In life, sometimes you risk the most by not taking risk

[Scipio Africanus]

Imagine you have just had dinner with your family. Suddenly two armed robbers break into your house. You see that one is armed with a pistol and that the other is armed with a nasty looking cutlass. They are screaming for everybody to lie down and tell them where the money is, threatening to kill your family, including the kids.

You are frozen in shock and terror. Your mind is racing through worst case scenarios, thinking that the armed robbers probably have accomplices waiting outside, and that your family will be violated and murdered. Your wife, sobbing with fear, frantically begins to look for her purse, and as things settle down, you notice a hammer that you previously used to do some repairs sitting on your bookshelf.

Now, do you risk going for the hammer, grabbing it, and beating out the brains of the two armed robbers?

Or do you not do anything and risk the armed robbers having their way with your family?

Before you answer that, let's switch the conversation to a much more pleasant topic.

You are Gareth Southgate. You have carefully guided your team to the final of the European Championships against a very tactically astute opponent whose total is greater than the sum of its parts. The first final in 55 years for your country. Goodness knows when you'll be in this position again. One particularly defective part of your opponent is a combined age of 70 years for their central defensive pairing (Chiellini and Bonucci). They are slow as molasses, but wiser than a nest of serpents.

You have young, fast, tricky players like Saka, Grealish and Sancho available that you could have used to endlessly pick apart that glaring weakness of your opponent.

Instead of playing the formation below,

*************************************Kane
**********************Sterling

**Shaw******************Grealish*********************Sancho/Saka

**************Rice*******************Phillips

********Maguire**********Stones************Walker

and attacking fearlessly like the lions your countrymen like to imagine they are, you pick the following cowardly formation

*************************************Kane
**Sterling********************************************Mount
********************Rice*******************Phillips
Shaw***************************************************Trippier

********Maguire**********Stones************Walker

and allow your opponent to outshoot you 20 to 6, in your own storied Wembley. You put yourself in the position to face your nightmare scenario, the PK shootout. It was no coincidence that old man Chiellini did not take long to collect a yellow by dragging down young Saka, introduced too late in the game. Imagine if the young ones had been introduced earlier to run at that combined septuagenarian defense. At the very least Italy would be teetering on the edge with 10 men on the field, and would likely be down by 2 or more. At the very least.

Well guess what, you lost and deservedly so. What makes the loss even more galling is that the same young ones you showed no faith in to win the game, were the same ones you subbed in late to save you from the consequences of your cowardice.The fates were having none of it. Cowardice will always be punished, and going back to the armed robbery example, absolutely paint your walls red and white with the brain matter of the armed robbers. Fin. Italia, Italiaaaa Italiaaaaaaaaa!

[Bigpokey24]

abeg make we hear word, england aren't that good, they'v ehad the luck of the draws. lets list the teams they've matched up in 18 and 21

Panama,
Tunisia
Belgium
Colombia
Sweden
Croatia
Belgium( lost 2ce to Belgium and PK win vs Colombia) 3 wins in regulations 3 loses and 1 draw) 7 games , this is a 500 record

CRoatia
Scotland
Czech
Germany
Ukraine
Denmark
italy

today nothing to show for it since 1966

[cchinukw]

England had them on the ropes for the first 30 - 40 minutes bro.

Italy were just better - tactically, mentally and more resilient.

It was like watching a chessmaster on the ropes begin to turn the tide.

Let's admit that Italy had more in the bag as England had rum out of ideas. Eventually they were forced into the part that Italians have mastered for decades and prepared meticulously for ahead of this tournament.

[Scipio Africanus]

abeg make we hear word, england aren't that good, they'v ehad the luck of the draws. lets list the teams they've matched up in 18 and 21

Panama,
Tunisia
Belgium
Colombia
Sweden
Croatia
Belgium( lost 2ce to Belgium and PK win vs Colombia) 3 wins in regulations 3 loses and 1 draw) 7 games , this is a 500 record

CRoatia
Scotland
Czech
Germany
Ukraine
Denmark
italy

today nothing to show for it since 1966

Were you bashed in the head at some point in your life? Your posts are irredeemably and irreparably stupid. How da hayell where you allowed to leave Nigeria? Were you smuggled in by traffickers?

