I Don’t Normally Do This……….

Watch England International games but tonight I watched the England v Italy Euro qualifier.

Well done England, qualifying for the finals in Germany with two games to go. I am not a big fan of playing it out from the back, but it worked tonight though, although I do get nervous all the time.

Harry Kane was so composed and took an excellent penalty to equalize after going 1-0 down. His second, Englands third was also well taken.

Jude Bellingham was brilliant throughout his time on the pitch and Englands second goal was really down to his effort in winning the ball back, then the pass to Marcus Rashford who, you have to say, took his goal well. A fully deserved win.

Lastly, well done Gareth Southgate, he gets a little flak at times but tonight he got the tactics right against a resurgent Italian side.

I didn’t know they were playing. Nevertheless I am pleased they won

Was a very poor Italy side, key players missing. That said a wins a win!

Southgate has done great for England. Record speaks for itself. Great performance last night against a typical dogged defensive Italy side that can always bite your ass on a breakaway. There are always complainers just waiting to spew their negativity. Must be hard on their wives too. “These eggs aren’t good enough!” “What did you do to this bacon!”

Good performance and a generally entertaining game of football. Night and day contrast to the eye wateringly dire sideways backwards bore fest that was the friendly against Australia.

Still far too much backwards sideways bo**ox for me. Second and third goals were accomplished by breaking quickly. It was like watching Albion at times, slow, slow, slow, quick, slow.

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Originally Posted by Grand Wazoo

Still far too much backwards sideways bo**ox for me. Second and third goals were accomplished by breaking quickly. It was like watching Albion at times, slow, slow, slow, quick, slow.

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I totally understand where you are coming from GW. In the second half we were on the edge of their box having broke. Italy backtracked quickly and got players behind the ball and eventually there appeared no way forward for England so England played it back to midfield. Italy then pressed hard so England sent the ball back and again Italy pressed and the ball ended up back with Pickford. I did let out a gasp of expiration at that point thinking ‘what the the heck!’

We had however kept possession and I suspect the thought is, while you have possession they can’t score. It is a case of damned if you do damned if you don’t. It is also a good ability if a team is able to keep possession as well as have the ability to break quick.

Sometimes it is boring watching the possession game but last night I think Gareth Southgate got the tactics spot on. As said above, ‘a win is a win.’

Before the 2018 World Cup I said I could never envisage England winning a WC in my lifetime the number 1 reason being a total lack of creative midfielders. Our midfielders in 2018 Dier, Lingard, Dele Ali, Henderson, Loftus-Cheek.

Now we have an embarrassment of riches in the likes of Madison, Foden, Grealish, Eze.

I would like to see Southgate send out the message 'We believe we have the best players in the World' and do away with the second defensive hard working mid fielder; leave that to the excellent Rice. Pair one of the above with the world's greatest No10 Bellingham.

We might just scare the others to death!

Most countries (exception might be Greece winning the EC, for instance) that have won the WC or EC the last 20-30 years have had top world class offensive players, such as:

Zidane, Henry, Iniesta, Xavi, Ronaldo, C Ronaldo, Rivaldo, Özil, Messi, Pirlo and more.

With all due respect: I can’t really put Maddison, Grealish, Saka, Eze and more in the same category. Not yet, anyway.

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Originally Posted by SwedishBaggie

Most countries (exception might be Greece winning the EC, for instance) that have won the WC or EC the last 20-30 years have had top world class offensive players, such as:

Zidane, Henry, Iniesta, Xavi, Ronaldo, C Ronaldo, Rivaldo, Özil, Messi, Pirlo and more.

With all due respect: I can’t really put Maddison, Grealish, Saka, Eze and more in the same category. Not yet, anyway.

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Agree 100% that is the quality of those greats are all but essential to win the WC or the EC. Would you disagree we already have 2 in Bellingham and Kane? I think Saka is already there too.

Maddison, Grealish, Eze, Foden are tearing it up in the toughest league in the world. To different extents all of them have imo opinion either been under used or badly used (Maddison played for 30 mins as a sub and then had to wait 3 years for his next cap and got played as a winger)

I think Southgate should use these games coming up to see which of those 4 would be best in a front 5 with Bellingham, Kane, Saka, Rashford .

That's a positive move and this is what most England fans want and fail to get from Southgate.

PS. As a final thought are any of the usual of European football winners flush with world class players right now? France yes but the other 'big 3' all struggling for form right now