Thetownend.com

The young Lady from Bolton knows her stuff but do you agree with her team selection

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XXX0H4OUwpY&t=518s

Can she cook?

Lancashire hotpot :pint:

Not interested in international football. 

Do let us know which other threads you're not interested in, it'll be riveting content.

I love international football. It's a communal thing for me in the way that club football never has been. I support Swindon, but none of my close friends do. Basically none of my family either. I love international tournaments because I get to share football and support the same team together with people I care about. I do sometimes find myself getting a bit holier than thou and grumpy with people who don't give a shit about football normally getting into these international tournaments but deep down, I'd fucking love to get to experience a tournament win alongside them all. Probably not this time though.

On the other hand, this is the first tournament I'll have been living in Scotland for, so perhaps none of that applies. 

Ok, no problem. I will see what I can do.

You can't please some people they only want to criticise

Not interested that you’re not interested in International football.

Looking forward to the Euros. England have a pretty decent chance I reckon.

Netball?

They do?

Genuine question, I don't follow it at all until there's a major competition on.

France look by some distance the best team and should destroy all comers but are always on the edge of a squad breakdown. We might be best of the rest on paper though, probably close with Spain and Germany. Some obvious flaws in our side but same for most of these teams.

I genuinely didn’t even know the Euros were this summer. Covid has destroyed my sporting clock.

I can’t see us winning or even getting close but we do have an exciting young squad.

I’m really looking forward to it, I love international tournaments.

well, in reality they probably don't really. I have no real idea how good any of the other countries and apart from Swindon I have barely watched any football over the last year. I guess I am basing it on Southgate managing to get to the semi finals of the World Cup with an inferior squad of players. (in my view) Mount and Foden have come on in leaps and bounds and in Harry Kane there are always goals. I'm ususally pessimistic about England but for some reason, with most of our games at home, we might do quite well.

England being joint favourites for this has to be one of the easiest, if not the easiest lays ever. Zero chance with Southgate in charge*.


*I'd fucking love to be wrong.

Are we joint favourites? Surely only with English bookies?

I could see us being joint second with all the games at home, but surely France are clear of the pack?

Why is there no chance with Southgate in charge? He got us to the semi-finals of the World Cup. Don't you think we are moving in the right direction under him?

This.

Although when Swindon are doing shit I lose interest in the England team too even though I used to follow them everywhere back in the 80s and 90s, football in general has left me flat at the moment.

I will watch the finals but have no idea if we have a decent squad or not TBH.

I caught some of the game vs Albania and thought Phillips and Pope looked way out of their depth at international level.

The football under Southgate is much like Williams football, not exciting to watch and slow build up and dull, maybe they will kick it up a notch in more meaniful games, its just not exciting to watch for me.

No idea if we have any chance of winning as I don't keep an eye on other international scores or performances to be able to judge our level.

Yeah - Us & France are 5s in most places.

UK bookies always seem to over-egg England in tournaments. I guess because the patriotic ones will back us whatever happens and so we are priced accordingly?

We beat nothing, got rolled twice by Belgium, and knocked out by a shite Croatia side.

Nah - I think he did a fantastic job reuniting the nation and making us believe again, but now we need a manager who can take us that one step further. He's not that man for me.

oh for sure!

I don't think Southgate's especially good or anything but no international managers are really - most of France don't rate Deschamps and he's won a World Cup, Roberto fucking Martinez manages Belgium and so on. They get so little time with the players that any proper in-depth tactical coach would be wasted.

I love international tournaments and not just for the England games, I usually aim is to watch all the games. I have almost zero interest in top level club competition so international football gives me the opportunity to watch the best players in the world and the football saturation level is wonderful. World Cup is best but Euros a close 2nd. Come on England.
  

I think you are being a little bit harsh. I can't argue that losing to Belgium was disappointing but they are a very good side. I think by the Croatia game we were knackered, not an excuse of course but I think getting to the semis is better than expectation. I think he's done a really good job and for me we are improving under him. We'll probably flop badly now but we'll see.

France and Belgium are will be favourites, France have even bought Benzema back in from the cold so they will actually have a decent striker this time around as well.

