We definitely missed not having another midfielder to bring on in place of Phillips in the second half. I'm struggling to think of many backups in the "engine room" with Henderson unavailable, other than perhaps pushing Dier into midfield where he used to play when younger.
At the end he was absolutely knackered……in the last 10 mins + 5 mins injury time he was working flat out and gasping for air at times…..a truly fantastic example setting effort from the skipper.
We just beat the current European champions away from home, where they very very rarely get turned over.
We did it with 10 men, and limited them to 1 shot on target.
What do people want ffs?
To impress us all with their insight. Anyone can applaud a win, but to criticise shows a degree of understanding beyond the ordinary and deserves our awe. Attention seeking in other words.
If they Italians had attacked from the off like they did in the second half, we'd have probably been 8-0 up at half time.
Fixed it for you. Attacking like they did in the second half only happens if the opposition is already winning and comfortable they can defend against you. If the English midfield and attack had been as fresh in the second half as they were in the first they would have destroyed the Italians. We still attacked when we were down to 10 men.
Offensively and in midfield we have genuine riches.
Not in the 3 we don't. We don't have any serious competition for Rice and it's either Phillips or Henderson or move Bellingham back, which would be a mistake, to fit a "10" in.
Full back and wide forwards we have an embarrassment of riches. Keeper, center half, center mid and even center foward we are a bit lacking in either quality or depth.
If you are negatively minded you have a point. I think both Henderson and Rice are good enough not to need a Phillips. Eice first choice for me and if he is injured Henderson.
Yeah so your playing Bellingham and Rice OR Henderson and who?
Personally, I'd play Grealish there. He puts in a shift and wins lots of fouls. Then you can fit in Rashford or Foden.
When has Grealish played centre mid at any level?
It would be fitting him in, but I am confident he has the game to play there. He can pass, tackle and has lots of energy. I think we need to fit in as many of our superstars in team as we can and I would class him as one of those. I think you can do this because we have Rice. If we didn't we would probably need a couple of defensively minded players in there.
Offensively and in midfield we have genuine riches.
Not in the 3 we don't. We don't have any serious competition for Rice and it's either Phillips or Henderson or move Bellingham back, which would be a mistake, to fit a "10" in.
Full back and wide forwards we have an embarrassment of riches. Keeper, center half, center mid and even center foward we are a bit lacking in either quality or depth.
If you are negatively minded you have a point. I think both Henderson and Rice are good enough not to need a Phillips. Eice first choice for me and if he is injured Henderson.
Yeah so your playing Bellingham and Rice OR Henderson and who?
Personally, I'd play Grealish there. He puts in a shift and wins lots of fouls. Then you can fit in Rashford or Foden.
When has Grealish played centre mid at any level?
It would be fitting him in, but I am confident he has the game to play there. He can pass, tackle and has lots of energy. I think we need to fit in as many of our superstars in team as we can and I would class him as one of those. I think you can do this because we have Rice. If we didn't we would probably need a couple of defensively minded players in there.
Fitting superstars into an England team has never worked. It literally ruined a generation of talent.
as said by @ValleyGary, a poor Italian side, one which failed to make the last World Cup, BUT you can only beat what opposition turns up .. our defence is settled as is the the midfield where Bellingham gets better and better (as does Rice) and the attack is fluid and pacey .. one problem is a tendency to go on the defensive when we have the lead .. now what other team do we know has a problem with doing that ?
Offensively and in midfield we have genuine riches.
Not in the 3 we don't. We don't have any serious competition for Rice and it's either Phillips or Henderson or move Bellingham back, which would be a mistake, to fit a "10" in.
Full back and wide forwards we have an embarrassment of riches. Keeper, center half, center mid and even center foward we are a bit lacking in either quality or depth.
If you are negatively minded you have a point. I think both Henderson and Rice are good enough not to need a Phillips. Eice first choice for me and if he is injured Henderson.
Yeah so your playing Bellingham and Rice OR Henderson and who?
Personally, I'd play Grealish there. He puts in a shift and wins lots of fouls. Then you can fit in Rashford or Foden.
When has Grealish played centre mid at any level?
100% It'd have been like sticking prime Johnny Williams at CM - Wouldn't work. Needs to be cutting in off the wing or playing wide CM at worst.
as said by @ValleyGary, a poor Italian side, one which failed to make the last World Cup, BUT you can only beat what opposition turns up .. our defence is settled as is the the midfield where Bellingham gets better and better (as does Rice) and the attack is fluid and pacey .. one problem is a tendency to go on the defensive when we have the lead .. now what other team do we know has a problem with doing that ?
Offensively and in midfield we have genuine riches.
Not in the 3 we don't. We don't have any serious competition for Rice and it's either Phillips or Henderson or move Bellingham back, which would be a mistake, to fit a "10" in.
Full back and wide forwards we have an embarrassment of riches. Keeper, center half, center mid and even center foward we are a bit lacking in either quality or depth.
If you are negatively minded you have a point. I think both Henderson and Rice are good enough not to need a Phillips. Eice first choice for me and if he is injured Henderson.
Yeah so your playing Bellingham and Rice OR Henderson and who?
Personally, I'd play Grealish there. He puts in a shift and wins lots of fouls. Then you can fit in Rashford or Foden.
When has Grealish played centre mid at any level?
It would be fitting him in, but I am confident he has the game to play there. He can pass, tackle and has lots of energy. I think we need to fit in as many of our superstars in team as we can and I would class him as one of those. I think you can do this because we have Rice. If we didn't we would probably need a couple of defensively minded players in there.
