What have we learned from the Euros?

I think point 7 is particularly valid. Jordan Pickford got stick today from Carragher because, according to the lamentable pundit, he was acting on his own by playing it long. None of his teammates or even Southgate felt emboldened enough to tell him to cut it out.

He did indeed play it long and it was, in my view, because of his teammates' inability to or fear of making themselves available for passes.

That's Everton last season and why Calvert-Lewin was vital to us. I think Dyche will start next season much the same, gather some confidence-boosting points and then vary the tactics.

Five defeats in a row forces average players into hiding. It won't happen next season.

I enjoy the work you put into spotting bargain targets. I hope that Dyche has people around him who are as astute as you and Sam Hoare!! Top stuff, Robert!

Really made me think.

Georgia for me were the most enjoyable side to watch.

Perhaps the Asian Cup might be a happier hunting ground especially Korean or Japanese players. Didn't we have some sort of arrangement a few years back with Chang to take a couple of Thai youngsters as well as a couple of Chinese players albeit we kept getting the wrong Won or Wu.

As for the style of play, I still think the old way of playing the space, constant movement, or getting those with the skill into one-on-one positions works. Unfortunately our/Everton's midfield rarely seem to be on the same wavelength and seem mostly grouped on the left with a sole player wide right.

I'm not too sure though that the high points, tournaments, are the right place to look if the majority of your game is long ball with emphasis on strong defence.

The only point that I might want to sit down with you with a well chilled dry white to go back and forth on is the very first one. I feel that tournaments are a natural shop window. Mind you, you do say 'judge' not spot. Still, I would be up in arms if Thelwell right now is not combing squads like Merle's Georgia.

Surely each piece of buying and selling involves some degree of risk?

I know it's Opta Index, but I was intrigued to see that the only England fella in the Tournament XI was Guehi. Hmmmm.

Robert, I was somewhat surprised to see that a post as good as this by a poster as good as you signally failed to address the most important 'what have we learned from the Euros' thing.

This is, needless to say, the absolute gormless twatdom of the linguist-less Lorraine Chase smart Republicans in the Fox USA erm tournament team: Ian Darke, various Studio gumps, sewage pundits who reduced footy observation and awareness to the fecking Flowerpot Men. Landon border-wall builder Donovan is the worst of the slime bunch. He is so vacuous yet more full of himself than his fellow extreme right-wing traveller Oswald Mosley.

Not one of these people should be allowed anywhere near a microphone ever again. They must be ordered to surrender their passports after forced removal to American Samoa, where TVs are banned by the government, for the duration of every tournament from this day on.

I have said, had it not been for Jordan, the score against Spain could have been 4- or 5-1, so I don't know where Spit the Dog is coming from.

The Euros:

Spain were deserving winners. That young winger looked electric. Was he wearing jet boots?

France, who I thought were favourites, just didn't really get going.

Germany, who I thought might use home ground to rally them, fell short. Not the force they were, especially from their 2014 team. But they will rebuild.

I was quite impressed with Austria, and Switzerland weren't too bad either. Close call between England and the Netherlands.

England managed to squeeze through and were unspectacular, but it's tournament football. Often, they looked like a collection of talented individuals rather than a cohesive team.

I enjoyed watching it. It passed time and gave me football until the season starts and we have Everton back. I usually cut an impatient figure during the summer!!

By the way Andy, let us all know when your'e getting over to Goodison next. Always a pleasure.

Another player who we got linked with quite a bit and is not on your list is Embolo, a player with skill awareness and pace who knows how to play up top.

If I was Dyche, I'd go for quantity over quality to push Everton a few places up the league before we go to the new stadium at Bramley-Moore Dock for those similar reasons why you say that tournaments aren't the best places to judge a footballer, Robert!

The game has become more athletic and our manager has mostly used a very small core. This definitely showed at times and this is my reason for wanting quantity rather than expensive quality right now.

It's a recurring thing, Haaland too. Strange we have had the up-and-coming talent in our sights but failed to take the chance.

Andy and Danny, Carragher is simply talking his usual one-eyed cack.

