Rooney

Some weird moves happening here. Dumfries is one of those players that does well for the Netherlands but is bang average every time I've seen him at club level. Better on the ball than Wan-Bissaka, but makes Man Utd defensively weaker. Lots of changes going on at Man Utd, still a bit muddled about their approach though. Ugate seems like a massive flop in the waiting too unless there's a structure style play change.

It's all going to come down to this immigration parrot certain elements are parroting. Biden wasn't particularly strong on it and not sure Harris did a great job (although pretty thankless task). It's an easy rhetoric for Trump to play in to, and we're seeing Reform play the same trick over here too, so will be interesting to see if it works in the US this year as clearly that's where we're heading in the UK too.

Labout have already come out and said they are reviewing the policy. Doesn't sound like there is any money available and lots of people assume just handing parents more money solves the problem. There's probably more things that can be done, such as increasing free breakfast & lunches at schools or releasing more funds to schools within term times, that will make a difference and ensure children are fed. Again, doesn't solve the problem, but there's stuff that can be done here to link back to the NHS and educating children on healthier choices too. It was not in the Party manifesto and nor was the vote an actual vote on the policy itself! It was purely a political trap the SNP set, which rightly or wrongly certain members blinked two weeks in a new government. It was a three line party whip, so if anyone under the Labour banner ignores that then they deserve to lose the whip. There's 5 years to make changes and reduce child poverty. Backbenchers can challenge the Party and influence from within, fat lot of good when they're all sat as independents now and probably unlikely they'll be let back in.

They basically voted against what Labour’s manifesto was. The two child poverty cap wasnt in the Kings Speech and half of these MPs could have pushed to abolish it when in prominent shadow cabinet positions under Corbyn! Just screams the majority of them were really too scared to run as independents and knew they’d lose the whip. At least Starmer is installing some party discipline early doors.

Daft bunch of idiots, I don’t know what their intention is. Just got in to power and go against the whip straight away? Theres plenty of time to influence politics and ultimately I think the 2 cap will be abolished, but there’s only a finite amount of money and only so many things can be done. I personally think it should be abolished too, but what a daft move. This wasn’t even a policy or amendment was it tho, it was something on the Kings Speech? They’ve jumped too early and shot themselves in the foot here imo. It’s what 18 days of government and they’ve already rebelled..

Michelle Obama is the only person who could comfortably beat Trump, I feel Harris would do better than the polls suggest but dunno, I think she’d struggle to win over the older voters and even older Democrats. Her nomination would swing the narrative back to new vs old but I just don’t know how you compete with Trumpism in this everything is fake apart from their own narrative that they push.

Surely not even a debate, One Direction by a country mile. JLS helped paved the way but we’re talking about a once in every 25 years global phenomenon in One Direction.

Yep a very good player, was hoping Liverpool would be in for him but seems we baulked at the price end his twerking with Real Madrid. Good signing in any case though!

I think he's the best of an uninspiring bunch, but not sure he'd take the job. Seems to be some murmors of Tuchel.. which seems odd, but could see it working for a short stint period whilst they sound Carsley for the job (who is definitely not ready). Points to a wider point about our players are much better technically these days, but our coaching/coaches still leaves a lot to be desired.

The right decision. He's obviously done a great amount of work and the change of mentality & culture has been well welcomed. Personally, I feel in hindsight he should have gone after the World Cup. He's been the manager for a long time, but you sensed in this campaign something wasn't right - Southgate was way more prickly with the media (which is usually a strong point) and some really bizarre decisions imo throughout the tournament. I'd say Graham Potter is highly likely to be next, or maybe Lee Carsley. Suspect the FA will want someone with the St. George's mentality. Also wouldn't surprise me if they tried to go for Klopp for a 2 year contract to 2026 - I think he'd be the only foreign manager we might go for.

Anyone else read The Athletic hit piece? That's definitely come from inside the camp and has legs to it. Maguire & Grealish being dropped upset the camp and seems Bellingham isn't well liked either. Kind of makes sense when you think about it, especially the former and the stinker we put in against Iceland afterwards.

