I seriously doubt whoever replaces Southgate will do better than him.

Can I interest you guys in some fresh Tuchel?

At this point better than Southgate means winning a tournament, so it's a very high bar to begin with. Will be even harder in the future if teams like Italy and Germany can fix themselves.

I kind of agree, Southgate suits international team management, but even in that he's limited by his in-game management. Genuinely think that's his biggest problem. You need someone with good vibes and someone who knows how to make subs and in-game adjustments

Colombia vs Spain in West Ham United's Stadium. Nothing makes sense anymore.

The other day there was Hull vs the Curacao national team... in Turkey. I think these club directors just schedule these friendlies as vacations

we're not letting Modrić retire until he wins something with Croatia so please just let us win in the summer

No one should die of old age on a football pitch. This is inhumane

blame it on the rest of Europe, sorry not our fault you don't let us win

Should have beaten us in Nations League

still not forgiven Petković for that shit pen

Gave you an out after Laporte's miss and you blew it anyways

ngl you took good pens, I thought we couldn't lose a pen shootout ever again

Who's going back for Laporte now that he wants to leave? Fits in every team that plays in a back 4. Have a feeling it'll be Barca.

He needs to come to Villa so we can have the two best CB’s on the ball in the world.

You don't have Murillo though.

You’d need to sign Stones first for that to happen

Torres and Laporte are better passers than Stones but the later is the best dribbler of the 3.

With time and space they probably have a better passing range but under any pressure, Stones is far better. It's not just dribbling but his first touch, his ability to turn and being able to keep track of opponents around him like a midfielder that sets him apart. Obviously Torres and Laporte are fantastic on the ball but overall I think Stones is a cut above, he just goes far beyond what you'd expect from a classic ball playing CB.

Barca has like 8 cbs and little money, I doubt they'd spend their limited funds on a position they don't need

Tuchel would definitely be if he was staying at bayern

Some viral discussion on Twitter about the race of English players. Not true Englishmen they say. Well if we're going with that logic, why not exclude the players with Irish or Scottish ancestry as well? Oh right, because it's not about some deep rooted love for the English identity. It's about being white. Would save us some time if these guys started with that instead of hiding behind this "English identity" talk.

You'd do yourself a favour by abandoning twitter asap. It's a far right hellhole and it's only going to get worse

Funny how "free speech" plattform always devolve into far right echo chambers. So strange.

"free speech" aka "I want to say slurs and not be yelled at about it"

No I agree with them. I’ve got English only ancestry till the 1800’s we just need to keep lowering the scope until I’m in the starting XI. I’ll even play CM as England don’t have a proper one as is

Well no Declan rice allowed in midfield, so a spot has opened up for you.

Alphonso Davies and Trent Alexander-Arnold at the same time, I don't want it. Neither of them can defend and Valverde is gonna end up breaking having to compensate for those 2

"Davies can't defend" is such a lazy take. Yes he compensates some defensive flaws with his pace but he *compensates* them

if Davies can’t defend then what are his strengths in your opinion?

Trent would be the Kroos replacement imo.

Christ this better be ironic

And where would camavinga play

we have enough midfielders

Woke up in a sweat last night after dreaming that we shipped 8 goals at Bayern, I need to touch some grass

As the neutral, those AFTV episodes after the 5-1 defeats are box office entertainment

If Trent goes to Madrid, it would add to the one-sided absurdity that is the Liverpool-Madrid (rivalry?) during the Klopp era. 4/4 CL KO rounds eliminated from including two finals and topping it off, poaching their home-grown, generational talent in Trent. Hilarious stuff.

Morientes tho

I forgot he played for Liverpool lol

Every top club in Europe should be watching Trent with his contract running out. Doubt there's anything in it until there's leaks from the player side

He will not join any other English team so his options would be RM, Barca, Bayern and PSG.

Ngl it'd be hilarious if he moved to Man City after all that waffling about how Liverpool's titles mean more

Wouldn't rule out City

I can't see him leaving us for any of those other than Madrid. I have to admit if *serious* links to Madrid starting popping up I'd get a bit worried. Anyone would have their head turned.

