Group D: England, Croatia, Scotland, Czech Republic

[whoareyaaa]

All I can see is Grelish having a Gazza moment  

[Zear0]

31 minutes ago, whoareyaaa said:

All I can see is Grelish having a Gazza moment  

On or off the pitch?

[Jon the Hat]

39 minutes ago, whoareyaaa said:

All I can see is Grelish having a Gazza moment  

Foden has turned up with Gazzaesque dyed hair. 

[whoareyaaa]

2 minutes ago, Jon the Hat said:

Foden has turned up with Gazzaesque dyed hair. 

lol true 

[whoareyaaa]

11 minutes ago, Zear0 said:

On or off the pitch?

hopefully on the pitch

[goody2028]

[Legend_in_blue]

3 hours ago, whoareyaaa said:

All I can see is Grelish having a Gazza moment  

 

I saw a FB post earlier showing Foden copying Gazza's haircut/style from Euro 96.  Deluded comments followed in the FB comments suggesting because he is copying him, he'll own the tournament and beat Scotland all by himself.  

 

Some of our players need to keep their egos in check.

[Col city fan]

22 hours ago, Wymsey said:

Just hope Southgate realises that the past few performances have been dull to watch, hardly much creativity.

Hope it's not sideways football, just actually go for it.

It won’t be. Southgate is your archetypal play it safe, don’t lose and hope we win, type manager. You can see it in him and you can see it on the pitch. He’s the perfect FA front man. Politically correct in everything he does and says, doesn’t challenge, doesn’t make any waves. Very robotic in his personality type. I always imagine him to be a ‘good guy’ but wouldn’t be much of a laff to have a beer with, wouldn’t stray from the party line and wouldn’t say what he maybe ‘REALLY’ felt for fear of someone quoting him to trip him up. He’s ‘safe’ and I imagine that’s how he’s pretty much always been.

One of my favourite England managers was Venables. His own man, with a tendency for the naughty from time to time but the players under him absolutely loved him.

I see Southgate as a ‘manager’ whereas Venables was a ‘leader’. The players knew if they fooked about with him he’d publically beat them with his wit and his demeanour.

However, that type of manager couldn’t exist these days. Even Ferguson would struggle nowadays. There’s too much player power, too much media attention, too much image over substance and too much social brainwashing

I reiterate, I want to see England do well. The nation needs a success story and something we can excited by. But I maintain IF we do well it won’t be because of Southgate, it will be in spite of him.

Edited 9 June 2021 by Col city fan

[mjallby21]

My brother is going to be back home for first time in two years, I want to take him to a game, i know ill be paying through the roof, but anyone recommend any of these black market sites that is reliable? Viagogo was my go to for many years, but no england tickets at all. Pretty shoicked by that. Either they've been banned from selling them or they are actual gold dust

[Bert]

1 hour ago, Legend_in_blue said:

 

I saw a FB post earlier showing Foden copying Gazza's haircut/style from Euro 96.  Deluded comments followed in the FB comments suggesting because he is copying him, he'll own the tournament and beat Scotland all by himself.  

 

Some of our players need to keep their egos in check.

And he wasn’t even born until 4 years later! 

[Finnegan]

5 hours ago, whoareyaaa said:

All I can see is Grelish having a Gazza moment  

 

I can definitely see Grealish trying way too hard against Scotland because the Gazza comparisons have gone to his head, not passing to anyone, losing the ball a lot and having an absolute stinker. 

 

He's a talented guy but the English media just can never help themselves. Sterling and Sancho are the English Messis, Greenwood is the best finisher anyone's ever seen, Grealish is Gazza, Foden was basically the world's best player at 17.

 

It's never fair on them tbqh. 

[Rain King]

Grealish will get a red at some point and be blamed for the exit.

[CosbehFox]

2 hours ago, Col city fan said:

It won’t be. Southgate is your archetypal play it safe, don’t lose and hope we win, type manager. You can see it in him and you can see it on the pitch. He’s the perfect FA front man. Politically correct in everything he does and says, doesn’t challenge, doesn’t make any waves. Very robotic in his personality type. I always imagine him to be a ‘good guy’ but wouldn’t be much of a laff to have a beer with, wouldn’t stray from the party line and wouldn’t say what he maybe ‘REALLY’ felt for fear of someone quoting him to trip him up. He’s ‘safe’ and I imagine that’s how he’s pretty much always been.

One of my favourite England managers was Venables. His own man, with a tendency for the naughty from time to time but the players under him absolutely loved him.