Jordan was obviously told to play long balls to beat Spain's very effective high press.

I've changed my mind, I've read some of your other stuff and I don't believe there is much in this article that you didn't know before this tournament kicked off.

It appears (to me) that you have used this article to express your own opinion on tactics, players and VFM, I honestly don't believe you saw anything you haven't seen before.

I really enjoyed the tournament, but I saw nothing new in terms of formations or tactics, just more teams from so-called lesser football nations being able to put them into practice.

I was interested in your thoughts about recruitment; with today's scouting networks, I think the days of finding "hidden gems" have long since passed. A kid only has to show he can control a football these days and he has a profile. The gems are not so hidden now.

The problem we face now is persuading the player to come to us. Barely a week goes by in the transfer window without reading about a youngster preferring to sign for what we consider lesser clubs. We are forced to gamble. Often jumping the gun and buying duds - Too numerous to name.

To be fair, given how far we've fallen down the mountain, I don't think we do too badly. The signings of Branthwaite and Calvert-Lewin are up there with any of the above suggestions. You're right though: we do need more.

Moving into the new stadium will help make us more attractive, but the only way to stay that way is to climb back up that mountain.

For the record, the thing I learned from this competition is that national team managers are no longer simply wary of upsetting an entire nation by leaving out superstars — even when they are knackered, unfit, and hopelessly out of form.

They're now so terrified, they won't even consider it.

I agree re Korean and especially Japanese players. Sounds like a very broad statement but, in particular, Japanese players generally tend to be really good technically (their youth development system is one of the best in the world) and also pretty tough.

It's an area that we should be scouting if we are looking for quality bargains.

"Romelu Lukaku left for Manchester United that summer and Everton gave me a feeling there was a good chance to come through there. When I was there they offered me a contract straightaway.”

Yet Zirkzee waited until he got an offer from Bayern…

The main problem in attracting talent has perhaps been our ability to compete in terms of transfer fees and salaries. Thelwell has had to build transfer deals "on the drip" with no upfront payments, we are outbid by promoted teams and clubs are willing to stretch their salary bands when we are reducing ours.

Being the DoF and recruitment team at Everton must be an permanent exercise in humility at the moment. Fortunately, they are trying to be ingenious with it.

For me, it highlights how the modern game has become all about systems and tactics, and less about individuality, flair, skill, creativity and flawed human beings. It's all about 'fit' and how the players need to fit the system being employed. Football has become dull, lifeless, and sanitised as a result.

Every team now tries to employ the Pep Guardiola model of keeping the ball at all costs — which is fine if you're Pep Guardiola and Man City or Real Madrid because you have all the best players to pick from.

For the rest of us, we find ourselves employing the same system with players who aren't really up to it. Hence why Man City keep the ball and play progressive football, and we keep the ball but fanny around at the back, playing in our own half until the opposition presses us, and Pickford hoofs it up field. This goes for Everton and England.

Personally, I find modern football boring by comparison to say 10, 15, 20 years ago, and yes the players are fitter, and technically 'better' (whatever that means) but is the game more exciting, or more fun to watch? No, I don't believe it is. All the joy is being sucked out of it.

VAR also plays a major part in the way the game has become sanitised — add that into the mix as above and the game is unrecognisable from the one we all love to watch. So where do we go from here?

Well, I don't see how the game can evolve from here — once VAR and technology gets involved and everyone gets bogged down by systems and things like xG (apparently xG measures the quality of a chance by calculating the likelihood it will be scored from a particular position on the pitch during a particular phase of play.

So you can see my point when you talk about sanitisation and removing the joy from the game) then the game is handed over to the technical elements, and removing the human element — the very thing that makes football so popular in my view.

Football is a simple game made complicated, and that's what's killing it.

The best team won; as long as Southgate is in charge — forget about the coming home.

Pickford is mad!

Fitness, stamina and athleticism have supplanted skill — meaning if you put 11 men behind the ball, even the best teams struggle to find almost non-existent space.

We can't alter the pitch size so the only answer is to reduce numbers — make the games 10 a side and allow only one substitute.

