Pickford advances to the last eight again with England

That said, Southgate has a better squad that Robson did. Pickford is better than 40 year old Shilton, Kane better all around than Lineker, Stones and Walker comparable, Gazza on paper comparable quality to Foden.

Southgate organises them defensively as if he does not trust their ability.It explains why he left certain players at home,. Thought he is dependent on exceptable ability to get a score.He even derived great satisfaction from a scrappy lucky goal.

Pickford has become main stream.His crazed look, talking to himself, and walking about demented raving at his defence of thin air are now accepted.He just goes with the pressure.There is no reassurance with him, only a uncanny ability to save and cut down shooting options.He will stay at Everton, He is that mad.

Definitely not being a England Supporter I hope Southgate does enough to get the Man U job.I will finish here so as not to tempt fate. Coping with them winning anything would mean becoming a Media hermit for the rest of my life.

Most of the squad are the envy of most Clubs (not all) yet he chooses to play boring, unadventurous, well you can't really call it football. What a Jodrell Banker he is !

Not an England supporter, but if I was, I would be, or should be, even more scathing. The whole set up including the Premier League stinks, with the likes of Masters and his sort, (that rhymes appropriately too) and all on Mega-Salaries. Strewth !

I just had a feeling we might score said the England manager, at the end of yesterday's game. Brilliant that, nearly as good as Jude Bellingham's wonderful goal, but was it a fluke that England scored two, once they put extra bodies in the opposition penalty area?

What is also very apparent is that most of the squad is knackered and on its last legs, even by their own admission. The liveliest players were Eze and Toney who have both played relatively little this season. Yet Southgate continues to play the same people, game after game, two times a week, no rotation and only very late subs. He actually made a sub in injury time, when we were still 1-0 down, a tactic normally used as a time wasting ruse for the side that is winning.

I hope another EPL club, maybe Man U, get Southgate, you will then see how mediocre a manager he is.

If you are born in England of English parents, I cannot understand why people say they do not support England if they follow team sport, whether it's football, cricket or rugby.

Different matter perhaps if one or both of your parents originates from Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland or the Republic of Ireland but I always hope that those countries win unless they are playing England.

I must admit though, I always support England more intently when we have players in the team or squad. I still remember the pride in seeing Ray Wilson with his medal in 1966 and signing Bally from Blackpool, giving us two World Cup Winners.

Let's hope Jordan collects a winner's medal on 14 July.

If you really want to annoy a Man Utd fan, tell him you think Southgate is going to be their next manager.

Southgate is clueless, but the luckiest bloody manager I think I've ever seen!! Shades of Greece here — but at least Greece had a plan and stuck to it.

Switzerland, however, will be a very different test altogether. Let's see.

Pleased for Pickford only.

Reminds me of Perry in Kevin and Perry saying "That's what I hoped would happen" when Kevin pinched his bird.

Perhaps, he is happy at EFC where he is appreciated by the overwhelming majority of supporters and mirrors their passions!

He has the sense to realise that chasing more money and fame is not as important as his young family seem very settled in the area!

All great keepers are thought to have an odd streak, just look at Gordon West and Neville Southall.

He will stay for that reason, but I think he feeds on uncertainty. All goalkeepers are mad, the madder the better!

In that case, Jordan might be the best goalkeeper of all time!

Very possible We are starting to get close up of his reactions.Could end up with Cult status.

Their luck will run out,Southgate will go and the whole shambles will repeat it's self with yet another YES man.

Go back to basics by bringing back the Home Internationals but this time,do it properly by inviting the Republic of Ireland to the mix,after all... how can you prove your the best team in Europe when you've yet to prove your the best team in the UK and Ireland too?!

They went 95 minutes without a shot on goal against a team ranked 40 places below them.

With so much talent on the pitch, that's simply amazing.

It might be fun to have a few players who were related to Stalin,

That would also help with midfield where Southgate seems to think that the holy trinity - Saka, Bellingham, Foden - must start by order of nature or the divine.

