Sandro Tonali is going to be a great player.
Completely different games you lunatic.
England had one shot on target the whole game, it arrived in the second minute. They were hoofing the ball clear whenever they got it. They were petrified of the ball after the first 20 minutes.
Italy were still extremely positive on the ball against Spain, they were still able to string moves together and create chances when they did have the ball.
Youâre talking complete nonsense, thereâs a very obvious differentiation.
They are but that final step.
Italy needed penalties to win both days all the same.
For all your auld bullshit the margins are very small
You seem upset that Spain and England both lost their nerve during penalties.
Italy were deserving winners.
If Spain were good enough to have won their group then they might have had an easier route to the final.
Italy were deserving winners but youâre going on like they reinvented football, the margins were tight and it wasnât a great standard. Theyâre a decent team but donât have a striker worth a note. They wouldnât have won a World Cup
I havenât made any such comment at all. You are getting offended because Italy have the right balance between possession based football and move it forward football.
Spain are as blunt as blunt can be. Wonderful at retaining the ball but too much caution with and lack of imagination in the final third. Possession without ambition is why they drew 5 of their 6 games in regulation time.
England lack the ability to control the ball and the bravery to try and dominate the game.
Italy had the best balance of the three and some people could rightly point out that they lack a bit of top quality in the final third but they were the best team in the tournament and deserving winners.
Itâs also not been commented on that Italy lost a key player for both the semi-final and final who was arguably heading for player of the tournament and a huge part of their gameplan.
I canât for the life of me remember where it was but I read something on Sunday night after the match that was about Englandâs coaching deficit at youth level and how a lot more barriers are put up to attain the different levels of coaching licences, I think the cost of getting at least one of the types of licences is prohibitive and the others are a good deal more expensive than in most other countries and thus there are a lot less credentialed coaches in England than in continental countries.
England need to see a generation of top class home grown coaches coming into the senior game. A problem at senior level is that coaches without a notable playing background like Graham Potter and and Eddie Howe arenât seen to have the stature within the game that would allow them to get big managerial jobs. Playing background is a huge thing still in England and as seen with Frank Lampard and likely will in time be seen with Steven Gerrard playing background is not nearly enough.
Southgate straddles a sort of awkward middle ground where he does have a playing background of note, and is an excellent man manager, but is not a brilliant tactician although an advantage he has is that he realises he has limitations in that regard and is not arrogant or afraid to admit to himself that he has failings. It would be ludicrous to say he has not been a success as England manager but there are serious doubts about whether he will ever have the stuff to genuinely cut it in tight matches at the business end of major championships when quick and brutal decisions have to be made and reacting to situations as they happen are everything.
Euros are harder won than World Cups.
Not true. Average teams win Euros from time to time, not so in World Cups
confirmed
Ah stop
for fuck sake
Bullshit.
The World Cup is full of novelty teams from Africa, Asia and Central America.
Teams like Turkey, Croatia, Bulgaria and Sweden have progressed so much further in recent years at the World Cups while missing Euro qualification.
The Euros are far harder won, have or had at least much tougher group stages to negotiate.
South American football is at a very, very, very low ebb right now. Europe going for 5 in a row next year.
I should know, thatâs only Italyâs second ever. They have 4 World Cups.
Thereâs extra psychological pressure at World Cups. Plenty of traditionally less successful teams have got to World Cup semi-finals but they pretty much always flounder psychologically and go out fairly tamely. This has been the case with Poland 1982, Belgium 1986, Sweden and to an extent Bulgaria 1994, and Turkey and South Korea 2002. Portugal 2006 and Belgium 2018 would have been rated higher than those but didnât seem able to handle the occasion either.
How many of the best players in the world now under 30 are South American?
South American football is as bad as I can ever remember it being at present. Lads like Richarlison, Fred and Paqueta starting for Brazil.
Immobile just started a European Cup final for the winners
Lautoru Martinez looks like he could be anything
you could count Jorginho but he was lifted by Italy
Not bullshit. As weâve seen, average teams win European Championships from time to time, Portugal, Greece, Denmark spring to mind. No average team wins a World Cup
Yeah. And they deserved them. Argentina and Spain have made World Cup finals in recent years by boring fans into submission too.
Whatâs so surprising about Portugal winning one? Denmark hadnât even qualifed for their Euros. I think the only apparent thing now is that all the best teams are European.
South American football has fallen off a cliff.
A lot of the European nations have a much better record at the WC than the Euros.