I wouldn't ever want to see Southgate linked with the managerial position at Everton!

Change the offside rule so that, instead of being offside when the ball is played, this becomes void if the player is onside when he receives the ball.

Instead of the defensive team having so much control, such a rule change would instantly give an attacking team a lot more control and should definitely make for a much more adventurous game.

I say 'should' but football is littered with teams who don't take many chances, hence the reason why the Golden Goal, was eventually scrapped.

That's quite brilliant — although my preference would be players can't be offside beyond 12 yards from goal. That would stretch the playing space.

My take on football is that it has become what I call 5-a-side football requiring constant passing and movement. This is so different from how the game used to be with the average goal coming from 3 touches or less.

This changes the demands on a player to being fast, fit and a good thinker rather than technical or dribbling abilities. In fact, that is the one thing I really miss about modern football: that there is very little dribbling in evidence.

Having said all that, I really enjoyed the Euros and saw some good play and plenty of tight games that could have gone either way, even the final.

My only hope now is that we get some decent players in and start to enjoy more expansive, confident and brave football.

Maybe it would be better if everyone had to have a pint before each half of football (including extra time and penalties).

Judging its impact on my darts, someone like Calvert-Lewin might improve his finishing this way.

Interesting to see Ivan Toney do a no-look penalty 5 pints in...

"Older players can still cut it".

"Hard though it is to find such players, you definitely won't find them if you don't shop in the right markets. The right markets are generally (a) rich club reserves / academies; (b) The Championship; (c) cheaper leagues around Europe and beyond. Also, don't spend more than about £20m on a player... (there will almost always be a cheaper one just as good)".

The Lukuku up and coming talent, or a Gareth Barry on a nominal fee is the right approach. Potential and good quality pros to nurture. We have instead not gone after up and coming talent for a long period of time, or have over paid for middle/older players.

Ashley Young is leading the "clamour" for Sean Dyche to be considered.

I own AJ Hudson's, where were you sitting?

I loved the game I grew up watching, but down the years, we have had to endure a steady steam of well meaning idiots who have contrived to fix just about everything that wasnt broken.

People claiming the game is no longer as entertaining as it was, are only offering their opinion. Surely It's in the eye of the beholder. The game has never been so globally popular. Tickets
to watch top class football have never been in greater demand. TV companies are still filling their boots years after the prophets of doom predicted the bubble would burst.

Not all the changes have been for the worse. The hatchet men have been erased. The Vinnie Jones's and the Chopper Harris's (depending on how far back you go) wouldnt last five minutes today. The pitches are better today too. The days are gone when we would watch 90 minute slogs on underwater pitches and consider it entertainment.

We all remember the brilliance of Pele. Best, Maradona, Cruyff.. (again depending how far back you want to go), but lets not let time rewrite every line. Hooligans, Hatchet men, footballs heavy enough to stove you brains in. Rivers of piss running down the terraces and pitches better suited to a round of golf are part and parcel of that bygone era. We cant just simply choose to forget.

Older fans will continue to knock today's game. They remember when game was beautiful and "entertaining". The young ones would look at old footage of that "entertainment" and simply piss themselves laughing.

Oddly the Malmo coach in Sweden is doing a version of this too apparently.

The "product" is probably tense and dramatic now but the game would benefit from a few more artists. And maybe just a few clashing styles too. Like I say, nothing wrong with a bit of very direct play too if that's your strength

I could be a smartass and say the meaning of gozzy is what I learned but instead I will play it straight for points 4 and 5. We may be in a lucky position wherein we must play the defensive structure and just need to figure out how to time or get numbers for the occasional attacks and goal zone possession. How we get there doesn't matter, just how we get numbers in the final third and when to unwind it to cover a transition.

Gana regaining confidence and Garner's positional awareness make us capable of timing our pushes forward to compensate for lack of overall speed. While Garner sometimes loses his man on runs into the box, I believe this was a mixup more than ineptitude. Gana has the sixth sense about knowing when to challenge or when to drop into coverage. Once they know each other better, some consistent and coherent coverage should give us a way of turning on the momentum from the midfield.