He won't do it, needless to say, but Southgate should switch to a back three on Saturday. A set-up that would look stronger going forward and in defence and free up some space.

Pickford.
Walker, Stones, Konsa
Trippier, Saka
Rice, Bellingham
Palmer, Foden
Kane

You cannot help but conclude that Southgate and Dyche share the same mantra. We know best. Everyone else is wrong and we will keep picking the same team to prove it, no matter how long it may take and how painful. But for one moment of class, Southgate would have been slaughtered and deservedly so. He maybe the luckiest useless manager in history. The only truly outstanding team is Spain and they have their flaws. If they have a bad day in the final ( or against Germany) Sir Gareth may fluke his way to a winners medal by dint of incredible luck and a half decent defence and hopefully, an outstanding Everton goalie.

I just can not get excited by it all. So sad the cricket T20 World Cup is over.

Crap article in Forbes trying to blame England's problems on egos and specifically using Saka as an example.

The journo picks up on just a non controversial standard press conference response and implies Saka and co and all ego maniacs.

Link

He's not going anywhere by the way. He's got his family a big swish executive box at BMD.

Mad as a hatter. Don't ever change.

It just seems to me that 99% (100%?) of Europeans are just dying to see England get knocked out.

But then the Euros is the most competitive international tournament there is. No soft touches, no Panamas, no Costa Ricas, no Saudi Arabias. Every team is pretty capable and has players playing in the world's best leagues.

England have been underwhelming and ultra conservative, but the public and media response to it has been disgraceful. Every time there has been a half decent England team in my lifetime the media have tried their best to undermine it. It took Southgate to turn that around for a few years... he's not a great tactical manager, but he's certainly been a brave leader.

I'd love to see England do it, and I'd love to see them do it for Southgate. And I still think they can. Anyone claiming that they absolutely can't beat any team in this competition isn't living in the real world. These are one off football matches at the highest level - of course they can win.

Unfortunately, if they do, they will also be doing it for the British media and the oddball non-football supporters who rush stadia security, and attend matches and live screens just so they can fake a beer throwing celebration to put on their Instagram.

As for the optimism that most English people have for the national team... I still struggle to understand how that upsets people. I think there's something beautiful about the nation hoping against hope for a major trophy win.

Evern though it doesn't bother me, I'd be pleased to see them do well for friends and family.

They have a chance.

Personally I think Spain are the favourites now and by some way.

I haven't been massively impressed by France yet but that could change whilst you can never rule out Germany especially on home turf.

England will need to improve so much to win it, I just hate the slow slow walking football build up from the back, I can't stand that football, we've played it at times ourselves at Everton and I just can't tolerate that, it's a huge pet hate that.

Get the ball forward fast, it doesn't need to be alehouse football, just get that ball forward faster.

"Different matter perhaps if one or both of your parents originates from Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland or the Republic of Ireland but I always hope that those countries win unless they are playing England."

I always support all the home nations (unless they are playing Wales), both my parents originate from Wales.

However, the UK and RoI are truly "mongrel" nations. anyone digging just below the surface in family tree research will more than likely find at least one relative somewhere, in their past, that hailed from one of the other "home nations".

My great, great, grandfather, came from Wiltshire and came to Wales with the expansion of the railways.

My great, grandfather, was "rumoured" to be a Norwegian seaman - but that isn't what the birth certificate says - LOL.

And I think you need to go beyond the basic assumption that Gareth would have Everton playing laboured possession football.

Personally I think there are clear parallels between them. They both play ultra conservative 'don't lose at all costs' football with the players available to them. I think both could trust the players they've got a bit more and expect more at the other end of the pitch.

What I think it highlights is you don't have to buy players from the top European leagues to improve your team, as the players from Georgia, Slovenia and Slovakia have proved.

