Euro 2016 - football in France thing

[Van Dammage]

If I was Martin O Neill...

              Randolph

Coleman  Clark  O Shea    Brady

McCarthy  Whelan   McClean

              Hoolahan

        Walters        Long

[Squink]

                  Hart

Clyne Cahill Smalling Rose

        Milner Dier Ali
                                        Vardy
        Kane.  Sturridge

Rooney as a supersub and Kane captain.

Interesting formation. Pack everyone into the right side of the pitch and just leave Vardy covering the left. The title winning high he's still on should see off any threat. Brilliant.

[imitationleather]

Seeing lots of tweets calling Kane a greedy bastard. Didn't see the match, how was it?

I wasn't really watching the game too closely this evening but in the final few Spurs games there was a definite issue with Kane going for goal when he could have set up team mates instead. But he was chasing down the golden boot and the Champions League was assured, so you can sort of understand it under those circumstances.

However, some of Kane's balls in to the area have been sublime and he and Alli have developed an incredible partnership which could see my predictions fail and us beat all expectations and achieve three draws and amass three glorious points in the group stages. Which is probably enough to progress in 3rd. I dunno, this new system is bollocks.

Also, it's a fucking England friendly. It overall tells us nothing except that we are really going to struggle when our opposition has something to play for. We're possibly going to struggle more than I was anticipating a few weeks ago.

But 2018, lads. It's on, then. Another new Stone Roses song will be out, anthem of the summer, and Woy's kids will all be coming good at last. 2018, trust. We're going to get out of the group in 2018.

[thraxx]

My main hope for the tournament is that heightened French security measures mean the fucking England band have their instruments confiscated.

Said it on this forum many times, but my favorite ever bit of sports journalism; an england match report that described the official england band as having 'all the precision and timing of an Efan Ekoku run into the penalty area'.

[Utter Shit]

Even though seemingly everyone including me was unaware this game was even happening until after the FA Cup final yesterday, I reckon Hodgson will have learned plenty from today.

I think Rose (despite being caught for the goal), Cahill, Dier and Vardy might all have cemented their places in the starting line-up for the Euros. Sterling might have played himself out, while Alli, Walker and Stones both continued to show that there are real risks attached to them for various reasons. Walker's entire career can be summed up by that ten second period near the end where he expertly intercepted a dangerous Turkey move before inexplicably spraying the ball fifty yards across the pitch into trouble, allowing an unmarked Turkish winger to run with the ball into the box unimpeded.

Kane seems to have taken on the Rooney role in the side of dominating every set piece no matter how inappropriate. Why is a 6'3" striker taking free kicks from out wide? Thought he was pretty average today even ignoring the penalty, but the partnership with Vardy looks potentially very dangerous.

Will be interesting to see which formation we go with for the tournament - given that our most dangerous wide players are Welbeck (injured) and Sterling (woefully out of form) the diamond seems to make far more sense in terms of the players available. Any one of five attacking mids (Alli, Barkley, Lallana, Rooney, Sterling) behind two from Kane, Vardy, Rooney, Sturridge, Rashford and Sterling? If we do go that way, suddenly Rashford looks much more likely to go. I suspect he probably will go now.

[Utter Shit]

The England band are so fucking annoying. I was so happy a few years ago when they tried to drum up social media support after being banned from a stadium only for social media to near-unanimously tell them to get fucked. I think they were genuinely surprised to find out that they are pretty much universally hated.

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

It's hardly news Kane is a greedy bastard. You could've watched him late 2014 and figured that out. He's there to score and is direct as hell.

[MuteBanana]

I wonder if Roy will stick Rooney in midfield with Alli. That should get England fans biting their nails.

[doppelkorn]

we ... our ... we

I always thought you were Irish, for some reason.

[Utter Shit]

I always thought you were Irish, for some reason.

Irish parents but born in England, I follow both though!

[doppelkorn]

That is acceptable. Like how Blod has a French mother and an Albanian father.

[Sgt. Duckie]

Interesting formation. Pack everyone into the right side of the pitch and just leave Vardy covering the left. The title winning high he's still on should see off any threat. Brilliant.

Well I'll confess I'm no Dean Saunders. It's more of a 4-3-3 plus Danny Rose is also on the left to 'bomb on' if you would like to gaze towards the defensive line.