As for England, we have some decent attacking players but defensively and keeper wise we are poor with not a single world class defender or keeper, same in central midfield to be honest.  So when it comes to tight matches against decent teams we will be found wanting especially with Southgate not exactly being a tactical genius. 

Like many times before I expect us to go out after losing a game we shouldn't, probably due to a dodgy VAR decision. VAR and England heartbreak in a major tournament seems like a perfect match.

I think if we win Group D we will play the runner up of Group F in the last 16...which looks likely to be either France, Germany or Portugal. My money is on England V Portugal and an unhappy ending.

(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/E2O2F8VXMAkW21H?format=jpg&name=medium)

33 man squad means just about everyone is in for the time being, except Eric Dier (Hallelujah).

Right back decision kicked down the road for another week!

With the incredibly timid and defensive way he plays I wouldn't be surprised if he took all those defenders. He certainly doesn't need that many attackers.

Great squad, an average manager. We're tactically stunted, and that'll be our undoing.

I don't think he is the greatest manager but its interesting how opinion has changed. I would argue at the last tournament he did well tactically to get what he could out of a squad with very average players in positions, especially midfield.

The fear is now he has more options and ability in the squad and can he do the same now. Probably not, just from an opinion point of view the increased options means most will suggest he's wrong because he should have started Grealish, Sancho, Rashford, who ever is left out. It was hard to argue he didnt pick the best players in the last tournament.

Midfield looks a bit rancid to me.

Holding players Henderson and Rice will be ok

Yep, as long as both are fit enough to play most of the minutes. I would've taken Maddison (instead of Lingaard) because he's a best passer of all the AMFs but he ain't been playing well so fair dinkum.

How to make the most of Kane is the key and just hope he doesn't get injured. Semi final will be a good achievement.

They’ll get overloaded by decent teams or ones that have an extra man in the middle. Still seems to me that we have decent attackers, an OK midfield, a poor defence and garbage keepers so don’t get how we are one of the favourites. In tight matches against decent teams our backline and keepers will be a liability.

Because there is always lots of money on England by mug punters and horror of all horrors if we win the bookies will take a kicking.

I don't mind a World Cup or Euros but once the Champions League gets to the knockout stages for me it's by far the best quality football going, including Internationals.

Is it the megabucks nonsense of the top-level club stuff that puts you off?

Just the same few rich teams every year. Even teams like Porto and Ajax are unlikely to ever win another European Cup, nowadays you need state sponsorship to break into the top tier and it's boring. Champions League would be much better as a straight knock-out from the start... winners like Marseille and Red Star Belgrade, imagine that nowadays.

Football has been a disaster this year so I may change my mind once the stadiums are full again but I struggled to watch 90 mins of any match this season. Swindon being absolute dog shit hasn't helped mind.

There have been 13 different teams in the last ten champions league finals

There were 9 different teams in the first 10 European cup finals

In the 90’s it was 12 different teams, in the 70’s and 80’s it was 14.

Winners are no more or less homogenous than it ever was.

Surprised not to see Patrick Bamford not even selected provisionally. He's had a cracking season 17 or 18 goals I think.

Definitely ahead of Grealish, Greenwood, Sako and Watkins for me.

Southgate is on crack in that regard.

Did Curran not make it into the squad?

Ahead of Grealish?  Really?  You'd rather a player that would be 3rd choice at best in his position and very likely to hardly feature than a player who will start some matches? 

A player like Grealish is exactly what we have been in need of against the kind of opposition that will pack their own defensive 3rd and is an absolute shoe in for any England squad he is fit and available for, to leave him out for a benchwarmer is a preposterous suggestion.

The megabucks puts me off a smidgin.  But the extra quality, come the knock out stages, is something at which most fans of the game can only wonder.  I also enjoy the coming together of clubs from different nations and that applies to the World Cup and Euros also.

I barely watch the over-hyped Premiership, which leaves me under-informed and under-opinionated when it comes to selecting an England team.  Although I'd love England to do well, I have to confess I'd also love to see Curran play.

Curious about this and I’m not having a dig but why do you think it’s overhyped?

For me it’s comfortably the best league in the world and has been so for a couple of seasons now, although according to the likes of Sky it been that way for the past 25 years!