There’s loads of reasons. Southgate isn’t some majestic, a lot of recent England history was clouted by the end of Capello’s reign and then of course the dour Hodgson years. Southgate just is not a winner and if anything we’ve gone backwards rather than forwards with this team.. I genuinely don’t even know what we were trying to do this tournament. The issue is there’s a pattern with Southgate- great man manager, but he’s so invested in being risk adverse that it hurts our play. Right now, we’re in a really similar position to how Germany were under Low towards the latter end of his tenure. Change is good and it’s the right time. As well as tactics, a lot of football is about momentum and seizing on the opportunity. We squandered the momentum yesterday at 1-1, which was Southgate’s doing and it cost us. I just think the cycle has come to an end now, we’ve regressed as a team and we clearly have the players who are used to being on the front foot, rather than in a continual low block. England should be competing in the semi finals every year with the amount the FA invests in the grassroots, all the way up to the first team. Like I mentioned earlier, everyone’s so scarred by the Hodgson failures (a great example of where the FA were just happy we qualified) at major tournaments and the hangover from the Fergie/Wenger/Benitez/Mourinho era that did lead to a toxic culture at the national team.

I think this has always been the case though, especially as one of the big 5 European nations. We’re never going to win a Championship under Southgate. I’d like us to try and think of a bit of an identity for how we might want to play at an FA level rather than who knows what we’re currently trying to do (which nobody really knows).

I reckon we're well set up to be there or thereabouts for a while now, obviously we've had a great run these past few tournaments post Euro 2016. But it's only really been that period from 2007 to 2016 where we were absolutely dreadful on the international scene and a lot of that was our coaching not adapting to the changing times, which is happening again now. Southgate has donw a great job, but it's time to move on now. As much as Spain were the better team here, we were so passive and set out to play for penalties - momentum is a huge thing in football and the fact we gave it up so easy after Palmer scored is coward tactics. None of our players really suit playing in an ultra conservative way, Kane especially doesn't at his age these days.

I genuinely had no idea who it was between Sean and Michael at the end after Ryan got voted out. Thought Michael played a good game, although I also thought Muna would have been a worthy winner. Was hoping they would ask Michael some questions about why he decided to self sabotage so much and when he twigged Sean was the mole.

Gavi, Pedri and Yamal all play too many games for Barcelona though. Gavi is awesome, but who knows how we will come back from his ACL. Both England and Spain have good players at the moment, those who are on the peripherary (and currently starting) not even counting the likes of Quansah, Ellliott, Branthwaite, Miley, Rico Lewis and then who else knows who is rising through the ranks.

Reckon the aim will the 2028 Euros now, with whatever happens in the World Cup a bit of a bonus. I think how we perform there (providing we qualify) will be a bit of pot luck based on where we end up playing and at what times FIFA put the games on. We're not a million miles away, but hope this does show that we could do with playing some form of progressive football at times. Spain play nice, but know how to play ugly too - we can definitely do this!

Best team won. Classic Southgate, we score after needing to attack, then decide to revert back in to low block and concede momentum :lol: Great man manager, but this complete passive nature gets you burned. Spain were there for the taking after we scored and we bottled it again.

Spain have changed shape ever so slightly, which is giving the wingers all the room. First half we shut it down, but we couldn't react and it's forced us back. We'll see if we can get back in to the game now with Kane being slung off, so mayube we might have a front press at least.

Two teams cancelling each other out, we're playing deep and our full backs are defending well against the Spanish wingers. Doing well so far. The problem when we're playing this deep, Kane is not the right player for this set up. But he's not having a good tournament in terms of his overall play, that's for sure.

It won't be a disaster if we don't win, but it will be a disaster if the passive version of Southgate turns up. Fingers crossed we just give it a shot. That's the main thing, it's football - anything can happen, but if you don't give yourself a chance then you might as well not turn up! Let's be honest, the group games and vs Slovakia were absolutely awful. Genuinely terrible. After the Last 16 something definitely changed - the mood in the camp was better and we got in to a bit of form. I imagine eventually stories will come out about what the root cause of that was.

Yeah no way Trump doesn’t win the election now.

If England win, half the team probably get Knighthoods, but Southgate definitely. Think if Spain win, they will be remember for being the best side in a largely average tournament and if England win, we will be up there with Greece and Portugal :lol:

This storm against Biden is only going to grow now.

Spain are a much better cohesive unit, especially in midfield, which is a massive weak point for us still. The Netherlands midfield is even weaker than ours, so was no surprise we dominated it for a large part. Southgate sets up to match oppositions, so not sure what he will do here. I think the only change will be Shaw starts for Trippier imo. We’ll finally have some balance though, so even if we’re defending compact and deep we should have an out ball or be able to stretch the opposition slightly. I’d expect Spain to start strongly, infact I actually think the worse thing we could do is score an early goal like the last final. It’s a one off game so anything can happen, Spain will dominate the ball but we’ve had so much luck, the body language across the players has completely changed since the Swiss game, that I just feel this is England’s year now.