UEFA EURO 2020 (Italy Champions)

Yeah good point.

Not sure. You’d hope so with handballs
Lloris said the French players asked the ref for him not to show a red card because playing 60 minutes against 10 isn't that great prep.
 
Silly format having four of the six third placed teams go on to final 16.

I’m old enough to remember ‘82 WC and remember they had 12 teams go into second round where they then had 4 groups of 3 teams. Winner of each group went on to the semis. Ended up in ‘82 with super group of Italy, Brazil and Argentina.

Reckon this would’ve been the way to go with this tournament
 

ioppolo

This only ends one way.
Oct 3, 2010
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Silly format having four of the six third placed teams go on to final 16.

I’m old enough to remember ‘82 WC and remember they had 12 teams go into second round where they then had 4 groups of 3 teams. Winner of each group went on to the semis. Ended up in ‘82 with super group of Italy, Brazil and Argentina.

Reckon this would’ve been the way to go with this tournament
Portugal won 2016 after finishing third iirc
 
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Silly format having four of the six third placed teams go on to final 16.

I’m old enough to remember ‘82 WC and remember they had 12 teams go into second round where they then had 4 groups of 3 teams. Winner of each group went on to the semis. Ended up in ‘82 with super group of Italy, Brazil and Argentina.

Reckon this would’ve been the way to go with this tournament

It has diluted the group matches to a large extent. Not as many do or die matches/not heaps riding on it. Unlikely you'll see a big nation have a slow start in the group stage and be punished, they can squeak through as a 3rd placed team and pull it together in the knockouts (Portugal won Euro 16 after qualifying as one of the 4 third placed teams)

I personally liked the format that they used pre Euro 2016. 16 teams, top 2 qualify for the quarters. It was hard to qualify and hard to win as it was rare that an average team qualified. Of course expanding to 24 teams has given nations an opportunity to qualify who found it tough before, which I like. I'm not against more teams at the final tournament, just not a fan of the current group stage format.
 
Aug 16, 2011
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It has diluted the group matches to a large extent. Not as many do or die matches/not heaps riding on it. Unlikely you'll see a big nation have a slow start in the group stage and be punished, they can squeak through as a 3rd placed team and pull it together in the knockouts (Portugal won Euro 16 after qualifying as one of the 4 third placed teams)

I personally liked the format that they used pre Euro 2016. 16 teams, top 2 qualify for the quarters. It was hard to qualify and hard to win as it was rare that an average team qualified. Of course expanding to 24 teams has given nations an opportunity to qualify who found it tough before, which I like. I'm not against more teams at the final tournament, just not a fan of the current group stage format.
Should never have changed from that format.

And having more teams takes the high stakes away too.
 

jd2010

Well done boys. Good process, carry on
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JWP man of the match or close to it with Grealish. Surely he gets into the squad now. Those two in villa's midfield next year is going to be something special next season
 

ReplicantL10

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JWP man of the match or close to it with Grealish. Surely he gets into the squad now. Those two in villa's midfield next year is going to be something special next season

Sad that Southampton can't keep hold of a player for 5 minutes and as a Liverpool fan we're the worst culprits. No team does more with less.
 

jd2010

Well done boys. Good process, carry on
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Front 3 has to be Grealish/Kane/Sancho
Sad to think that Levy squabbled over a 25m fee from us having a front 3 of Grealish/Kane/Son whilst still having Eriksen and Dembele in the squad + in form Dele and Toby and JV under 30. That transfer window in the summer of 2018 is the one that broke us.

In b4 someone claims we made the CL that season, two of the biggest lucky calls against City & then a miracle against a young Ajax side doesn't mean it's a world class squad. It was more a punch-drunk squad at the end of its tether swinging haymakers on the ropes waiting to be knocked out but landed a couple of good ones.
 
Aug 21, 2016
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JWP man of the match or close to it with Grealish. Surely he gets into the squad now. Those two in villa's midfield next year is going to be something special next season

I know you have a man crush on JWP but the midfield looked much better when Rice and Henderson came on. I reckon it's between JWP and Jesse Messi for the last spot. JWP might get into the squad for his free kicks and corners.

Jack was terrific. Dribbles, attracting fouls, passes that break the lines. He needs to add goals to his repertoire. Sancho was poor again.
 

jd2010

Well done boys. Good process, carry on
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I know you have a man crush on JWP but the midfield looked much better when Rice and Henderson came on. I reckon it's between JWP and Jesse Messi for the last spot. JWP might get into the squad for his free kicks and corners.

Jack was terrific. Dribbles, attracting fouls, passes that break the lines. He needs to add goals to his repertoire. Sancho was poor again.
I thought JWP was the standout midfielder out there when he was on. Think he would have looked better next to Rice than Phillips. Helps obviously when he can whip in glorious chances like those to Godfrey and DCL.

If it's a choice between JWP and anyone you can't discount those set pieces. And in any sort of tiebreaker should get him over the line. For me the two biggest question marks already in the squad are Henderson and Phillips so another alternative to both would be ideal and he has that more than Lingard who is more fighting for the Sterling/Sancho mins
 
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Ben White named as TAA's replacement. England go into the tournament with 10 defenders out of 26 players. 3 more defensive midfielders added to that and 3 GKs.. so 10 out of 26 are midfielders or strikers. Silly.

Compared to Belgium who are taking 7 defenders (and a few wing backs who are natural wingers). France with 9 and Kante. England really need to replace Southgate or he's going to waste another golden generation.
 
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Ben White named as TAA's replacement. England go into the tournament with 10 defenders out of 26 players. 3 more defensive midfielders added to that and 3 GKs.. so 10 out of 26 are midfielders or strikers. Silly.

Compared to Belgium who are taking 7 defenders (and a few wing backs who are natural wingers). France with 9 and Kante. England really need to replace Southgate or he's going to waste another golden generation.

Southgate is an absolute muppet. When he goes after England fail in the Euros he will struggle to find a job in the Championship.
 
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I get the feeling Grealish might still be the unlucky one to not start the opening game. I’d assume if fit Henderson and Rice are 2 of the midfield 3. Foden has to start, which means it comes down to does he play Mount in the midfield with Foden on the left, or Foden in midfield with Grealish on the left. I think if Henderson isn’t right for Croatia, there’s a pretty good chance Bellingham starts.

On the tournament overall, even though the format waters down the group stage, I’m really looking forward to it. It seems like it’s been a long time since so many of the big nations have come into a major tournament in good shape realistically expecting to win it. Should be some great football.
 
He will probably get the spurs gig.

For a defensively minded side JWP's set pieces were a no brainer
Were they?
He's Eriksen from the Bizarro world.

Doesn't often boss games but is great at set pieces. Last 3-4 seasons Christian was the opposite.
Ran the show but hit the wall.
 
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