Italy v England

[gru]

Watching England apart from world euro finals it's like watching a warm up for the main event. If Italy away was the hardest game in their group wake me when the group ends! Last night I watched start of the game our 1st goal then again just before half time for Kane his pen. Didn't watch rest of the game.

[Grist_To_The_Mill]

Watching England apart from world euro finals it's like watching a warm up for the main event. If Italy away was the hardest game in their group wake me when the group ends! Last night I watched start of the game our 1st goal then again just before half time for Kane his pen. Didn't watch rest of the game.

You didn't miss much

[Bradfordmiller17]

I'm not a fan of Southgate but to be fair, 99% of managers would have done what he did in the circumstances.
Bottom line is they won.

MT would have brought on two strikers for Stones & Donkey being 2-1 up with 5 minutes left. That's the way it's done.

[Heliosphan]

That's probably the worst Italy team I've ever seen to be honest. They were dire first half and lucky they weren't 3-0 down. We should have put them to sleep by half time. But no, they make a few changes and they're all over us 2nd half. Gareth just doesn't seem to be able to respond tactically when we're up against it. This is the reason we won't win anything with him as manager.

Interesting stat about Harry Kane given he's now all time top scorer. Out of his last 13 appearances (going back to March 2022), he's only scored one goal in free play, plus 5 penalties. For the record, I like Harry Kane as a player and think he brings a lot to the team, but the stat did surprise me.

[mellowmiller]

MT would have brought on two strikers for Stones & Donkey being 2-1 up with 5 minutes left. That's the way it's done.

He's done that once and if it had gone wrong people would have gone ape sh!t.
Let's face it, his managerial record with us is nothing to write home about so far.

[Grist_To_The_Mill]

He's done that once and if it had gone wrong people would have gone ape sh!t.
Let's face it, his managerial record with us is nothing to write home about so far.

Neither was his managerial record before he took the job.

Now he's took on Hasselbaink as assistant coach. Another one with a far from spectacular managerial career

[ragingpup]

Neither was his managerial record before he took the job.

Now he's took on Hasselbaink as assistant coach. Another one with a far from spectacular managerial career

I thought mellow was referring to MT??

[ragingpup]

That's probably the worst Italy team I've ever seen to be honest. They were dire first half and lucky they weren't 3-0 down. We should have put them to sleep by half time. But no, they make a few changes and they're all over us 2nd half. Gareth just doesn't seem to be able to respond tactically when we're up against it. This is the reason we won't win anything with him as manager.

Interesting stat about Harry Kane given he's now all time top scorer. Out of his last 13 appearances (going back to March 2022), he's only scored one goal in free play, plus 5 penalties. For the record, I like Harry Kane as a player and think he brings a lot to the team, but the stat did surprise me.

We haven't beaten Italy away for 60 odd years. We have been dire for practically all of my life but have improved a lot since Southgate took over and I think outplayed France in the 2nd half of the WC quarters (normally us getting 2nd half beatings by better teams) and were unlucky to go out as we were playing our best footy. In the first half it seems like we continued that.

BUT yes we have an average defence but if we play on the front foot (as Southgate critics have been shouting at him to do for years) we have a great chance against even the best teams. Yes, a poor 2nd half when Italy's better face showed up and we struggled to cope in midfield, and again Southgate's flaws as a manager were exposed, but I think the win was deserved from most accounts I've read that don't have an axe to grind with the manager. And if we blast good teams away in the first half like this, we'll be doing a lot better than I've been used to all my England supporting life. We're not entitled to owt - our performances over the years have been about par for where we are, but were punching well at the mo.

Still very much enjoying watching England and am going into games against the top powers genuinely thinking we have a chance of properly competing - not something I could say for the vast majority of my 1975 - 2016 England supporting career!

[mellowmiller]

I thought mellow was referring to MT??

I was 🙂

[gru]

Neither was his managerial record before he took the job.

Now he's took on Hasselbaink as assistant coach. Another one with a far from spectacular managerial career

Another loser! New assistant manager.