Euro 2024

Hope big Virgil puts them in their place

 

Don't disagree with that.

 

Would be just like England's luck if they were to get to the final and their opponent's captain and best striker is out injured because of that.

 

Well done Spain.

Over to you now Holland.

 

Glad France went out. So negative all tournament

 

First time I’ve gotten to properly watch Spain this tournament and yeah, Ruiz and Rodri were outstanding. Rodri holding his hamstring near the end.. hopefully makes the final.

 

Ruiz is shockingly good, i've seen him at PSG as well and never really noticed him but he glides about the park in these Spain games near enough better than Rodri.

Even that Merino who comes on as well, the 3 of them are calm as * on the ball all can take it on the turn, skip past people, Ruiz in this game made a couple of dodgy passes inside his own box but other than that they hardly give the ball away even though they take it in any area of the park.

 

I don’t ever want to hear a “he’s too young”, “he needs to fill out a bit”, or “he needs to get used to the game” again.

If we have a youth player who looks like he could be a baller….we play him.

Barca went all in with yamal (and have with quite a few teens over the last few years) and Spain have gone all in with him too. If they’re good enough….play them

 

Sadly in our case they would get snapped up by a bigger team. See Ben Doak

 

Would add Olmo to that list. He’s not played as many minutes as those you’ve mentioned but he’s been sensational whenever he’s featured imo. Oozes class. Can’t imagine he’ll be at Leipzig for much longer.

 

Lamal is potentially a generational talent but I do agree with this sentiment. Our youth setup is laughable in terms of producing genuine talent, but we criminally underuse our young players and have done for as long as I can remember.

Pure cowardice not to give these guys a go. Frightened to take gambles even though we play 50 odd games a season, largely against *. Even Ange was poor in that respect.

There's guys 16-18 playing against better teams in better leagues all over Europe. Yet we're reluctant to give a 19 year old a chance because of the 'pressure'. Not only that, we import rubbish projects from overseas and give them the nod instead.

Needs to change.

 

Might not be the case if he was more confident we would play him.

Plenty of other players have come to Celtic to make the next step in their career, Edouard, Frimpong, VVD, Ajer, Wanyama - it's a path well trodden - just not by those who the club actually develop.

 

I really enjoyed the group stage. Lots of goals.

The knockouts bar one or two games have been disappointing.

 

Depth might hurt La Roja in the final since they lack a bonafide starting CB with Cubarsi in the Olympics, esp. since Nacho was poor. Laporte played well yesterday but I would say his Euro has been inconsistent - at times he has made poor decisions or lacked touch/range on his passing. So between this uncertainty and Unai Simon prone to a blunder here or there, set pieces might be more an issue vs England than the Dutch who are more counterattacking

We saw Navas is near the end in Carvajal’s absence. Cucurella has played a lot, surprised Grimaldo hasn’t gotten a sniff yet

If Morata is truly injured then big problems for a CF who can combine with ‘The Duo’ - combo of Ferran & Joselu

I expect/hope to see Fermin as an impact sub with Pedri out injured

 

Morata did a lot of work defensively last night and would be a big miss but Ferran Torres is a good player and a goal threat in his own right. Defense is the bigger issue for Spain but don't think either of the Dutch or English will be able to contain your attacking threat.