Fair points. I've always been envious of the talent France is able to produce so consistently. Y'all have 2 World Cups and 2 European Championships for a reason. How both countries see football is different. France's sophistication of the game was always made fun of and seen as "soft" by Brits who see 'real football' as hard-tackling, toughing through injuries and being able to run at full force the whole 90 minutes. Thankfully, through the consistent failure of the national team, English people are realizing how primative those 'values' were and it's not wonder the other European footballing countries laughed at England for years.
England only recently (and I'm saying this based on success our U21, U18 teams had in youth internationals) has been able to move past that archaic mindset and actually produce near the same level of talent at the youth level, but it often goes to waste come the transition into the English league which English clubs tend to prioritize profits (higher positions in the league) over football development and identity (i.e making sure English managers are hired, English players get playing time etc.)
I feel that's the biggest difference between us and France, Italy, Germany, Spain etc. The clubs in their leagues outside the top 2 biggest ones can't compete financially with English clubs (English league tv deals always negotiated in the billions of I'm not mistaken) and typically have their best players bought out every years by the top English clubs, so they're always developing players and preparing 5 so years ahead. Also their football associations historically have worked with clubs in regards to youth development whereas England has only recently really started copying their model.
I say this because Raheem is the more senior player and was in rhythm over Jadon who barely got a good run about.
Probably helped make sure these scumbags kids were fed.
This has been going on for decades and decades. Being a forward thinking English/British person is against the rules unless you come from a certain background. Its the old establishment hierarchy (which is at the heart of most of England/Britain ills over the centuries) thats kept English football from flourishing. You wouldnt know that English coaches played a big part in the Total Football concept. Do you know who introduced a high-pressing line prioritising team over individuals and not being afraid to using the academy players to Barca a English coach.
Venables and Hoddle were talking about controlling possession back in the 90's. Hoddle wanted Wenger to be technical director prior to him taking the Arsenal job. The need to control Possession was bought up all the way back in the late 50's and 60's which was totally ignored. The worst crime of all was coaches trying to recreate what Al Ramsey did for decades and decades but even that failed for him.
Apparently Sancho has never taken a competitive penalty before. Or so I have read.
You think he was not a bad choice?
You could see he was very nervous when he was waiting to come on.
Saka was picked to take the pen because the training data said he was one of the 5 best takers. Waistcoat makes his decisions based off data and never on feel or what he sees. He like the majority of English/British/Trained in Britain coaches arent proactive enough with subs or tactical changes and think making first sub in the 75th min to go at tired legs is going to work for the last 15 mins. The only kinda feel moments were starting Saka vs Czech and Germany and that was only because Mount was isolating and starting Sancho vs Ukraine. Everything else is data driven.
Yeah, TLR are in a frenzy over this.
But apart from the monkey emojis from fake accounts on Saka's IG and that cac Andrew Bone on twitter, I haven't seen anything concrete.
I'm pretty sure Sancho has taken penalties for Dortmund before. He was extremely nervous though but I think that's Southgate's fault for not bringing him and Rashford on sooner for them to get involved in the match before extra time was over. I think the first time either of them touched the ball was when they took their penalties. It might not sound like a big deal but even making a couple passes or getting a couple tackles in can calm the nerves.
This is my issue with data being the primary driver for decision making in football because it doesn't factor in the intangibles. Personally, I think someone should have pulled rank over Saka and taken that because that certainly wasn't the occasion for him to be taking his first penalty.