Holmes_and_Watson

Adams dropped deep to get anywhere near the ball. Didn't/ Couldn't do much with any of the longer punts upfield. Also gave away a few freekicks in good positions for Hungary. Going in, he'd have been hoping for a tournament that would increase his value to interested clubs. That's really not happened.

Passing around the back with no midfield out ball. Then hitting it long. Since the passing about gave Hungary time to reset, they just lost possession. Gilmour dropping far too deep. Even when he got the ball, there was little movement. A few bright moments from individuals. None of them in the final third and none of them together showing that they could work as a team. Stu was bright when coming on. And it was a penalty. But Hungary hit the post and looked far more likely throughout. Another group stage exit. Beeb said the Hungary player was conscious and stable.

"Ever since I saw Bazunu doing so well, going up late in a game, I've dreamed about being a striker," revealed Pickford. Perhaps the discussion was more around which position they wanted to play, to better support TAA and Foden? 🙂

Lost

Launch

"Saints thrilled at buy one, get one treble price deal."

Signing

Yeah. Thanks for posting that Alex. It underlines just how key that DM role is. A role Southgate seems to have built for Phillips and has been unable to move away from in all the time Phillips had been pants. Not having seen much PL this season, interesting to learn that it had been tried with Rice at Arsenal, and failed. So putting out a side that has one player who can't do it, and who is also supporting a player, in TAA who doesn't want to even be in the middle. Despite having taken players in poor club form, Phillips' plummet was too much even for Southgate. Mainoo and Wharton relatively untested, and it falls apart. I was surprised at Henderson not going. Sure, lots of negativity but Southgate has dealt with that before. After game 1, Foden certainly was invited to cut in. We've watched our team deal with counters down our flank with our inverted fullbacks all season. We offer a lot more organisation and structure to it than England did, because we identify the risk involved.

I don't know who she is. I don't know what background she has. But she's knowledgeable about something, raising her way above the rest of the team. 🙂

Mast

Soon to be revealed as the mastermind that sent them all off to the bookies. 🙂

I did put in a smiley! I did! Now I can't use my "I'm surprised he's in the picture, and not taking the knee." follow up. 🙂

Sponsor

He'd fit right in with Baz's intangible hands. 🙂

Nige is wearing the 3 lions. Everyone else in Starmer's picture is wearing 3 lions. Starmer is not wearing the 3 lions. Clearly embarrassed about his country and a betrayer of it's values. 🙂

Weird quoting the quote your last post quoted from you...ow...head hurts... 🙂 In tournament mind, that's a heck of a risk. What if just having the 1 DM means England go behind? Southgate would have to rely on one of the best attacking line ups in world football, to try and claw his way back into the game. 🙂

🙂 I did start a line about it not exactly being unknown elsewhere, but cut it. I was going to make the point that smaller parties in particular have to allocate funding carefully, so there's a bit more of a gap in the before or after document, as producing the manifesto comes with a cost. Being larger Labour don't have the same issue. Their version control issues come from keeping track of u-turns, editing put any old pledges and trying as best they can to cost things, after economic mismanagement. It's still interesting to see the before pictures. A glimpse into what parties are willing to get for support against what they do to get elected.

Exactly. Moaning about not having a replacement and not playing the replacement.

Another year or so, and he'll be at the age to join us as a stepping stone to a promising career. 🙂

As he drivelled on failing to understand what was goin on in front of him, I was thinking about how rubbish his own managerial record was. 5 points from 24.

Southgate: "We know it’s an experiment and we know that we don’t have a natural replacement for Kalvin Phillips." As he dips into the twix family pack at home, spare a thought for Kalvin. Had he had even a half decent season, there was a place there, just waiting for him. If Southgate required that role, then he should be picking players to fit it. His team's have rarely transitioned well, and link up play is often iffy. So suddenly telling Rice and Bellingham to adjust to try and accommodate TAA is foolish. We saw how disjointed it made the team. If he picked Mainoo to do that job, then play him. If he has to tell Rice to focus only on that, then do it and bring in another proper midfielder. That would seem to be Gallagher. Or play Wharton. 3 options that he's got available, but backed off of to accommodate TAA. You can't bemoan the lack of a specialist in the role, when there were opportunities to pick others, and when the option is there to play those that did make the squad. He has to pick the players best suitable for that role. That's not TAA and it's not Gallagher.

I guess their manifesto writers looked at the available texts as they created each page. "Nope, we're not putting that in. Nope, nor that..."

Southgate, before the match: "My focus is to get qualified from the group,..." Which he's now achieved. BBC after it, pointing out that we're all wrong about Trent:"No player created more chances (3) or played more line-breaking passes in the final third (5) for England against Denmark than Trent Alexander-Arnold, despite him being subbed off in the 54th minute."

On centre backs, ABK, DCC and Lyanco are back, possibly negating the need for a signing there. I thought Sule might be used more centrally last season. In initial games, he'd use pace but with little end product from wide. When defenders dropped a little more off him, they were able to get back more. So there were some games he didn't get clear enough. Similarly little end product from wide. In those games, he'd try to draw players in, then burst past them. With mixed success, and little end product. Like Alcaraz, simplifying it for him centrally to be the guy looking to run into space, seemed like a possibility. But I'd expect us to be recruiting to not have to rely on that being tried. So, a sale may be good all round.

The overall purpose turned out to be as expected, with overall the sort of match as well. In that, tournament manager Southgate ensures a point, effectively taking England into the next round. That's his deliverable, as it's been in the last couple of tournaments. A 2nd group game cautious, defensively structured game should come as no surprise. Underneath that, we've just seen a lot of disappointing performances, with that approach nullifying a lot of the players better qualities. TAA and Foden with the same issues as before. Foden did come in centrally occasionally. DM is an issue. Bellingham and Rice were impacted covering for TAA, while being limited by their instructions. Lots of poor passing. Lots of unforced errors. Lots of possession needlessly conceded. Individually poor.