England v North Macedonia

[Magpies1959]

England play like Notts in a lot of ways, but obviously a quicker tempo, as the players are levels better. If you don't like the way England play, I am thinking you must find Notts boring as well.
The only player that comes across as a prima donna to me, is Rashford, Yes they are massively overpaid, but are totally in it for the honour of playing for their country, under Southgate.

[magpie_mania]

I thought there was one from Maguire, a push on one of their forwards that was deffo a pen and wasn't given. Maybe a case of Ref's regret.

Clear penalty for that 'tackle' by Maguire.
I guess that the talk will be that we got the job done, but surely with the players available our performances should be better.

[Notts78]

I lost interest in watching England ages ago. I didn't even realise they were playing tonight until I turned the TV on and the 2nd half was just starting with them losing 1-0. Thought I'd watch it, now I know why I lost interest in watching England games

You must be sad if you happened to switch on the TV and stumble across Channel 4 😬

[Notts78]

Clear penalty for that 'tackle' by Maguire.
I guess that the talk will be that we got the job done, but surely with the players available our performances should be better.

I think if you look at last night and even Friday against Malta in isolation, there are mitigating circumstances.
We have already qualified.
In both games their were players playing who won’t start come Germany 2024 Euro… some won’t be in the squad.
The players will have their eyes on some big games this weekend.
In both games there were some strange referee calls.

Once again we qualify for a finals tournament with relative ease.

I love watching football, but boy, watching England is just tedious. My boys want to go and see them, but when they churn out that Malta performance, I ain’t spaffing several hundred pounds on tickets/travel/food&beverage. Southgate should have apologised to the 80k for that non performance. Like a few on here, we have a conservative manager who has the hand break firmly on. We had 6 defensive players v Malta. It’s like Man City playing 6 defenders v Solihull.

Then there is the Channel 4 coverage with Dion Dublin. He makes watching England an even less enjoyable experience, if that’s possible.

[crazyfists]

How many did England win by? oh, you didn't. Boring team with arrogant deluded media and fans that remind me of our neighbours across the trent.

Ha ha every England fan on here says they're crap and boring. Then told were arrogant and deluded. Good one.

[magpie_mania]

I think if you look at last night and even Friday against Malta in isolation, there are mitigating circumstances.
We have already qualified.
In both games their were players playing who won’t start come Germany 2024 Euro… some won’t be in the squad.
The players will have their eyes on some big games this weekend.
In both games there were some strange referee calls.

Once again we qualify for a finals tournament with relative ease.

I love watching football, but boy, watching England is just tedious. My boys want to go and see them, but when they churn out that Malta performance, I ain’t spaffing several hundred pounds on tickets/travel/food&beverage. Southgate should have apologised to the 80k for that non performance. Like a few on here, we have a conservative manager who has the hand break firmly on. We had 6 defensive players v Malta. It’s like Man City playing 6 defenders v Solihull.

Then there is the Channel 4 coverage with Dion Dublin. He makes watching England an even less enjoyable experience, if that’s possible.

'I love watching football, but boy, watching England is just tedious.'

What are the mitigating circumstances for this? It's not just when they have already qualified etc., to me it's virtually every time they play.

[thefulltenyards]

Because we had already qualified from the group with ease I did not tune in last night or against Malta but can easily imagine the performances were very different to the two impressive performances against the current European Champions Italy when we were yet to qualify and something was riding on the game. Chalk and cheese?

As for Gareth Southgate, overall his has done well as his record shows and although unbeaten in 2023 to date I believe this should be his last major championship. He has had long enough to win one of the big tournaments, time to let someone else have a go.

Whoever is in charge at least we have a chance of winning it after finally realising in tournament football at the elite level you need to have the ball more than your opponents to control games, save enjoy and increase the chance of winning. The old style we adopted was never going to get it done as our tournament record showed.

[Newish Pie]

I dunno, I think this is the best squad of players England have had for a very long time. They were brilliant against Italy, but for the short time I bothered to watch, pretty awful against Malta and North Macedonia. Watching England used to be pretty much always boring... either laboured performances struggling to break down teams set out to defend, or struggling to string four passes together against decent opposition. The former is still true sometimes, but the latter... those games against Italy.. I never thought I'd see England performances like that against Italy... granted, they're not the Italy side of days gone by, but even so.

As regards Southgate... I think what he (and others) have done is break down all the old club cliques, built team spirit, reconnected with the fans, and made it fun rather than a chore to play for England. We've qualified for tournaments at a canter, and got out of the group stages regularly. As you'd expect with players of that quality at his disposal. I guess my question is... if not Southgate, then who? (Realistically).

[Notts78]

'I love watching football, but boy, watching England is just tedious.'

What are the mitigating circumstances for this? It's not just when they have already qualified etc., to me it's virtually every time they play.

It’s like watching Notts mate… the hope. It’s this that kills you. There have been some decent performances from England amongst the tosh.
Do you remember when we drew 0-0 v Yeovil in front of 16k? Notts dominated possession against a side that literally had 11 men in their box all game. We struggled to break it down. Thats England in most games.

[sidders]

There is absolutely no doubt that Southgate has won the trust and respect of the entire squad so why would you want to get rid of him? He's articulate, intelligent and level-headed - just like our own gaffer. I do agree with the poster who commented that Notts and England have much in common, btw.
The team that played Macedonia was very much a make-do outfit and comprised 20 individuals who were tired and in need of rest. Hardly the background from which a sterling performance would come, especially when you take into account that qualification was already secured.
I thought they played some decent stuff for the opening half hour but failure to get an early goal created unnecessary difficulty.
Oh it's so easy to slag off teams and players and this board has a long history of doing so.