Gaddeyyummmm!! What a f..ucking moron!

[Scipio Africanus]

England had them on the ropes for the first 30 - 40 minutes bro.

Italy were just better - tactically, mentally and more resilient.

It was like watching a chessmaster on the ropes begin to turn the tide.

Let's admit that Italy had more in the bag as England had rum out of ideas. Eventually they were forced into the part that Italians have mastered for decades and prepared meticulously for ahead of this tournament.

You didn't even read my post. Please read next time before replying.

[Bigpokey24]

abeg make we hear word, england aren't that good, they'v ehad the luck of the draws. lets list the teams they've matched up in 18 and 21

Panama,
Tunisia
Belgium
Colombia
Sweden
Croatia
Belgium( lost 2ce to Belgium and PK win vs Colombia) 3 wins in regulations 3 loses and 1 draw) 7 games , this is a 500 record

CRoatia
Scotland
Czech
Germany
Ukraine
Denmark
italy

today nothing to show for it since 1966

Were you bashed in the head at some point in your life? Your posts are irredeemably and irreparably stupid. How da hayell where you allowed to leave Nigeria? Were you smuggled in by traffickers?

Gaddeyyummmm!! What a f..ucking moron!

cool story , I won't derail your thread into a swearing fit. i have never disrespected you on these forums...however it's all good.. bottomline you are so consumed by the EPl and in fact how many english players do start for the top epl clubs?

[Coach]

At Scip, by the time that trembling hand has reached for and dropped the hammer, the Smith and Weston is blowing smoke from it’s mouth ala John Hannibal Smith behind one of Havana’s finest.

[Bigpokey24]

England had them on the ropes for the first 30 - 40 minutes bro.

Italy were just better - tactically, mentally and more resilient.

It was like watching a chessmaster on the ropes begin to turn the tide.

Let's admit that Italy had more in the bag as England had rum out of ideas. Eventually they were forced into the part that Italians have mastered for decades and prepared meticulously for ahead of this tournament.

yea right..england scored in the first min and defended with 8 players, had kane and Sterling upfront... the stats were so bad , they had 28 % possession and 3 shots by min 82. .. when 120 mins were over , this was the stats

Home TeamItalyAway TeamEngland
Possession
Home65%Away35%
Shots
Home19Away6
Shots on Target
Home6Away2
Corners
Home3Away5
Fouls
Home21Away13

until england learns how to play possession football, they will never win anything . This is why the SE will fail woefully with ****

[Bigpokey24]

guys please do not let this thread die nah

[Kabalega]

Imagine you have just had dinner with your family. Suddenly two armed robbers break into your house. You see that one is armed with a pistol and that the other is armed with a nasty looking cutlass. They are screaming for everybody to lie down and tell them where the money is, threatening to kill your family, including the kids.

You are frozen in shock and terror. Your mind is racing through worst case scenarios, thinking that the armed robbers probably have accomplices waiting outside, and that your family will be violated and murdered. Your wife, sobbing with fear, frantically begins to look for her purse, and as things settle down, you notice a hammer that you previously used to do some repairs sitting on your bookshelf.

Now, do you risk going for the hammer, grabbing it, and beating out the brains of the two armed robbers?

Or do you not do anything and risk the armed robbers having their way with your family?

Before you answer that, let's switch the conversation to a much more pleasant topic.

You are Gareth Southgate. You have carefully guided your team to the final of the European Championships against a very tactically astute opponent whose total is greater than the sum of its parts. The first final in 55 years for your country. Goodness knows when you'll be in this position again. One particularly defective part of your opponent is a combined age of 70 years for their central defensive pairing (Chiellini and Bonucci). They are slow as molasses, but wiser than a nest of serpents.

You have young, fast, tricky players like Saka, Grealish and Sancho available that you could have used to endlessly pick apart that glaring weakness of your opponent.

