The Jack Grealish (and occasionally England) Thread: It's coming home attempt 5782570

[Barry Cartman]

They had the chance to change it to 1 country due to Covid, they decided against it, can't blame Platini for that one 

[skybluedave]

Or just don't pick Azerbaijan

[Unknown Hacker]

4 minutes ago, skybluedave said:

Or just don't pick Azerbaijan

Is the correct answer. You could host a tournament across the whole of Western Europe and there would be less travelling involved than there was for the Brazil World Cup. The problem is choosing to host games in a different continent. Especially knockout games.

Edited July 9, 2021 by Unknown Hacker

[enigmatic]

28 minutes ago, skybluedave said:

Or just don't pick Azerbaijan

This. They're miles away, they never qualify, they're not a nation that either gives much of a **** about football or it would be a big deal if they did and UEFA don't really need their oil money.

France/Spain/Italy would make more sense than sending any more games to Baku. Actually **** it, Finland/Greece/Iceland would...

[EnterUsernameHere]

52 minutes ago, Barry Cartman said:

 

Even UEFA being salty now 

How's that salty? It's got nothing to do with England.

[Barry Cartman]

 

 

 

[TM]

if people can't find something to watch on Saturday evening

some TV listings don't seem to have changed yet though, although I can see it on the Freeview EPG

[Rob1981]

14 minutes ago, Barry Cartman said:

If only we'd beaten Scotland in that group game.

[skybluedave]

I remember Shaws little back flick.

I still panicked when we lost it as minute to go still

Edited July 9, 2021 by skybluedave

[Rob1981]

42 minutes ago, Barry Cartman said:

 

 

 

Also, "found their inner Brazil" ffs.

The last four World Cups Brazil have either gone out in the quarters, or stumbled through to the last four with home advantage and then shipped seven goals

When is this sycophantic nonsense going to end.  It's 20 years since they have been any good.

[The Amazing Dale Watkins]

3 hours ago, Barry Cartman said:

 

 

 

Not to shine a negative light on everything, but let's not go overboard. That was in the final minutes against an exhausted Danish side with a man down who could barely press anymore.

[Barry Cartman]

Can't enjoy anything

Didn't say we are peak Barcelona 

[Astafjevs]

2 hours ago, Rob1981 said:

Also, "found their inner Brazil" ffs.

The last four World Cups Brazil have either gone out in the quarters, or stumbled through to the last four with home advantage and then shipped seven goals

When is this sycophantic nonsense going to end.  It's 20 years since they have been any good.

Give it a rest. They've played some great football at various tournaments, and have won more World Cups than anyone else regardless of their recent record. How dare a nation with one of the greatest histories in the sport is referenced.

[Anthrax Dave]

I am going to spend the evening licking random lampposts, in the hope that my NHS Track and Trace app pings so I can isolate (after getting shitfaced) for a few days.

[enigmatic]

"Inner Brazil" just makes me think of the time Brazil did that to one of our better teams for about 40 minutes after Ronaldinho scored the fluke and then got sent off

[aggressive minor]

6 hours ago, Rob1981 said:

Also, "found their inner Brazil" ffs.

The last four World Cups Brazil have either gone out in the quarters, or stumbled through to the last four with home advantage and then shipped seven goals

When is this sycophantic nonsense going to end.  It's 20 years since they have been any good.

Gosh you will be miserable if England lose!

[EnterUsernameHere]

Found this interesting:

 

 

[skybluedave]

6 hours ago, EnterUsernameHere said:

Found this interesting:

 

 

Thanks. This is exactly what I was looking for the another night. Coz I was thinking it felt like their were players from most parts of country in squad. 

Well except south west 

[sedge11]

22 hours ago, skybluedave said:

I still can't believe England are in the final. Like in my mind I'm aware England are in a big game Sunday but I can't compute it's the actual final. My mind is like 'you wanna double check, you sure it's not a Semi Final' 

I've sat through so many terrible tournaments in my life. I'm going to enjoy and saviour every moment Sunday, win or lose. 

See I’m the opposite, I can believe it, as with the teams we have faced and the quality of our squad I expected it.

Now the final is different as Italy are a strong mentally tough team, if we win Sunday then it will be just mental.

21 hours ago, Bigwig said:

Some of the schools around here are offering flexible start times so you can either drop kids off at normal time or if they need a lie in they can start at 10.00am. 

My sons school done the same, my work have also offered us to come in 2 hours late Monday or will give us 2 hours off somewhere else during the week, which is nice.

Edited July 10, 2021 by sedge11

[Smallen]

Not sure about the first tweet mind 😬 

[Rob1981]

Come on Southgate don’t lose it now  

Going a bit Mike Bassett there

[RTHerringbone]

Current status: over confident.

Not sure why but I've distilled the game down to who does better - our attack against their defence or their attack versus our defence.

I just think our forward line with its movement and pace causes them more trouble because our defence is arguably better equipped to deal with their attacking strengths.

I also want Mancini to lose his mind and start Berardi ahead of Chiesa, because Berardi is ****ing useless. 

