Euros 20/21 Thread | Page 2 | Vital Football

Euros 20/21 Thread

Status
Not open for further replies.
2024 is in Germany. I'd be very interested in going to that. I was living in Germany for the 2006 World Cup and it was a great experience following the games. Reliable and affordable trains, friendly locals, good weather, lots of excellent and affordable beer and sausages galore. What's not to like?
Looks great - ten stadiums already in place in ten cities - seven over 50,000 and three just below.
England couldn't do that without using 3/4 London stadia and a couple in Manchester, which UEFA wouldn't normally allow.
 
Going to be really interesting for me. I haven’t followed England games for a few years,mainly because they aren’t always on TV out here, allied to my lack of interest in the Premiershit. My interest will be partly on who the players are - I haven’t seen about 75% of the squad previously. Great to see Grealish in there, though I haven’t seen him performing for the last couple of years. I see we are still having problems with keepers - we must be if Pickford is still in the side 🤔. The one thing that stands out for me is that John Stones is still around. I’ve thought for virtually all of his career that he is nowhere near an international class defender, making too many mistakes in defence for a ’ball-playing’ CB. Has he improved - I’d be very interested in opinions. Very interested in Bellingham - saw him a year or two ago and was seriously impressed with him, even as a tender youngster. I think a number of the games are on ESPN so hopefully I should get to see quite a few.
 
Lots of countries capable of winning this tournament in all honesty. If I was to stick my neck out and make an early prediction I think that the Dutch will be the ones who will win it.
The dutch squad looks decidedly average to me, but I say that as someone who doesn't really follow top-level football!
 
Dutch, French and Portuguese favourites for me. Although French haven’t imploded at a tournament recently which is very unlike them.

Spanish squad looks very weak. Whilst Germans, Belgians and Italians aren’t the all conquering teams they’ve had recently.
 
I'm admittedly completely out of touch with top flight football, but five midfielders, inc. Henderson who is injured and isn't Bellingham really young? Then again perhaps the excess of RBs means flexibility in covering other positions if needed. I really don't know so feel free to tell me why I'm wrong!

Personally I always enjoy international tournaments regardless of how England do. It always feels so different to club football, getting to see a wider range of talent levels within each nation's team. I think it was 2014 when I watched most of the matches (albeit skipping ahead through recordings of some less interesting ones at times), definitely won't get away with that this time!
It's good that the England performance doesn't impact your enjoyment of a tournament. Please keep that in mind once this one reaches the QF stage!
Southgate, like so many before him, has said one thing and done the other. "I'll pick players inform", Sterling, Rashford and probably Calvert-Lewin poor for some time now, Ings and Bamford get to watch on TV. As always, injured players in the squad (we will never learn). Now, we pick players fro the first friendly that aren't even in the final squad!
Predictable loss when we play a good side.
 
2024 is in Germany. I'd be very interested in going to that. I was living in Germany for the 2006 World Cup and it was a great experience following the games. Reliable and affordable trains, friendly locals, good weather, lots of excellent and affordable beer and sausages galore. What's not to like?
Blimey, Germany will have had 3 World Cups since 1966 then .... although getting around there is easy on the trains etc and the Stadiums are excellent.
 
Blimey, Germany will have had 3 World Cups since 1966 then .... although getting around there is easy on the trains etc and the Stadiums are excellent.

Euro1996 saw a few new stands at Leeds, Man United, Newcastle; but was before a phase of new grounds built in the next ten years (Wembley, Sunderland, Arsenal, Man City - albeit for the Commonwealth games, and even places like Southampton, Stoke, Derby, Coventry & MK). Germany had a lot of new or extensively updated stadia in 2006 that are good for 2024.

With only one city allowed two stadia, we'd struggle in England to get to ten grounds with capacity of >40,000 for a WC (would need to squeeze Hillsborough and Elland Road in there and still use Cardiff, or get permission to use additional stadium in Manchester/Merseyside).
 
With only one city allowed two stadia, we'd struggle in England to get to ten grounds with capacity of >40,000 for a WC (would need to squeeze Hillsborough and Elland Road in there and still use Cardiff, or get permission to use additional stadium in Manchester/Merseyside).

Is that the criteria, one stadium from one City (or town?) .... so that rules out most of London then?