Instead of playing the formation below, ...... snipped

There are two fallacies in your post(s).
First is that, at this level, older players are not fast and tricky. They are.
Secondly, that young fast tricky players win you tournaments. They usually do not.

What affects older players is recovery. When they play hard they need more time to bounce back. It's worse if they get injured because they do not heal as fast as teenagers. That's a big reason older players get short contracts.
If I'm not mistaken, Chiellini and Bonucci just came off the injury list.

Again, young fast tricky players don't usually win you tournaments. Look no further than Neymar who ruined Brazil's chances of winning the Copa America against Argentina. Yet people on CE were calling for more Neymars on the Brazil team and blaming the "mechanical robots" around him.

Meanwhile, old Messi curbed his usual fast tricky runs and won his first senior tournament with Argentina while younger Neymar tricked his way to a loss.

As Messi shows, older players can be fast and tricky too, but they often wisely prefer not to do so because it exposes them to injury and takes them longer to recover for the next game among other reasons. Not worth it

[Bigpokey24]

Imagine you have just had dinner with your family. Suddenly two armed robbers break into your house. You see that one is armed with a pistol and that the other is armed with a nasty looking cutlass. They are screaming for everybody to lie down and tell them where the money is, threatening to kill your family, including the kids.

You are frozen in shock and terror. Your mind is racing through worst case scenarios, thinking that the armed robbers probably have accomplices waiting outside, and that your family will be violated and murdered. Your wife, sobbing with fear, frantically begins to look for her purse, and as things settle down, you notice a hammer that you previously used to do some repairs sitting on your bookshelf.

Now, do you risk going for the hammer, grabbing it, and beating out the brains of the two armed robbers?

Or do you not do anything and risk the armed robbers having their way with your family?

Before you answer that, let's switch the conversation to a much more pleasant topic.

You are Gareth Southgate. You have carefully guided your team to the final of the European Championships against a very tactically astute opponent whose total is greater than the sum of its parts. The first final in 55 years for your country. Goodness knows when you'll be in this position again. One particularly defective part of your opponent is a combined age of 70 years for their central defensive pairing (Chiellini and Bonucci). They are slow as molasses, but wiser than a nest of serpents.

You have young, fast, tricky players like Saka, Grealish and Sancho available that you could have used to endlessly pick apart that glaring weakness of your opponent.

Instead of playing the formation below, ...... snipped

There are two fallacies in your post(s).
First is that, at this level, older players are not fast and tricky. They are.
Secondly, that young fast tricky players win you tournaments. They usually do not.

What affects older players is recovery. When they play hard they need more time to bounce back. It's worse if they get injured because they do not heal as fast as teenagers. That's a big reason older players get short contracts.
If I'm not mistaken, Chiellini and Bonucci just came off the injury list.

Again, young fast tricky players don't usually win you tournaments. Look no further than Neymar who ruined Brazil's chances of winning the Copa America against Argentina. Yet people on CE were calling for more Neymars on the Brazil team and blaming the "mechanical robots" around him.

Meanwhile, old Messi curbed his usual fast tricky runs and won his first senior tournament with Argentina while younger Neymar tricked his way to a loss.

As Messi shows, older players can be fast and tricky too, but they often wisely prefer not to do so because it exposes them to injury and takes them longer to recover for the next game among other reasons. Not worth it

end of discussion

[cchinukw]

England had them on the ropes for the first 30 - 40 minutes bro.

Italy were just better - tactically, mentally and more resilient.

It was like watching a chessmaster on the ropes begin to turn the tide.

Let's admit that Italy had more in the bag as England had rum out of ideas. Eventually they were forced into the part that Italians have mastered for decades and prepared meticulously for ahead of this tournament.

You didn't even read my post. Please read next time before replying.

I did. I just have a better way of not beating about the bish.

[cchinukw]

England had them on the ropes for the first 30 - 40 minutes bro.

Italy were just better - tactically, mentally and more resilient.

It was like watching a chessmaster on the ropes begin to turn the tide.

Let's admit that Italy had more in the bag as England had rum out of ideas. Eventually they were forced into the part that Italians have mastered for decades and prepared meticulously for ahead of this tournament.

