Euro 2024

[WMUG]

I don’t think security has been poor, look at how quick that guy was to tackle Alvaro Morata

Seriously though, not the only thing up the creek in Deutschland. Apparently the Train services have been diabolical throughout the tournament, cancelled trains and delays of 2 hours or more in some cases. You wouldn’t expect that from the land of efficiency

Then again “at least the trains ran on time” is often misattributed to Nazi Germany and was actually said about Fascist Italy under Mussolini

Having lived there I can tell you, the myth of German efficiency is the most effective piece of national propaganda ice ever encountered.

The trains are routinely delayed by about 20-30 minutes, the bureaucracy is labyrinthine and the cultural attitudes are so inflexible that if people will look at you as though you've 2 heads if you dare to ask at 2pm whether you can sit at a table that's reserved from 6pm.

[Mac76]

I quite like the idea of my kids having their first drink with me. They’re going to do it anyway so I’d rather they were open about it and didn’t feel the need to shy away from drinking in front of me. I’d rather they were open about it than do what I did and nick cans from my dads garage and go to the park with the lads.

Just got to educate them on how shitty excessive drinking can be. Showing them clips from an average city centre on a Saturday night should hopefully put them off.

Yeah that seems like the best way :D

[Mac76]

Go away soy boy.

**WHOOP WHOOP inaccurate stereotyping alert**

[HCZ_Reborn]

Having lived there I can tell you, the myth of German efficiency is the most effective piece of national propaganda ice ever encountered.

The trains are routinely delayed by about 20-30 minutes, the bureaucracy is labyrinthine and the cultural attitudes are so inflexible that if people will look at you as though you've 2 heads if you dare to ask at 2pm whether you can sit at a table that's reserved from 6pm.

All the female service staff I’ve encountered in Germany over the age of 40 all seem like league of gentleman characters. Especially asking where the loos were (enschuldigung wo ist die badezimmer) in a service station near Aachen, she looked like Mark Gattis and had a deeper voice than me

[HCZ_Reborn]

So looking towards tomorrow, it’s one of those curious things in that we are the underdog despite having the better individual players in most areas

Walker better than Carvajal, Stones better than Laporte, Both Bellingham and Foden better than Olmo and Ruiz, Saka better than Yamal and despite having a very poor tournament Kane is both a lot better than and has outscored Morata.

Though that said
Simon is better than Pickford, Le Normand better than Guehi, Rodri better than Rice and Cucurella/Williams better than anything we play on the left


The main problem is we are a hot, ill put together mess where the players don’t trust each other and are constantly looking back over their shoulder. A competent coach would I have to say be able to win easily tomorrow with some of the talent we have, wear down the Spanish press and then take them apart when they tire.

To do that takes a team that is confident with every player around them and I just haven’t seen that. The positive is that Spain will go for the jugular from the off and if somehow we are able to survive this marauding they will become leggy. Even the unambitious French made them look incredibly immobile for their goal. Too often attacks break down and we are too afraid to press teams into giving us back the ball in their own third…high risk but we absolutely have to be prepared to do that tomorrow night (especially if the scores are level in the second half)

Though frankly with Southgate, if we do win it will be a fluke rather than winning a tactical battle

[Mac76]

if we do win it will be a fluke rather than winning a tactical battle

I think we will and it will be exactly that

If he starts with Watkins all is forgiven - even if we lose - but of course Watkins is now a "super-sub" whose late goal apparently proves, not disproves, the (foolish) theory that starting with someone who can't move, can't think, can't hold their position and can't keep their weight down is actually a good tactic

by the same logic, Arsenal shoud have kept Van Persie or Henry permanently on the bench and started Iain Dowie up front instead

[Letters]

Honestly, you guys.
You’re preemptively declaring it luck if we win so you don’t have to change your narrative that Southgate has just fluked his way to a World Cup semifinal and now two Euro finals in a row.
He’s got good players but we’ve had good players before and not done anywhere near this well.

[HCZ_Reborn]

Honestly, you guys.
You’re preemptively declaring it luck if we win so you don’t have to change your narrative that Southgate has just fluked his way to a World Cup semifinal and now two Euro finals in a row.
He’s got good players but we’ve had good players before and not done anywhere near this well.

Well at least I’m not comparing Kane to Iain Dowie

The fact is a) we haven’t had the level of quality that we do have now. The nearest we came to it was under Sven and he also miserably failed to take advantage of it, but his quarters finals were against Brazil and twice against Portugal. Southgate has won three semi finals - against Sweden, Ukraine and a pel shootout against Swiss. So b) To deny that he’s been incredibly lucky with the teams he’s been drawn against in knockout matches is a clear denying of reality.

[Letters]

a is an opinion, not a fact.
To deny there’s been some luck with draws would be silly, but not long before Southgate we lost to sodding Iceland.

[Mac76]

a is an opinion, not a fact.
To deny there’s been some luck with draws would be silly, but not long before Southgate we lost to sodding Iceland.

You mean the Iceland we lost to again just before this tournament?