SWLondon Saint

I think he's looked his best for NI as he's clearly got the most ability on the ball so he gets a bit of a pass on the defensive side. That doesn't work if you want to win the Championship, all midfielders have to work hard and not have those goal-conceding lapses on concentration which he's unfortunately a bit prone too. Fee seems fair for us, and Fulham probably a good move for him with Arbeloa as manager as I imagine he'll play like Spain do where even the 'flair' midfielders like Olmo or Ruiz have to work like hell or they won't get picked, end of.

This for me is more the issue than whether he's a decent defender or not. His level for me is top of the Champ / bottom of the PL, the difference is some of the borderline shithousing / holding / obstruction he can get away with week in week out here, you can't when there's VAR.

I think THB is in a bit of a weird situation in that some things he does at an excellent level - attacking headers, picking passes going forward - but some things he's not great at for the top level, like defending against pacey and strong attackers like the top teams have. I'm not sure if a PL team would come in for him, even a lower half one, if we're asking for 20 mill+. He might be better suited to somewhere like Spain or Italy actually.

Dunno, the Spain Holland one was pretty shit too. Though even Holland, despite kicking Spain all over the pitch, were nowhere near as dirty as the Argie filth.

Honestly, if refs don't book an Argie early on you know you're in for a crap game full of aggro. Same as in the semi, you let them get away with an inch, they take a mile.

Haha, me too, I was hoping he'd shithouse one of them into a red card.

I don't even like Spain that much but bloody hell I'd cheer for anyone against the Argies. Thank f***.

Watched from about our 4th goal on. Surprisingly that did actually make me feel a bit better about the whole thing, hopefully the players will feel like it's unfinished business for the Euros. We don't have France's front 4 but it's fair to say we're not that far off.

Just makes the end of the Argentina game even more unforgivable imo. Saka and Rashford obviously with a point to prove and who can blame them? Can only imagine what they'd have done against Argentina's dodgy full backs when they were chasing the game 😑

Wasn't even planning to watch, just like France clearly didn't plan to play...

At half time against Croatia, Tuchel got credit for saying stop playing scared, if we go out, we go out playing our way. That was what he needed to say and back up with positive subs today. Playing with everyone on our 18 yard line is never and should never be our way even if we're down to 10.

Yeah, I agree on that one. Great goal where we cut them open and then that was the end of any kind of initiative or attacking play. Could see the equaliser coming a mile off that game too. Just don't understand how our managers haven't been able to, don't they do any kind of planning for these situations?

But when we equalised Spain definitely were rocking - and if we'd kept up the pressure we could have won despite them being better. But we went passive again and then they did us.

What I don't get is with all the experienced players and supposedly a good manager and team around him, not a single person realised that you simply cannot be so passive when the other team is at your level or above. Normally in sport you're meant to 'trust the process' - do what you've practiced, what you planned for, have some structure. I am 100% sure they did not practice defending with 10 players on the edge of our box.

When I saw us sit back after we scored, I expected Tuchel to be tearing the players a new one, getting them up the pitch. I cannot believe how bad the game management there was, he should take the blame and resign tbh.

Well yeah, because we stopped doing everything that had gotten us to that point. We stopped being physical and pressing and just let them walk it up to our box.

Nope. We were the better team until we scored, then we decided to not bother playing any more. What would Spain have done? They'd have kept up their high press and kept trying to get possession.

Just wish I had to be honest, it was so obvious.

Commentators so full of shit as well, we threw it away by not playing after we scored, stop glazing Argentina.

They deserve it, we don't. Threw it away.

It was ridiculous, after we scored we should have stayed positive, got after them, gone for a second. Instead we went straight for the lowest of low blocks, not even 2 banks of 4. Idiotic.

And now what, when we've got all these defenders on? Wish I had been wrong but everyone could see it coming.

We are going to concede playing like this, guaranteed. Where is our press, our 'premier league' physicality they were talking about?

I don't understand why we've just completely stopped playing.

Hope Tuchel reads them the riot act, this is just idiotic.