Stuff like this should automatically disqualify people from criticising England squads. There should be a government monitoring group that enforces it and the fines for breaching should be monumental.
Offensively and in midfield we have genuine riches.
Not in the 3 we don't. We don't have any serious competition for Rice and it's either Phillips or Henderson or move Bellingham back, which would be a mistake, to fit a "10" in.
Full back and wide forwards we have an embarrassment of riches. Keeper, center half, center mid and even center foward we are a bit lacking in either quality or depth.
If you are negatively minded you have a point. I think both Henderson and Rice are good enough not to need a Phillips. Eice first choice for me and if he is injured Henderson.
Yeah so your playing Bellingham and Rice OR Henderson and who?
Personally, I'd play Grealish there. He puts in a shift and wins lots of fouls. Then you can fit in Rashford or Foden.
When has Grealish played centre mid at any level?
100% It'd have been like sticking prime Johnny Williams at CM - Wouldn't work. Needs to be cutting in off the wing or playing wide CM at worst.
at Villa he was THE man and played where he liked especially in the Championship .. Pep and Southgate like to play him wide where he can be dangerous .. i m o he lacks the power, the all round vision and the tackling ability to be a top class central midfielder .. keep Bellingham and Rice there
Italy played some good football in the second half but are toothless. That is why they nicked an Argentinian to play up front. When I was in Italy last year, a friend told me that they really needed a Kane type player.
Saka really scared them last night. I'd have liked to see him risk that extra dribble a few times as the Italian defenders looked afraid to step in.
As for the penalty, that was nailed on, 100%, according to the laws of the game but it does highlight to me that the rules have got themselves in a bad place. For me you either mean to handle it or put your arms in a blocking position or you don't. I think given those perameters some refs might give it and some might not, but it should be a decision for the ref around intent. I suppose you can't really know if you don't read minds but you can make a judgement which we need to accept is sometimes the best way when perfection is not possible.
As usual Southgate doing his best to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. Bloke honestly has no bottle
Taken many sudden death penalties yourself?
Nope but if had any brain or bravery he wouldn't revert everytime to trying to defend a lead when literally everyone knows defending isnt exactly our strong suit, if he hadnt done that and just let the team.play to its strengths I would say the sudden death penalties wouldnt have happened. Oh and I suspect we would also have won atleast 1 WC and 1 Euros.
Bloke is a numb skull and just wont learn
Deranged
You really think that ? Look at the players he has had at his disposal ? How anyone can say he hasnt cost us tournies is beyond me.he is tactically braindead and will always revert to a defensive mindset when in a winning position relying on our weaknesses made even worse by insanely starting players who have played more minutes for England than they have their clubs. Yes we will qualify for the Euros but I bet we will lose it from being in a winning position and in control of the game. I give the bloke credit for sorting out the shitshow he inherited and creating the morale that exists now but he will never win anything
Yeah, we should just go back to doing what we did before when we let Lampard, Gerrard, Rooney and the rest play to their strengths. Oh wait. The problem with England fans is they always want the thing that's different to what they're getting. We haven't won anything since 1966 and I swear it's karma for the kind of fans we have. Southgate has now won 50 games as England manager, reached the World Cup semi-finals for the first time since 1990 and only the third time in the country's history, reached the final of the Euros for the first time ever, narrowly losing on penalties and has never done worse than a quarter final. The facts are there, no-one has been more successful than Southgate since Sir Alf Ramsey, but there's this idiotic idea that all the things we do to get to these late-stage matches don't count for anything (anyone could have done that!) and then when we don't win there's these hilarious, genuinely pathetic tantruming that a fictional manager could have won it with the apparently genius players at his disposal. There's a reason Southgate plays a consistent way with a consistent team and that's because it consistently gets results. We've done the best we've done since the 60s, we've just beaten Italy away from home but AndyG(!) thinks Southgate is 'braindead' because he had to be all sad when Saka missed that penalty. I honestly hope we sack Southgate and go back to picking flavour of the month players, playing random tactical styles and bombing out of tournaments early every year after a fraught qualifying period. It will be hilarious. There's a lack of logic attached to seeing someone take England further than they've gone in decades and somehow convincing yourself that it had nothing to do with the manager and if Steve Evans had had that mighty Jordan Pickford and John Stones he would have done the same that I just can't help you with. I hope Southgate takes the millions he's earned from making England quite good for once, sticks his feet up in front of a TV ahead of the next tournament he's not in charge of and laughs and laughs and laughs.
Great Post. That stupid attention seeking palace fan Simon Jordan always having a dig at Southgate. He just loves the sound of his own voice.
We definitely missed not having another midfielder to bring on in place of Phillips in the second half. I'm struggling to think of many backups in the "engine room" with Henderson unavailable, other than perhaps pushing Dier into midfield where he used to play when younger.
Southgate would have had Mount there, if fit. I'm surprised he didn't call up Loftus Cheek as a replacement.
Comments
Saka really scared them last night. I'd have liked to see him risk that extra dribble a few times as the Italian defenders looked afraid to step in.
As for the penalty, that was nailed on, 100%, according to the laws of the game but it does highlight to me that the rules have got themselves in a bad place. For me you either mean to handle it or put your arms in a blocking position or you don't. I think given those perameters some refs might give it and some might not, but it should be a decision for the ref around intent. I suppose you can't really know if you don't read minds but you can make a judgement which we need to accept is sometimes the best way when perfection is not possible.
Could he have subbed Phillips for Gallagher?