[BlodwynPig]

That is acceptable. Like how Blod has a French mother and an Albanian father.

Bulgarian Uncle too

[Captain Z]

Bulgarian Uncle too

So do you also follow AFC Wimbledon?

[biggytitbo]

This might sound like a stupid question but are we allowed to field a bear in our team?

[Van Dammage]

Irish parents but born in England, I follow both though!

I always assumed you were Irish too because of the Marty Morrisey avatar

[Sgt. Duckie]

This might sound like a stupid question but are we allowed to field a bear in our team?

No. I have heard there is a claws in the contract.

[imitationleather]

We can field bears or any other kind of homosexual subculture. It's Euro 2016, for fuck's sake.

[Johnny Textface]

So do you also follow AFC Wimbledon?

Genius there.

[Captain Z]

I'm not actually as pessimistic about our chances as I might have suggested, I think our squad could potentially perform very well. I just can't help remember the soul-destroying performances at WC2010, in particular that friendly England played vs 'Platinum Stars' during the buildup:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/world_cup_2010/8725349.stm

[phantom_power]

I remember the last World Cup where, despite going out in double quick time, England actually played very well in places and only lacked a bit of extra quality in the final third. I think we might have that now

[doppelkorn]

Just trying to gauge numbers for tonight guys. Let me know yeah?

[greenman]

I remember the last World Cup where, despite going out in double quick time, England actually played very well in places and only lacked a bit of extra quality in the final third. I think we might have that now

I remember it mostly for Gerrard/Henderson being absolutely dreadful on defence losing us matches.

[imitationleather]

I remember our first game against Italy kicking off at 11pm (and that was just because it had been brought forward from 2am at the insistence of european broadcasters). That's a proper kick-off time for an international competition. And the group qualification system made perfect sense. England = FINISH LAST = DO NOT QUALIFY, GO HOME ENGLAND. A system we could all understand.

All these things are different this time and it's why it's just not going to be as good. My mate (okay, it's me) reckons England can finish on zero points and still qualify as top seed, the whole thing makes no fucking sense at all.

[mikeyg27]

England = FINISH LAST = DO NOT QUALIFY, GO HOME ENGLAND. A system we could all understand.

To be fair, that's the one thing that remains the same this time around. It's if England don't finish last that things get confusing.

I'm kinda looking forward to watching England at a major tournament for the 1st time since... 2004, maybe? I'm not dumb enough to think they'll win it (not until they scrape into the 2nd round and expectations increase disproportionately, anyway) but I'd settle for a 1st knockout game win in 10 years.

[Utter Shit]

Is it just me or does there seem to be relatively little hype surrounding England and the tournament in general at the moment? Maybe it's just because the Mourinho thing has overshadowed it for the time being, but it doesn't really feel like a big deal at the moment, which is weird given it's barely two weeks until the first game.

[imitationleather]

I think it's only the WORLD BLOODY CUP which really generates loads of hype from non-football fans. The Euros tends to go pretty un-noticed, especially since England failed to qualify in '08.

Unless we get in to the semis, anyway. Then every cunt will be interested and have something to say on the matter.

[doppelkorn]

I don't remember much hype for '08 or '12. The former because England didn't qualify[nb]I was in America the whole time and missed it all[/nb] and the latter because of the Olympics, I guess. Was Woy in charge in '12? Not even gonna look it up.

[mikeyg27]

Was Woy in charge in '12? Not even gonna look it up.

Sure was.

I just think the ending of THE GOLDEN GENERATION combined with Woy taking over (and not exactly setting the world on fire in the process) has just seen everybody's expectations about England lowered somewhat. If England do so much as win a knockout game this time, I think the hype machine will kick back into overrdrive for the rest of this tournament and right through to the World Cup.

As for the tournament in general, the Champion's League isn't over yet. I guess once that happens everybody's attention will shift. I think the BBC have started their ads. Don't worry, you'll be sick of the never-ever-ending coverage soon enough.

[imitationleather]

I was in alcohol detox during most of Euro '12 and they only let us watch the England games. It was the real arse-end of the "golden generation" squad, n'all. Overall, those games were the worst part of being in alcohol detox. The rest of the experience was banging.

EDIT: Ha, we both brought up the GOLDEN GENERATION dying on its arse that year.