Euro Champs . . .

Anyone think the Germans can be beaten?

I have both English and Welsh heritage so I'll be pulling for those two teams but I also have a soft spot for Belgium simply because they have 4 Tottenham Hotspur players in their squad.

My head says Germany though.

No doubt German have a great squad - amazing defence and midfield depth but they lack a top class out and out striker, to the point where they've had to bring Mario Gomez who's 3 years past his prime. Muller is always going to get you goals but they've made a bad decision not to bring Reus who would also give you goals from out wide. 

They've also been in reasonably poor form, losing a few games recently. But Germany, as are Italy, are tournament teams, they know how to do the business in the important games, they're certainly not invincible though.

France and Belgium both have excellent squads. They also have home ground advantage. 

I will be supporting England, we have our best striking options in years with Kane, Vardy, Sturridge, etc but our whole campaign is going to be dependent on if we can keep Dier fit. Dier is top quality and we need him to stay fit to protect Stones (or Cahill) as they're both error prone. Smailling should be fine.

No doubt Germany will miss Reus but it wasn't a poor decision, it was because of injury.

Based on the numbering of the England squad, I get the impression Raheem Sterling is going to start ahead of Dele Alli while James Milner will be the holding midfielder ahead of Eric Dier. Hope I'm wrong!

Ah that makes more sense then, I hadn't realized he was injured.

I wouldn't worry too much about the numbering, I'd imagine they gave Dier the number because he hadn't demanded it whereas the others might have

I'd want something like this:

Hart

Clyne/Walker (Clyne for when we need to play more defensively, and Walker when we play more offensively)
Smalling
Cahill
Rose

DierAlli Lallana 
Sterling
(midfield playing in a diamond with Sterling at the tip) 


Kane
Vardy
We;re not left with many options at CM, Wilshere and Hendo have been included when they shouldnt' have been and genuine holding midfielders Drinkwater and Noble left out

The hope is that the firepower of Kane/Vardy/Sturridge manage to produce some magic and takes us far.

Our best attacking options since the days of Fowler/Shearer/Owen, etc

 

 ...Fantasy competition on UDT if anyone's interested in forming a league...

Defending champs Spain will be up there if there 6-1 thrashing of South Korea is any indication of form...

Hosts France, currently a country in turmoil with flooding in Paris, strikes threatened coupled with the danger of a terrorist attack are favourites to win with Germany...

..the teams to watch

Euro 2016

Outright Winner

No. SelectionOdds1France4.002Germany4.003Spain6.504England9.005Belgium11.006Portugal18.007Italy17.00

UDT league created. Anyone welcome.

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