He hasn't been able to score to save his life...

Niang or Paloschi?

Both actually now that you mention it.

+∞ Good backup player to have.


At least, Paloschi can. Score. A. Goal. Niang probably is paid not to.

I don't see how any other coach aside from Allegri would give Niang any time of day.

Personally I think it would be pointless to bring Palo back.

We have Pazzini and Balo for that position. What we need is another creative mid in the Monto role a proper winger and an attacking mid.

If we do switch coach there is no guarantee that we'll be playing 4-3-3, but most coaches tend to go for a variation of a 4-2-3-1 these days so I think we should seriously think about investing in a proper winger.

Aside from that bringing in a proper CB to partner Mexes is a must

Pointless? I don't know man, Balo get's his suspension every now and then, while Pazzini gets injured rather frequently. I'd rather we have a backup, and Paloschi should be the one, not some reject has-been.

I don't recall Pazzini getting injured that frequently this season.

Also, let's not forget that we have SES and imo next season he cannot be played on the wing anymore. I think we should consider him as much a striker as the other 2

What we need is creative players, both for midfield and attack, no more 1 dimensional players who know nothing but to run around kicking at the ball with no thought. What's the point of bringing in someone like Paloschi?

It means concentrating our funds to more dire positions. Instead of searching for a third option for Pazzo (remember also that Balo isn't a prima punta, at least not a true PP), we bring back our own guy, test him and make a verdict - keep or sell.

But that's the thing, you'd be buying someone for a position where we're already heavily covered imo. Let's not forget that Palo is on a co-own deal, thus heaving to buy back the half owned by Chievo. And let's also not forget how we got ripped off for Boriello in a similar deal.

This summer, midfield and CB should be the most important areas to concentrate on. Making frivolous buys in attack would be typical for us but I'm seriously hoping that someone sane in that board room will try to dissuade Silvio and Galliani from once again going down that road

Midfield, mostly. It's in utter shambles.

CB imo is just as high. If you really think about it, our only really good CB is Mexes. Zapata isn't even our player technically speaking.

The others are all just terrible or not even given the time of day so we can't assess if they're good or bad

Italy just beat England 1-0 in their fisrt group game with Insigne's free kick.

England U21s conceded a goal? I find this very hard to believe.

Truly a miracle, I pinched myself when it happened.

What the hell's up with England? Don't concede a goal for 2 years and then this!?

Norway are no pushovers though, they beat France to make the tournament.

We beat them home and away in qualifying so it's pretty unacceptable to be losing, especially after a game 1 loss.

At least the Under 21's pretty much mirror our seniors in this

Henderson's dive

Disgraceful. Captain of the country and you do that.

You know when Jordan Henderson is your linchpin you have about as much chance of winning anything as you do winning the lottery... on consecutive back - back weeks.

Hang your heads in shame.

Not that they will care, they just love the £££.

Modern Football.

At least in 2015 we'll have the lads through who won the U17s Championships the other year in the team. I think the defense is the big problem for this team. Not much at CB and Clyne is about the most overrated player England have ever produced. Lad can't play football. BUT HE CAN RUN FAST SO HES GOOD ON FIFA!

At least you guys have expectations from your country's football team. I don't even bother with ours.

The very best part of being an England fan is between the day the WC/Euros start and the time we play our first game. It's exciting, you're happy that a big competition has got underway, you dare dream that there's a slight 1% chance we could actually perform well.... then we play and it's all over.

SAPONARA SCORES!


edit: someone make him a thread, pleeease!

Hold on, isn't this the European Under 21 Championship? So how come I see plenty of 22-23 years old players in every team's rooster?

Maybe there can't be more than 3 of them in the XI?

lol'ed so hard..gosh i'm getting childish

No, the rule is that you gotta be under 21 at the beginning of qualification games that start about two years before the tournament.

Yeah, I thought of that immediately after I made my post. Makes sense.

Trevor Brooking has come out and said England don't have the depth to compete at all levels of International football. More like the big 4 don't have enough age appropriate English players. Norwich won the Youth FA Cup, Villa won the sort of U21 equivalent of the Champions League - only 1 of those players was picked for ANY level of English football.

and then they wonder why we've only won a few youth tournaments. Bunch of retards run football in this country.

So Italy qualified from 1 place thanks to 94 minutes equalizer from Bertolacci vs Norway, who finished second. Englnad lost to Israel and finished with 0 points.

Holland and Spain qualified from the other group already, tomorrow's game between them will be for the first place.

Italy - Holland can be a great final.

Why is this thread so quiet? I almost forgot about the U21's.

Italy beat Holland to reach the final which I didn't quiet expect. but it'll be a real bummer if Spain beat Italy like their senior team did in Euro 2012 final.

Another Spain title, another poor final by Italy

As expected... Spain are the strongest and there's nothing anyone can do. and this titles proves it's not just their first team. great players are coming through the ranks and that means they will probably continue to dominate in the foreseeable future. they chocked and failed for decades, now they can't stop winning everything

I don't think so. Winning youth tournaments means much, but not that much. It's nothing but a variable. My sentiment is that without Xavi and Iniesta most of the magic will be gone.

Agreed.

Just look at the Holland team that won this competition few years back. De Ridder, Babel, Drenthe, etc. All failures.

^^ That really means nothing about Spain.

@ Fillipo

I don't think this is a one-off golden generation thing. sure, winning back to back Euros and a WC in between (and maybe another WC but hopefully not!) is something that'll probably never happen again to them after this generation (as it had never happened to any country). in that sense this is Spain's golden generation. but I think they have enough talented players to dominate football for another 8 years or so. that doesn't mean they'll win everything from now on, but it'll be hard to stop them.

I don't think so. Just remember France. There was an age not so long ago where people would say "France will dominate for decades". People thought that even Zidane's retirement won't halter them, but it happened to them even sooner.

I really don't think youth players can tell you that much. Sure, it's a good indicator and you might say "Spain will be a strong team in the forthcoming few years". But that's about it. Their backbone are still Iniesta (29) and Xavi (33) while other key players like Casillas (32) are also not getting any younger. I think Spain dominate because of the way their system works and all segments get connected. I'm not sure that's a thing you can harvest and pass on to the next generation. Barcelona do this, but results are also questionable. Spain is not a club, so they're in a even more delicate situation.

What happened to France means nothing about Spain!

I don't think it's only Xavi and Iniesta that give Spain its strength. sure you can say that to make your point seems more valid, but Busquets, Ramos, Pique, Alba, Fabregas, etc. these are important players as well and they're young. Spain is a true team, they don't rely on a few individuals's brilliance. Xavi and Iniesta may take them to another level where they can win 3 major trophies in a row, but they're not Spain's only great players.

Besides, it's too soon to talk about Spain without Iniesta and even Casillas. both of them have another 4-5 years in them IMO.

We'll see. I just know that youth tournaments are good indicators, but to say Spain will dominate for the next 8 years is an overstatement, even with the senior teams achievements in mind.

Busquets, Ramos, Pique, Alba, Fabregas - without Xavi and Iniesta - make a very good team, but in no way a dominant one. The striker problem will appear once more, then the defensive problem as well.

But all those predictions are unwise. We should wait and see. But U-21 didn't mean much for Holland, Italy or Serbia for example in the past.

England U21s break their record beating San Marino 9-0. It's embarrassing.

What's embarrassing?

Getting beat like that. The funny thing is they actually beat Wales.