[sophocles]

1-0 against the team ranked 173rd! Is there still anyone who thinks Tuchel will actually coach England to WIN the World Cup? I'm not going just on that feeble performance, and I made my point before Tuchel took over. Nothing I've seen since he arrived even begins to suggest that Tuchel will get anywhere near Southgate's achievements. No country, including England, is entitled to win the World Cup, but Gareth Southgate had the best go at it since 1966, and I'm afraid it's blindingly obvious that Tuchel will fall short of that level of achievement.

This post has been edited by sophocles: 07 June 2025 - 06:38 PM

[hilly81]

It’s obviously still very early days and there are a variety of reasons to suggest why, but that was absolutely pathetic tonight. Massive improvement needed.

[Burgerman]

It was shocking. I wasted 93 mins that I’ll never get back.

[stainlessstephen]

Absolutely do not buy into this hype.

[danblue]

Bored me to sleep.
Shocking.

[Brookie]

I stopped watching England a long time ago

[lindave]

The football from the women this week was just as bad, dont think that either side will be winning a trophy anytime soon.

[jack bauer]

Burgerman, on 07 June 2025 - 07:06 PM, said:

It was shocking. I wasted 93 mins that I’ll never get back.

echo that, ok end of season international "away" at a side who set up to frustrate, but saw very little to suggest this team has that swagger of a champions in waiting feel about them.

[sophocles]

 lindave, on 07 June 2025 - 07:43 PM, said:

The football from the women this week was just as bad, dont think that either side will be winning a trophy anytime soon.

Agree, though I think the women under Weigman still have a better chance of progressing to the later stages than the men under Tuchel's leadership.

[Rodders]

Bring Lee Carsley back, at least he was willing to blood new players and young talent. How the f' does Henderson get a start?!?

[Brookie]

Said it before, Tuchel will not blood players for the future given his remit and length of contract

[jack bauer]

does england football need a bazball reset? i've just started reading about the bazball revolution in test cricket and it's such a fascinating thing in the simplicity of it, to summarise, mccullum and stokes wanted england cricket players to reconnect with why they started playing the game in the first place, that joy and love of the sport and the freedom of it is at it's core, often watching top level football these days is like watching paint dry, so coached are the players that the instincts have all but dried up in many cases, how many times do we see wingers collect the ball in an advanced area, stop and play a 10 yard pass back, then back it goes back again and again. RECYCLING the ball they often call it.
i'm not saying the bazball thing is that simple, i'm sure there are technicalities and tactics discussed but i do feel we have reached a point in "elite sport" where over coaching is guilty of driving out the purity of play (which is what sport starts out as being).

or coupled with this is the result the only thing that counts to the majority, so much so that opposition teams are prepared to spend 90 plus minutes entering the field simply to stop the other team from winning as opposed to trying to do anything themselves of any positive value? which in turn of course affects the team trying to acheive the objective we all started out with... to score goals and win games.

i wonder if this was in the thinking of footballing minds when 3 points for a win was introduced, to devalue the DRAW result, maybe it is time to go further and push it to 4 points for a win or 0 points for a draw (but then you'd have to go -1 for a loss)...

just thinking out loud on an evening where i was truly bored watching a game of football played by people who earn more in a week than many of us could dream of earning in several years.

[sophocles]

 Brookie, on 07 June 2025 - 09:24 PM, said:

Said it before, Tuchel will not blood players for the future given his remit and length of contract

You're right. What a limited, short-term outlook we have now. The steady building through age-group teams that Southgate was overseeing at St George's park is being scrapped. What was the point of all that investment in bringing young players through, and gradually building stronger and stronger teams? Giving in to entitled 'fans' who expect instant success is a big mistake IMO. I think the result will be an even longer wait for a European Championship or World Cup victory.

[firedodger]

 jack bauer, on 07 June 2025 - 10:15 PM, said:

does england football need a bazball reset? i've just started reading about the bazball revolution in test cricket and it's such a fascinating thing in the simplicity of it, to summarise, mccullum and stokes wanted england cricket players to reconnect with why they started playing the game in the first place, that joy and love of the sport and the freedom of it is at it's core, often watching top level football these days is like watching paint dry, so coached are the players that the instincts have all but dried up in many cases, how many times do we see wingers collect the ball in an advanced area, stop and play a 10 yard pass back, then back it goes back again and again. RECYCLING the ball they often call it.
i'm not saying the bazball thing is that simple, i'm sure there are technicalities and tactics discussed but i do feel we have reached a point in "elite sport" where over coaching is guilty of driving out the purity of play (which is what sport starts out as being).

