I'm not sure what's been up with the right flank, but almost all the truly terrible performances have been from people playing there. Elmander consistently stunk up the right-wing, Simao against Germany was possibly the most ineffective individual performance I've seen by a talented player, Kazim-Richards obsturcted his own players more than the opposition against Croatia, and Govou was absolutely invisible against Italy.

And the right-backs have been even worse. Sabri is clearly a talented attacker, but the amount of times that there was a gaping hole on Turkey's right-flank against Croatia and Germany was horrific. Bosingwa was basically the same. Sergio Ramos was excellent last night, so much so that I wondered whether I'd imagined his shocker against Sweden and mediocrity against Italy. I'm persuaded that I didn't. Jansen, obviously. Fritz, obviously. Clerc, obviously. And continue ad infinitum.

can anyone explain to me why toulouse look like getting £15 million for johan elmander, probably from gary megson? He is a deeply deeply mediocre player

Yes, he is Markus Rosenberg's less talented brother. And Markus Rosenberg is pretty shit to begin with.

Was Elmander being played out of position?

agree with nikopolidis for keeper but lehmann must be close for his horrorshow the other night. only the fact that they won saves him. you could have about 4 germans in this team and yet they're still in the final

I was in France last week, and the day before France v Italy, L'Equipe's front page had the headline EVERYONE BEHIND GOVOU, with a big picture of Govou and one of those special big-font, five-line standfirsts which, unless my French really let me down, was explaining that Govou would be the key to France winning the match. The next day on the morning of the match, they were less specific and went with START BY WINNING, with another big standfirst explaining that the ideal way for France to get their tournament going would be to win the game.

Odd paper, clearly. When Portugal lost they went with THE PORTUGUESE ARE SAD, beating Aujourd'Hui's relatively flowery TERRIBLE DISTRESS FOR PORTUGAL.

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If Ricardo isn't first choice between the sticks, I'll be very annoyed.




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Oh yes, the cowering away from the ball seals it for me also.

surely got to be a place for Nicholas Anelka somewhere...I mean at least Toni was trying to fulfill the role of a goal scorer & centre forward however incompetently...Anelkas performances made his appearance in the Champions League final look like a model of commitment and endeavour...