It’s a not a coincidence that the 2 of the last 3 CL finals have been all premier league affairs

Grealish is way over-rated and doesn't work in the system we play. He's not fit to lace Foden's boots.

its an interesting topic of conversation. I'm also of the opinion that its overhyped and my reasoning is thus.

When I was younger, in my teens, early to mid-twenties etc I would watch any televised game going, but as I got older football was on telly ALL the time and its appeal diminished. Going to Swindon and watching lower league football was much more of a buzz. Then the whole Sky Sports 'best league in the world' gambit was thrown down viewers throats and it got me thinking, well is it, really?

I only really watch a handful of Premier league games these days, often the bigger games down the pub. If I am honest I don't really enjoy it that much. Don't get me wrong, the standard of football is excellent and we have some of the best players in the world in our league. But is it the best? For me the best league is one that excites viewers, does the EPL do this? Not for me. Taking the final day of the season into isolation what excitement was there? Some tepid battle for European spots, the relegation spots were dealt with weeks ago, dull dull. Look at the Championship, an epic relegation battle on the last day was fascinating. The play-offs have been incredibly dramatic (to be fair they always are). Looking further abroad Spain had a fascinating title race, Italy and France had new winners of their leagues.

I don't bother with the CL either anymore, I might try and watch the final and if i'm on holiday will find a bar and watch a game, I just don't have the buzz for it anymore.

Better option than Bamford still though for me

They play completely different positions? They're not comparable.

I'd rather a fit Harvey Barnes over Grealish and Watkins deserves to go ahead of Bamford for me.

Would you have Harvey Barnes over Maddison?

Have to disagree with you here but that's football.  We still don't know what our system will be for the tournament, if Maguire is fit I think we'll go 4 at the back so Grealish looks perfect to me.

If the England squad was based on those fit to lace Foden’s boots we’d only have...well, Phil Foden....

We've got plenty of options, that's for sure. Go back to the last World Cup and we took Ruben Loftus-Cheek and Fabian Delph, we have about 20 midfielders better than him now. We don't have too many absolute top class players, but there's a lot of depth in quite good ones.

France aside, every other team looks to have weaknesses. It'll be a fun tournament - we probably won't win, but I'd say we have as much chance as anyone not called France. Draw isn't terribly kind though, think we probably get Germany or Portugal in the first knockout game which might be that.

You do get odd tournament winners- in the last 30 years it's been won by Denmark, Greece and 2016-edition Portugal - I reckon we're better than any of those teams. It's only really the tiki taka Spain years where the best side in Europe won.

I thought you were comparing. Totally agree regarding Harvey Barnes

I would . I used to rate Madison but he seems to be going backwards

Shame as he started off this season (I think) really well. Perhaps he has hit his peak already.

Stuart Broad and Jofra Archer up top.

Let himself down by going out drinking when he shouldn't........always a footballers curse!

Fair points and I won’t derail this thread anymore.

Only thing I’d say is Italy and France, this season aside, have been 1 team leagues much like Germany for last 7/8 seasons. We do get a little more variety here in terms of title winners, although that might end of City sign Kane!

Indeed and I wouldn't disagree there either. Although very one sided, I do like the German league, I always seem to find the games pretty entertaining over there.

The other thing I think that put me off the Premier league was getting tickets to go and watch Spurs last season. It was £75 a ticket, the seat was fantastic in an epic stadium. Food and drink was top notch, there were loads of toilets etc I couldn't fault the facilities in the stadium and the quality of football on show. But I still had that niggle at the back of my head that it was all just an overblown Corporate Americanization of what football used to be, all razmatazz and glitter etc. Give me a broken PA system and the old school football experience at the CG any day of the week!!

I know everyone has different opinions blah blah blah but people that aren't rating grealish, wow. He is an exceptional talent and can open games up in an instant.

there is no other player like grealish in the england squad for me. dribbling, chances created etc this season is up there with the best. all playing for villa.

Do you have him ahead of Foden in the wide left forward position, their preferred positions.


Foden Mount Sterling
          Kane

For me, Jeff.

For me it's not about not rating him as such but about what he doesn't do. The likes of Foden,Mount Harvey Barnes who we mentioned will work their bollocks of for the team still whilst still being able to create and score goals. In the system England play with the fullbacks we have they need that bit of help and he doesn't offer it for me. Like you say though it's all opinions

Really important summer for Sterling isn't it. Can see Sancho playing instead of him by the end of the tournament if Raheem performs like he did the last few months.  It's a shame as the last few years he has been as good as anyone

On form, Rashford and Greenwood might even be ahead of him too, and for whatever reason he's never quite connected with the fans and the public.