I see Southgate as a ‘manager’ whereas Venables was a ‘leader’. The players knew if they fooked about with him he’d publically beat them with his wit and his demeanour.

However, that type of manager couldn’t exist these days. Even Ferguson would struggle nowadays. There’s too much player power, too much media attention, too much image over substance and too much social brainwashing

I reiterate, I want to see England do well. The nation needs a success story and something we can excited by. But I maintain IF we do well it won’t be because of Southgate, it will be in spite of him.

So why did the players in 1996 go get pissed in Hong Kong in between international friendlies under Venables? Particularly at a very political sensitive time for the UK in Hong Kong. 
 

If the players respected him that much, why did they put him in that scenario? 
 

There’s a great haze when it comes to modern management and management of the past. Relationships are far better now than it ever was between managers and players than years ago. I don’t disagree with a lot what you say about Southgate but I’d say in the last week he’s shown himself pretty well as a leader defending his players stance on a hot topic subject 

[RowlattsFox]

11 hours ago, Rain King said:

Grealish will get a red at some point and be blamed for the exit.

I've never seen him react too badly in the past, he's more of a whinge at the ref type but I had this same thought. Everything is being set up for something like that. 

[Gazi Giray]

I am sorry not to be able to watch Barnes in this tournament.. 

[RoboFox]

22 hours ago, Jon the Hat said:

Foden has turned up with Gazzaesque dyed hair. 

He said in yesterdays press conference that he had no idea about the comparisons. I'm inclined to believe him. Seems like a nice lad, but perhaps not the sharpest. 

 

If that was me I would've owned it and claimed it as absolutely intentional, even though it looks like it's straight out of a PS2-era create-a-character in an RPG game. 

[Ric Flair]

Hahahahaa the rumours of 4 full backs in a back 5, 2 DCM's and Sterling up top with Kane on Sunday... finish it off with Boris delaying the lifting of restrictions on Sunday night and there's the recipe for anarchy if ever I've seen one.

[CosbehFox]

6 hours ago, RowlattsFox said:

I've never seen him react too badly in the past, he's more of a whinge at the ref type but I had this same thought. Everything is being set up for something like that. 

Kicked off at Wilf before though 

[ClaphamFox]

2 hours ago, Ric Flair said:

Hahahahaa the rumours of 4 full backs in a back 5, 2 DCM's and Sterling up top with Kane on Sunday... finish it off with Boris delaying the lifting of restrictions on Sunday night and there's the recipe for anarchy if ever I've seen one.

Where have you heard this?!

[purpleronnie]

I genuinely have no idea who will win this group, it's wide open IMO.

[Ric Flair]

1 hour ago, ClaphamFox said:

Where have you heard this?!

Media reporting it today 

[Col city fan]

If we can’t beat the Scots we have no right to win this tournament anyway. 

[ClaphamFox]

1 hour ago, Ric Flair said:

Media reporting it today 

If he does play a back five and four of them are full backs, that will be one hell of a snub to Coady and Mings   I'm not massively keen on a back five but it could work if he played one DCM and an ACM (eg Rice and Mount), then played Kane, Foden and either Sancho or Grealish as the three forwards. If he plays a back five and two DCMs, then he deserves all the stick he'll get if we don't win.

Edited 10 June 2021 by ClaphamFox

[Ric Flair]

37 minutes ago, ClaphamFox said:

If he does play a back five and four of them are full backs, that will be one hell of a snub to Coady and Mings   I'm not massively keen on a back five but it could work if he played one DCM and an ACM (eg Rice and Mount), then played Kane, Foden and either Sancho or Grealish as the three forwards. If he plays a back five and two DCMs, then he deserves all the stick he'll get if we don't win.

Agreed, you just know that he's not going to field the side most of us want or play to our strengths. What's really really odd though is he's gone top heavy on wingers and ACM's and left us quite short on defenders and central midfielders and yet they're the 2 areas he likes to load his teams with, baffling. He hasn't got a clue.

[Nuneatonfox in Manchester]

5 hours ago, Ric Flair said:

Hahahahaa the rumours of 4 full backs in a back 5, 2 DCM's and Sterling up top with Kane on Sunday... finish it off with Boris delaying the lifting of restrictions on Sunday night and there's the recipe for anarchy if ever I've seen one.

My god.

Sterling should be no where the starting 11. He’s been absolutely dreadful all year. It would be a farce. I thought the only reason he was included in the squad was because of his marketability, similar to Rashford who has also been pretty dreadful, although I do think Rash is a good option from the bench.