Day 9: Hungary vs France | Portugal vs Germany | Spain vs Poland

Today proved one more time this coach sucks, left semedo the entire game when all the goals came from his side, changed the formation a little too late, Sanches was the best player with Ronaldo.
 
Great game, deserved win for Germany. Answered a lot of questions, will be hard for anyone to deal with them if they can repeat that intensity and pace on the ball.

Germany all of a sudden might be looking at finishing top of the group.
 
Santos should be ashamed of himself for spectacularly bottling every single decision that game.

A manager who'd rather keep both DMs on the pitch over his star attackers shouldn't go through.
 
Well played Germany. Hate playing you.

Santos got outclassed and has pissed me right off.
 
So many English pundits have been underestimating Germany as they big up the English NT. Germany are a lot more impressive, and aside from the result, played well against France and obviously today.
 
Deserved loss and this one is one Fernando Santos. Semedo should retire from the NT as well, the worst performance by any player I seen in the last few years.
 
Ronaldo's 5th loss in a row in a tournament against Germany. :)

This one was completely fair without any ref shenanigans so well done.

That went about as expected, Mendes and Cancelo are out and our starting fullbacks today can't defend at all. Germany with Gosens and Kimmich were strong at attacking out wide so we were never holding onto to that lead. Pepe being 38 years old showed today too. Thank God we didn't completely lose it after the 4-1 because goal difference will matter, Low's subs helped us in the end.

Time to bring out the calculator as always.
 
This would be exciting if 3 teams weren't going through. A draw in the France Portugal game sends all three through right?
 
So many English pundits have been underestimating Germany as they big up the English NT. Germany are a lot more impressive, and aside from the result, played well against France and obviously today.

German national team is always so well-trained, organised, and professional. They just get the business done and all know they’re capable. They turn up and do their job to a high standard.
 
Seeing Lukas Podolski trend on German Twitter because casual German fans confuse Gosens for him is cracking me up.
 
Portugal's right back was clearly distracted by agent pigeon. Otherwise you cannot explain the space for Gosens.
 
What he lacks in football he makes up for in fashion

Emre-Can-2019-HM-001.jpg
Does have drip tbf
 
That's why I said 'no socks look'

Those little ones are fine with trainers and shorts but if you're wearing trousers, a shirt and shoes put on a proper pair of socks.

Would you consider a pair of fishnets?
Just trying to think of alternatives.

I don't disagree mind.
 
Santos should be ashamed of himself for spectacularly bottling every single decision that game.

A manager who'd rather keep both DMs on the pitch over his star attackers shouldn't go through.
There wasn’t a single phase of the game either of them made a positive contribution to.
 
He is still 22, far from his peak.

No player peaks at 22, no matter what are his attributes.
A lot of players dont improve from 22 and a hell of a lot goes backwards.
He could improve his back to goal, his runs in behind and shooting from outside of the box but, by, all accounts, he just doesn't want to. It was reported that his demands for a new club is to play in from the left and nowhere else for that reason.
 
That's why I said 'no socks look'

Those little ones are fine with trainers and shorts but if you're wearing trousers, a shirt and shoes put on a proper pair of socks.

feck that, when it's that hot outside and you have to wear trousers those bare ankles help keep you cooler.
 
That's why I said 'no socks look'

Those little ones are fine with trainers and shorts but if you're wearing trousers, a shirt and shoes put on a proper pair of socks.

I can't zoom in at the moment, but he's wearing espadrilles isn't he? No excuse for wearing those with socks.
 
Today proved one more time this coach sucks, left semedo the entire game when all the goals came from his side, changed the formation a little too late, Sanches was the best player with Ronaldo.

What would you have done? He's the only right back we have now that Cancelo is out and Cancelo wouldn't have fared much better defensively either. They simply have a better squad and don't have these obvious weaknesses to exploit which is normal, they have more than 8 times our population.

People that expect us to be able to go toe to toe against the big european teams simply overrate our squad, our best players can match the quality of their best players but overall we'll never have as complete or as deep of a squad simply because their talent pool is 10 times bigger than ours due to the size of the countries.
 
I swear, if Santos insists on playing Danilo and William again, I'm not going to bother to watch the game vs France.

I don't get why a manager that is considered to be a smart person, insists on doing the same mistakes every single time. So frustrating.
 
feck that, when it's that hot outside and you have to wear trousers those bare ankles help keep you cooler.

That sounds psychological.

I mean it's a teeny bit of extra material. The bit of ankle between shoes and trousers just looks ridiculous. I realise I'm veering into old man shouts at cloud territory but I'm hoping it falls out of fashion quick enough.
 
What would you have done? He's the only right back we have now that Cancelo is out and Cancelo wouldn't have fared much better defensively either. They simply have a better squad and don't have these obvious weaknesses to exploit which is normal, they have more than 8 times our population.

People that expect us to be able to go toe to toe against the big european teams simply overrate our squad, our best players can match the quality of their best players but overall we'll never have as complete or as deep of a squad simply because their talent pool is 10 times bigger than ours due to the size of the countries.
Don't you think it's also the managers job to tweak the formation in a way that your weak link doesn't get exposed every single time? It's not that Goosens had a better game than Semedo, they scored all their goals with more or less the same play.
 
One of the worst coaching performances I've seen for a while from Santos.

Playing two central DMs against a back 5 team with wingbacks.. Semedo wasn't great but it wasn't even his fault, he was tucking in to protect the CB against the attackers as all fullbacks do. They needed a midfielder to track the wingback, but they had no wide midfielders as one was playing as an AM and the other two sat centrally for no reason. So you're left with two free wingbacks basically crossing to each other for the goals..

Utterly clueless. You need to have a box to box like Renato covering one flank, and if you still have a DM and Bruno then you have one of the wide forwards track back on the other flank. Basically what France did and Germany looked toothless. 5 at the back systems have become quite popular over the last 4 years with teams like United, Chelsea, Arsenal, Inter, even Real using it at points. To not understand how to play against it tactically and have no flexibility in your team just isn't excusable.