The frustration is all of our young attacking talent play wide left - Rashford, Grealish, Foden, Greenwood - all best off the left of a 3.

Sancho plays right, and Foden has done a bit at the end of the season.

But he's a better option for me in games where he doesn't have to help the full back where we need players who can operate in tight spaces when the opposition sit back, I don't see him starting the games in which we expect to do more defending. 

We won't have a 'First 11' in the traditional sense, that has been our downfall for ages, we need to start using the squad for the specific needs of each fixture.

on form though grealish is way ahead of sterling this season and rashford is as well and loves playing lw. i mean its a good problem to have.

He's an English player that dared to force his way out of media darling Liverpool and as a result the written press and the Scouse fans seem to have been out to destroy him ever since.

Greenwood scores most of his goals cutting in from the right

In the last 20 years there have been 8 winners and the 20 years before 15 winners.

Let's also not forget Wales got to the semi finals in 2016

Grealish has no form, he's been injured for months....

re greenwood- i dont think he has played for utd on the left? that has always been taken up by 1 of rashford or martial. he may well prefer it but for the last 2 years he plays right/ up top. the thing i love about greenwood is his unpredictability he sits defenders on his arse throughout when he is on goal as he has a rocket on both feet.

one thing for sure is we have an abundance of attacking players and you will never please everyone when the teamsheet comes out.  

you know what i mean- form across the season- his stats match the best and he missed 12 games says enough. played in the last 4 games of the season. should be fresher than every other player

Greenwood is second fiddle to Rashford I guess. His finishing is unbelievable. If he gets himself focused and right between the ears, he'll be immense.

Well no look at James Maddison, been gash since he returned from injury you don't just suddenly hit the same form after a long injury.

If you go through all the players you mentioned then Sterling still has a better goals to minutes ratio than Rashford, Greenwood and Grealish this season.

To be fair it started a year before that when he said he was too tired to play for England and Liverpool and pissed off to Jamaica mid season. Since then it has been crazy how under-appreciated he is

Which of the 4 RBs will miss out?

I would prefer it to be Reece James but fear it will be Trippier, which would be a complete joke given he is the starting RB for the La Liga champions

I’d agree with you

Trent is brilliant and offers loads as well as multiple positions

Trippier good at set pieces

Walker can also fill in at CB especially if we changed to 3 at the back

Walker and James.
Don’t need three Right Backs, do we Reg?

On that note, never understood the three keeper rule. Pointless and a waste of a place.

Trent will miss out. Walker, Trippier are miles ahead of the other 2 right now. Walker is out on his own and will start.

I'm guessing three keepers are needed in case one of the two in first team squad gets injured and wouldn't want to be left with just one.

I’d say the odds of getting two keepers injured and/or sent off in what is at most 7 games is highly unlikely. I can’t imagine it’s happened often...no doubt it actually has...once or something.

...but...like the three keepers thing is a rule rather than each Nations choice. I wonder if they were free to decide how many would still take three keepers?

I think if they only had two keepers they would be worried about not having a sub keeper if the other one got injured or was sent off if that makes sense.

If they dropped the 3 keeper rule I'd imagine squad size would drop from 23 to 22 anyway so absolutely no impact on the squad in practice.

Chelsea vs Reading in 2006.... that is all.

It used to be 22 with 3 keepers anyway didn’t it?

Yep, albeit squads went up to 23 in 2002 I think.

What a load of bollocks that is..

Re Grealish, although he has obvious qualities, I see similararities to Hoddle and England.  Undoubtably one of our most skillfull players, but doesn't do enough of the dirty work to warrant a place in the starting 11, whereas Foden is capable and willing to do it all..

I'm not that knowledgeable, tbf.  The Premier League is right up there, I'm sure, but I also admire the Bundesliga for goals, crowds, atmosphere and (as we only recently saw with the Euro Super League fiasco) fan participation.  But I'm sure there is real excitement and talent someone less curmudgeonly than me would enjoy.