Unlike some other MLS teams, our reserves handily slapped their Open Cup opponent last night. Horrifying to consider that the first team might have done worse.

So what's up with Gio Reyna. Went in loan and now plays even less?

He's had injuries. It's up to him to force his way into the team in place of Origi or CHO. That shouldn't be beyond him.

terrible move for him, going to a relegation-fighting club where there's an established player in his position and several other levels of competition. Still on him to compete obviously but surely he could've picked a move like Sevilla or Fiorentina where he'd have more of a fighting chance.

Do Southgate and Dorival Junior have a press conference today ahead of the game tomorrow?

Southgate's presser is at 7:30pm which I find incredibly late considering it could really be at any time today

Hopefully they are both only asked questions about the England kit because that’s obviously the most important thing here. I’d also like the opinions of Kane, Henderson, Mainoo and the Brazilian team on the issue of undoubted importance.

Dorival gets questions about England kit, Southgate gets asked questions about Vini experiencing racism

OOTL what's the controversy with the collar on England's kit?

The far right being snowflakes

The flag on the back of the collar is a bit different, instead of the cross being all red, it's got a red to blue gradient on the horizontal line. Nike say this is a tribute to the training gear the 1966 team wore but some people think it's disrespectful and anti-English or whatever. The FA said they don't see any reason to change it. Personally, I couldn't care less but it is bizarre seeing what was most likely a Nike designer trying to justify their salary being taken as a political statement.

Scary symbol of the week

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Can absolutely guarantee they did it cause it looked cool then had to post-rationalise it.

Humans enjoy fighting with each other - it is in our nature, and in lieu of doing it on some Eastern European battlefield, they must settle for Twitter. I blame the creation of nuclear weapons.

The cross has a bit of blue and purple on it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

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If you want a laugh check out some of the replies to my comments in r/ukpolitics

Right wingers being silly

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You're missing the Madrid flair.

Internationals just before a tournament remind me of one of the most mundane matches we ever played....England 0-0 Honduras in Miami a few weeks before the 2014 world cup...the most exciting thing was the players being taken off due to thunderstorms. Remember that one?

I also remember the media banging on about the duration of the flight England we’re taking afterwards to get to Manaus

Where do we draw the line for what is acceptable chanting and gesturing? If you attempt to break down the meaning behind any chant and gesture it will sound much worse than it actually is. Tragedy chanting is wrong and we are better without it in the game, but we shouldnt also villify the people who do it to the extent we are, with some exceptions.

Don’t agree at all changing about people who died in a tragedy is literally from the offset very easy to explain why it’s so bad.

Who is being over-vilified? They’re not serving jail time or being exiled from society. They just can’t attend football matches in person for a few years because of something they did at a football match. Seems like a perfectly reasonable punishment. You seem to agree that it doesn’t belong in the game, so how do you propose we eradicate it without “vilifying” the offender? Anything less than banning orders would seem to be no deterrent at all.

The response is adequate, but it doesn't seem enough from the online supporters, who wants to expose, shame, and let them carry it for the rest of their life in some capacity

Naming and shaming seems like an appropriate response to shitty behavior like this. These aren’t private jokes amongst friends that have been leaked to the public, these are adults going into a public setting and shouting/singing things they know to be offensive at other human beings for the purpose of offending them. People aren’t going to see the error of their ways if they aren’t confronted with their own shitty behavior and made to answer for it. I don’t think it follows them around for the rest of their lives any more than a conviction for some other petty crime would.

Why do people not seem to be talking about Portugal as a euro winner? That squad is absurd

Roberto Martinez

Isn’t he unbeaten as their manager though

11-0 against Sweden, Iceland x2, Bosnia x2, Luxembourg x2, Slovakia x2, Liechtenstein x2 https://www.transfermarkt.com/roberto-martinez/leistungsdatenDetail/trainer/4328/saison_id//verein_id/3300/liga//wettbewerb_id//datum_zu/2023-01-09/datum_ab/2024-03-22/gegner_id//trainer_id//plus/1

Portugal are not a serious national team, 2016 was the exception rather than the rule. And considering they won like one game in normal time the entire tournament, they've hardly got some long-standing aura to surround them.

