[Devongone]

I got through last night's game without watching one minute of England. Serbia's manager has three top-level likely goal scorers available to him, a very successful midfield player in Serie A and his brother who is a giant and decent keeper at the same level. Of those only Mitrovic started. I wonder why Serbia's only goal came from an idiot Dutch forward in a ridiculously defensive position. Meanwhile after leaving Hojlund to plough a lone furrow for about an hour replaced him and a few minutes later realised a winger might be a decent idea. Turns out the winger had a sensational season in Belgian football, scoring 26 goals.

Managers are obsessed with picking a system then selecting even mediocre players to fit it instead of making sure their best players are on the pitch and developing a system to best showcase their talents.

It ain't just Southgate, and he is a nice man, but he isn't waving, or even catching plastic cups. He's drowning!

(oh and by the way Jim, England have at least 3 potential playmakers in this squad, even discounting Alexander-Arnold, who if fact was marooned alongside Rice, having the worst game of his life in Southgate's fearful set-up and has now been thrown under the team bus.)

[Devongone]

OMG the suggestion is that we ought to drop Jude Bellingham, because his last two games have been poor.

Errrr far be it from me to suggest that he is possibly thinking we ought to attack and try to score goals.

Who are the most stupid, pundits, people, or the manager?

I'd stupidly suggest that playing a back four and two defensive midfielders against teams which field only one decent forward is perhaps overkill. Slovakia do however tend to play with three forwards so I look forward to our seeking permission to add Peter Storey and Nobby Stiles to our squad, so we can counter this potent three-man threat with two lines of four defensive players.

[hibeejim21]

Maybe i'm off the mark but i might suggest that most of these players benefit from very high quality coaching (and foreign players/coaches) at their clubs wheras in the england set up its all a bit stodgy and reliant on individual talent to get the win.

I still think you will be there or there about come the latter stages though, the draw has been very kind again.

Austria could be a real dark horse in this tournament.

[Devongone]

No Jim, I think you are right about the coaching. However much individual talent you have, it also has to have a clear idea of how it is intended to be used - unless you give every player the freedom to think for himself and interpret the team's needs as the game develops. At the moment England seem to be both fearful of expressing themselves AND at a loss how interpret any of the instructions they have been given.

I have an awful feeling that if all that happened was the coach pinned up a team with players in their positions and all that was said, "Lads I've absolute confidence in you all, play your game and go out and enjoy it," they would actually do better. Currently management itself seems to be a negative benefit!

[ritchiebaby]

I honestly think that England could win the Euros, in spite of Gareth Southgate. England's general play is pretty poor, but they do have the players who can turn a game in an instant.

Brilliant goal from Bellingham and Kane benefits once again from a fluke to score.

[Devongone]

I don't think the second goal was a total fluke. Every Dubravka punch goes out straight-ish to about the edge of the box. Trippier should have been able to alert us to that, but didn't. Eze was the first with the football intelligence to be in the right place and realise he had to try and belt it FIRST TIME!. True he belted it into the ground, but when it flew up to Toney, he definitely knew what he was doing with his header across the box and FOR ONCE Kane was in the right place, lurking around the far post.

The only time when England looked decent was the few minutes with Eze and Saka playing as wingbacks. Southgate soon stopped that!

Unless we get a different Kane I can't see how we beat the Swiss. Akanji and Schar will eat him. And if Kane doesn't change Bellingham will continue to be isolated. Foden and Saka don't come inside to support him. Rice thinks he is a centre back. Only Mainoo disobeyed instructions and came forward. Without support Bellingham got clattered five times in the first half hour and was booked for his trouble (for being black?)

Though I'd sworn NEVER to watch England again, I did. Because I thought it would Southgate's last game once we lost. I was wrong by a brilliant overhead kick and a fault in the space-time continuum.

