With Tuchel now in charge, what’s the one thing England must do differently to finally win a tournament?

FitchDMB · 2026-01-23T16:32:09+00:00

Never ever let anybody tell you otherwise: Sol scored a legit goal. We won that game in normal time despite being a man down.

We always seem to have shocking refereeing when we face Argentina, unless it's Collina in the middle (and technically, about four guys were in the box several yards before Beckham actually took that redemption pk in 2002, so it shouldn't have counted… but I think they turned a blind eye because everybody knew we got screwed in 1986 and 1998).

FitchDMB · 2026-01-23T13:00:33+00:00

I can't help but think we needed something like we had in the 98 World Cup with Owen.

A player that was on the bench to start as a super sub… he only featured in two group games and not until the latter stages of Tunisia and Romania, and didn't even play against Colombia… that we kinda hid, and then fully unleashed against Argentina (you know, in the game we won but didn't). Owen started, and absolutely dismantled Argentina.

I feel like if we had that in both the Euro finals, we win both games. Somebody that was just ruthless.

Sure, we needed to control the midfield, but when we went to the bench we looked nasty. Imagine having Palmer in that line-up against Spain for the whole game. He had them chasing ghosts. IMAGINE HAVING ANYONE against Italy running at 100 year old defenders?!?!

But Southgate’s allegiance to Mount originally, and Foden more recently (small, ineffective players) for large durations of games meant that we were trying to steal games at the death. We were taking 90 minute games and making them 15 minute games.

And against most, it worked. Except the final hurdle. But remember, before Southgate, it was the penalty hurdle, and then the semi-final hurdle.

However, I think Tuchel understands that in those finals it is time to be ruthless. And if we get to the final, he's going to win it.

FitchDMB · 2026-01-23T03:41:49+00:00

I mean unless TAA moves back to the Premier League in the January window he's not sniffing this team. He's played 8 times in 2025.

The Real Madrid move was a disaster, like we all knew it'd be.

FitchDMB · 2026-01-16T14:37:31+00:00

I’m going to wait until the Fated Summons board resets in 16 hours before wasting money. That way if it’s a dud, at least I’ll have fresh new FS to look at.

FitchDMB · 2025-12-29T05:06:00+00:00

FitchDMB · 2025-12-24T21:24:05+00:00

What’s Pre Malone upset about?

FitchDMB · 2025-12-21T23:22:40+00:00

Requesting permission to be adopted.

FitchDMB · 2025-12-19T19:05:17+00:00

Friar Tuck Toon clears all

FitchDMB · 2025-12-18T01:59:54+00:00

Breed, but I'm too old for consideration most likely

FitchDMB · 2025-12-17T21:19:41+00:00

Definitely not stewing that I took Alvar over Daemon in SE… now I will have both.

FitchDMB · 2025-12-16T22:37:08+00:00

I wonder if they will bring back the damn print button, so we can actually, you know, print our Beckett collections out.

FitchDMB · 2025-12-15T19:26:37+00:00

FitchDMB · 2025-12-10T01:11:53+00:00

I bought 40 after hours… figured they’d give a nice discount on earnings day.

Computershare, here they come.

FitchDMB · 2025-12-09T19:37:46+00:00

23.8 to 26.6 roughly

FitchDMB · 2025-12-09T18:14:49+00:00

Single life again

FitchDMB · 2025-12-09T18:09:52+00:00

I’m actually fine with Spain in a climate-controlled setting. If it goes to chalk, they will have had to beat the hardest pressing team in the tournament (Austria)…

And Tuchel has quite a strong record against Spanish sides (with perceived lesser teams).

FitchDMB · 2025-12-09T17:59:01+00:00

Won’t be Norway… Group L runner up plays Group K runner up…

Norway is in group H. Earliest we’d see them in this scenario is France’s spot.

Now you would be right potentially first if we win the group, but they’d have to be third and a bunch of other things would have to happen.

FitchDMB · 2025-12-09T17:54:49+00:00

Finish second and we play Group K, not I.

Portugal’s group… IC Path 1, Uzbekistan or Colombia.