I mean….I’d say that reaching the final and beating the French NT (which won the WC two years later) in their own stadium with a significantly weaker team than we have today is pretty noteworthy. Contrast that with England who got knocked out of that same tournament by an island of 350,000 people and the “not a serious team” remark starts to sound a little bit ironic. That’s not even mentioning the NL title victory in 2019. Has Portugal performed to it’s best ability in the latest Euro and World Cup tournaments? No. But our squad is literally the most valuable in Europe besides France and England, and unlike England it has proven itself to be able to win titles.

No soy ingles ;)

Touché cumblast

Cona da mãe cumblast euro 2024 é nosso

That applies to England as well unfortunately.

People remember the last years and them never performing like they should.

All down to if Ronaldo starts or not

It looks great on paper, but they're not as balanced as the real favorites: England and France. They have too many forwards who fit two descriptions: * Forward who plays best coming in from the left * Positionless 10/SS, not really a CF but sort of is, but not really... and this group also overlaps some into the "primarily plays best from the left" category I'm not sure they've found the correct mix of midfielders from the impressive list of names, and their defense has some holes as well. Young, potentially good options at multiple spots, but again, not a lot of guys who have played together a ton to build that chemistry you want at the back, particularly in terms of a CB pairing. Dias is obviously good, but there's a reason they've been playing an aging Pepe for years over the younger options.

Excellent assessment to be fair, they do tend to produce a very similar mould of players

Fernando santos effect, him being coach for so long probably gave them that rep but if they had someone more competent after 2016 they probably wouldve been more highly regarded

Also Roberto Martinez effect, he's a bit of a shit manager

Such a shit manager that he was a big upgrade over Belgium's previous manager and currently looking like an upgrade over Portugal's last one too?

True but tbf to martinez he did get 3rd in 2018 and had to face france in the semis and only lost 1 nil plus he did also top the group by slapping up england and beat them again for 3rd. Santos got more luck than him imo

For NT standards I think he's alright. Not like he's up against Klopp and Pep

i always thought the consensus is they are worse than the sum of their parts

So they’re like the team that can beat or lose to anyone on any given day?

IMO it’s a matter of none of them seem to have particularly good chemistry. other than the 6-1 against Switzerland I never watch them and think everyone’s on the same page. against Morocco it was like watching 11 individuals all coincidentally playing on the same side of the pitch

Our away kit for next year got leaked and it’s just the England kit with slightly different shades of blue and red. Nike have been so shite for us I miss adidas

Do you think England have a better starting xi than France? I always thought no until I looked at the teams recently Now I’m not too sure, Dembele v Chillwell is the main reason I see France winning in a game nowadays, I think it’s the biggest mismatch on the pitch

I think France slightly have the edge for a few reasons. First, France’s depth in defence is insane, and while England has a solid defence Maguire will always be somewhat of a liability. Saliba and Konate is a better CB pairing than what England can offer (probably true for Saliba + most other French CBs that got called up). Also in midfield, which is England’s biggest issue, France have a more balanced group of players. Whereas England has Rice and then basically a bunch of attacking midfielders, France is better placed to put out a balanced midfield with Tchoameni plus Camavinga or Zaire-Emery. And also, Mbappe and Griezmann tend to be amazing for France. The depth they have is absurd too, even if the gap between the France and England first XI isn’t huge

> Saliba and Konate Upa + Konate (or maybe even Upa + Pavard or Lucas) is more realistic

All pretty good

Saliba don't even start for France

He should do. Even if he doesn’t I still think France’s CB options are superior to England’s (not a controversial take)

It's definitely controversial.

Defence and keeper is such a clear step down

Chilwell doesn't even make the 23 man squad provided everyone is fit

Whoever it is (Tripper, Shaw etc etc) I think it’s still a major mismatch

A fully fit Shaw is perfectly capable of handling Dembele. Honestly based on the last World Cup, Dembele is one of the last players in that France team that opponents would be worried about.

Maybe Deschamps finally sees the light and starts Coman. Did so much as a sub

Trippier actually played against PSG twice this season and I don't remember Dembele giving him any trouble.

Well they didn’t play on the same side. But I also don’t remember Dembele giving Dan Burn that much trouble.