or coupled with this is the result the only thing that counts to the majority, so much so that opposition teams are prepared to spend 90 plus minutes entering the field simply to stop the other team from winning as opposed to trying to do anything themselves of any positive value? which in turn of course affects the team trying to acheive the objective we all started out with... to score goals and win games.

i wonder if this was in the thinking of footballing minds when 3 points for a win was introduced, to devalue the DRAW result, maybe it is time to go further and push it to 4 points for a win or 0 points for a draw (but then you'd have to go -1 for a loss)...

just thinking out loud on an evening where i was truly bored watching a game of football played by people who earn more in a week than many of us could dream of earning in several years.

Agreed, I only saw about 10 minutes of that but it was possession for possessions sake tippy tappy football at its absolute mind numbing boring worst.
Big match revisited was far more entertaining!

[The Earl of Chesterfield]

Thanks to the pathways established Tuchel has an array of young talent from which to choose.

Yet he started with Henderson, a right wing-back at left back and midfielder at right back.

Then whilst it was always gonna be an exercise in damage limitation on the opponent's part, there was little or no invention or ambition to run into gaps.

Southgate was criticised for being too conservative.

However last night's performance made his look like Keegan's sides playing rush goalie...

[HaslandBlue58]

 firedodger, on 08 June 2025 - 10:43 AM, said:

Agreed, I only saw about 10 minutes of that but it was possession for possessions sake tippy tappy football at its absolute mind numbing boring worst.
Big match revisited was far more entertaining!

The most worrying thing for me was that I kept thinking, lots of possession,lots of backwards sideways passing,no penetration into the area,no shots from outside the box.Does that seem familiar to any other Spireites?

[stainlessstephen]

 HaslandBlue58, on 08 June 2025 - 12:20 PM, said:

The most worrying thing for me was that I kept thinking, lots of possession,lots of backwards sideways passing,no penetration into the area,no shots from outside the box.Does that seem familiar to any other Spireites?

Aye

[60s 70s Spireite]

HaslandBlue58, on 08 June 2025 - 12:20 PM, said:

The most worrying thing for me was that I kept thinking, lots of possession,lots of backwards sideways passing,no penetration into the area,no shots from outside the box.Does that seem familiar to any other Spireites?

One comfort is that neither Tuchel nor Cook are happy to see meaningless possession.
The end of Manchester City’s dominance of the home game is an indicator that possession can be beat by rapid breaks and high energy. The introduction of 5 substitutes also sees less number of tiring (bemused?) defenders being on the pitch after 80 minutes or so.
The game is due and, seems to be heading for, a change in tactics., Perhaps we’ll see more long throws into the box at PL level next…

[Exharboroughspireite]

 jack bauer, on 07 June 2025 - 10:15 PM, said:

does england football need a bazball reset? i've just started reading about the bazball revolution in test cricket and it's such a fascinating thing in the simplicity of it, to summarise, mccullum and stokes wanted england cricket players to reconnect with why they started playing the game in the first place, that joy and love of the sport and the freedom of it is at it's core, often watching top level football these days is like watching paint dry, so coached are the players that the instincts have all but dried up in many cases, how many times do we see wingers collect the ball in an advanced area, stop and play a 10 yard pass back, then back it goes back again and again. RECYCLING the ball they often call it.
i'm not saying the bazball thing is that simple, i'm sure there are technicalities and tactics discussed but i do feel we have reached a point in "elite sport" where over coaching is guilty of driving out the purity of play (which is what sport starts out as being).

or coupled with this is the result the only thing that counts to the majority, so much so that opposition teams are prepared to spend 90 plus minutes entering the field simply to stop the other team from winning as opposed to trying to do anything themselves of any positive value? which in turn of course affects the team trying to acheive the objective we all started out with... to score goals and win games.

i wonder if this was in the thinking of footballing minds when 3 points for a win was introduced, to devalue the DRAW result, maybe it is time to go further and push it to 4 points for a win or 0 points for a draw (but then you'd have to go -1 for a loss)...

just thinking out loud on an evening where i was truly bored watching a game of football played by people who earn more in a week than many of us could dream of earning in several years.

This is why I stopped watching premier league football. All fur coat and no knickers. Players with bags of skill coached to death, no flair, the death of dribbling.

[Days in europa]

We looked like we expected to win easily and we're very sloppy with our passing nobody really committing defenders very poor
Let's face it even the blunts would beat Andorra at Wembley! Well perhaps that's pushing it a bit!