qwertyell

Five at the back and two holding midfielders. Glad we're going for it...

Think Italy will just shade it. They couldn't have hand picked a more ideal team tactically to line up against than England. Slow and sideways careful ball retention in the defensive third by not very technically gifted defenders and midfielders is perfect for an energetic, high pressing team like Italy to exploit. Expect a lot of turnovers in dangerous positions. For a team that plays with two holding midfielders, England are weirdly susceptible to fast counters. I'd break up the Rice/Phillips axis with Henderson, who is better on the ball under pressure. Not by a lot, granted, but Italy will definitely target that pair and in particular Rice's frequently clumsy first touch. And England's attacking play is too predictable and deliberate to likely move Chiellini and Bonnuci much out of their armchairs. Get wide, wait for the overlap, cross towards one striker. Rinse and repeat. Meat and drink for quality centre backs to repel. Or even Scotland's. Hoping Italy don't score first and early, because that'd probably be the game. (apologies for the off topic post)

Fun fact: he's worth a quarter of a billion dollars after successfully investing his football money in US property. He could actually buy us.

#whateverhappenedtoLEMbitopik? #phLEgM

Fucked hell, shameless dive and a rebounded penalty - rough on the Danes. Watch us screw this up trying to defend the lead.

Michael Olise to Palace. That's a shitter - thought we were meant to be very interested.

Abraham would be £40m+ and £100k+ a week. Be realistic. We're shopping in Londis not Harrods. The only reason we haven't yet been priced out of a deal for a lower Championship striker is because his contract is running out.

No, I've been singing Nothing's Gonna Change My Love For You. Because I thought Matt Bianco was Glenn Medeiros.

Bizarre that anyone could've looked at his hopeless refereeing career and conclude that he's an "expert" in his field. Then again, someone put Mike Riley in charge of developing top tier referees; failing upwards is part of refereeing culture.

For a team that have scored 10 in their last two games, Spain look very blunt and pedestrian. Italy or Belgium the finalists from this side of the draw, I reckon.

Smart thinking to renegotiate the price - Angers have just been relegated for financial violations. Wonder if they've got anyone we'd fancy at a knock down price?

Too short to defend the back post.

From memory (increasingly unreliable with the years) we tried to sign him one or two windows before he joined that "Champions League club", and he wanted to come. He talked about it in an interview while he was still at Genk.

Thought Belgium were surprisingly poor. Spent the whole second half just hoofing the ball long. No plan or patterns of play - the midfield disappeared completely. Don't see them troubling Italy too much. Yes, they were bang average against Austria, but at least they continued to play football and vaguely looked like a coherent outfit. Belgium were a rabble tonight.

Imagine having the chance to sign Maehle but fucking it up to penny pinch.

Calamity from Neco Williams. I was asking the other day what exactly people who think we should sign him rate about him - looks a poor player to me. Just because someone's not good enough for Liverpool doesn't mean they're good enough for us.

Not very controversial to imply our defence is shite. We're conceding 60+ a season regardless of who's in nets.

He's played pretty much his entire career in this formation. His body's fucked. Moves like a fridge. That's why he's been dropping deeper over the past 18 months - he can't run in behind anymore. Can't argue with his goalscoring output, but it'll be interesting to see who's prepared to stump up £100m+ for a 28 year old in the early stages of physical decline. Once the legs start going, even the best players can drop off a cliff rapidly.

Has anyone seen much of Williams? Whenever I've watched him - which hasn't been all that often - he's looked pretty unexceptional. What's notable about him other than not being remotely good enough for Liverpool?

I'd be surprised if we can find £10m down the back of the sofa to fund a back up full back.

He's a striker and completely fluffed their two best chances. Maybe that worked against him - he didn't do his job. Gilmour was their best player.

Nah, he's just garbage, always has been. No serious club in England would hire him as a manager; he lucked into the u21 gig - where he did nothing of worth - and has since lucked into the senior job. Not because of footballing merit, but because the FA needed a nodding dog to tow the party line and not make waves. He sticks steadfastly to the script - which can also be said of his tactical approach. The easiest ever run in a world cup, where he lost three times and only beat Tunisia, Panama and Sweden somehow elevated him to "elite" manager status - whereas he's still the guy who's only meaningful contribution to football management is getting Middlesbrough relegated. Watching a keeper, two centre backs and two holding midfielders slowly pass the ball backwards between themselves while an array of attacking talent stands in a line 70 yards away alongside opposition defenders who can't believe how easy a night they're having isn't a new development. He's been playing this way - no matter the formation - since day one. He's one of those basic managers that saw Spain dominate the 2010s with possession football and concluded that keeping the ball was all that's required to ensure success. No nuance to it. Just keep passing back and the wins will follow. Propaganda-ball. And he's not helped himself by picking a squad of injured players. By my reckoning, Henderson, Maguire, Rashford, Kane, Grealish and Saka (he's been managing a hip problem for months) are way short of optimum condition. More poor management. I mean, even Spurs haven't tried to hire him.

While we lord it over them from the comfort of our Sinclair C5.

Vestergaard didn't cover himself in glory with that Belgium equaliser. Pity - he'd been playing all right until then.

Only because that's his top speed.