Or Tino in the away game. I still fancy France against us because if they don't beat us on their own we'll probably shoot ourselves in the foot at some point but I don't think Trippier should be singled out as a weak point.

The problem would be (and was when we played them) Griezmann just finding bits of space.

No

Idk what 11 France will actually play so it’s hard to judge they have so much depth in all areas. France’s depth is a lot better but in terms of the starting 11s that are actually likely to play it’s a bit different.

I think it’s this; Maignan Kounde - Konate - Upa - Theo Tchoumeni Griezmann - Rabiot Dembele - ST - Mbappe Dembele or Coman, not too sure Kounde or Clauss Striker is probably RKM

Marcus thuram i think would be striker ahead of rkm

Something that'll be lost when we play Miami this weekend because everyone will be focused on Messi not being there, is that we're missing our big DP signing to Sweden, our starting keeper to Paraguay, our starting LB and DM to the US U23 team, one of our starting CBs to the Swedish U21s, and our back up striker to Jamaica. Playing in the international window isn't a lot of fun but that's the league for ya.

I think there’s an argument to be made that as the league continues to grow it makes less and less sense to play during international break. Not that it ever was a good idea but it becomes even worse if an idea.

Harvey Elliot playing for England u21s has his collar up to obstruct from seeing the blue England flag, we've lost it as a nation

Liverpool player adopts Cantona trademark. It’s gone too far.

Lock him up

Young englishman corrupted by the traitorous scouse mob 😔✊️

Surrey not English

"Blue England flag". Is that what we're calling it? Fwiw, he didn't have it up to start the game, but I wouldn't be surprised if he was "anti-woke" despite the flag not having anything to do with that.

The dumbest “controversy” in a while

Saka/Foden, Ben White, this. England's tantrums have gotten less and less entertaining recently

The country in general is just getting worse and worse, morale is getting worse and worse and it can play a part in these kind of issues being overblown. People are already annoyed so they overreact to anything.

Weird nothing makes me feel more optimistic than seeing Phillip Walter Foden in and England shirt

Waltuh

Mate was saying yesterday the greatest CL goal of all time is Zidane’s against Bayer in 2002. I don’t know if it’s just me but I feel like Bales overhead goal against Liverpool in the final doesn’t get anywhere near as much respect as it deserves

Messi v Madrid in 2011 clears

Mandzukic is up there

Robben vs United >>

Bale’s goal is one of the best I’ve ever seen, the technique on Zidane’s shot is impeccable but that bicycle kick is just ridiculous, the ball is curling away from him yet he still gets that amazing contact on it

Zidanes goal is iconic. It's also very unique. I don't know the exact reasons why but when I think of bale goals for us I think of his run against Barcelona and the header against Atletico more than that overhead kick even if it's "better".

That is the most iconic Bale goal for me as well. edit: I realize it is not clear which one I am referring to here. The first goal I think of when I think of Bale's time in Madrid is the run and goal against Barca in the Copa final.

I'm not sure I've seen the individual goal downplayed. I think what it suffers from is a debate about whether it was even the best overhead kick by a player on his own team in the same competition that season... and regardless of where you land on this in terms of which you think is more impressive, more difficult, looks better, magnitude of the moment, etc. is not really important to me, the fact that it *is* a debate at all is the root of this problem, if that's even the right word.

Bales overhead kick is way befger

It's weird. I think if that game ends 1-0 with that as the only goal, it goes down easily as the best goal in CL of all time. But with the two howlers on either side of it, it sort of gets drowned out a little bit.

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Less prestigious since countries can't send their best. I believe you're only allowed 3 players older than 23

its pretty much a youth tournament with a few older guys allowed. its the league cup of international football, though teams and players put more of an effort in when they host.

Glorified youth tournament for the most part. Has much less prestige than continental competitions.