Lists of players who went cheap 3-5 years ago that we supposedly could have had if we'd "shopped in the right market" are sort of a false flag in my opinion, because they leave out the long lists of hundreds of players sold for similar prices at similar times who didn't become Euro stars. On a percentage basis, how often does something like that happen? What are the odds? How many of the players purchased in those years are now on a fourth-division roster or waiting tables instead of scoring against Switzerland? Such lists never say.

It's also a real reach to speculate that Branthwaite could have provided an aerial threat on set pieces, since he has scored exactly one goal that way. And he would have had to be on the pitch instead of the excellent Stones or Guehi.

Nonetheless, good stuff.

Most of fans think they know the answer to football. As if it's a simple question. Just sat in my car waiting for my lad to KO at 8 in a pre season game. Listening to one fella telling another where and how England went wrong. 'Should have took Grealish', 'Too many touches from defenders', 'not enough ambition' etc etc. All pretty decent points but no one really knows if it would work.

I was convinced that England needed to go for it after equalising (there's an excellent minute by minute breakdown in the Guardian today of how England surrendered the initiative in the last 15 mins) but again this is just an opinion. If they had who is to say that Spain wouldn't have broken and scored anyway?

Football is so tactical now, that move and counter move take place so quickly. Additionally, players are human and make mistakes (even positional miscalculation of a yard or so can be fatal). Fans believe they know the answers. We don't really. Most people on here are well informed and have a solid understanding of the game, but coaching and, vitally, impacting the game whilst it is happening is so difficult.

1. From the time of 'Maradona's hand of God', including Tierry Henry's 'sorry it hit my hand keeping the ball in' to Spain and other teams tripping up players to stop breakaways in this tournament, cheating is not only condoned it is rarely punished properly at International or home level.

2. Yes older players can still perform but not as long as they did in their twenties. They should be used as 'super subs". We criticised Rondon saying the only time he ran was when he came onto the pitch. Would Portugal have fared much better if Ronaldo had come on the pitch at minute 75 and not started the game? Same with Kane? perhaps starting with Gordon instead?

3. Just as oil and water does not mix neither do players from 'keep possession' teams and attacking teams that is why we played better as a team after a few games. I thought I was watching Man City or Arsenal for the first 4 games.

4. Accuracy, Accuracy, Accuracy should be the first three key aspects to choosing any player for your club or Country. Yamal scored a goal from nothing. Conversely France squandered several golden and scorable chances in their semi final.

5. If a team is best or second best in the Premiership at NOT conceding goals then it has to have very good defenders and a good goalkeeper (Pickford). I have no doubt Branthwaite would have played better than Guehi he proved it all season.

6. Feeling of failure. This feeling permeates football right up to managers and even Presidents of countries. No one said well done to the Scottish Manager for making it to the Euros instead the press and football commentators emphaised that Scotland did not make it to the second round. I am certain this why the first round of the euros was so boring. No one wanted to be out of the competition in the first round.

Southgate did ok but not brilliant considering the talent available.

The next manager of England and any other team should realise that the players are also very fickle and hardly any player so close to a tournament will say they played badly, missed too many chances, hurried their crosses or failed to make a tackle or did not run enough.

Anybody who earns millions is open to criticism such as football managers, footballers, singers, actors, club owners, so why say 'it is unfair to criticise me'.

I do agree with your point 5 that a more direct type of play is in order for the less skillful teams and would be more productive than all this pissy passy stuff your supposed to play now.
James @14 in his very good post is much of the same opinion as myself as is Barry @15.

Too much football now is sleep inducing, sure you do still get some entertaining games but who wants to waste their time watching defenders passing the ball back and forth endless times.

Even with so many other sports and entertainment at our finger tips today. The clamor to watch top class football has never been greater.

The numbers in which people will travel to foreign lands to see their national team play is simply jaw dropping.

So I think there is a case for making the pitches and goals slightly bigger. This would lead to a few more goals (not a ridiculous increase), reduce the number of scoreless draws, and generally reward those teams willing to attack and have shots on goal, and discourage teams from “parking the bus”.