This all conveniently ignores the disparity in midfield 

 

[Smallen]

Granted Spain are the best in the biz, but Italy’s midfield wasn’t impressive at all in the semi-final. A couple of them also looked knackered.

Mount will nullify Jorginho, Barella is knackered and Verratti will get sent off after headbutting Phillips in the knee.

[The_jagster]

8 minutes ago, RTHerringbone said:

Current status: over confident.

Not sure why but I've distilled the game down to who does better - our attack against their defence or their attack versus our defence.

I just think our forward line with its movement and pace causes them more trouble because our defence is arguably better equipped to deal with their attacking strengths.

I also want Mancini to lose his mind and start Berardi ahead of Chiesa, because Berardi is ****ing useless. 

This all conveniently ignores the disparity in midfield 

 

Hopefully he listens to the Zonal Marking podcast who think Chiesa just runs and shoots from poor positions so is pretty wasteful. Berardi fails on the use your eyes test.

I think their midfield is a 9/10 and front three a 7/10 and we are the other way round, so we could still cause problems even if we lose the midfield battle.

[skybluedave]

If you gamble on the game being a slow started it might be better to start Berardi and then freshen up with Chiesa 2nd half. Don't think that will happen but the subs against Spain didn't really work for Mancini

[EnterUsernameHere]

12 minutes ago, Smallen said:

Granted Spain are the best in the biz, but Italy’s midfield wasn’t impressive at all in the semi-final. A couple of them also looked knackered.

Mount will nullify Jorginho, Barella is knackered and Verratti will get sent off after headbutting Phillips in the knee.

Not a chance England can win the midfield battle. If they try to, they'll lose. They'd do better by just skipping it.

[RTHerringbone]

Just now, EnterUsernameHere said:

Not a chance England can win the midfield battle. If they try to, they'll lose. They'd do better by just skipping it.

I don't see why we can't compete if we set up correctly.

Barella isn't outrageously good. Jorginho is very good at what he does and Verratti is outstanding.

I think the energy of Mount, Phillips and Rice can absolutely disrupt them. The English midfield is inferior but they aren't incompetent carthorses with no finesse or technique. 

[EnterUsernameHere]

5 minutes ago, RTHerringbone said:

I don't see why we can't compete if we set up correctly.

Barella isn't outrageously good. Jorginho is very good at what he does and Verratti is outstanding.

I think the energy of Mount, Phillips and Rice can absolutely disrupt them. The English midfield is inferior but they aren't incompetent carthorses with no finesse or technique. 

Hmm. I can't say I agree. Italy's midfield copes pretty well with the press. You can limit their effectiveness but they'll run rings round that English trio if that's the aim. 

I think they'll put Mount on Verratti or Jorginho and forget about winning it overall. 

[skybluedave]

Italy will have more of the ball because their midfield is better at that. I assume that's what you mean by winning midfield battle. 

But Mount can press Jorginho into mistakes hopefully, Rice can track Barella's runs and hopefully Sterling and Saka can exploit the full backs who like to get forward. 

Against Denmark we worked it down the wings all the time and didn't really go through the middle. 

There are ingredients there for England to have success buy vice versa too with Italy. Which makes it really hard to call for me and probably why everyone has it 50/50

[EnterUsernameHere]

5 minutes ago, skybluedave said:

Italy will have more of the ball because their midfield is better at that. I assume that's what you mean by winning midfield battle. 

But Mount can press Jorginho into mistakes hopefully, Rice can track Barella's runs and hopefully Sterling and Saka can exploit the full backs who like to get forward. 

Against Denmark we worked it down the wings all the time and didn't really go through the middle. 

There are ingredients there for England to have success buy vice versa too with Italy. Which makes it really hard to call for me and probably why everyone has it 50/50

Yes pretty much what I meant. I think if England go into the game trying to have more of the ball, they'll lose. 

I don't think Southgate will even try to dominate though, so agree it's near 50/50.

[pearcey_90]

Game possession will be 50/50. Not one side will dominate ball more than other, and will come down to who uses it the best, and I’m confident we will get our fast attackers one on one more than they will. 

[The_jagster]

Mancini talked about how he knew they weren't going to win the midfield battle with Spain and planned around it. I don't know how much is revisionism, did Mancini really tell them "look, Spain are better on the ball so don't worry".

[Smallen]

Spain played through their midfield with relative ease at times. I don't think that was deliberate tactics from Mancini somehow. Spain forwards, Olmo in particular, were taking up spaces between the lines and Italy didn't cope well with it at all. It's why I'd like to see Foden play but I think Mount will start for his defensive contribution, which is fair enough.

[EnterUsernameHere]

23 minutes ago, The_jagster said:

Mancini talked about how he knew they weren't going to win the midfield battle with Spain and planned around it. I don't know how much is revisionism, did Mancini really tell them "look, Spain are better on the ball so don't worry".

Doubt he was extreme as that but don't he'd have tried to dominate in the middle, just like I don't think Southgate will. 

England are better out wide than centrally, a Rice-Phillips midfield isn't going to dominate possession over Italy's trio.

