How many of England’s finest are playing in their natural position? They all look like they’re a slot off.
I forgot Harry Kane is on the pitch.
I forgot Harry Kane is on the pitch.
2024 UEFA Men’s European Championship
- Thread starter Dummy Hoy
- Start date
Southgate gonna Southgate.
Trent in midfield didn’t work at all, either play him at RB or not at all.
Either Foden or Kane needs to be dropped for a player who can run behind. Both just want to drop deep and get on the ball.
Trent in midfield didn’t work at all, either play him at RB or not at all.
Either Foden or Kane needs to be dropped for a player who can run behind. Both just want to drop deep and get on the ball.
I am sure I am not the first to notice that Trent Alenader-Arnold has three names that all can be common first and last names.
Actually, DDB Jr. said it so I am definitely not first.
Actually, DDB Jr. said it so I am definitely not first.
Not much.
His playmaking skills are kind of useless without a forward who can run behind, like Son for Spurs or Rashford/Sterling for England. And his box striker skills are useless unless his team is capable of reaching and sustaining possession in the attacking third.
Ideally Southgate adapts the team in a way that actually plays more to Kane’s strengths. But with the current setup Watkins would probably offer more because at least he’s a physical handful and threat to run behind. It’s all academic of course because he’d never drop Kane.
Alexi Lalas is just walking clickbait. He says stuff just to set people off, getting mentions and clicks along the way.
Fun fact, to me at least, is that Lalas went to high school at Cranbrook Kingswood. I have nothing against the school itself or private schools in general, but it is the private school Eminem calls out in the final rap battle in Eight Mile, making it possibly the most recognized and reviled private school at the time. Anytime I see Lalas, I just yell “F*ck Cranbrook” and it makes me feel just a little better.
View: https://youtu.be/X9-hxfcklGs?si=ysIBfiqPozWVjA0S
Southgate isn't benching the best striker in the world for Ollie Watkins. Christ.
So the Romania-Ukraine match is not on TV tomorrow morning? I can’t remember the last time I couldn’t watch a major tournament game. World Cup 1990?
Did you read the last line of the post you quoted?
Kane is a great player but in the type of match England played today his strengths are basically nullified. At this point in his career he doesn't have the pace to threaten behind or really run the channels and he doesn't have the physicality to pose a big problem for opposing CBs when his team is trying to play it long. So when England struggles to advance the ball you get a touch map like the image below. He hardly touched the ball in general and got one touch total in the box.
He also made a grand total of 12 passes from those touches, almost none of which wentforward. There are no runners to hit after dropping deep, all he does is get a touch (every once in a while) and lay it off backward. If your striker isn't going to touch the ball or play any dangerous passes when he does, then its much better to have one who is at least occupying and bothering the CBs and threatening to make a dangerous run.
As I said in the original post, the solution is to change things up in a way that allows the team to actually play to Kane's strengths and get the best out of him.
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Yeah Kane is wasted if they play like this. Kane is no Messie or Ronaldo so i reckon they wont change the way they play. Southgate just hopes he runs into a couple.
Rewatching Netherland vs Poland, ill give my view on the dutch after.
Rewatching Netherland vs Poland, ill give my view on the dutch after.
I've sent this around, lol
WTF is going on with Denmark? I love their squad on paper, but they've had terrible performances at WC '22 and to start Euro '24. Looking back on their Semifinal run at Euro '20, they were lucky to make it out of the group with 1 win merely based on GD, (win vs. Russia, 4-1), and 2 losses (1-0 to Finland (!) and 2-1 to Belgium). Then they took down perennial giants in Wales and the Czech Rep. before taking England to extra time.
The good, the back 3 looked great. Van Dijk, De Vrij en Ake almost flawless. Dumfries, who has been injured a lot this year, not as good, the most danger came from the right side. This not bode well for the next match as M'bappe will be roaming the right flank for the French. Dumfries plays a defender when the opponent has the ball and right wing when the Dutch have the ball, so putting in a right winger like Frimpong fills up that space too much.
Midfield, ugh yeah without de Jong and Koopmeiners its down to Schouten en Reijnders to feed the forwards and make runs in the box. Veerman was subpar on offense and defense. Not sure he will be in the next match. After the 2-1 there was a period of 10 min that the right side was overrun, that will worry Koeman, because there is no easy answer for that.
Forwards, Simons should be on the bench. Gakpo was great as was Depay. They created a lot of changes but the polish goalie was great on the night.
Subs, Wijnaldum invinsible but for the run that created the space for Weghorst to score. Frimpong had some nice actions just like Malen but nothing to write home about. Defensive sub for Ake just played a couple of minutes.
Verbruggen was outstanding, some important saves and good play all around.
A good start which has been a problem for us in recent tournaments. Bring on the French.