A bit harsh when you consider Arsenal, Tottenham & West Ham have spanking new stadiums and Chelsea's is decent too.

Wembley
1 of the above mentioned
The Etihad
Anfield or preferably the new Everton Stadium
Villa Park
St James Park
Stadium of Light
Hillsborough (39,732)
Elland Road (37,890)
Riverside (34,742)
Pride Park (33,597
St Mary's (32,689)
 
It's good that the England performance doesn't impact your enjoyment of a tournament. Please keep that in mind once this one reaches the QF stage!
Southgate, like so many before him, has said one thing and done the other. "I'll pick players inform", Sterling, Rashford and probably Calvert-Lewin poor for some time now, Ings and Bamford get to watch on TV. As always, injured players in the squad (we will never learn). Now, we pick players fro the first friendly that aren't even in the final squad!
Predictable loss when we play a good side.
i laughed out loud when i read southgate is giving lingard a start - when he has two games to be preparing the team for the tournament. such a nice fella southgate.

as others have said. problem areas: keeper. stones, no left sided cb. no top international class defensive midfielder (we know how important a bridcutt is)

i don't rate sterling or henderson (even when fit) at this level either.

mount, foden, james look like they could be top internationals.

main issue for me isn't the players though, it is the quality of the coach, the ability to manage top premier league 'stars', and to make them into a winning team in the very big games.
 
Is that the criteria, one stadium from one City (or town?) .... so that rules out most of London then?

A bit harsh when you consider Arsenal, Tottenham & West Ham have spanking new stadiums and Chelsea's is decent too.

Wembley
1 of the above mentioned
The Etihad
Anfield or preferably the new Everton Stadium
Villa Park
St James Park
Stadium of Light
Hillsborough (39,732)
Elland Road (37,890)
Riverside (34,742)
Pride Park (33,597
St Mary's (32,689)

Yes, with no tournament to plan for we ended up with a lot of 30/35k bowls - add MK, Middlesbrough and Leicester to the list. Shame we didn't get a big new 50k+ stadium in the midlands, could have hosted semi finals and other Wembley events. A lot of them say they could expand, but not sure how good they would be.
You missed the obvious loophole of claiming Old Trafford isn't in Manchester though :)
 
You missed the obvious loophole of claiming Old Trafford isn't in Manchester though :)

Yes there is that, very important geographical fact ... but if you’d been lately you’d realise it’s an absolute tip, with little or no legroom. It’s well past it’s sell by date, and not fit to welcome guests worldwide for a prestigious tournament.
 
Last edited:
Yes there is that, very important geographical fact ... but if you’d been lately you’d realise it’s an absolute tip, with little or no legroom. It’s well past it’s sell by date, but not fit to welcome guests worldwide for a prestigious tournament.

I've never been. Why would I go there?
 
The way they've spaced out the players is a bit odd. Grealish, Foden, Sako are not strikers and would slot into the middle. Sako is even a pretty decent left back. Sancho and Sterling are wide players in reality. There's only really Kane and Calvert-Lewin who you would say are number 9's. Bellingham is a talent and could do very well in this tournament

That whole idea of three distinct banks of players is well out of date these days isn't it, squads just don't break down like that now. Our team would be the same - someone like Brennan Johnson really doesn't play the same position as either Bridcutt or Hopper does he but if you were dividing it like that you'd need to pick one.
 
Yes there is that, very important geographical fact ... but if you’d been lately you’d realise it’s an absolute tip, with little or no legroom. It’s well past it’s sell by date, but not fit to welcome guests worldwide for a prestigious tournament.
Stands behind the goal and corners added 20 years ago weren't great at the time, and were pretty spartan inside, and nothing significant has been spent since then despite the rain now coming in...
With the land United have and could have had, they could have done something like City or even Tottenham, but have fallen way behind.
 
Is that the criteria, one stadium from one City (or town?) .... so that rules out most of London then?

Two London grounds were used in the 1966 World Cup finals (always a good quiz question to name 'the other one') - but no doubt the rules have changed since then.
 
Two London grounds were used in the 1966 World Cup finals (always a good quiz question to name 'the other one') - but no doubt the rules have changed since then.
White City I do believe? Didn’t David Cassidy play there once, along with Greyhound racing and Speedway.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.