I don't think Southgate would have kept us in the premier league, because I'm not sure he would have had the character to just keep going while surrounded with the type of adversity our current manager has had to deal with Ernie.

I found that second paragraph a bit condescending Ernie, because I don't think that Dyche has got the players to play slow, labored, possession football, because I'm sure that anyone who watches Everton, on a regular basis, would agree that we are simply not very good at passing the football?

I also don't see the parallels that you see Ernie, because one has got an abundance of talent to choose from, whilst the other has got the most limited squad of attacking players, since Walter Smith, had to use Steve Watson, as a centre forward. (Or maybe Moyes, when he had to play Timmy Cahill up front, although he had a much better all round squad imo)

Maybe Everton would have squeezed that last European spot last season, if they hadn't been given such a draconian points deduction, at a time when the squad was definitely beginning to play better football, Neil!

I wasn't implying that Dyche had Everton playing laboured possession football, I was implying that Southgate had England doing that.

But I think both take the least risk with the players available to them... and as Neil pointed out, both are very resistant to change.

I don't question Southgate's character. He's convinced of the way to win this tournament and he's not changing for anyone. Dyche was similarly convinced of the way that Everton should play and wasn't going to change it.

It's fair to say that England are the least inspiring to watch, run a close second by the Ronaldo circus (who at least have plenty of forward possession).

I think most England fans, including and especially those out here, would happily exchange Dyche for Southgate in a heartbeat. Like, right now. One of Dyche's major accomplishments at Everton was to change us from being ponderous and unable to transition, into a team that can move quickly into Route 2 or even Route 1 football and get up the pitch a lot more quickly.

He's also shown himself to be more tactically adaptive than Southgate and, increasingly and when real options exist, make substitutions intended to affect the game (although this is something I would like to see more of).

Southgate seems to be incapable of shifting the narrative of the game of his own volition. Trippier sub was forced. Other subs too late. Desperately late.

Maybe he's learned from Sunday; we will find out on Saturday. But if we go out on Saturday with no left-footed left-side player, with Bellingham, Foden and Kane getting in each other's way, with Trippier or AN Other being easily shown back into midfield traffic, and without being able to quickly move the ball around to feet, or even strike with an aerial bombardment to Kane and Toney, then we're doomed.

I'm hoping Southgate has been trying to fool everyone and the real England team will turn up on Saturday. The reality may be very different.

Southgate unwittingly exposed his Achilles straight after the recent comeback, glibly saying how easy it would have been to go direct rather than maintain possession in those final minutes.

The irony of Bellingham scoring from a basic throw-in seemed to elude him.

It is the folly of countless England managers past that they insist on pretending to be Spain, Germany or France and the idea of mixing it up at the potential expense of possession is a mortal sin.

 Jack Charlton's Ireland and Gareth Bale-inspired Wales showed what playing to UK strengths can do but England are above all that blood-and-thunder nonsense… aren't they?

It seems obvious to me that you improve the performances by playing a left winger, and by getting a left-footed full-back in there (which at least was an option pre-tournament). Basically players who can go down the line and stretch play rather than just have opposition throttle the centre because that's the only place England play.

But Southgate seems very convinced that he can't find balance in this side while maintaining 'big moment' quality, so he's going to keep doing what he's been doing... make the game dull and close and hope that one of the big players can justify their reputation and do something to save or win the game.

So that means someone like Gordon stays out. Foden might be a problem for the team performance, but he's also the sort of player who might just produce one or two moments of top level quality. Same with Kane and Bellingham who aren't being played to get the best performance out of them.

I think Southgate has given up on England playing well. He's decided it only takes a few big moments to win a tournament and he's got the type of players who can produce them out of nothing.

Keeps almost the same starting eleven despite some poor performances.

Having said that, if the luck so far continues they could conceivably win it.

Realistically though it will be Germany or Spain.

There is only one explanation and that is, Gareth fucking Southgate. Absolutely useless.