left now.