I wouldn't say it is a co-incidence that 2 of the last 3 CL Finals have been all Premiership affairs.  In the interest of perspective however, in the year not mentioned, the PL only managed to get one of its 4 entrants past the Round of 16, with Man City out in the 1/4 finals - to Lyon.  

As far as the hype goes, I'm a bitter man ;).  I see STFC's average gates at about 10% of those of the Gods of Football.  I feel a little sick when I have nowhere to escape the 10,000 fold media hype surrounding these Gods of Football and their mainly moaning fans. TV and lengthy parachute payments have closed the door to that exclusive league.

I like the history of the clubs in the PL and some of the clubs that still retain a streak of authenticity (eg Newcastle, Liverpool, Burnley, Norwich etc) but I prefer watching STFC and sometimes Woking, live and the FA Cup on the TV for my "British" football.

Still think it's mad not to provisionally select Bamford. For the record, I wasn't saying that Grealish shouldn't be picked but Bamford is only second to Kane as top english goalscorer in the PL this season and has a fair chunk of assists in his bag too (7). He has a GTG ratio of 0.50 which is matched only by Calvert-Lewin and of course bettered by Kane.

Stats aren't everything but the main ones (goals and assists) certainly count. It is only my opinion but I do find it odd not to even provisionally select the 2nd highest scoring Englishman in the Premier League this season.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/premier-league/top-scorers

My issue with Bamford is that he misses a huge amount of chances to score those goals. Really do not get those amount of chances at international level

Watching the Europa League final tonight and it’s probably representative of what we can expect in the Euro’s being a high pressure match and both Greenwood and Rashford were completely nullified and failed to impact the game. Definitely Sterling Foden Kane for me.

Definitely play for pens against Spain though! 35 in a row is maddeningly bad.

Rashford was either trying to hard or not at the races.

Interesting to see that the most experienced player in terms of caps in the provisional squad is Sterling, looking at this from the BBC website not sure why we need to name 3 keepers then. Goalkeepers can be replaced during the tournament in the event of physical incapacity, even if one or two goalkeepers in the squad are still available.

All sorts of hand wringing and concern about right backs today.

Within recent memory England's right backs have been Danny Mills and Glen Johnson. We're doing okay there these days...

At the same time, what we wouldn't do for Rio Ferdinand or Sol Campbell to be in this generation.

Everyone is a top class football manager or seems to know the ins and outs of the game these days if Twitter is anything to go by. The fact that the majority can't string coherent sentences together, suggests they may want to think again.

He's gone with 4 right backs! He's lost the plot!

;)

If we're not going to be playing 3 at the back more often than not, that's a very defender heavy squad.

As usual there are plenty of gnashing teeth but with 26, there are hardly any glaring omissions, as much as my Villa colleagues are convinced Ollie Watkins would be the difference between success and failure.

Attacking options look great. Less convincing further back but have a bit of a feeling Jude Bellingham might be the breakthrough player of the tournament.

Still, the path to the final looks brutal so I'm not confident.

I agree Nemo. If I have to be ultra-critical central midfield to me looks a little weak as does the centre back slots and there does seem to be too many wing/full backs but overall I think that's probably as good as we could have got.

Part of the fun of international football is that squads are unbalanced though, we seem to have reached the Belgium zone where a world class attack is married to a deeply shaky defence. It's not really fair for France to call Benzema back up and deprive us of a world class side with Olivier Giroud as a focal point.

Indeed. And that could make our matches entertaining ding-dongs for once!

Fuck knows why they class players by position when these days there is such an overlap between the traditional rigid player positions, makes it sound like we only have 5 midfielders when there are getting on 10 of them who play in that area of the pitch.

Oh and squadwise I don’t think i would have swapped out any that of squad for any of the 7 who missed out

Pretty certain you have to pick 3 keepers

I'm pretty certain you have to pick three goalkeepers but if you don't then maybe Southgate was worried about the fitness etc if one was waiting on standby

Three keepers looks rather light coming off the season we've just had!

We could have played all three and it wouldn't have made any difference

I think that was his point.
You have to pick three keepers but those rules state if a keeper gets injured you can replace him mid tournament anyway.

Squad looks ok.
Very fine line between what is a midfield and a forward these days - so pay little attention to how that end of the squad is classified.

