England v Italy THE FINAL

[SwedishBaggie]

I’m not overly impressed by Grealish, a good and technically gifted player without a doubt, but with some flaws: the repeated diving etc, he slows things up often with the compulsory 4-5 touches on the ball before passing it on and in the football of today pace is paramount.

And the off pitch performances really tarnish the ”bigger picture”, which for me plays a big role when forming an opinion about a player. I like the Ben Fosters and Marcus Rashfords.

And, yes, of course, there have been many Albion players with similar problems (Berahino anyone…).

The two best English players in the PL this season IMO were Foden and Mount. Mount has not impressed in the EC though, and the answer to Grealish/Mount is Foden IMO.

I think Southgate had a too negative and defensive approach all in all, and some key decisions let him down (penalty shoot out…). But, I also think that England really lack a world class creative playmaker of a central midfielder - look at the WC/EC winning countries the last 20 years (Spain, Italy, France, Germany). Rice/Phillips were very good but they hardly match that profile, and never will. Without that it is hard to win I think (and some countries have really defensive minded players who also can deliver master class passes etc, think Hummels, Busquets, Bonucci, and not Maguire…).

All in all, well done England.

The format of the EC of course farcical, all 4 sides to reach the semi finals played all group games at home, but that’s another thing (and how could Portugal/Germany/France end up in same group, and Belgium/Italy/Spain/France on the same half!?). And, yes, Sweden were on ”the poorer half” and bottled it! 😎😉