[enigmatic]

Mount sitting on Jorginho evens up the numbers. I've seen Mata do that job effectively against Chelsea before

[craigcwwe]

Italy had just 30% of the ball vs Spain and imo Italy's midfield is better than Spain's. 

To say England can't compete against Italy in CM is farcical. I'd expect possession to be pretty even for the most part for the final. 

It's such a complex battle when you start putting our attack vs their defence or our defence vs their attack before you even get to the midfield battle. 

[Tony85]

Foden sat out some of the training today. Apparently picked up some minor injury in training yesterday.

Edited July 10, 2021 by Tony85

[The_jagster]

It's interesting to me that most non-English pundits have said that even when we've had the ball it has been quite slow and conservative rather than building pressure on the opposition, if we do keep the ball it will be a bit like how the Czechs did against us, fairly deep and unthreatening. If England get ahead the midfield battle isn't as important imo, if we are behind I could see Kane being anonymous again. Mount is the only one in midfield who is really capable of receiving the pass and creating space in the same move, and I don't really know how good Barella is.

[Pukey]

Loads said we'd have no chance against Croatia and German's midfield. I know Italy's is exceptional but Rice and Phillips are so much better than people are making out. 

I don't think we'll be going into it specifically trying to win the midfield battle, but this isn't championship cloggers. 

Edited July 10, 2021 by Pukey

[EnterUsernameHere]

6 minutes ago, craigcwwe said:

Italy had just 30% of the ball vs Spain and imo Italy's midfield is better than Spain's. 

To say England can't compete against Italy in CM is farcical. I'd expect possession to be pretty even for the most part for the final. 

It's such a complex battle when you start putting our attack vs their defence or our defence vs their attack before you even get to the midfield battle. 

England's midfield is nowhere near as good as Spain's. 

It's different too, by not competing I just mean they aren't going to out-pass Italy. Rice and Phillips isn't set out to command the midfield but to disrupt the opposition. 

I think Italy will edge possession overall, and in midfield will dominate it. I don't think that'll dictate who wins though.

[craigcwwe]

4 minutes ago, EnterUsernameHere said:

England's midfield is nowhere near as good as Spain's. 

It's different too, by not competing I just mean they aren't going to out-pass Italy. Rice and Phillips isn't set out to command the midfield but to disrupt the opposition. 

I think Italy will edge possession overall, and in midfield will dominate it. I don't think that'll dictate who wins though.

Technically no, if we assume we're starting with Phllips, Rice and Mount ahead of them. 

I don't think we're going to set up to out pass Italy specifically in midfield as that's unlikely to happen, I can see England having a good amount of possession in deep areas though at the back, that's been the case for most of these games so far. Slow build up, keeping the ball moving around the back and the two DMs. I think we'll try to do that and then get in down the sides and not try to play through Italy's centre. 

Edited July 10, 2021 by craigcwwe

[EnterUsernameHere]

1 minute ago, craigcwwe said:

Technically no, if we assume we're starting with Phllips, Rice and Mount ahead of them. 

I don't think we're going to set up to out pass Italy specifically in midfield as that's unlikely to happen, I can see England having a good amount of possession in deep areas though at the back, that's been the case for most of these games so far. Slow build up, keeping the ball moving around the back and the two DMs. I think we'll try to do that and then get in down the sides and not try to play through Italy's centre. 

Yes, agree, I think that'll be the plan too. 

[Astafjevs]

Spain were able to control things because they play a particular way. Not because their three are better players than Italy's. I'd expect Italy to be able to impose their game a bit better than the SF because England don't play like Spain. And they don't have the players to play like Spain either

[CMOZZA]

This made me laugh because this could easily be a genuine Talksport caller

[Barry Cartman]

1 hour ago, EnterUsernameHere said:

England's midfield is nowhere near as good as Spain's. 

What utter nonsense

Spain played with a false 9 which gave them more of the ball, nothing to do with somehow having a better midfield 

 

[EnterUsernameHere]

2 minutes ago, Barry Cartman said:

What utter nonsense

Spain played with a false 9 which gave them more of the ball, nothing to do with somehow having a better midfield 

 

Busquets/Pedri/Koke isn't better than Phillips/Rice/Mount? Wake up.

[craigcwwe]

1 minute ago, EnterUsernameHere said:

Busquets/Pedri/Koke isn't better than Phillips/Rice/Mount? Wake up.

Not being bias but I take the England three there. 

Busquets is past it, Koke is a nothing player, Pedri is something special though and the best of the 6 there but on the whole, England's midfield for me.

[Lucas]

Not really sure the two midfields are comparable given they play completely different and offer different things to the side. 

 

[VP.]

Annie Mac's Mini Mix - Melé 'It's Coming Home' Mini Mix

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p09nyx87

[aggressive minor]

34 minutes ago, EnterUsernameHere said:

Busquets/Pedri/Koke isn't better than Phillips/Rice/Mount? Wake up.

I’m with EUH. England are a very good team, attack and defence are brilliant.

Let’s not kid ourselves over midfield …it’s decent, but nothing compared to Spain’s