Soldato
Just read Saka has NEVER taken a penalty for Arsenal (I couldn’t remember one myself but I haven’t got a photographic memory). Whyyyyyyyyyyyy???!
Poll: UEFA Euro 2020 Final Italy v England ** spoilers ** [Sunday 11th July 2021]
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Soldato
he is a profesional footballer, why shouldn't he be taking one ??? . It's not like they don't practice pens, it's not like that's the first time he ever placed a ball on the spot in his life, plus they had home advantage, were at the England fan end and there were only 6k italian fans so not exactly making lots of noise. If ever there was a time that pens should have been psychologicaly less stressfull it was today.
The hardest part is that I don't expect any lessons to be learned.
I expect we'll see more of the same formula for the foreseeable.
Regardless of the players at his disposal, Southgate will set his teams up to be negative. It's just his thing.
I don't think Southgate is that bad. It's just the same old story with England, get a goal = Park the bus. They score = panic. We were bossing then in the 1st half so the mentality should have been get 2 or 3 whilst they're figuring us out. I was flabbergasted with the pundits at half time. Blah blah were playing great. No we've missed a great opportunity.
Soldato
1) because older, senior players with penalty taking experience were available to take that 5th deciding penalty.
2) you must not watch much football if you think a home crowd makes a shoot-out in a final like this - particularly the deciding penalty as to whether the other team wins - any less stressful. Players are human. It’s like walking across a plank in your garden vs one 100ft in the air; even with everyone cheering you on vs half the crowd telling you to jump, with the latter the plank will feel like it’s an inch across no matter how many times you’ve walked across it on the grass and memorised your step pattern. There have been exceedingly few, if any, players in history that have 100% conversion rate from the spot - even Ronaldo and Messi have crumbed under pressure and missed penalties on numerous occasions. Bayern Munich once lost the Champions League final to Chelsea on penalties in their home stadium - if the most dominant German side ever can choke at home in a shoot-out, anyone can.
Soldato
forget the pundits, most of them are clueless and they are just saying what the at home TV fans want to hear. Southgate may not be that bad, but he is certainly not good either, he has basically tried to defend his way through the entire tournament with the exception of Ukraine because they were so crap.
Associate
Nice one, thanks for that.
Soldato
so just excuses then ? If he can't be trusted to take a penalty because he is "so young" then maybe Southgate should have left him at home. Seriously cry me a river they are profesional football players and get paid a kings ransom to do their job. If they can't handle the heat then maybe they should look for another form of gainful employment, road sweeping is quite stress free and you get lots of fresh air.
Eh? it just doesn't make any tactical sense to play a younger more inexperience person when there were older players with a proven record available. Either Southgate it tactically inept or had money riding on the outcome.
(Or his hand was forced by some agenda)
Really? PSG, OM, Lille, Lyon, Rennes?
Bloody awful match and the major point, especially in finals, is to win the bloody thing.
Caporegime
'Football's coming Rome' just doesn't have the same ring to it.
Caporegime
I honestly cannot imagine that people are dissecting penalties that much. It should have never got to that stage! Two years ago Rashford scored a much higher stress one against PSG in a champions league knockout game to take United through. Penalties will always be a game of chance and we lost it simple as.
That didn't change the fact for the vast majority of the game we just turned into Burnley and tried to defend a 1-0 lead. I think we ended up with a 30 something possession percentage. We lost that match purely down to poor coaching and not knowing what the hell to do to react to the way the Italians were playing.
It was on the cards in the first place because we played 5 at the back. The Italians never thought of doing that and played a proper formation and went for the game even though we had home advantage! Just goes to show the mentality between the two different managers.
That didn't change the fact for the vast majority of the game we just turned into Burnley and tried to defend a 1-0 lead. I think we ended up with a 30 something possession percentage. We lost that match purely down to poor coaching and not knowing what the hell to do to react to the way the Italians were playing.
It was on the cards in the first place because we played 5 at the back. The Italians never thought of doing that and played a proper formation and went for the game even though we had home advantage! Just goes to show the mentality between the two different managers.
Soldato
Looks like Boris called it right with the bank holiday request.
Awful match, fair result.
Awful match, fair result.
Soldato
Southgate's not the one, he's a ******* plum, football's going Rome again 
I feel horrendous this morning and I didn't even drink. That was truly gut-wrenching.
I feel horrendous this morning and I didn't even drink. That was truly gut-wrenching.
Yup - Italy pretty much just played conventional football with a manager who knew how to get the best out of what he had available, if it wasn't for the overall quality of players we had Southgate would have looked much worse. We definitely had the players to beat them.
Well said. Great match and Italy deserved the win.
Kudos to Southgate for getting us to the final
Not to bothered, thought making the final was a decent achievement and no complaints about Italy winning as I thought they were the best side in the tournament
Plenty of teams would have loved to be able to swap places with england last night to be finalists
Plenty of teams would have loved to be able to swap places with england last night to be finalists
Soldato
Subbing on Sancho and Rashford was a terrible decision. Barely any time on the pitch for the whole tournament and then suddenly asking them to take the kick of their lives.
Italy thoroughly deserved the win though. If England had won the shootout it would have been pure robbery.
Italy thoroughly deserved the win though. If England had won the shootout it would have been pure robbery.
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