Got to be said (Putting the world to rights version)

[eddy779h34]

The best team won the Euro's
Thought Southgate got most thinks wrong in the final so negative in his opening selection. Then bringing Grealish on after 90 mins and letting two players who never hardly had a touch take a penalty
but the main fact is Italy deserved to win . I think we only had one shot that I recall
Just hate watching negative mangers who over think an easy game

[MadAmster]

Hmmmm, A sweeping attack, started 20 yards from our goal line by Shaw on the left, a couple of passes later Trippier gets the bll wide right, a very good cross sees Shaw finish it off with a half volley giving their keeper no chance. The following 20 odd minutes we ran the show. The rest of the 1st half was 50/50.

Negative in his opening selection? Absolutely not.

2nd half Italy showed why they deserved to win the competition in regular time. A mixture of some poor shooting, good blocks and good saves saw us given a chance to do it in extra time. We didn't.


The one thing I didnt like was Chiellini's cynical pull back on Saka. According to the current rules and regs, a free kick and a yellow was the right decision. That brought an old idea of mine back into my mind. A 3rd colour card, maybe orange? For actions worthy of more than a yellow but not a red. They would result in an immediate 10 minute sin bin..... unless you already had a yellow or an orange in which case it's red.

The better side on the day won. We can't complain and the rest of Europe are pleased we lost.

[ramAnag]

Afraid I agree with eddy.
Southgate and England have done really well and the future may be bright but there were some strange decisions last night.
I’ll never understand bringing two players on so that virtually their first touch was to take a crucial penalty resulting in so much eventual pressure on an eigh**** year old.
Really, really hard on those players and a poor decision imo.

Quite why Mount stayed on and Grealish wasn’t used until extra time is also a mystery to me. We were second best throughout the second half and things needed to change...at that point we were out managed rather than out played.

Still well done to all...much better than we probably expected. Got a bit lucky against Denmark and it ran out last night but no shame in coming second.

[Geoff Parkstone]

Afraid I agree with eddy.
Southgate and England have done really well and the future may be bright but there were some strange decisions last night.
I’ll never understand bringing two players on so that virtually their first touch was to take a crucial penalty resulting in so much eventual pressure on an eigh**** year old.
Really, really hard on those players and a poor decision imo.

Quite why Mount stayed on and Grealish wasn’t used until extra time is also a mystery to me. We were second best throughout the second half and things needed to change...at that point we were out managed rather than out played.

Still well done to all...much better than we probably expected. Got a bit lucky against Denmark and it ran out last night but no shame in coming second.

Its not often that agree 100% with you rA (dont hold your breath for next one :-)) but Southgate's use - or lack of use - of substitutes was baffling and makes me wonder why we even had a squad. 2 players coming on whose almost first touch was to miss a penalty was bizzarre.

Rashford tried to be too clever - just hit it, dont tit around, just hit it. You dont get two goals for a pretty penalty. After that the other two were on hidings to nothing and I feel most sorry for Saka whose emotions must have been on a real rollercoaster after Sancho missed and Pickford saved. He was a nailed on miss.

Somewhat counter intuitively I think England's cause was not helped by the early goal. if it had come after maybe 30 minutes it would have been much better, but we seemed to try to sit back and play out the last 88 minutes after scoring.

[Andy_Faber]

Its not often that agree 100% with you rA (dont hold your breath for next one :-)) but Southgate's use - or lack of use - of substitutes was baffling and makes me wonder why we even had a squad. 2 players coming on whose almost first touch was to miss a penalty was bizzarre.

Rashford tried to be too clever - just hit it, dont tit around, just hit it. You dont get two goals for a pretty penalty. After that the other two were on hidings to nothing and I feel most sorry for Saka whose emotions must have been on a real rollercoaster after Sancho missed and Pickford saved. He was a nailed on miss.

Somewhat counter intuitively I think England's cause was not helped by the early goal. if it had come after maybe 30 minutes it would have been much better, but we seemed to try to sit back and play out the last 88 minutes after scoring.

At the risk of being accused of being racist (it’s already happened on fb today), they were three shocking penalties (as was Kane’s against Denmark). Right in the goalkeepers ‘sweet spot’ it seems like a national blight, maybe we should go back to the coin toss

[ramAnag]

C’mon AF, don’t go belittling such a serious issue. No one in their right mind is going to accuse you of ‘being racist’ for describing them as ‘three shocking penalties’...BUT the fact that so many halfwitted trolls seem to have resorted to overt racism as a result of those ‘misses’ tells its own story.
Sadly, racism is alive and well in the UK...it doesn’t help when our ‘leaders’ are so careless (at best) and malicious (at worst) with their words, but it does point towards why movements such as BLM and Unite Against Hate are needed.

[Geoff Parkstone]

Or alternatively it points to how utterly ineffective things like BLM and UAH are when these ridiculous social media abuse posts are so rife. two sides to every coin

[MadAmster]

My point in my previous post in this thread was that for 25 to 30 minutes we attacked them and had the upper hand. A sweeping attack over 75 yards going from the left to the right and back again led to a 2nd minute goal.

The opening post was about a "negative opening selection". I don't think the opening selection was negative. It seems some disagree with me but nobody has yet explained why they disagree.

I fully agree that we should have done something to tactics and/or personnel early doors in the 2nd half when it was obvious Italy were on a roll but we didn't. Southgate's first mistake in the tournament.

[ramAnag]

Or alternatively it points to how utterly ineffective things like BLM and UAH are when these ridiculous social media abuse posts are so rife. two sides to every coin

Takes time, GP. Racism has been around since time in memoriam. I certainly remember it from when you and I were kids and you’ll remember as well as I how rife it was in the ‘70 and 80’s.
It’s sad that a loud minority still don’t seem to be capable of learning. God knows why...perhaps it’s all about poor self image...but ‘things like BLM and UAH’ will, I hope, make a difference, and if you doubted their relevance beforehand then you must surely realise after last night that something needs to be done. BLM and UAH are in their relative infancy...but at least they’re trying to make a difference.

[Geoff Parkstone]

It seems to me that the only way is to throw the baby out with the bathwater and have a total clampdown on social media. The companies making billions out of hosting these platforms have to be forced, globally, to act with responsibility in shutting down offending mouths, stopping the return of banned accounts and having some stringent control in allowing profiles onto the platforms in the first place eg perhaps photo id / passports / driving licenses etc. Its far too easy to set up temporary, disappearing overnight, accounts and the platforms of course want to grab as many accounts as they can to maximise monetization.

Clearly the human element will not stop and so a concerted effort to blacklist (can I say that?) offenders is the only way. No 3 strikes rule either - one offensive post and goodbye, no parole, no return. No matter that you posted some drunken rant, tough: learn self control. The tech is surely there to achieve this, but the willingness does not appear to be.

You're right that racism has been around for time immemorial, but there has never been a better time than now for those racists to spread their word. I'd wager that there are substantially less racists now than in the 60's, but those that there are, are way more vocal, having been given a free platform to spout from to all the world and, worse yet, directly target individual accounts as well.

The solution is clear to see - sever the throat and the voice will go unheard, but the tech giants are more powerful than the governments it seems - governments of whatever hue before you make it a conservatives issue. You may never change the mindset, but you might ensure it goes largely unheard