You didn't even read my post. Please read next time before replying.

I did. I just have a better way of not beating about the bish.

[cchinukw]

England had them on the ropes for the first 30 - 40 minutes bro.

Italy were just better - tactically, mentally and more resilient.

It was like watching a chessmaster on the ropes begin to turn the tide.

Let's admit that Italy had more in the bag as England had rum out of ideas. Eventually they were forced into the part that Italians have mastered for decades and prepared meticulously for ahead of this tournament.

You didn't even read my post. Please read next time before replying.

I did. I just have a better way of not beating about the bush to
make my point.

[marko]

There a reason why Italy have 4 stars on their jersey! they prepare mentally for this territory, how many times have you seen Italy in finals, they know how to play competitions, England will get it one day, Italians are the masters

[Scipio Africanus]

England had them on the ropes for the first 30 - 40 minutes bro.

Italy were just better - tactically, mentally and more resilient.

It was like watching a chessmaster on the ropes begin to turn the tide.

Let's admit that Italy had more in the bag as England had rum out of ideas. Eventually they were forced into the part that Italians have mastered for decades and prepared meticulously for ahead of this tournament.

You didn't even read my post. Please read next time before replying.

I did. I just have a better way of not beating about the bush to
make my point.

Can you say that one more time please?

[Scipio Africanus]

England had them on the ropes for the first 30 - 40 minutes bro.

Italy were just better - tactically, mentally and more resilient.

It was like watching a chessmaster on the ropes begin to turn the tide.

Let's admit that Italy had more in the bag as England had rum out of ideas. Eventually they were forced into the part that Italians have mastered for decades and prepared meticulously for ahead of this tournament.

You didn't even read my post. Please read next time before replying.

I did. I just have a better way of not beating about the bush to
make my point.

Your reply and that of a couple of others on this thread are faith-based replies, faith in Italy's historical superiority over England(If the outcome was preordained, why even play the game?) completely bereft of any thinking or analysis.

You didn't address the fact that England kept more than half of their young creative players on the bench.

Didn't address the fact that Chiellini wasn't forced to take a yellow for the team until Saka came on. He took that yellow in the 90th minute!!!!

What if he had taken that yellow in the 10th minute, or the 15th minute, or even on the half hour? You don't think that would have made him more cautious and easier to exploit, and affected Italy's defensive fervor for the remainder of the game? Think man!!! Think!! Lay off the faith based stuff that we Africans are so fond of.

That is why an African team can never beat Brazil 7-1. We would have "faith" that they were better than us and overlook their glaring weaknesses right in front of us which we could exploit ruthlessly with a little analysis. We are "faithful" people.

[Bigpokey24]

England had them on the ropes for the first 30 - 40 minutes bro.

Italy were just better - tactically, mentally and more resilient.

It was like watching a chessmaster on the ropes begin to turn the tide.

Let's admit that Italy had more in the bag as England had rum out of ideas. Eventually they were forced into the part that Italians have mastered for decades and prepared meticulously for ahead of this tournament.

You didn't even read my post. Please read next time before replying.

I did. I just have a better way of not beating about the bush to
make my point.

Your reply and that of a couple of others on this thread are faith-based replies, faith in Italy's historical superiority over England(If the outcome was preordained, why even play the game?) completely bereft of any thinking or analysis.

You didn't address the fact that England kept more than half of their young creative players on the bench.

Didn't address the fact that Chiellini wasn't forced to take a yellow for the team until Saka came on. He took that yellow in the 90th minute!!!!

What if he had taken that yellow in the 10th minute, or the 15th minute, or even on the half hour? You don't think that would have made him more cautious and easier to exploit, and affected Italy's defensive fervor for the remainder of the game? Think man!!! Think!! Lay off the faith based stuff that we Africans are so fond of.