1) It's a global game making millions for the media companies who now control it.

2) Has-been pundits are given too much time and money to express opinions that a 9-year-old could give.

3) A perfectly honest and honourable manager can be abused and derided by drunken louts masquerading as fans because they believe that they could all make better decisions than him.

4) The team containing the most talented and gifted players will usually win.

5) Most games will be boring non-events between teams who have little chance of getting to the next round. Great for promoting the game!

6) Post mortems by experts in the media will last for weeks.

7) Managers, coaches etc will lose their jobs or resign, as decided in the court of Public Opinion.

8) Positive is that some people will get a month away from the mundane drudgery of everyday working for a living.

9) Contribution to the greater good of mankind, or English football — nil.

10) Re-enforcement that all other countries in the UK will always support the opposition.

All-in-all, the most positive result was disrupting the crap TV schedules and demonstrating just how much professional footballers are overpaid.

Well, the question at the top of this article did ask me!!!

Waterlog the pitches before kick-off and let battle commence!

Looking at the pundits, Carragher and Neville discussing the next England manager, Carsley not their choice; considering the Spanish manager who just won the Euros, was promoted from their U21s, it works.

Neville, who I like on overlap, lasted less than 4 months at Valencia, and then to say Kane was England's best player ever! He wasn't even Spurs' best player.

Then another useless pundit, Merson, saying there was no one to touch them in the Euros, and France wouldn't have more than 2 players to make England team… ever wonder why everyone hates them!

The amount of fluffed one on one chances and mishits in front of goal was horrendous.

Not sure who we're going to replace him with when he goes - was there a clinical finisher anywhere in the tournament?

So did Foden, who also rarely misses in league play, and the half-fit Lewandowski.

What I would add is the substitutions, an issue that seems to be in all the premiership managers, English or overseas. If a player is not doing it on the day we can't wait to see if he wakes up and contributes.

A couple of examples would be Kane who has been a great servant for England but this time it was a competition too far.

Bellingham, whilst a fantastic player failed to show what he has been doing for Real Madrid all season, tiredness? I don't know, but the new manager needs to be able to pull an ego if it is not happening and try something different.

For too long, we have been doing like-for-like subs, this only helps the opposition who do not have to change their style just remember it's another big Number 9.

Still, what do we know?

Secondly Zirkzee... yes, he scored a few at Bologna last year, but the guy is a perennial loanee and had 3 minutes of game time at the Euros. He has shown potential in the past, but never realised it. I would be surprised to see him do well at Man Utd.

One player I was really impressed with at the Euros was Mykola Shaparenko of the Ukraine, who reminded me a bit of Lampard as a player; I would love to see him in blue.

Overall though I was disappointed by the football. I have nothing against seeing some decent shots from outside the box and spectacular goals, but in many cases it seemed desperate for want of alternatives. Were the players just tired all round?

My player of the tournament though was Dani Olmo... always looking to do something different, something unique and surprising... and a very clever player. Not sure why City are linked with him as he is very similar to De Bryune.

Anyway, glad to have a few weeks now without footie to recharge.

One time it would be an absolute treat to watch a great France team with Zidane, Platini etc etc.

An Italy team filled with household names and rugged hairy arsed defenders (now all Brazilian waxed).

Great Germany teams with stellar names like Klinsmann, Beckenbauer.

They all seem to be trainied to just pass the ball in slow motion now. It's not even good football really is it? It's mundane and at times like watching golf more than football.

England were as boring as fuck but, even with Southgate gone, they'll still play the same chessboard football, won't they? Because that's how everyone is coached now.

Can't use two feet, must only use one foot and must work the ball into the box with a thousand passes…

● Speed of thought — The moment Spain lost the ball in the first half, they were running at twice the speed and twice the intensity of England to retrieve it.

● High pressing

● Flying wingers — Not just Yamal, but Wiliams too.

● High individual skill. The ability to be cool on the ball while being challenged by two England players.

● Telepathy — So well coached that they knew instinctively where their teammates were.