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England v Iran

It's a diffucult one to gauge as some of the teams that made it out of the groups have been quite poor (Switzerland, South Korea, Japan) so until they are up agains someone decent, it's hard to know if they are good or the opposition were just awful. Possibly a bit of both although Portugal always seem to do quite well in tournaments.

Morocco are tricky as they just frustrate you with their defensive style although up against decent forwards, they will probably get found out. What would our path be? France, Portugal and then possibly Brazil or Argentina in the final?
 
Argentina beat Netherlands on penalties, must have been about 15 bookings in total, the antics of both sides were awful with Argentina the biggest culprits
 
France lead at half time, England a bit too laboured in the build up.
 
Should England have been given a penalty for the challenge on Kane? England had a few chances but not really tested the keeper much.
 
Harry kane levels from the spot and equals Rooneys scoring record
 
Giroud going to win it, Kane blazed a penalty over the bar
 
Same old England eh! I do think they played quite well though.
 
Didn't think there was that much between the sides, though the French ultimately more clinical.
 
I thought we took the game to the French and went toe to toe with them, which the majority of England sides in the past would not have been capable of doing.

I thought we were the better side overall, but ultimately it was probably Griezmann who was the difference between the teams. He has the talent of a Bellingham or Foden, but also has one hundred caps behind him.
 
As I’ve said previously, under Southgate we only beat the teams seeded below us & he was again tactically wasteful in terms of our vast attacking attributes.
 
Mungy's Hairdresser said:
As I’ve said previously, under Southgate we only beat the teams seeded below us & he was again tactically wasteful in terms of our vast attacking attributes.
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Completely disagree.

The most successful England manager since Ramsey, and his overall record is probably better than Alf's. Under virtually all of his predecessors we would not even have been contesting the later stages of the last three tournaments.

We have a lot of young talent, but not an Mbappe or a Griezmann in his prime, which was the difference ultimately.

I hope and expect he will stay to take charge of the Euros.
 
Our lack of positive results on foreign soil in competitive games against supposed superior opposition speaks for itself. With all the talent Southgate had to tap into going forward I suspect we all knew he’d be risk averse which predictability was his failing. Very few threats in open play against the French who were more clinical in open play & therefore deserved to win!
 
Southgate deserves enormous credit for his achievements as coach, even if there is a sense it could’ve and maybe should’ve been even better.

But there was something he said recently that concerned me, the gist of which was that he couldn’t think of what more he and the team could’ve done to beat France. Now he may have just needed time to analyse and reflect, but I’ll bet there’s a top class coach out there who can pinpoint exactly what we could’ve done to beat France. Very fine margins, but it’s that level of acumen that’ll now be needed if we’re to take that next step and win something.

Can Southgate himself take that next step and crack it at the very highest level, or should we risk disruption and go for that other coach, whoever it may be? Glad it’s not my decision!
 
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Mungy's Hairdresser said:
Our lack of positive results on foreign soil in competitive games against supposed superior opposition speaks for itself. With all the talent Southgate had to tap into going forward I suspect we all knew he’d be risk averse which predictability was his failing. Very few threats in open play against the French who were more clinical in open play & therefore deserved to win!
Click to expand...
I cannot help seeing parallels with the Mellon debate and the usual let's change mentality. Mellon has a sub-standard squad nearer the play offs than drop zone and his fall guy among the fans is the skipper who he daren't replace for one minute while he gets next to no decent supply, no prizes for guessing why the most visible performer is the fall guy. As mid-table beckons, the only variable available is to destabilise the squad by ditching a competent manager and mounting a relegation challenge. Klopp wouldn't improve this lot much, the potential is on the downside.
I have no attachment to England whatsoever, but see the criticism of Southgate as completely unrealistic. He has outperformed all his living predecessors and some. He only beats lesser teams? Well most cannot do that. If he lost to Morocco, Japan or Saudi, the English sense of superiority would implode. That accounts for four giants doing what England hasn't. Italy and Holland have failed to even get to tournaments, something England no longer do.
Fact is in an unconvincing knock out format, France won but hardly showed any superiority, so a performance similar to Brazil but better than the other two losers. That leaves England roughly fifth equal.
How high is your bar for acceptable success? Does anyone ever consider the potential downside in using a club manager who suddenly spends 99% of his time watching players before brief bouts of working with a group of strangers? Seems to me in both cases Mellon and Southgate, due to a complete lack of coherent argument people plunge at the debate like a man pumping money into a fruit machine.
 
Mungy's Hairdresser said:
As I’ve said previously, under Southgate we only beat the teams seeded below us & he was again tactically wasteful in terms of our vast attacking attributes.
Click to expand...
We were the better side throughout the game but didn't take our chances, that's nothing to do with the manager it's simply the players.
 
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