4 right backs does seem a bit over kill though. Even if you classed Walker as a right sided centre half of a back 3 and played with wing backs that still leaves 3 to choose from

We have 4 right backs to make up for 1992 when we went to the Euros without any.

Maybe I’ve just got old & grumpy or maybe it’s just because history has told me, but I have no confidence in England at tournaments, the last World Cup was a nice surprise but we have (1996 apart) a terrible record in the Euros

The big worry in Euro 96 was shortage of left backs

The strikers though...

Shearer, Sheringham, Fowler & Ferdinand.
Just the likes of Cole, Wright, Collymore, Sutton and Le Tissier left at home.

I guess there's always players left out that will cause debate none more so than Gascoigne in 98

The good thing for me is that no one we have left out there i would be gutted about or would bang the drum for them to have been in the squad.

I just hope the starting 11 reflects that as well. I will be gutted if we see the rashford and sterling alongside Kane combo all over again

Just a pity we didn't announce the squad like this.... https://twitter.com/HLNinEngeland/status/1399967581126148096?s=20

Same as although I'm not sure about Mings and for one tournament only it would have been nice if Vardy was on the bench as his pace would be a threat

Trent Alexander-Arnold ruled out of Euros.

We can send grounds as cover if were desperate.

From David Ornstein:

England look set to use back 4 v Croatia. Barring late changes Trippier to start at LB, Walker RB, Mings & Stones CB. Phillips expected with Rice, Mount, Sterling, Foden & Kane.

Grealish doesnt starr

Not sure why he would have Trippier left back when there's two proven ones on the bench

Seems odd that, assume he's trying to shoe horn in his set pieces but why not just put him at RB if so?  Can't see it myself, personally I prefer Chilwell but it's marginal so not worried either way between him and Shaw.

Who’s Phillips? Mings isn’t international standard. Stones has a cockup in him. Rice is just shite. Sterling, Foden, Kane are class.

Leeds midfielder with the funny hairstyle😀

That’s a dreadful shout

Absolute class player

I suspect that Southgate feels that Trippier is better defensively than Shaw and is going for caution against Croatia. I suspect he might look to be more 'cavalier' against the Scots and the Czechs. On paper Croatia is our toughest games.

Agreed If he was playing right back!

I think Aud has been out in the sun too long some of the recent stuff he comes out with.

Rice is a solid but unspectacular midfielder.

What are our left back options? Shaw or?

Chilwell

I've 2 £5 free bets with both Bet365 and PP to use today on the England game. Any tips on how best to utilise these?

Thats right. In that case shoe horning Trippier in does seem odd.

That's what I thought Bob considering both left backs have had good seasons

Seems odd to shoehorn players into positions that aren’t their own when you have multiple options who actually play said position.

There is no excuse for not playing a left back at left back

I think someone needs to tell Gareth we're the home team

Got no problem with a relatively cautious line up, attacking verve rarely wins international tournaments. Trippier at lb would be odd unless Croatia have a right footed left singer who'll cut in he's matching up against?

Maybe it's a masterplan to try and come second in the group and get a much easier path to the final!

The online meltdown regarding the apparent line-up is bemusing

It's got your attention  :pint:

Anyone got a stream for this that will work outside the UK?

I found one here:

http://wiziwig1.com/soccer

A bit unlucky not to be ahead. Not quite clicking at times, but that's fair enough considering it's the first game.

Walkers passing not very good, Philips and Foden playing well

Thanks mate. In the end, iPlayer accepted my vpn so I had glorious beebeevision.

I wish the Foreign Office would hand out PR guidelines to the pride of English manhood before games.

I'm afraid it seems to be the Home Office that is handing out the guidelines.

ONE of our THREE keepers is injured.
We’d be down to only TWO but thankfully we can call up a replacement.
Crisis averted.

Well, not fully averted as the replacement is Aaron Ramsdale.

I’m sure Ramsdale will see a total of 0 minutes game time.

Could we have called up let’s say Lingard as a replacement keeper and just played him on pitch?

Oh I'm sure.

Mildly amusing that in the spring we were all torn three different ways between making Pickford, Henderson and Pope the number 1 goalkeeper and as it now happens, two of the three are injured anyway.