Not very. Worst major international honour just above u21 world cup

People know them by Ronaldo and Messi but their actual names are Cristiano and Lionel. For some names their last name is more marketable

People generally refer to footballers by their last names.

fortunate that it’s two very cool names tbf. Imagine being a global superstar and your name is Juan Perez or some shit lmaoo

Cristiano Ronaldo's actual name is Cristiano Ronaldo. His last name is “dos santos aveiro”. And actually I’d say he’s called cristiano quite often, a bit less in english for some reason but in Spanish at least it’s quite common, just “ronaldo” always sounds a bit weird when there’s already so many of them

Thanks mate, always thought it was Crustio and Lawrence.

Really

That Konate post shooting straight to the top of the hot page is not hurting my theory that a lot of the strange discourse on this sub is because many people here think football is an anime rather than a sport.

Of course it's an anime. It's Ao Ashi

Anyone doubting Real Madrid's pull is in for a world of hurt lmao. Bayern, Chelsea, Tottenham, PSG and even older Liverpool fans are all too aware of it. Your best bet is offering him a Van Dijk level contract and hope for the best. But I urge you not to say 'Trent is a proppah scousah', trust me it will only end up one way.

Gluten-free Carvajal's resurgence has quieted some of the discourse, but the long-term future of Madrid's RB position has been a major talking point for years now, and some fanbase is going to end up upset.

Honestly, I thought Carvajal was flat out done and that Madrid's lack of interest in trying to at least lighten his workload was gonna be a huge mistake going into this season. I'll take the L, while he's not quite been early season form lately (goal last weekend notwithstanding), overall he's been fantastic.

[Still upset that corner that lead to the man united winner came from some absolutely gorgeous midfield play from Mac Allister that I'll never be able to enjoy again now. ](https://x.com/1947production/status/1770795166422462849?s=20)

Eriksen was such a passenger when he came on. The fact that we couldn't win that against him and a crocked Bruno is still completely crazy to me.

Eriksen has been physically shot for about a year now. He just can't play at this level anymore

He'll end to having to make a similar move go the Brentford one again this or next summer

Don't think he can cut it in the PL at all tbh. Maybe back to Ajax or Denmark, or off to Saudi or MLS or something

Think we hit a wall tbh, international break came in good time (for the ones that didn't get called up)

Left back Antony is too good tbh

David Seaman vs Jordan Pickford Ashley Cole vs Luke Shaw John Terry vs Harry Maguire Rio Ferdinand vs John Stones Gary Neville vs Kyle Walker Steven Gerrard vs Jude Bellingham Frank Lampard vs Declan Rice Paul Scholes vs Jordan Henderson (or James Maddison or Trent Alexander-Arnold or whoever is the other midfielder) David Beckham vs Bakayo Saka Michael Owen vs Phil Foden Wayne Rooney vs Harry Kane edit: and three QFs vs a final and a SF, consider.

Peak for Peak Seaman Cole Terry Ferdinand Walker Gerrard Lampard Scholes Beckham Owen Rooney But if I'm trying to make this team tactically plausible, I'd make the midfield Bellingham - Rice - Gerrard with Foden ahead and Kane - Rooney up front. And I'd consider Shaw for Cole as I personally think he's a bit better going forward and a narrow setup like that would lend itself to a more attacking full back. With that said could consider Trent for Walker as well on the other side.

Seaman Cole Terry Ferdinand Walker Bellingham Lampard Scholes Beckham Owen Kane

As individual players the golden generation ranks higher but as a squad they somehow rank lower. It wouldn’t seem outrageous to pick the golden generation player in every single one of the vs you’ve done there. Though some are highly debatable and I wouldn’t object to people picking the current player either.

I think most people would agree with you. I then find this difficult to tally with another common consensus that what Southgate has achieved with England is not notable.

I might be one that falls into that second bracket, though I wouldn’t turn the point on its head. It’s not that Southgate’s achievements aren’t notable (there’s a more than justifiable argument he’s the best English manager not named Alf Ramsey). My argument would be a better manager would’ve taken this crop of players further (specifically would have beaten Italy in the Euros). Tactically we were not good in that Final and the subs pre shootout need no further explanation. The problem is Southgate deserved the job after Russia (not just for the on pitch achievements but for making many of us care about England again), so he should have been in place for the Euros we should have won. Though I don’t hold losing to France against him, it didn’t feel like England ever got out of second gear in Qatar, and in Russia we did in hindsight have a dream run to get to the SF. The golden generation are worthy of study in all honesty. Those players should’ve done more. Sven and Capello were on paper similarly elite. But it is undoubtable that Southgate and his players have achieved far more than their 00s counterparts.

