...::[The Footy Desk]::... (Part 2)

[Jason]

Georgia are great on the counter but Spain ultimately took control and have just become clear favourites for the tournament I think.

 

Their midfield is extremely good, with Rodri probably the best midfielder in world football at the moment. Decent defence, nothing world class but solid overall, and some incredibly dangerous wide players up top. They look organised and balanced, the players look like they know their roles, they press well and they link up well going forward. The only thing they lack, and it's been Spain's problem for a while, is a goal scorer, a good number 9. The worry for Spain would be against a better team where they get fewer chances would they be able to convert enough of them, cause it feels like they need a good few chances to score 1 goal right now.

 

Yamal's gonna be a superstar as well. F*cking 16 years old and playing like that in a Euro's knockout round is absurd.

[TheSantader25]

Yamal might get injured the way they are playing him to death. Spain really exhausts every young player we bring in with no shame. 3-1 up and he doesn't take him off to rest.

[Guest]

I also feel it's not right that Xavi's Barcelona and Spain overplayed Yamal. He exceed expectations at young age, but I'm afraid that his physical capacity isn't ready yet to play like 40+ games a season. Isn't it the case with Pedri and Gavi? Played so much at young age that they begin to get long injuries. Hopefully Flick understand this and be more careful with Yamal during club season.

[TheSantader25]

Minutes are important. Xavi usually took Yamal off after 60 or 70 minutes. In Spain, it's like they are doing this on purpose to hurt them. in 2021, They took Pedri to olympics after a season in which he played 60 games and the euros and he became injury prone. He refused to take Gavi off in a sh*tty friendly game that had a settled result and Gavi had that season ending injury and now we have the same with Yamal.

 

It's only a matter of time. Dude's not even fully done with puberty yet. His body is still developing. This has a lot of consequences.

[TheSantader25]

Kroos left his mark in his last game. Injured Pedri and managed to escape 5 yellow cards.

[Jason]

The handball was debatable, by the rules atm apparently it's not a pen, the hand isn't as by his side as it first appeared to me. Not sure on it eitherway my self.

 

Was a good game though, Germany took Gundo off and made some changes and took control of the game until extra time where it evened out a bit. Both teams lacked someone clinical up top I think, although Spain weren't' helped by taking off the entire front three at 1-0 to see the game out, which didn't work out.

 

Spain favourites to win it atm for me.

[Jason]

Ronaldo's one of the greatest ever players, but for the past few years he's been a hard carry in teams. He works if you create chances for fun, but that doesn't work at top level international football.

 

He has great movement but no pace anymore, so while his movement is great he's always a yard off from where he needs to be to make the right contact, and he doesn't have that famous run and leap he once had. If he drops deep to start an attack he can't get up the pitch in time, and if he stays up top he doesn't offer you anything apart from very low percent passes in behind. Subbing off Bruno was probably a mistake as well, he's had a poor tournament that's for sure, but he is THE player in that whole squad that plays those passes, his whole game is playing lower percent passes.

 

Letting this be the end of his Portugal career would be the best thing for Portugal, cause they have a fantastic squad, they just need to stop playing with 10 men.

 

France on the other hand look boring as f*ck but they're hard to beat at full strength. Mbappe's no where near fit though, that broken nose has clearly rattled him, he doesn't look confident in getting stuck in be it defensive work or trying to speed past people, incase he gets an arm or hand to the face. On top of that, and Gary Lineker on the BBC said he's heard from a reliable source this might be true too, but I thought he looked breathy. I'm not convinced he's breathing very well through his nose, he looked out of breath during that game.

 

Spain will be looking at all the other teams left in the comp and thinking we can keep possession against all of them and create chances, their only problem will be putting those chances away.

[TheSantader25]

France always play like this. It's how they are set up. For me they are the favorites. Spain has multiple absentees in the semi. 

 

Portugal have a great squad. I'm not a fan of fully deleting Ronaldo but he should be on the bench and only be used at certain moments. Also Martinez has been sh*t everywhere he's been. Even if they get rid of CR they won't win sh*t with martinez.

