Spain lose to Germany in U21 Euros Final

If I remember correctly, there was a ToffeeWeber who said England would have been crushed by Spain... sorry, not true because they gave Germany a better game than Spain did tonight.

Germany organized and controlled and crucially they have that mental edge over other teams.

Hard work, and understanding both themselves and the opposition seems to be the German way, whereas England rely on something which they very rarely produce, individuality.

Skill is great, it's why most of us pay good money to watch football, but give me team-work everyday, especially if it's done like the Germans!

On several occasions, he made good runs, only to be ignored by a vaguely familiar player who looked like a bit of a show pony.

Although I only saw the second half, and I don't think he did that much, I have a feeling that Sandro might be suited to the Premier League, and I hope the kid signs for Everton.

Back to the game itself, and considering how special Spain can beat both ball-retention and opening a team up in the blink of an eye, it shows you how efficient the German model is, the way they controlled that match.

Sometimes players are more suited to club football than internationals (see any England player). I watched him for Malaga against Real Madrid and he looked special.

From what I saw, Sandro did well with what he was given and I can't understand why he was hooked.

Spain were piss poor tactically last night and they needed more support to their front man. Instead ,they threw on a quick but useless Williams.

I wouldn't want to be a Spanish striker, you never get the ball. Maybe that's why he's coming to us as I can see how much better at holding the ball up he's gonna do than Lukaku

Might not have made sense... but hey!

No, No, No. You cannot use that as an excuse for the striker not scoring and not touching the ball. He must run all over the field, run all the way back and take over the midfielder and winger spots too during a game.

I refer you to nearly every post game or Lukaku post on TW for the last three seasons as proof of this requirement that our striker isn't supposed to score goals as his job.

If Sandro does come and we still don't get the ball to him I wonder if he will be slagged off like Rom? If not, I guess that the criticism of Rom will be down to other reasons instead of the fact that Barkley and others are not good enough.

Not surprising to see Deulofeu back to his usual. Bet the Germans only had to watch game film of him for just 5 minutes to figure out his one trick and how to defend against him. No video needed for how to attack against him since defense is an unknown concept to him.

I bet the German defenders were instructed to defend hard against him for 15 minutes from midfield to their own end-line and after that he will be gassed and stand around with his hands on his hips.

This guy is going to drag defenders all over the place and looks like a great foil for somebody like Klaassen who will love ghosting into those leftover spaces.

And his fabulous record at Malaga – a goal every other La Liga game is proof that with a ٣ million release it would be absolutely criminal not to go all out to get him, aged 21.

However, I think it's now evident that Sandro is most certainly not the man to 'replace' Lukaku – at least not this coming season. We absolutely MUST sign another top striker, an experienced and proven goalscorer (even if a stop gap player) to mitigate the effect of losing Lukaku. Could this player be Giroud? At 㿀 million, perhaps.

Sandro must replace the combined roles of Valencia & Kone, and perhaps Barkley's attacking role if he is off too. He'll have enough game time with us being in 4 competitions. I'd just be shocked if he was our No 1 striker come the end of the window.

From the Europa League performances, it would not be acceptable to go into the new season with a strike force of Sandro, Calvert-Lewin & Lookman. Ronnie, Walsh, Moshiri – get us another!

He would be better as a second striker working in unison with someone up top. He will make a lot of space for whoever he is up top with though.