I know it’s ups and downs with international football and tournament form is another beast but the team wasn’t great against Malta either. Are the players just not that bothered? End of year playing in the motions?
Well these friendlies don’t mean much but it’s still a part of building team chemistry in the build up the Euros. The lack of creativity is still a key issue that has lingered since the Last Euros too, I think Maddisons badly missed and Sakas been far from his best.
Win some friendliesBreeze through qualificationDisappointing but ultimately meaningless pre-tournament losses <– you are here
Speculation as to whether it’s possible to replace Southgate before the tournament
Stick with Southgate
It’s coming home
Group stage has one impressive win, one routine win and one boring draw
Grind out knockout wins by 1 or 2 goals
It might actually be coming home
Play well against a top team, have a few horrible decisions go against us, crash out with a narrow loss
It will come home next time
This is spot on except the horrible decisions part.
And the part about pre-tournament losses, since they didn’t lose.
We’re still bitter about the Lampard goal.
Yeah. We know.
Actually real and true
Not sure about the grinding knockout wins? We put 4 on Ukraine and 3 on Senegal in the last two tournaments, Denmark and Colombia way back when have been the only grindy knockout wins with Southgate. You can legitimately criticize him without making stuff up.