AspRover

60mins... No subs yet Gallagher warming up

This is better to be fair, how long can they keep it up?

Miles off

100%

Could be worse - I thought Guehi was going to foul him for a second yellow and a pen Jesus Navas we are poor

Much more open game than I was expecting, and a ref very free with cards. This could be dangerous, but equally if we can score one it could open the floodgates. Both teams look like they've turned up to play. A red card either way and there will be blood in the water.

See my previous posts on this thread for my thoughts re. Southgate desperately trying to recapture the last Euros at any cost, is Mainoo able to be Phillips, we have different players so we need different tactics, etc. etc. ad infinitum Honestly I'd be embarrassed about repeating myself but Southgate doesn't seem to be so 1 or 2 nil, boring, backwards, neither team really posing a threat. The papers will then take a clean sheet knockout victory as a sign that everything is hunky dory and all these discontented fans are the real problem and need to get behind the boys etc. etc. ad infinitum God I hope they prove me wrong. Even a little bit.

Does he fancy a crack at it then?

Baring in mind that if Denmark score and we don't we've got Germany in the next round to look forward to. That said the commentators assure me we'll be better off playing them than Slovenia because they won't be as defensive.

If in doubt shuffle the fullbacks I guess. We have got some forwards on the bench, right guys?

My criticism is not really aimed at the players, I have no issues with Mainoo and hope he will go on to be a very good player for England.

Well it turns out TAA and Gallagher are not Kalvin Phillips, so we'll see if Mainoo is Kalvin Phillips. If not, it's uncertain where Southgate will turn next.

The last few pages have had a debate over whether a non-english manager can or should manage an England football team. That we have a non English manager in charge of an England football team and that she has won a major tournament seems relevant to me.

I know that to many on here womens football is at best an irrelevance but Serena Wiegman as a Dutch manager of an England side has at least won a major tournament.

I think that the Phillips comment really shows what's going on in Southgate's head - he had his most successful spell playing 4-2-3-1 with Rice and Phillips and he's absolutely desperately trying to recreate that even though half the players have changed. Completely unwilling to adapt those tactics to suit the new lineup, because those were the tactics that got us into a final, so he has to find a player to be the new Phillips rather than letting a new starter play to their strengths. It's 100% Mowbray 'he needs to learn our system from Ritchie Smallwood' Absolutely wild

Lol at Southgate telling them to calm down

From his own error to be fair, but yeah Guehi is one of the only players to come out of both games with a lot of credit, he looks decent.

If Kane drops deep Bellingham needs to push up and be the striker for a sec. One of them always needs to be forward.

Oh good, a Gallagher, we all know they bang the goals in

Tell you what in about thirty years the England walking football side is going to be mint

For all we know Rudy could be a genius who will transform the running of the club. For all we know he might be utterly incompetent. The problem is that he is a new graduate and has absolutely zero track record on which to judge. Do we even know what degree he achieved at least? What his dissertation subject was? Got to say appointing the work experience kid as CEO would be extremely Venkys.

Somehow I find the idea that parachute payments Burnley and recently promoted to league one Stockport are fishing in the same pool for players a tad unlikely

If we are giving players with terrible injury records a chance to win a contract there's this bloke who's on itv a lot we could have a look at

Yeah you are probably right, I was thinking swag might add a mil for that prem money, but then I remembered how cheaply we let kaminski go under similar circumstances.

I'd actually like to see him get a run at 10, I think he might surprise a few.