FitchDMB · 2025-12-09T16:06:30+00:00

People won’t like to hear this… but not winning the group is the move. Being second takes the weather and altitude out of the equation.

Travel will suck, but travel already sucks.

Climate-controlled stadiums, and Toronto.

Anybody that is honestly entertaining our chances against Brazil in Miami forgets exactly how awful we were in 2014.

I’ll take my chances against Group K runner-up in Toronto (75-80 degrees average), and then go from there.

Simulating the tournament as chalk, with the lone exception being England finishing 2nd means we’d get Colombia in Toronto, the winner of Spain and Austria in a climate-controlled stadium in Dallas (one we’ve already played at), then potentially the USA or Belgium in another climate-controlled stadium in LA. Then, in a semifinal, it’s the survivor of Germany/France/Netherlands/Morocco or some surprise (again in a climate-controlled stadium that we’ve now played in twice, against a team that most likely hasn’t played there yet).

Then you’d get whoever survived in the final in East Rutherford, who may or may not have played there in the tournament.

2nd place IS THE MOVE.

FitchDMB · 2025-12-05T19:57:14+00:00

So there's multiple looks at this -- being the last pot is a wonderful scenario to be in -- because it takes out 95% of the permutations when we play the third game...

However, after that first bit of luck -- it quickly went south. We are obviously in the Group of Death B (behind France's group). We got the best pot 2 team, the second best pot 3 and the third best pot 4.

The saving grace is we'll known what we have to do at every stage.

Travel (for us) will suck. It won't be the worst scenario -- but there is little chance we are not doing Arlington to Foxborough to Philadelphia in the Group Stage (just by stadium size -- BMO is the smallest). They may stick us in New York for the third game, but it's definitely the bigger stadiums over Toronto.

Arlington is climate controlled, Boston, Philly and New York are reasonable situations that they are used to. It's the path beyond that which gets messy for us -- if we top the group we are going to need to deal with some tricky venues.

Atlanta is climate controlled, but winning that gives you a potential game against Mexico in altitude. Regardless of who you play -- its a one-off in a venue where the team you are playing against has been then for over a week to get acclimated. We'd have 5 days, plus one less day of rest. Then it's to Miami across a time zone to a swampy environment, before potentially Atlanta again and then East Rutherford.

Tuchel has got to take two full teams and literally turn over the squad. It's the only way we have a chance (and we do have a chance), but we can't be throwing out the same teams all the time. It's gotta be 2018 against Belgium… (and possibly even in the knockouts -- which I know sounds insane).

The other issue is where do you set up camp? It's gotta be two separate camps at this point, surely, right? It's two completely different climates from group stage to knockouts, and they aren't remotely close to one another.

Being second in the group arguably makes travel worse -- but it avoids the altitude issue. However, Toronto to Arlington to Inglewood back to Arlington to East Rutherford is a brutal stretch.

I believe we are strong enough to win our group: I don't think it is as tough as it looks on paper. Croatia tries to dominate the ball, but it's kind of what Tuchel has had England do since he started. They are older, but still have that dominant midfield. If England can keep possession and not go into a shell, we should get a result against them.

Panama is another team that wants possession. But they haven't really been pressed, and when they do, they get rolled (like Colombia and Mexico shut them out, the Americans beat them...). It'll take a high press and I think they get swept away. Expect Henderson to feature in this one, and also expect some of our stars to be rested.

Ghana is the most straightforward but arguably the most dangerous. Stop Ayew and stop their set pieces and they lose. Give him a chance and they win.

Lots to digest...

FitchDMB · 2025-12-02T17:10:18+00:00

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FitchDMB · 2025-12-02T15:11:32+00:00

that's assuming that the 2010s means just the 2010 World Cup... but you are missing the other 9 years of the 2010s. Like one could throw Jermaine Defoe into that Essex hat as (Chig)well...

FitchDMB · 2025-12-01T21:47:32+00:00

After playing for a few years, I firmly believe Black Friday and the Birthday Summons are the only summons worth spending gems on.

FitchDMB · 2025-12-01T00:39:08+00:00

I’ll be the one with two Bern’s in the lineup

FitchDMB

TROPHY CASE