Group C: Slovenia, Denmark, Serbia, England

[Rita_Poon]

pushing Foden to left mid is the same kind of carnage that did for Paul Scholes, who then retired because he couldn't be arsed.

 

[Smurph]

It’s actually quite impressive how Southgate has managed to make such a poor team from this group of players. It’s like watching a Sunday league team how far they play away from each other.

 

[atrottel]

If there is a player I cannot stand watching in the English side (not you, TAA, that's taken as read) it's John Stones. Gets the ball. Stands there, lets the attacker approach, plays it to a colleague who by this time has no options so he returns it, Stones turns and plays it backwards to a colleague or Pickford.

 

[RomanReigns]

It’s not looking good brev

 

[DuncanPatterson]

England's fans and media react far too much to turgid group games. Always have.

In all fairness you guys still have the players that could win it but something needs fixed so it's possibly right that there should be some kind of reaction

 

[Drico]

England's fans and media react far too much to turgid group games. Always have.

Yup - and they overhype their chances before a tournament whilst contemptuously dismissing proud football countries such as Denmark purely because they are small.

To listen to Rio Ferdinand earlier contemptously saying to Thomas Frank "no offence, but" about Denmark was instructive. Denmark with 5 million people have achieved more in the last 50 years than England have per head of population or pound for pound. Similarly, the Czechs, Greeks, and Dutch.

When England are reliably defeating these proud small nations at major tournaments, then they can set their sights on the true giants that they believe they are peers of.

 

[Nymzee]

Nice to see the pundits not holding back for once.

 

[ArtetaMoney]

Walker said the manager wants them to play free flowing attacking football, yet they do the exact opposite in the game.

A load of rubbish, you can see that he restricts them all to defend first.

 

[Efcjake]

Shearer looks like he's either staying in the Dam or he's had a good cry at full time

 

[Drico]

You are front loaded and desperately missing midfielder of Kroos/Modric/Pirlo type, to control tempo from the deep
I mean trying to play Arnold there, wtf

Indeed, I have been saying that for weeks here, but somebody actually suggested TAA was the answer to that question. Gareth himself must have an account.

 

[Vintage]

So does ours now

Southgate always struck me as a barista toff in his waistcoats

 

[EFCPaul]

England's fans and media react far too much to turgid group games. Always have.

A group of players with the talent this current lot have can't play as badly as that and not expect people to be confused/annoyed about it?

The manager is terrible and he always has been. We don't have a prayer of beating any of the top teams with these sort of tactics and performances.

 

[Efcjake]

Nice to see the pundits not holding back for once.

There's not really any defending that.

It was a scrappy goal we scored and then proceeded to get outplayed handily by Denmark ffs

 

[deipnosophist]

while Southgate remains in charge, this team will struggle to find any sparkle...he's an awful manager

 

[Milkman]

Startling differences between the two teams today. Denmark were cohesive, clearly well drilled and more than the sum of their parts. England were disjointed, anxious and a brunch of misfiring individuals than a team.

England have the much better players but can’t put it together. Southgate needs to prioritise team over individual talent - and find a balanced team to unlock any potential England have in tournament. Can see why England fans are really frustrated.

Credit to Denmark though they were really good and clearly came with a plan they enacted well.

Always find it strangely disconcerting when you write something normal.