UEFA Euro 2020: England Tournament Thread [R]

A lovely interview with what seems like a really nice young man.

 

An encouraging watch for those who are worried about the threat of Robertson. No reason Foden shouldn't be able to do the same again

 

The Athletic also reporting that Shaw and James will start, with the rest of the team unchanged.

https://theathletic.com/news/england-vs-scotland-team-news-shaw-james/XAvgl0J3YCyL

Then again, they were wrong about Trent, so who knows...

 

Jocks have been giving it large 'England are average ' 'their players are overrated ' 'Wembley will be a home game for the scots' . Hope we absolutely hammer them. Can't stand the cnuts

 

I think it is almost the opposite - whilst we need to be 'up for it' we can't get dragged into a Derby game. We are miles better than them in every area and need to play our game.

If you ask any Scot what they want to happen, they would want the game dragged into a feisty derby, that is their best hope of getting something out of this

 

Interesting changes at full back being reported - and think that gives us the right balance to move forward into the tournament with maguire coming back into team next week maybe.

Mings and Trippier did very well, but should be no need for Trippier to be that side with Mings v Scotland......surprised KT didn't go across to RB but rotating full backs never seems to hurt much as we have so much quality there.

Be good to get the win and rest some players v Czechia

 

Hé won’t play anyway

 

Merson, who’s surprisingly not a bad pundit, thinks Southgate won’t start Grealish against the scots as a great performance would put him under pressure to start him in the following games against the better teams. And that Grealish doesn’t fit his system. I could be ok with Grealish coming on late but then I’m not sure why he didn’t come on vs Croatia, he was the perfect player to manage the lead

 

After the way Jack Grealish played against Belgium you’d think everyone would recognise that he positively thrives against top quality opposition and in the big games .

 

Apparently after the Romania game, according to Athletic pod, Southgate was really frustrated with the pressing - and the 2 worst offenders in his eyes were Rashford and Grealish - so do think there is an element of not trusting him in the bigger games because poor pressing can cost us the game

 

I can't think of a better player to come on, run at players, get us up the pitch, win a load of FK's. I was amazed he didn't come on against Croatia. What Merson said makes sense, but it would be foolishness not to start him today. Gordon Strachan is desperate for him to be on the bench. Jose just compared him to Figo. He always makes a difference when he plays. Foden was dead quiet other then that early shot, his place must be under pressure.

 

Why am I not surprised ..

 

The only snag like I said , is that refs have been so lenient they may just allow play to carry on after most of the fouls on him

 

I think that Grealish was slated to come on whilst it was 0-0. He was doing a serious warm up anyway. Think Southgate wanted Rashford for his pace on the break as Croatia would have to attack us. I'd have preferred Grealish I think.

United fans will recognise that criticism of Rashford.

 

He didn’t defend much vs Romania but at villa he works pretty hard

 

I don’t understand this criticism of Grealish’s pressing. We don’t pick apart the weakness of other players like that.

Sterling’s decision making can be shocking… Foden can go into his shell… Rashford isn’t clinical… Mings has poor technique… Kane drops deep too often. All seen as minor issues yet Grealish’s one minor weakness is held up as reason not to pick him.

 

Didn't someone post some data a couple of days ago demonstrating how awful Grealish is off the ball in pretty much every metric next to all of his competition?

 

The fans may not as most don't really understand pressing patterns. None of us know the team instructions either. The coaching staff are there to pick apart performances in every detail.

This is the stat report Jenks is talking

https://fbref.com/en/players/b0b4fd3e/Jack-Grealish

It relates to his club form and he is ranked against every player in his position in Europe's top 5 leagues.

 

I think some people/coachs can't see the wood for trees with stats and only focus on what a players bad at or vice versa and only look at what a players good at.

 

Well said, all of those less favourable traits are compensated for by other traits - the same applies to Grealish.

My only criticism of him is that he has too many touches and generally holds onto the ball too long, although if you frame it differently these are potentially his best attributes as well. I think it comes down to decision making, knowing when to release or go on a mazy run and to be fair I think he has got the balance almost spot on in the games he's played for England.

 

Merson also said that Lionel Messi winning the Ballon D'Or was 'a joke' and that Kevin de Bruyne, the then German footballer of the year, wasn't worth £50m when he went to citeh.

Whether he plays him or not is another matter but I don't think we need to hear too much from the 'wisdom' of Paul Merson.

 

Er... I think you'll find we do actually

If you look back through the thread pretty much ALL of them have been said on the England boards over the years... and more.