They have Christensen who can play as a centre back or as a holding midfielder, and he moved position during the first half against Wales. As Whiston says they have forward players who can drop into midfield. So they are quite a flexible side. I honestly don't have much clue how we will set up. Denmark like to counter attack and although both sides have plenty of good forward players my instinct is that it might be quite a cagey affair. I would play Trippier on the right whether as a full back or a wing back.
That penalty decision was embarrassing but we were the better team overall and deserved to win. If Schmeichel was English we would have won by two or three - he is exceptional. This is the first major final England have reached in my lifetime and I'm definitely getting quite old so it is long overdue. Fifty fifty call now for Sunday. We've exceeded most expectations already so in a sense the pressure might be off. It should be a good game between two good sides.
I thought the Kane one was a penalty though, but you need some luck to win anything, this is a huge achievement all those years those so called super managers the golden generation etc etc. So proud of them all, but watching that was not enjoyable at all, my nerves have gone
Falling over to win decisions is part of the modern game. Players are taught that if they feel the slightest bit of contact they are entitled to 'go down'. I am sure that Sterling felt he was entitled to hit the deck and he was rewarded for it so he will feel that he has done nothing wrong. The decision that produced the free kick from which they scored was also questionable at best and all teams play the same game. I dont like it though. Commentators and pundits rationalise it by describing decisions as 'soft' but we all know what they mean. We will certainly have no moral high ground to take if Italy best us on Sunday with a dubious penalty award.
I thought the Kane one was a penalty though, but you need some luck to win anything, this is a huge achievement all those years those so called super managers the golden generation etc etc. So proud of them all, but watching that was not enjoyable at all, my nerves have gone
It was such a sad ending to the Italy v England European football championship final. However, Italy came up smelling of roses. Hope you guys took the hints. Both football and song contests can be funny old games.
Best team won and we did well to get to the final, Southgate has created a system that over the next few tournaments ill get us to the last 4 a few times, I do not believe we will win one though as his style is to make us difficult to beat, he sets out not to lose rather than to win a game. When the big game really comes his cautious tactics costs us, it did last night and it did against Croatia in the world cup. His substitutions were strange last night and his selection of penalty takers was absolutely mindboggling. To say we hear about them having set takers, set process and a lot of psychology and practice for penalties, that cannot be true after last night. they were all over the place trying to select the takers if this was all preplanned it should have been straight forward, and to send out a 19 year old to take the 5th penalty in the country's biggest game for 55 years!!!! Big question was where was Sterling MBE?
overall very pleased with how far we got but i do think that he made awful decisions last night, I hope he learns and gets braver and we use the talent we have
Agree with just about all of that Derby. The best team definitely won and you have to give credit to the Italians. They had 66% possession and 19 shots to our six at goal. One site actually says 15 to 4 at goal. Whatever, they had the best of the attacking play on show. We do set up not to lose imo and this stifles natural attacking talent from the likes of Saka, Sancho, Foden and Grealish to name just a few. I also agree that it will take us well into competitions but not to win them. Spain were far superior to Italy in the semi final but lacked the killer finisher. In this tournament Kane has looked better from a deeper lying central striker role. Last night Shearer said kane did not have a touch in their box. That cannot win you tournaments. The front three were up against superb defenders but we have to braver in the final 20 yards.
I do not get your point about Sterling MBE, where was he. I do believe he has been our best attacking threat in the tournament and last night like a lot of other forwards were well marshalled. If you mean why didn't he take a penalty, i think his recent record as with Grealish has not been good from the penalty spot.
A great effort from England which has put a bit of pride into our game. I do think to beat the likes of Spain, Italy, France and others we need to be a little more adventurous. Perhaps the management team will take on board the positives of this tournament and also look at where we fell a bit short. The future of English international football looks bright and could get brighter.
Yeah - Derby & Whiston I think you have summed it up well..
I also agree we should have kept going fwd after our goal - we did for 15 mins or so, but then sat back deeper and deeper. Italy grew into the game and then controlled it at their pace.
It's easy afterwards, but I would have replaced Saka with Sancho at half time and brough Grealish on earlier to try to put us back into a more attacking mode, regardless of risks of doing so.
I also think as soon as Stirling went onto the right we lost a real weapon that he and Shaw had created - Shaw and Saka did not work the same way.
Just about everyone could see that defedning aganist such a good team was never likely to last the whole game, we needed that second goal, but it was attack v defence for all of the second half and all of extra time.
Small margins though - and we did really well, much better than I thought we would...
My comment about Sterling was for the penalty, I think sending out a 19 year old kid like that was very poor management and very poor from other senior pros like Sterling. I know the argument, of perhaps they didn't fancy it, but that is cowardice for me, you will send someone else out there but you don't have the nerve. I will also go back to my point on the penalties, is if we had all that preparation how come we were clearly unprepared?
However at the end we have got to the final and credit needs to go to the management and players for doing that, we shouldn't forget how we restructured our game about 10 years ago and the benefits of doing that and of St Georges Park which is only about 10 mins from me and having been there a few times is a great asset to us as a nation, the Germans had to borrow the adidas company facilities, I know this as my mrs works for them
Not sure that is correct about the penalties Derby if we believe what Grealish has said today ( no reason not to). He said he and others were more than prepared to take the penalties but the gaffer had worked out who was to take them from training etc. He also made very late changes to get the penalty takers on. I agree it seems strange to trust a late penalty to a 19 yr old but it looks like that was the plan. No cowardice or don't have the nerve but a trust in these youngsters to deliver. Great character building or madness take your pick. Not sure it was a lack of being prepared imo.
I think Southgate got the penalty takers wrong, training is not the same as 60,000 in a final, terrible decision that could impact sako for the rest of his life, awful leadership. He put two penalty takers on for 1 min, they had no time to touch the ball, he had rashford ready at half time of the extra time then made him sit down again, he got it wrong to be fair to him he has said it is on him