That is why an African team can never beat Brazil 7-1. We would have "faith" that they were better than us and overlook their glaring weaknesses right in front of us which we could exploit ruthlessly with a little analysis. We are "faithful" people.

everything you posted here were ifs and excuses. I am tired of the new excuse, england had their creative players on the bench. england played 6 out of 7 games at home and traveled the shortest distance , only to Rome.( actually they went to Rome to see where the Trophy will end up) Now you are over here shouting about an African team beating Brazil 7-1

at the end of the day reality is that Italy are European champions, and all the news we are getting all over are about the racist abuses

[YUJAM]

We can Monday morning QB till kingdom come, but it is clear the Italians were better players who were also tactical superior to their opponents. The way they slowed the ball down and then started to overload both sides of the English D + the angles they started to run into was a marvelous sight. That’s something foundational that the English do not have yet. Their time will come in the future.

[Bigpokey24]

We can Monday morning QB till kingdom come, but it is clear the Italians were better players who were also tactical superior to their opponents. The way they slowed the ball down and then started to overload both sides of the English D + the angles they started to run into was a marvelous sight. That’s something foundational that the English do not have yet. Their time will come in the future.

we all watched 120 mins of football, during 120 mins of football , england had 2 shots on goal and 32% possession all game long. i mean 120 mins . that is an average of 1 shot every hour in a cup final . smh best squad ko best squad ni, they are getting played because Chelsea and city made the champs league final, the coaches for both clubs are from germany and spain . no english manager finished in the top 8 this past season

the major players at both clubs aren't even english.. only one chelsea player from england played the final and dude is one overhyped international player .had no assist or goals all tournament .. now look at what jourginho did. Italy were undefeated in 34 games and folks like the OP forgot that part.. smh I never saw any great football from england. we all saw them vs Scotland , they beat a pathetic Ukraine and won against Germany thanks to Muller and timo

[hestonap]

For all the England bashing (God knows I’m as ABEG as they come), the English have made great strides in the past few years. Look at the quality coming through at the under age level. Yes they’ve had luck of the draw but 2 SF placements In 2 consecutive competitions is no joke or coincidence. They have a young team. They’ve spent money and are clearly executing a development strategy.

I know as a football fan I’d rather the Eagles were in the position of the English than we are at the moment. Whether it is recruiting a near pensioned dinosaur pretending to be a coach, opening our backsides to Madagascar and Sierra Leone and being told that we are going to competitions to learn. Add on top pretenders claiming to be administrators to put it politely.

Bash the English all we want, heaven knows I’m enjoying some of their misery but to fail to recognize the strides they’ve made in the past few years and worst still not to attempt to learn from their template is just foolishness.

You can laugh and enjoy their misery but at the very least also ‘steal’ or learn from the strategy or adapt the template they appear to be executing with success.

[Kabalega]

For all the England bashing (God knows I’m as ABEG as they come), the English have made great strides in the past few years. Look at the quality coming through at the under age level. Yes they’ve had luck of the draw but 2 SF placements In 2 consecutive competitions is no joke or coincidence. They have a young team. They’ve spent money and are clearly executing a development strategy.

I know as a football fan I’d rather the Eagles were in the position of the English than we are at the moment. Whether it is recruiting a near pensioned dinosaur pretending to be a coach, opening our backsides to Madagascar and Sierra Leone and being told that we are going to competitions to learn. Add on top pretenders claiming to be administrators to put it politely.

Bash the English all we want, heaven knows I’m enjoying some of their misery but to fail to recognize the strides they’ve made in the past few years and worst still not to attempt to learn from their template is just foolishness.

You can laugh and enjoy their misery but at the very least also ‘steal’ or learn from the strategy or adapt the template they appear to be executing with success.

The English youth teams have been good for a while but there seemed to be a disconnect between the senior team handlers and the youth setup. The likes of Victor Moses fell through the cracks. It's debatable whether someone like Saka would even have made it in those days.
Southgate, a former youth coach bridged that gap.

Looks like there are remnants of the old culture in the senior team affecting the new kids too.
You almost have to promote a whole youth team in order to avoid such problems. But you lose the experience greatly needed at major tournaments.

[Coach]

@Scip, having never used Sancho as a wide midfielder/wingback, such a call at the table for highest stakes, is beyond bonkers.