Edited July 5, 2024 by TheSantader25

[Jason]

Yea I don't know how the Portugal FA looked at how Martinez mismanaged Belgium's golden generation and thought let's put him in charge of the best squad we've had in years. British commentators bigging him up as a tinkerer, a thinker, tactically flexible, but he's nothing of the sort. At Wigan his football got them relegated and at Everton he took over from Moyes who had them in a great position and took them backwards.

 

He just throws formations out like they're candy and that's it. His "good football" back in the day was splitting the centrebacks and having the goalkeeper play with his feet.. with players who weren't good at it lol.

[cactus.]

Yeah, it's impressive how Martinez has been landing these big international gigs despite being a rather mediocre manager, and ultimately has nothing to show for it.

 

I find myself rooting for England this tournament because it's a real exciting squad. And I'm equally as frustrated as all their fans lol. You just know Southgate will put out the same attacking formation today with Foden on the left, and then later scratch his head to wonder why it's not working. Just like the past four games. I really feel that Kane should not be starting. He's been really out of sorts up top. I feel he'd be more efficient in the 10 role to unleash a quicker striker (Watkins) with his passing. If Foden starts again it'll be tragic.

 

But still, I won't be surprised to see England fumble their way into the final, and perhaps sh*thouse an epic 1-0 win for the championship. With some players off the bench and a slightly tweaked formation they could be cruising!

[Jason]

It's strongly rumoured... or rather, leaked, because our XI keeps getting leaked, that we'll be going with a back three tonight.

[Eutyphro]

I think the Swiss have good odds against England. The Swiss have shown much better football than England imo

Edited July 6, 2024 by Eutyphro

[Jason]

Most people, including my self, think if we play like we have been we'll lose. The Swiss have some good players, they're in form, playing good football and are have been good at pressing high up so far.

 

We have to play well tonight.

[Eutyphro]

Yeah, I think you're realistic. I know you guys are English but I felt like telling it straight. Switzerland has shown a really good level in this tournament, and England have not played even a single convincing game.

 

But we'll see. England have a good squad but they need to improve.

Edited July 6, 2024 by Eutyphro

[Jason]

We were better, the shape suited the players we had on the pitch more. Sorely missed a proper left sided player in wingback, hopefully Shaw is fit enough to start or play more of a part in the next game. We can still improve A LOT and Southgate needs to be quicker to make changes, but we didn't get dominated for an entire half like we have in some games. Obviously you don't want to leave it penalties every time, but we're through, we looked better, we'll see how it goes.

 

Big positive is how cool we looked at penalties, the coolest I've ever seen England in a penalty shootout in my lifetime. Everyone was calm, composed and didn't look like missing. Toney's penalty was absurd when you realise he never looked at the ball once.

 

Knockout football is all about staying in it to win it, and we're still in it.

[TheSantader25]

A France - England final will definitely cure all insomniac people

[Eutyphro]

We're getting dominated by Turkey. In Wout Weghorst we trust though. We need a magical Wout moment desperately.

 

Bergwijn is also terrible, and should come off asap.

Edited July 6, 2024 by Eutyphro

[Jason]

Turkey started well but their legs went by the 60th or so, they had pretty much nothing after that point until the end when they threw people forward. Was a good watch though.

 

Wednesday will be a tough one to call.

[Eutyphro]

Yeah, that game against Austria had cost them too much energy it seems. Nice comeback for us though. I also liked our substitutions, except for Zirkzee, who was useless. Oh well, happy we made it. We're definitely the underdog against England though.

[UT1-Dot]

1 hour ago, Eutyphro said:

Yeah, that game against Austria had cost them too much energy it seems. Nice comeback for us though. I also liked our substitutions, except for Zirkzee, who was useless. Oh well, happy we made it. We're definitely the underdog against England though.

I think we will lose to you, our record against you is generally awful.