Midfield, ugh yeah without de Jong and Koopmeiners its down to Schouten en Reijnders to feed the forwards and make runs in the box. Veerman was subpar on offense and defense. Not sure he will be in the next match. After the 2-1 there was a period of 10 min that the right side was overrun, that will worry Koeman, because there is no easy answer for that.
Forwards, Simons should be on the bench. Gakpo was great as was Depay. They created a lot of changes but the polish goalie was great on the night.
Subs, Wijnaldum invinsible but for the run that created the space for Weghorst to score. Frimpong had some nice actions just like Malen but nothing to write home about. Defensive sub for Ake just played a couple of minutes.
Verbruggen was outstanding, some important saves and good play all around.
A good start which has been a problem for us in recent tournaments. Bring on the French.
I think this is right…looked like Kane was just used as a dummy to try to open space for others- he only had 24 touches (same as Mitrovic coincidentally, who also didn’t seem to be used wisely). Whether or not Kane is the best striker in the world, he’s far too good to be used in such a limited fashion.
im not worried at all, I hope southgate continues to use Harry Kane in a manner that doesn’t take advantage of all of his unique skills. Kane can still contribute off the ball, but there’s no way you think that’s the best use for him Jesse. England did a Southgate England- a few moments of individual brilliance scattered throughout a lot of vaguely disconnected team play. I might try to get Kane more directly involved on offense.
goddamn Romania, have yourself a day. Ukraine looks pretty impotent despite having most of the ball.
I think the issue for him being more involved in buildup is Foden at the wing
Foden doesn’t want to run in behind and receive the passes Kane likes to drop back and play.
Foden does want to tuck into the same spaces that Kane likes to drop into.
Foden played badly in those spaces, so even if Kane did stay high and on the defenders, Foden wasn’t exactly threading him dangerous passes to put the final touch on.
Kane has worked well in the past with that kind of player (Eriksen wound up on the wing often in the Poch years), but the modern evolution of Kane as the dropping in playmaker plus scorer coincides pretty cleanly with the absence of that sort of Fodenish player from Spurs. He has Musiala as a 10 at Bayern, but with club level minutes together they seem better able to coordinate themselves.
Trippier too. With Rice holding on the left side, Trippier can be making attacking runs too.
It's not just Kane that would be helped by the whole left side not working. Trent is the best passer on the team and will kill other teams with long diagonals if they are there.
Thought he was pretty useless too…great player, not sure he’s ready for prime time playing central mid internationally.
Agree, especially if Rice is also holding deep and doing his usual high level distribution. When Klopp has Trent tucking in, it was as - right sided 6, and he was defaulting to this role yesterday, which left the English side with 2 DMs way too far from the action. Now Trent’s long range passing can exploit those kinds of gaps, but it often left the attackers with too little support and too many defenders sagging into the spaces where Kane, Foden, & Saka want to work.
When Gallagher came on, he immediately took up a more aggressive role pushing forward and tracking back. Then Bowen came in and pulled wider. It immediately opened up the right side. I think Saka can do the same work and should keep his spot, but Gallagher is the much better complement to Rice, which kills me as a Liverpool fan who owns a Trent jersey.
It is very fun to me how plausible the argument is that the nationality eligible guy currently best suited to playing LB for England is getting ready to go against Bolivia in Jerryworld.
Trippier remains a poor tactical fit on his off foot, Shaw’s not fit, Chillwell’s not really fit. Who am I not thinking of who’s ahead of Jedi Robinson on that English LB list?
Huge difference playing a role like that for club (which forgive me if I’m wrong had him playing RB but tucking inside when in possession?) and for country with its limited practice time. I completely get wanting to get his world class passing into the squad, but I think you’re dead on that having a runner to play with Rice would be far more effective. I think TAA could be a deadly substitute off the bench though.
Kid I grew up with in East Lansing got sent to Cranbrook for HS. He was kind of a dick -- nobody missed him. I laughed pretty hard at that line when I watched Eight Mile on what seemed like a 55-inch screen in an empty Cleveland Circle Cinema all those years ago.
As a Hammers supporter, I enjoyed seeing Bowen come on for about 15-20 minutes and giving a beautiful cross to Kane within like a minute and then playing better defense than any of the starting defenders. I really think if he was starting, they could make better use of Kane too.
Yeah, that’s how Klopp used Trent for some of the last season, mostly early on. Then he got hurt and was out for a while & Endo settled in as an effective DM, which let Bradley play the more familiar lung-busting fullback role. And when Trent did come back, he was tucking in less and staying wide more. So Trent hasn’t even been getting steady run as an inverted RB/6. Southgate is playing with fire.
Slovakia getting a goal within 10 minutes after Belgium should have had 2. This could be a wild game.