My only concern for the Swiss is that Embolo is only half-fit. Maybe we should then play Luke Shaw to mark him who hasn't played a game since February has he? And still has the worst diddy-man shorts in the universe.

I have a feeling Walker and Foden should stop reproducing. It seems to be destroying their game.

[ritchiebaby]

It was a fluke. Toney to Kane to the net wasn't but the attempted shot was. It was going well wide and 9 times out of 10 would have been a goal-kick.

[Devongone]

I agree the shot by Eze was never going to score, but no one else got on the end of Dubravka's many punches until Eze came on. Trippier must take hundreds of corners at Dubravka in training at Newcastle, don't you think we ought to have known what Dubravka does when challenged on a high cross .......?

If Toney to Kane wasn't a fluke and Kane's header wasn't a fluke, and Eze being in the right place wasn't a fluke, and trying to do the right thing wasn't flukey either .... the one flukey element in the goal was Eze not connecting properly. If we assess every goal resulting from something unintended as a fluke ...... then a hell of a lot of goals are going to be pure flukes. Back in the day when the long-ball game started being played, scoring flukes and lumping balls "into-the-mix" were very much part of what passed for strategy. Isn't the pressing game about when you don't win actually back the ball close to goal, creating fluke errors from panic- stricken or sleeping defenders.

There's a lot of flukes out there! How many shots beat the keeper ONLY because the ball is deflected off a defender. It's a fluke, but someone deliberately created that situation too. How many goals come from perfect, pure passing moves out from the back? How many times does passing out from the back result in a fluke goal for the opposition? So far in this competition France scored two own goals and a penalty.

Perhaps in the same way we signify own goals with (og), we should record flukes with an (f)?

[hibeejim21]

Slovakia totally blew that. If they had managed the game a bit better in the latter stages they would have won. They also missed a great chance with Pickford AWOL. Switzerland could be a difficult game, they have some genuine quality in their ranks.

The winner of the Germany Spain game seems most likely to me to be lifting the trophy.

Another penalty given last night that looked v close to the one we didn't get.

[Devongone]

It's very difficult to assess Jim. Like you I thought Austria would go further, but the young Turks beat them with their mixture of attacking play, youth, commitment and occasional brilliance. I didn't see that one coming.

Ritchie isn't daft to say England could win it. The ability exists within the squad, though we've seen next to none of it, but the draw became very kind to both us and Netherlands once Portugal gave Georgia a chance of beating them (which they gratefully seized with both hands).

Germany and Spain are two of perhaps four sides who have put in more than one good performance and are unfortunate to meet each other. Switzerland have also played well twice. I think I could pick a side which would at least give them a lot to think about, but I'm not sure Gareth will change much or learn from the Slovakia game, which I agree we should never have won. So I'm guessing we will struggle again.

No one would agree with me, no one ever does and I don't expect it but I'd go for

Pickford (we haven't got a better choice sadly)

Stones (he's used to playing in a back three and must be allowed to carry the ball forward)
Rice (he's almost been playing centre back anyway, and a back three needs ability on the ball)
Walker (badly as he is playing, you need some out and out pace when you have a ball-playing back three)

Alexander-Arnold (wing back, you can't score goals if you don't feed forwards and he'll take the dead balls)
Eze (he's moved inside because Bellingham needs people around him, close to him, who can genuinely play)
Bellingham (we have to give him the support and opportunity to show how good he really is and he wins tackles)
Cole Palmer (another with the skill to work with Bellingham and the cockiness to be determined to score himself)
Bukayo Saka (he can play almost anywhere, he'll put his foot in and terrify marauders down his wing with his skill)

Kane (he's been very poor, but I want to compensate for what he can't do!)
Toney/Watkins (if we need a runner because Kane can't then Watkins, or for the power and go that Kane lacks Toney)

Gordon would be a planned sub with about 25 minutes left and Foden's a bird in the bush from the jolly bench. And coming up against Xhaka I would do everything I could to wind him up and make him mis-time tackles.