Honestly couldn’t care less about these fixtures especially the ones at the end of the season. Pretty sure everyone in this squad is ready for the beach right now. Didn’t we lose to Iceland last year before the Euros and got battered by Hungary the year before?
As ever with England, what happens at the tournaments will determine where this squad is at.
Cucurella is actually a good player, don't let the stupid haircut fool you - and even if he's just average he's still a million miles better than ShawOriginally Posted by HCZ_Reborn
Stones is no better than Le Normand
Olmo is better than Foden and anyway if you have a 'shit season' you're clearly not that good - being consistent is part of being 'good'
Yamal totally owns Saka
The point about Kane, as Hcz said he goes missing, he is also slow, plus has a propensity to drop deep, therefore leaving us headless
OK, he makes sure he pops up for the obligatory pel, tap-in, or rebound off his backside, but that's doesn't help the team overall to be more dynamic in attack
He's not playing for the team he's playing for himself
Exactly this. I didn't even know we were playing.
nor did I tbf, but now I do I'm wading in
Exactly this. I didn't even know we were playing.
We've had favourable draws other times and not got anywhere. As for quality of squad...I'm a little sceptical about that claim. I think generally it's hard comparing. It's not just about player quality, sometimes you get teams which are more than the sum of their parts, sometimes it's the reverse.
We do have a pretty good squad but it's not some world-beating golden generation which should be sweeping the board as you seem to think.
My mentality comes from decades of people saying "it's coming home" and it...not coming home.Your mentality comes from thinking everyone who claims England can or should win a tournament is just projecting empty jingoism
The blame is always given to the manager, and you could say the buck stops with them but it's different from club football. You can only work with what you have, you can't make signings. So after decades of this - some certainly fuelled by empty jingoism although not always - I tend to believe that its failure to come home is more to do with our players not actually being good enough.
And yet there we were in the final. We only got beaten by a side who pretty much everyone but you regards as superior to our own.Euro 2024 I knew we had no chance of winning because of Southgate.
You don't have to be pathetically grateful but nor would I be overly scathing of the only manager in our lifetimes to get us to the finals of major competitions. The only one in history to get us to two finals and one on foreign soil.
If you dumped Arsenal in the Europa League then they should win it - we are clearly a level above the sides in those competition. England are not a level above the other credible winners of the World Cup. I'd say we have a chance but in no world are we as clear favourites as you seem to think.
All that said - I don't care about recent results or performances. It's all about next summer, nothing before that really matters.
Stones is no better than Le Normand now, I think he’s dropped off considerably
But as I said I was assessing these players as we were in July 2024. And no Yamal wasn’t better than Saka then, Yamal has had an exceptional season and Saka has not (mainly through injury) in terms of potential I think Yamal probably has a higher ceiling in that he could become one of the best players of a generation. But back then? He was a raw youngster
Foden had just had an amazing season with City, and I think his ability level is far higher than that of Dani Olmo. I don’t disagree with you that consistency is key to how a player should be rated and to that end the players let themselves down as much as Southgate’s negative tactics did, but in terms of natural ability I think Foden is vastly superior and it will be up to him to show it
And no Cucurella isn’t a good defender in my view, I think a lot of the criticism you apply to Calafiori could be applied to him. He’s often positionally indisciplined and he’s a thug. Shaw like Trippier has no business in that England team, and I’d say Lewis Skelly is superior to Cucurella
You’re doing that thing that Mac does which is to transpose your own opinion and make it a universal one. It’s a very silly thing to do. He’s motivated by being self-hating English, and yours comes from a form of “it’s the hope that kills you”.
Spain were only favourites for that final because of how shit we’d played. Now I accept that you can have lots of good individual players but if they don’t play like a team it’s not going to work, and to that end as a team Spain functioned better. But in terms of individual talent, yes I think we were superior and I don’t think it’s controversial.
I’m not a jingoist, nor for the most part do I care that much about the national side, it always has and always will be a distant second place to Arsenal. I don’t do any of this “it’s coming home” shit, it’s beneath me.
And there’s never been a time previous before the last two years or so where I’ve remotely thought England can or should be competing for tournaments. So you’re welcome to disagree all you like, but don’t mistake my opinion for misplaced parochialism.
Last edited by HCZ_Reborn; 11-06-2025 at 01:21 PM.
Oh do please fuck off, that's highly offensive bullshit, I'm just not that nationalistic and biizarrely in the same post you say you're not particularly nationalistic either so does that make you self-hating English too?
And don't bother replying you fuckwit, I'm not interested
I think someone who suggests without evidence that England fans were being racist for booing last night as if somehow they didn’t boo Gareth Southgate is probably self hating English yes
And if the accusation upsets you and you find it highly offensive, maybe consider how wise it was essentially accusing me of being a sex offender because I used an expression you disapproved of. Or your snotty post last night (which you seem to have taken down now).
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