The European Championship

Also, got to say, congrats to Spain for a triple today.

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At least a few times tonight, he should have been busting a gut to get into the box, and I can't really remember him ever doing that. I'm convinced he wasn't really match-fit.

He made hardly any runs, didn't properly compete for headers, misplaced lay offs and was far too easily marked in general. Just not available for a pass and not really taking defenders with him to create space for others because he was barely moving.

Even his ability to drop deep and pick passes is a bit moot in this team. We have others who can do that who are already standing there wondering where the strikers gone?

He took his penalties well and took the chance against Slovakia when the ball fortuitously came his way. We're not Poland. We've got more effective players on the bench. He shouldn't have been starting games. Maybe if he'd been treated like Shaw and rested we'd have a fit and firing Kane in the final.

Agree.

And for that reason, I hope Southgate goes down as a legendary manager. He deserves it for all he has achieved, how he has transformed England, and all the shit he has put up with frankly.

Three lions led by a donkey.

You can't win games by being ultra defensive all the time without a bit of luck and you eventually run out of that.

They might be a more likeable team but they're painfully boring to watch. We didn't dominate a single game and looked more likely to lose in most of the matches than win. I think I'd rather see them fail heroically trying to win the game than watch them keep passing it side to side until they get near the opponent's box then send it all the way back to Pickford.

6 million masochists among us.

I actually quite enjoy Ally McCoist. I said this before that he feels genuine in his opinions. Shame he's got abuse by Scottish fans for being passionate about England.

If you ever feel down on yourself just remember 6 million people willingly listened to Sam Matterface last night.

I actually thought Bellingham was ok for most of the tournament. Always looking for the ball and trying to make things happen (albeit not always successfully) plus a decent assist last night.

Agree that Rice, Foden and especially Walker had poor tournaments. Trip did his best out there, I would have actually been ok with him starting at RB over Walker last night.

Saka, Palmer, Mainoo, Guehi, Stones, Konsa all had good tournaments. Toney & Watkins in their (too brief) cameos as well.

I thought Rice was excellent in the group games but looked absolutely dead on his feet in the knockouts.

Bellingham looked like he’d just come off the back of playing every minute of an 80 game season. He had his moments but, especially against the teams who dared to sit in, he didn’t look inspired.

Foden when he was good was good (last couple of matches) but largely anonymous for most of the tournament.

I think really though the only real problem positions were the TAA experiment which Southgate fixed with Mainoo, the lack of a left hand side to the squad and Kane’s movement. Partly I think teams had Kane figured out, he wasn’t trying to run in behind them so he was easy to mark out of the game. Partly he looked very tired, which probably contributed to the first issue.

Any other gripes about not putting the lesser established nations to bed early was a question of mentality not personnel for me. Tell those exact same players to go for it (or put them 1-0 down) and you could see they can play, the next guy will just need to let them.

And to be fair to Southgate once Shaw was available and Mainoo was in the side things looked a lot more efficient and effective. Its just in terms of entertainment its a shame that hadn’t happened earlier.

Its not like they bottled the final. Spain won every match they played, using every member of their squad apart from the third choice keeper. They were the top scorers and they beat the defending champions, the hosts, the favourites and teams who’d recently been in finals and semis for the World Cup and Euros. This wasn’t slumping out early doors like the 00s Golden Generation used to do.

I was about to post same thing. He was one of our better players in the group games and even in the knockouts he still made vital interceptions and tackles in every game. We would have exited earlier without him.

I've never seen him look as tired as he did in the Holland game. Southgate's system demanded so much of him as the sole holding midfielder trying to cover lots of spaces and often dropping into the back line to cover when Walker/Trippier went awol. I just think the fatigue caught up with him. We need another DM to come through who can sub with him or allow him to play higher up in certain games.

Our shitty form at the end of last season has meant we've had a lot of players getting a full pre season, or at least have not played much at the tournament. The biggest issues are Romero, Lo Celso and Bentancur, but we should be well covered to allow them time to rest.