England Senior Team General Discussion Thread

Well Dunk certainly can't do any worse than Keane that's for sure. I think the main reason for the calls for Gomez is because people, myself included, mainly just attribute his poor form to rustiness from a lack of first team football, and not evidence of underlying flaws within his game like in Keane's case.

I do agree however, that Gomez is playing too few games to really warrant selection. This is why for now I'd like to see Tomori, he fits the profile we're looking for, is for the future and is in good form.

 

Foden's the only one I suppose, depending on exactly what you've got in mind.

 

Mings to make his debut tomorrow's, I think likely in a back 3, I give up on Southgate...

 

Not sure what to make of this if it’s true. I mean if we’re playing four at the back would that mean playing two left sided centre backs as presumably MaGuire won’t be dropped or are we going three at the back?

 

Am i the only one who thinks that Henderson is the worst midfielder to play for England in the past thirty years.?.

 

Mings is reportedly starting but i've not seen anything about a back three. Not entirely sure this is a great move either, he's been pretty ropey since he was called up. Can't help but think Gomez is by far the best option and we're just harming ourselves by not picking him. Picking worse players just because they start for much poorer teams isn't a good thing.

In general the back three stuff seems to being pushed a lot more than the press at the moment than Southgate. His comments about maybe taking a look at it were in response to repeat questioning. It'd be a mistake and hopefully Steve Holland will talk him out of it, but certainly it seems something the media are desperate for more than him for the moment.

Maybe if we actually pick our best back 4 for once it might turn out they're not so hopeless after all...

 

No news on Winks starting?

 

No, that's not true.

As RB said, he's being asked to do things he's not particularly suited for. Doing the job he does do, he's OK.

 

If Southgate played more creative midfielders like Maddison and Winks, instead of Rice and Henderson, we would have a lot more of the ball, and control of the game. We wouldn't have to worry about defending against the likes of the Czech Republic and Bulgaria, because they wouldn't be able to get at our defence.

 

Well what is henderson suited too, apart from running around and pressing the opposition . Please name some midfielders over the past thirty years, who played for the three lions, who were worse.

 

Well I think things are far from that simple. A lot of the goals England have conceded have not been because they've been facing sustained attacks. Indeed an astonishing amount of goals England have conceded have been pure individual mistakes (the same is also true for the under 21s).

I think some of the concerns are legitimate - Maddison doesn't offer much defensively, and Winks, well you only need to look at Spurs to see Winks isn't going to single handedly make things ok. Anyone who saw the shambolic under 21 midfield against supposedly weaker Romania should see merely playing more technical players isn't necessarily an answer here either. A balance is needed. Personally I'd prefer RLC if he can get back to fitness ok, and I'd also promote Foden into the side.

I also wouldn't ignore that England's performances against Croatia and Spain came with Dier anchoring the midfield (he was also man of the match Croatia away). Hopefully he can break back into Spurs and find some kind of form.

 

Gavin McCann, Carlton Palmer and Geoff Thomas come to mind for a start.

 

Carlton Palmer

 

Well, we didn't qualify in 1994 or 2008 so I'd venture to suggest there were some who were a bit ropey.

I seem to remember Steve Stone being in some of the squads who got relegated with the barcodes before failing to hold down a place with some of the sides he moved to after that. Pompey and someone else... I forget who.

I know it's possible to look at pool and say Hendo's kept afloat by the people around him at his club but that rather ignores the fact that the manager, who's not English, keeps picking him so HE must think the fellas got something worth giving.

 

You really scrapping the barrell here . Gavin Mccan has 1 cap . Jordan Henderson has 54 caps . Let that sink in, a player of Henderson ability has 54 caps for his country, and we wonder while we keep getting knocked out of tournaments, by the first decent team we come up against.

 

Steve Stone was unlucky with injuries , he was a much better footballer than Jordan Henderson.

 

We didn't qualify in 94 because our best player gazza was out injured for key matches in that qualifying campaign . Also we had an idiot manager in graham taylor who forced waddle and barnes in to early retirement .

Taylor was the worst manager we ever had , his long ball tactics in euro 92 were an abomination.

 

Isn't that kinda the point?

You haven't addressed the issue of his record for Liverpool which is actually very decent, helping the club to 2 consecutive cl's finals and almost winning the EPL and WELL on the way to winning it this year. He was also a regular for England in the world cup and nations league runs so, again, unless we're saying that these managers and all his other teammates are the ones making him look decent, he's probably a reasonable player, even if there might be better options in the future.

I'm happy to say he's not played well in the recent games but let's not carried away.

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/49955900

"West Ham's Declan Rice missed training through illness on Monday, increasing the chances of Tottenham's Harry Winks coming into a central midfield berth."

I'm assuming they mean Sunday.

 

Jake Livermore.
Jermaine Jenas.
Dennis Wise.
Fabian Delph.
Phil Neville.
Scott Parker.
Tom Cleverley.
Getting bored so I leave it here.

 

Baz can stop sticking those pins in that doll now I guess.

 

3-5-2 just seems like throwing the baby out with the bath water. 4-3-3 might work fine if we just pick a better defender than Keane and a midfield combination that doesn’t include Rice and Henderson together.

After the Holland and Switzerland games the general consensus was that Gomez partnered really well with Maguire and that Winks would add a lot to the midfield. Steve Holland even mentioned Winks specifically.

Since then, neither have played a minute.

 

Claudio Marchisio had an interview in a paper not worth linking today. I found this quote interesting though:

I'm sure some denzins of this thread will be straight round to Turin to tell him how wrong he is.

 

What is it with you and your Henderson love in? Also, do you really think anybody cares about what Marchisio says considering we lost that game anyway? Personally I'll use the result of that game as a barometer of his performance and yet another occasion we came up short against top opposition with Henderson in midfield, rather than Marchisio who will just be paying lip service.

I and all other England fans don't care about what he does for Liverpool or what other people have said about him. The reality is it's about what he does in an England shirt and in international tournaments. Henderson has had ample chances to show he's good enough in international football and whether you like it or not, the evidence suggests he isn't.