Internationals June (Euro Qualifiers + Nations League Finals)

Special shout-out to my man Denzel Dumfries. People always feel the need to ridicule him for not being particularly good at playing football. But he himself is well aware that he's not a good footballer, aged 18 he was still playing for an amateur team. He's got more heart and soul than pretty any other player out there tonight though.
 
:lol: People thinking 3rd places in a friendly tournament means feck all. My reaction to losing this semi was a slight shrug.

Send the u21s to play and let the seniors go to Ibiza.
 
We are criminally weak in midfield.
We struggled to play out not because our defenders aren’t good enough but because our central midfield is utter dross.
Stones doesn’t have so many problems playing out with city because he has at least 2 or 3 options for an easy pass.
De Ligt looked awfully vulnerable defensively as well even ignoring the mistake.
 
We'll lose the third place too, England arrogantly don't bother with that.

To be honest, why should they?

Three days off your holiday to play in a Nations League third place play-off, possibly the most pointless “competitive” football match ever played. I’m surprised the players weren’t deliberately trying to get suspensions once it went to 3-1.
 
Absolutely boss of a player and even knows how to draw a foul or make it seem that way like a good Barça player haha.
At least he didn't come here to get ruined when he was a kid. Ajax was the best place for him and Barca will be as well. He will transform them.
 
Stones with 2 horrific mistakes.. id take smalling anytime over stones
 
Pile of shit team selection, negative subs, individual mistakes. Classic England Semi final.
 
To be honest, why should they?

Three days off your holiday to play in a Nations League third place play-off, possibly the most pointless “competitive” football match ever played. I’m surprised the players weren’t deliberately trying to get suspensions once it went to 3-1.
If Portugal and Holland qualify directly for the euros it gives you a play off ticket if you dont though.
 
You can see it that way. I know you really like Smalling, but I struggle to see pure quality defenders available for England. Maybe Gomes will develop into a top defender, but apart from Alexander-Arnold and maybe Shaw, there is hardly quality available.

I mean, it doesnt matter what I think of other players. The point is Neville is making excuses instead of saying "Thats poor from the players and not good enough for England".

Instead, he blamed midfield. He said we need to go back to 3 at the back, where it didnt give us enough at the world cup either and thats why Southgate went away from it. And he refused to blame the manager, even though the manager picked those players and asked them to play it out from the back.

You can't send Burnley onto the pitch with the instructions to play like a the Brazil national team from the 90s. And you can't send Maguire and Stones onto the pitch thinking they won't make a mistake at the back if they take chances. There are lots of examples of them making a mistake and either getting punished or getting away with it.

Even De Jong a much hyped up CM going to Barcelona for big money had a moment near the end of the 90 mins where he was pressed in a similar situation to Stones, and England just didnt press as well as Netherlands did to pinch the ball so De Jong got away with his hesitation. Its not something you can do with 80-90% success rate, you get it right 100% of the time or you don't do it. If you dont have the players to do it right all the time, you don't do it.

Because reality is it can be nice, but isnt anywhere near as important as keeping the ball out the back of your net, or putting the ball in the other net. And playing out from the back is about keeping the ball, not either of those two things.
 
Stones should be fined for that performance tbh. Don’t care that it’s a friendly tournament, he was bloody awful tonight.
 
If Portugal and Holland qualify directly for the euros it gives you a play off ticket if you dont though.
So how does it work? Winner of the final automatically qualifies and the loser does not? If the the winner is qualified do they still playgroup stage qualifiers?
 
Freezing again on big match. Don't worry it's coming home or something.
 
I know everyone is sick and tired of hearing Spurs Liverpool references but here's another one. That was like watching 2016 Spurs (Netherlands) and 2016 Liverpool (England). Like 2016 Liverpool England had maybe the better attack but shocking defence, whilst Holland like Spurs 2016 had a good defence but and relatively weaker attack.
 
So how does it work? Winner of the final automatically qualifies and the loser does not? If the the winner is qualified do they still playgroup stage qualifiers?
I think the winners get a play off spot if they dont qualify directly, that's all I think.
 
Think the pundits are being too outcome focussed. Liverpool show you can play without playmakers in midfield, if you have a proper counterattack and ball-playing defenders.

Carragher is spot on in the problem tonight being individual errors though and not philosophy.
 
England have won nothing in 53 years, they don't get to downplay winning an international trophy.

These are players who have performed in the World Cup/late stages of the CL. They aren't freezing under the pressure of the fecking glorified friendly cup.
 
Good game.a bit boring start though but then got interesting as the game progressed.

I thought England were the better team in the first half,I was really impressed with Pickford and the forwards sterling, rashford and occasionally Sancho when he got the ball(that nutmegg on de light), the defenders started well but got possesed by some evil spirit as the game progressed but the midfiield though, how any of those midfiielders are highly rated is beyond me, aside from Delph non of them can pass forward to save their lives.
The Netherlands on the other hand was mostly good through out the game. decent attack but fantastic midfiield (de jong) and defence.they got better in the second half and punished England's mistake.
A very good game though it could have been more exciting but good game nonetheless, hopefully England works more on their playing from the back.
 
MF was where it was won and lost. Englands MF was terrible. Could not control the play and know when to pass it. A huge and noticeable difference between the two of teams.
 
While England needs to improve the midfield, it wasn't the lack of possession that lost the match but mostly turnovers from both the defence and midfield as well an impotent attack after Rashford left. England didn't have much possession at the world cup but were disciplined. I still think a 3-man defence is the best way to cover Maguire's weakness.

Depay may have been woeful with his finishing but was involved in the three goals scored and his own chances by constantly forcing turnovers and working his ass off to create chance for himself. Netherland hardly created anything despite the lots of possession.
 
These are players who have performed in the World Cup/late stages of the CL. They aren't freezing under the pressure of the fecking glorified friendly cup.

I would even agree that they performed well in the latest WC. Our set piece success and great draw hugely flattered us. No one can argue that our football was by any means great. We didn't outplay Colombia. We barely outplayed Sweden. We certainly didn't outplay Croatia. Can you argue that we fought well and had heart? sure, but there's no reasonable argument for England's general footballing performance in the WC.
 
These are players who have performed in the World Cup/late stages of the CL. They aren't freezing under the pressure of the fecking glorified friendly cup.

Stones and Barkley barely have any valuable experience at that level... you can call it a friendly now but if England won it, they'd have returned as heroes. 53 years without a trophy, it's unforgivable to throw away the chance of winning one like this.
 
To put that awful England performance into perspective, almost the entire team hadn’t played a football match in three weeks. We saw how terrible the Liverpool v Spurs game was with both teams rusty. England were pretty shambolic but the weird nature of coming into a nominal semi-final cold and not even having a proper training camp because of the CL final definitely contributed to the lack of cohesion and some of the mental fatigue that led to the basic errors.
 
Stones and Barkley barely have any valuable experience at that level... you can call it a friendly now but if England won it, they'd have returned as heroes. 53 years without a trophy, it's unforgivable to throw away the chance of winning one like this.

I think you maybe massively overestimate how valued this tournament is in the UK. It's not even on telly, I don't know anybody who watched it.

I was debating whether to even watch it myself and couldn't be arsed watching all of extra time.