Ex Lion Tamer

I find this highly believable. Something was not right with that ref (and VAR!)

I agree, I just can't work out what position he will play. His physique is all wrong for full back. I do think he is quite skillful though. I can see him playing as a bulky wing forward like Mbappe(!) or Aboubakar Kamara, but more at the level of the latter

France prevented us from scoring in open play by fouling us at every opportunity. And the referee didn't reward us for that

We missed a penalty and should have had another. It's fine margins at this level and we didn't get the rub off the green. You can't put that at Southgate's door

We'd have got destroyed with those subs, you're basically asking to put on five forwards against the world champions

I'd be amazed if we go for him given our experience with Armstrong

People complain we're not ambitious enough with our transfers but when we try to go big we don't manage to get the players. Catch 22

Were taches fashionable when Franny had one?

If by this you mean that every single season people on this board are convinced we will get relegated, then yes 😄

This is so dull, why aren't we scoring?

Solskjaer was such a poor manager. Rashford now a different player

Neither team would admit it but ultimately a draw suits both - Wales get their moral victory and England go through top

This is how he manages the players. Don't let them get too high when they win, don't let them get too down when they lose

That's fair. Mount at least had a good shot in this game but generally I don't know what he adds.

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2021/jun/09/attacking-rarely-wins-international-prizes-now-so-what-will-southgate-do

I thought we looked ropey at the back and outfought in midfield. A more "defensive" formation, at least in the first half, would have given us a more solid base to get comfortable in the game and start playing a bit more. I fully expect Southgate to go back to five at the back against tougher opposition

Simply not true. Most winners these days are pretty cautious

Pure guesswork obviously but I reckon we'll spend £30m on a striker

Yes indeed. We just have to hope there's some substance there as well. At least we know that he is capable of getting a team to overperform I guess

Carillo was a Pellegrino signing wasn't he? General point though I think is that if you're good at Powerpoint presentations then you can impress a lot of suits in football. That's how Steve McLaren became England manager

I remember an England team full of stars labouring against Trinidad & Tobago in the World Cup. Southgate has turned England into a completely different team. The confidence they play with is fantastic

Have you been spending time with Matt Le Tissier? You'll be telling us that Manji is controlling us through 5G masts next 😂

It's pretty clear if you read back that: Manji wasn't claiming to be ITK about Nathan Jones, he even said it was wishful thinking on his part that all the rumours were coming from Luton The "money no object within reason" thing was about the club recognising how important it was the get a quality striker in, not about the willingness to spend huge on the transfer budget as a whole

My interpretation is that the high press game simply wasn't sustainable over the course of a season - the players would get fatigued and we'd go on horrible runs. He tried to change to a more sustainable approach but lost his magic weapon in the process

I'm sure we didn't