• 6 Jul 2024, 10:17 p.m.

    And if Trippier plays we won't Pass The Dutch on the left hand side.

  • 6 Jul 2024, 10:36 p.m.

    The post match talk seems to be that Kane has been garbage and doesn't look fit. But you can't drop him.

    I really don't understand how people think.

  • 6 Jul 2024, 11:58 p.m.

    This is the Kane who was tackled by a drinks trolley, immediately cramped up and had to come off. Despite barely moving all game.

  • 7 Jul 2024, 2:20 a.m.

    International tournaments are a reward for being a shiny player at a big club. The shiniest of all get to run around and be on telly in ALL of the games. Or, if they prefer, just kind of stagger incoherently around until they get tackled by an inanimate object… it doesn’t matter so much what they do, the point is that they earned it and all those other teams who send players there with some notion of winning the thing are doing it wrong. And we should know, we invented football. God Save The King.

  • 7 Jul 2024, 10:02 a.m.

    England 2nd favourites for tournament and Kane 2nd favourite for golden boot.

    What Kane did last night, though he didnt especially threaten, which didn't happen when he went off, was stay high, kept Switzerland's three centre halves busy and created a bit of space for those behind him. We haven't got a set-up like at Bayern where he has runners like Muisala bombing past him and he can drop deeper and spray balls around to them on combination with picking up the pieces in the box. That's the manager's fault because we have the personnel, just not the intent. So why's he playing? Because he's still doing a job, he's a leader and there is no better finisher in the world. 44 goals last season for one of the best teams in the world and hitting two decisive goals already in this tournament despite all of the above. You don't, with respect, get that from Olie Watkins or the Ivan Toney. Watkins would run about and lose his focus as he does, Toney would make it all about Toney and get hacked off if it didn't go his way. Southgate is doing a lot of things badly, and making a lot of wrong choices but this ain't one of them.

  • 7 Jul 2024, 10:06 a.m.

    The shiniest never wins anything player in world football. I don't believe he's a good captain...strikers almost never are. Henderson is badly missed for the dressing room organisation and motivation, if not the actual play. Kane is the brand on which english international football is sold...and it's all about the money. Forget the football there isn't going to be the investment in a re-brand at this point.

    Which is a shame. We'd definitely improve with a number 9 that could make striker runs, and unfortunately to the great surprise of almost everyone, it's the summer and Kane's legs. Are dead.

  • 7 Jul 2024, 10:13 a.m.

    Genuinely wonder if you would go quiet if we win this and it's because he scores the winner against Spain in the final. Could well happen.

  • 7 Jul 2024, 10:19 a.m.

    You would hope that someone loitering around in the box is going to pick up their fair share of goals. Even against good sides. That's not the issue. The issue is the complete absence of movement and working the defenders that costs the team as a whole on an attritional basis.

  • 7 Jul 2024, 10:24 a.m.

    So if we win the tournament and he scores the winner (and maybe takes golden boot), you'll still be right. Presumably if he gets 50 next year and wins the balloon door that also carries through.

  • 7 Jul 2024, 10:28 a.m.

    Pickfords squad list on the water bottle, I find both a professional standard, and a real shame. In amateur football it's good fun to play against players you have never seen before, and have no idea what they can do....and adjust as you find out ("Sparky, pick up that little fucker who can run."). Knowing the oppositions names does my head in. Being prepared to have defensive plans against players and their skillsets and movements, is to an extent why the playing field is so level these days. It's the minimum required, but also largely spoils the fun.

  • 7 Jul 2024, 10:32 a.m.

    As opposed to a constant stream of trolling material that has no basis in critical thought, all of which is speculative and much of which is almost immediately demonstrably wrong? The social media squits.

    Address your opinion to the board....don't address me. I'm not interested. Final warning.

  • 7 Jul 2024, 10:33 a.m.

    Re: Pickford, the benefit of it would also seem to be completely nullified by the world now knowing he does it (well to be fair it came out before but there's a lot of attention on it now). So if you're Netherlands or Spain all you need to do this week is plan to do something different to what Pickford will have on his bottle (which is perfectly predictable as it's based on historic analysis) and you'll probably score your penalty against him.

  • 7 Jul 2024, 10:36 a.m.

    Stop needling me every time I say anything remotely positive about our record breaking captain, if you're not interested. I like him and support him, you don't - that's fine we're allowed to have different views, it doesn't make us bad people.

  • 7 Jul 2024, 10:45 a.m.

    It's generally considered rude to not reply to people who have addressed you. I have made it clear that you addressing me is unwelcome. So it's rude to keep doing it. I have no interest in replying to your dribbling idiocy, whatever the motivation. Do not address your comments to me again.

  • 7 Jul 2024, 2:33 p.m.

    Point of order. Harry Kane has not led by example. Unless the example that you want to set is to swan about and do fuck all.