titosantill wrote:Holland smh. Some of these teams I look at the squad and I'm like it makes sense. What happened to proper stars? I was watching Italy and barely knew anyone. Maybe its me who doesn't follow serie A anymore. But to everyone on here, is it just me or are a bunch of squads lacking superstars or star players?

Italy have solid midfielders and defenders but absolutely no strikers. Tbf no team has a top striker

neuro11 wrote:England should not go far in the tournament. Good that they are likely to meet Italy in the quarter who probably will save them and us from the agony

it's not like Italy are playing much better

Nobody is actually playing all that well tbh

Germany, Spain and Portugal are

There were 5 clear favorites going into this tournament.

Germany has lived up to those expectations and using the home advantage.

Spain has exceeded those expectations, although it won’t be clear enough until we see how they do against Germany.

Portugal has also lived up to those expectations, with Ronaldo stepping up yet again even with his age. And Roberto Martinez is showing what a quality coach he is, in getting a second country’s NT to be a top team.

France has been disappointing and awful with Deschamps defensive strategy a flop and their goal scoring ability has dried up. Can they pick it up in the knockouts? We shall see when they play Portugal.

England is well below expectations and it is mainly attributable to Southgate, although I also think it may be that the English often overrate their talent. Will they be able to pick it up against the weaker opposition on their side of the bracket? I doubt it, which will mean a weaker opponent in the final.

But as Sports said earlier, in the one game knockouts, there are no clear favorites!

I predict that the winner between Germany, Spain and Portugal will be the champions. My hope is of course Spain!

Still a disgrace how easy the path to the final would be for England now, but I guess that's just a string of good luck for them.

Same thing happened in 2016 for Portugal

futbol_bill wrote:Same thing happened in 2016 for Portugal

Oh lawd that was such an undeserving team to win, I was foaming at the mouth back then.

Foden has left for the English team. Looks like family emergency with third child. He has flown back to UK!

futbol_bill wrote:England is well below expectations and it is mainly attributable to Southgate, although I also think it may be that the English often overrate their talent.

ehh, not this time around... i mean they have the Bundesliga top goal scorer, La Liga and EPL player of the season all in attacking positions but somehow look terrible offensively.

Maybe we’re reading different news sources, but the most recent articles with criticism towards England that I’ve read seems to be aimed directly at Bellingham and how he supposedly looked lazy during their last match.

And I think it was McLewis who suggested on here recently that black players on the English national team are constantly singled out for criticism. Which one is it?

^^one doesn't mean the other isn't true. And it wasn't just a suggestion from McLewis, it's literal fact and a lot of people on social media including Lewis Hamilton called it out

Bellingham and Saka were good for the first 30 mins of the Serbia game
Foden, as of yet, nothing to show yet in this tournament

Georgia up 2-0, apparently if they win England would play Slovakia? lmao if true

IT'S COMING HOME

the xcx wrote:Arsenal fans might hate me for this but Palmer should start ahead of Saka perhaps

saka is the last of there issues. The team is too unbalanced. Got to bench one of foden Bellingham or Kane. They all clog up the same spots. They have no pace on the flank outside of saka... he's the last person to bench on this team

the xcx wrote:Arsenal fans might hate me for this but Palmer should start ahead of Saka perhaps

why Saka? Why is Saka the first man out when Palmer can also play 10 or maybe do a better job than Foden at LW.

But anyway if Foden can't make it back for the next match... if I was Southgate this would be my lineup...

Because Saka, to most, is not performing up to par. The problem is that out of all the issues, he is the very least. Like if I am to be fair and balance, England has structural issues and switching Saka for Palmer may provide more creativity but it doesn't really change how they play. And if I, a mediocre coach at best and world class manager in FM at most, could see that, I know Southgate can.

Seriously, watching Georgia and Czechia today, Southgate and his coaching team really is setting up these guys for the unnecessary criticism.

Saka has not been anything special at all for England this Euro not the least bit doesn't mean Palmer will be any better. On what basis would he do better as it isn't Saka is the better player.

Southgate just isn't a good coach and never will be. He's a coward and wasting talent by the month.

El Gunner wrote:^^one doesn't mean the other isn't true. And it wasn't just a suggestion from McLewis, it's literal fact and a lot of people on social media including Lewis Hamilton called it out

Bellingham and Saka were good for the first 30 mins of the Serbia game
Foden, as of yet, nothing to show yet in this tournament

I do agree that both can be true at the same time, and that might be the case here, but if I were to criticize the English media during international tournaments, it would be for their tendency to single out specific individuals to a hysterical level every time several of their players clearly fall short of meeting their expectations. If there’s racial profiling on top of it, that just adds insult to injury.


Then again, it’s no secret that they’re writing for the sake of riling people up and generating attention, and not so much for informative reasons. People do like to read about it, otherwise they would have changed their angle by now - but they seem to crank up the hysteria level instead.

Sports journalism during international tournaments in Scandinavia isn’t quite as hysterical and nonsensical, but it’s occasionally the same story of singling out players that are high-profile, but not necessarily guilty of being standout underperformers. People do like to read about it, even if they don’t agree with what’s being written.

Italy looking absolutely awful. They look good in the first game, but too much changing in the lineups now. It's not like the players they're putting in are any better than the players from the first game. Like what is El Sharawy doing in a Euro in 2024 ffs.