[Eutyphro]

I hope you are right, but I don't think so. England and also France seem to be able to find results even when they don't play good.

 

England has the same issue as we do though. Where for us Depay is not performing well, honestly Harry Kane has provided even less than Depay. Both our preferred strikers are not performing.

[Jason]

On paper we're clear favourites. We should be beating this Dutch team, which is no where near one of it's best.

 

But as we've seen all tournament, our form is a mess and the pressure the manager and squad are under as a result is immense, there's been a few bites from them in the media which is uncharacteristic for both the players and Gareth since he came in.

 

Anything can happen if the Dutch get the the ball in the box and unsettle us, and their centrebacks are strong and will be tough to break down.

 

Does Koeman have a track record of playing 3ATB with the Netherlands? Wouldn't surprise me if he matched us up if so tbh.

[UT1-Dot]

Frimpong is a very dangerous player to be up against too

[Eutyphro]

14 hours ago, Jason said:

Does Koeman have a track record of playing 3ATB with the Netherlands? Wouldn't surprise me if he matched us up if so tbh.

Yeah, he switches his current formation into a back three by switching Dumfries role from right back to right wing back and creating a back three of Aké, van Dijk and de Vrij. He continually switches between a 4231 and a back 3 formation that is hard to define cause Gakpo widening the play on the left is definitely in an even more attacking role than Dumfries on the right. So he switches between a back 4 and a back 3 depending on the situation in the match, and he uses the flexibility of players such as Aké and Dumfries for that. Because Aké can play as a center back and a left back, and Dumfries can play as a right back and as a wingback.

Edited July 7, 2024 by Eutyphro

[TheSantader25]

Gotta say i didn't expect that. f*cking Yamal. I hope he stays healthy. If Spain had a better 9 than Morata they would be unstoppable. Regarding Mbappe, I feel like his game hasn't really developed that much in the past 3-4 years. I expected him to add more things to his game like free kicks, headers, playmaking, better finishing, etc. He is brilliant but I haven't seen much growth from him after the initial breakout.

Edited July 9, 2024 by TheSantader25

[Jason]

We're seeing the start of a global star in Yamal, he looks very special. As has been the case all tournament, Spain lack a goal scorer, but their midfield allows them to get hold of games even when they're struggling, slow the game down and reset.

 

I do think they tire after 60-70 mins though, they put a lot of effort into the first half of games especially with their off the ball movement. they're gettable in that period of the game I think.

 

Onto tomorrow...

[LongHairedFreakyGuy]

If only I'd actually have listened to my gut instincts and put a bet on Spain to win the Euros. Thought they looked strong even in the group stages, and I fully expect them to win this tournament now.

 

As much as people criticised out last performance, compared to our previous games I thought we were pretty decent and actually looked like we wanted the win, and if we then up the same tomorrow we could get in the finals... 

[TheSantader25]

I really don't like Bellingham as a left winger. This position will limit his capabilities and highlight the weakest parts of his game imo.

[Jason]

He's not playing LW, our shape is 5221, with Bellingham and Foden effectively operating as 10's with a lot of freedom to move about. It's why Netherlands are having difficulty getting control of the game, cause we basically have four midfielders on.

 

Best 45 we've played all Euros, but I don't think that was penalty, so despite playing the better of the two I think we're a little lucky to be 1-1 at HT. Hopeful for the second half,.

[TheSantader25]

Just now, Jason said:

He's not playing LW, our shape is 5221, with Bellingham and Foden effectively operating as 10's with a lot of freedom to move about. It's why Netherlands are having difficulty getting control of the game, cause we basically have four midfielders on.

 

Best 45 we've played all Euros, but I don't think that was penalty, so despite playing the better of the two I think we're a little lucky to be 1-1 at HT. Hopeful for the second half,.

In some portions of the game yes. But I saw him get involved close to the sidelines too and i don't like it when he's forced to play wide. If Southgate wants to play with 3 defenders he should go for a 352 structure instead of a 343 imo.