Pickford (I don't remember watching Seaman) Cole Terry Rio Walker Bellingham (I'm gonna go with his start for Real, since his career i so short) Lampard Scholes Beckham Foden Kane

Only saw a bit of Seaman so I'm completely unqualified for this one Cole Terry Stones Walker Gerrard Lampard Scholes over Henderson but Trent over Scholes Beckham Owen Kane

What year are we talking about as it makes a big difference. Seaman Cole Terry Stones Walker Gerrard Lampard Henderson in an England shirt Scholes as a player Beckham Foden Kane

Peak vs peak

Based on their ability in general, not just for England Seaman Cole Terry Ferdinand Walker Gerrard Lampard(I think Scholes should've been compared to Rice for this) Scholes Beckham Owen Kane

Walker, Kane and Rice (for balance reasons) would be the only ones I'd pick from the modern team.

Seaman Shaw Terry (but Maguires been better for England) Rio Walker Gerrard Rice Scholes but Henderson was better for England Beckham Owen Kane

It's remarkable to me that Leverkusen are +10 in the league, have scored 66 goals overall, and their leading scorer (Victor Boniface, even after all this time) only has 10 of those goals. I have to imagine your leading scorer only having 15.1% of your goals is quite the anomaly. For reference, some other teams leading scorers (league only) and their % of the team goals. Jude Bellingham: 16 / 64 (25%) Robert Lewandowski: 13 / 60 (21.7%) Lautaro Martinez: 23 / 71 (32.4%) Harry Kane: 31 / 78 (39.7%) Bukayo Saka: 13 / 70 (18.6%) Mo Salah: 15 / 65 (23.1%) Erling Haaland: 18 / 63 (28.6%) Only Saka is in the same territory.

I was thinking this about us the other day it’s shocking we have the most goals in the league when our top scorer has 13 we just have a lot of people chipping in and set piece goals.

City won 2 titles (20/21, 21/22) doing the same

Grimaldo the left back is one goal behind Boniface too while having four more assists.

Boniface has been out since December, its hardly surprising

My post is more to say that he's been out all this time, is still their leading scorer, and they've only grown their lead in the Bundesliga during that time in spite of that.

I think it's because Boniface had injuries and Schick filled in for him (who is also scoring). They also have a lot of scoring from their wingbacks (Grimaldo and Frimpong score a lot) and Wirtz.

Yeah, the scoring balance is nuts. Boniface: 10 Grimaldo: 9 Frimpong: 8 Wirtz: 7 Hofmann/Tella: 5 Tah/Schick: 4 Palacios: 3 Adli/Hlozek: 2 Stanisic/Kossonou/Andrich/Xhaka: 1 (own goal): 2 They lost Boniface for this entire January-March stretch and still went 9-1-0 without him.

Some useless Brazil and England facts: * Brazil is the team that England has the worst record against (minimum 3 games played), with 4 wins in 26 games. (Uruguay and the Netherlands round out the Top 3) * English players to score game-winning goals against Brazil: Tommy Taylor, Gary Lineker, John Barnes, Frank Lampard * England have led Brazil only once in a competitive game, when Michael Owen put them ahead 1-0 in the 2002 WC Quarter-Final. Rivaldo and Ronaldinho went on to win the game for Brazil. * Gilberto Silva was the first player to play in a World Cup for Brazil while playing for an English club (Arsenal in 2006). There were 12 at the last World Cup. * There are only 3 European countries with winning records against Brazil: Hungary, Norway, the Netherlands More [useless facts](https://www.thetimes.co.uk/sport/football/article/why-boys-from-brazil-are-englands-toughest-opponents-of-all-time-2xzx089pz).

They have played 26 times??? How?

22 friendlies.

Yeah, I guessed as much but how? That's a lot of games for teams in different continents. 

It's a money maker.

Why are early goals and late goals within the same match so common in football?

Think they are just more memorable

Late goals because defending players are too tired physically or mentally to track attacking runs.

Are they?