Did anyone see the Netherlands v Czechia? They really closed ship well once they scored. Could, just maybe, could Southgate have had a point about it being essential not to concede against them? Such a heated match too. Do those two countries have bad history or something?
UEFA Euro 2020 Group D ** spoilers ** (England, Croatia, Scotland, C.Republic)
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Of course he has a point. Not conceding is just as important as scoring. You can attack while minimising risk or you can attack while risking leaving yourself open. The latter is more exciting to watch and will mean more chances are created while the former is boring and means less chances are created.
We don’t appear to be taking much risk at all and that’s helping us keep clean sheets. The question is whether or not that will continue to work against teams who are willing to attack more than the ones we have played. So far it’s worked because we’ve snatched the odd goal and held onto the lead. Yes we could be putting more balls in the net against those teams with the players we have but I think Southgate is getting the team used to playing pragmatically for when we meet stronger opposition.
The past few years England have been very good at countering so the flip side is that when we do play more attacking teams, we will get more room to break teams down and hit them on the counter. We are not very gifted defensively so I genuinely believe this style of play, while frustrating for some and boring to watch, is going to give us the best chance of winning the euros.
I agree although sometimes the outright tournament odds are slightly inefficient / worse than can be achieved by more granular markets. This normally isn't that noticeable until the latter stages but you get some extreme examples like e.g. on the last day of the season a team might have a given price to win the title / top 4 / be relegated or whatever yet if you do an acca with all the individual outcomes that will facilitate that you often get better odds. I guess this is partly because the 'simple' markets like outright winner attract more casuals and lack of fine precision of more granular bets - you see this too with Asian Handicap often inexplicably giving better odds with the same bookie for the same outcome (+0 vs Draw No Bet, +0.5 vs Double Chance).
At the end of the day, the only important thing is that you score more than you concede.
If you have weak defence you'd better score a load up the other end
As much as possible, you have to play to your player's strengths.What baffles most of us is when he picks players who have been injured all season, or players struggling for form, or plays people out of position. And just serves up mind-numbing defensive displays where you can actually feel how scared the players are to try going forwards.
Or the numerous times where he waits for the 85th minute before making any subs.
Or how many times England try to defend a 1-goal lead and fluff it, then go on to lose.
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Will take a scrappy 1 - 0 to be honest.
Arguably our clean sheets have been down to poor opposition as much as defensive solidity.
Arguably our clean sheets have been down to poor opposition as much as defensive solidity.
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England 1 Germany 3
Snap.
Especially if England score first - in which case they'll try to defend that for the rest of the game, becoming more and more nervous, falling apart at the back, and giving all the momentum to Germany.
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Yeah Gareth will park the bus v an attacking Germany, hope I'm totally wrong.
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Don't forget putting on a few extra defenders to "shore up the defence", just before conceding and then having no attacking ability to recover even if we wanted to.
And after the game ends in a comfortable German win, the FA saying they want to renew Southgate's contract until the end of time itself
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My thoughts too, which of course we will lose, as we always do when it comes to pens against
Caporegime
You know it.
Just about to finish work and get the beers flowing, ready for an evening of frustration and disappointment - followed by a poor nights sleep and my daughter waking up at 1-2am for a couple of hours.
Bring it on.
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