To be fair, I was always going to be supporting Spain regardless of who won there. It’s actually remarkable how similar England played here to how they played against Norway and Mexico. The only difference is that Argentina had the quality to play past a team parking the bus. Norway and Mexico couldn’t put it together but you can’t let Messi dictate play.
Tuchel got the subs wrong, classic case of getting the first goal then sitting back and letting the other team have 90% possession (more chances) to get back into game
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What an absolute clown - threw away the game with his idiotic subs. OK, so we may well have lost to Spain, but to lose to Argentina through self-immolation?
@Oram77 I agree mate, I 'm gutted thought he should have brought Saka/Rashford on for Gordon and try to keep us with an attacking option as they were chasing the goal and would naturally leave gaps.
@KnightRider1982 If it's true that Klopp takes over Germany, I can see Guardiola going to international football to fight Klopp again but I see him taking something like Italy or Spain more than England.
Tuchel got it wrong but I'm glad it's on him rather than 1 or 2 of the players getting singled out and abused by "fans" in the premier league week in, week out for the next year. That said, Martinez having a free header when England were playing 5 at the back is criminal.
I'm Irish so normally we root against England and the vast majority of us were but I found this to be one of the more likeable England squads if I'm honest. I also find it odd when Irish people are SO against England but they'll be quick to put their Man Utd / Liverpool / Leeds jerseys on the second the premier league returns. I'm a Man U fan myself but I'm just becoming more and more conscious of the dynamic.
Yeah, five at the back and throwing on Dan Burn might be the answer against Norway and Mexico, but Argentina are a different beast. Dropping deep left space on the edge of the box, just where Argentina like it, and it gave Messi the perfect platform to do his thing. I don't get why we didn't just leave a player on Messi, Anderson had done a job on him for an hour. Don't just leave him free to wander about all of a sudden, he's only the best player in the world fellas, jesus.
I would give Tuchel another go, provided he owns up to the tactical error, and doesn't try to blame the players, like it seemed he was hinting at in his post-match interview. He told the players at half time vs Croatia that "if we lose, we lose our way", but that's not what I watched last night unfortunately. We need to be braver in those moments, but it's easier said than done. Both Spain and Argentina have got trophy wins in recent memory, and that can make the difference.
Gutted England won't be there, but it sets up a very interesting final for Sunday.
Good job, Parappa. You can go on to the next stage now.
It didn't really matter what Tuchel did or how thick his player became after the subs, the writing had been on the wall most of the game and most of the tournament. Argentina are simply a much better team than England and semi final, while they might feel disappointed - is about where they could have hope to get to with their current skill level and mindset. Could've been 4 or 5-1.
@BowTiesAreCool I honestly thought England were going to win the game and they probably could have if they didn't switch to a defensive stance so early.
Argentina have made hard work of all their knock out games to this point. Had to go all the way to end of extra time with Cape Verde. Left it very late to come back against Egypt who were 2 nil ahead. Needed extra time to beat Switzerland.
Given all this Spain have to be seen as favourites on Sunday and sure they've only conceded 1 goal all tournament and made France look bang average.
Ok boss, what's the plan?
Well everybody behind the ball. Defend as deep as you can and whenever any of you can - boot it over there.
Ok got it, then what?
.... Erm well that's it really.
But we don't have anyone over there to hold the ball up and bring others into play, we don't have anybody over there who can bring the ball down and dribble at pace to gain territorial advantage and kill a bit of time off the clock... Are you sure you just want us to boot it over there? I mean surely the opposition will just gain possession and bring it straight back...
Yeah but here's the clever bit. When that does inevitably happen we can just boot it over there AGAIN!
ahhh football.
“We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be.”
@BowTiesAreCool That’s the thing, Argentina had about 7 or 8 clear cut chances and England were incredibly fortunate that they didn’t go behind earlier. You need a certain amount of luck to go your way and it looked like it was for 80 odd minutes. At the end of the day though, Cape Verde and Egypt scored more goals against Argentina than England did. With all their attacking threat, England scored one goal and decided that was enough DESPITE the previous knockout games showing that you absolutely cannot do that to Argentina!
Personally I don’t see an England team under Tuchel winning anything. They looked crap for 80% of the tournament and were bailed out by Kane and Bellingham over and over again. Both the managers in the final were the country’s unders manager and have what, 10 or 15 club games between them? There is not enough time in an international tournament to treat it like a club team where you can implement a plan across the months. You give the players the directions to beat the team in front of them and you inspire them to dig deep. Tuchel is not the man to do that. Southgate and Bobby Robson came closest to winning anything with England and that’s because the players were desperate to win for them, not because of their tactical nous. Of course, you need at least some tactics or you end up with a Steve Clarke situation where we’re all fired up and scrape some results while the manager’s disasterclass actively works against us.
So we got the finally 2 games this weekend. First up is France/England today and this one is tough for me to call but I think it will be France. I think England's coach will be their downfall unless he learned from the Argentina game.
Spain/Argentina is another tough one but unless there is some referee shenanigans I think it will be Spain.
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In all seriousness, I’m beginning to think this is a much more cohesive unit than any team which includes Bellingham, Pickford and Kane. Look at 06, you can have a great group of players but sometimes you have to build a team rather than a fantasy lineup.
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