Well, thanks to the seniors for bringing in me back down to earth with a thud after last nights farcical performance especially considering it's been a very successful Summer so far with our younger age groups doing exceptionally well and still have the U21's & U19's finals to come. On that note I thought I'd add this Talksport article here on potential 2022 World Cup team which I always think can be fun predicting. How England could line up at the 2022 Qatar World Cup...Predicted XI https://t.co/V46oRX2mDQ pic.twitter.com/yZlWFQl3a9— talkSPORT (@talkSPORT) June 14, 2017 The team TalkSPORT are predicting is Butland Walker Stones Keane Chillwell Dier Cook Chalobah N Alli Rashford Kane Personally can't see it being exactly like this or hope it isn't to be honest with the amount of talent coming through so in another 5 years time I can see many other options being better however many obstacles hinder our young talent and like the previous 2018 prediction thread it's extremely tough to predict. Here is my team but going for two options for each position since it's a real challenge. Pickford/Butland Trent-Arnold/Walker Stones/Gomez M Keane/ F Timori Rose/Sessegnon Dier/Cook Winks/ RLC Alli/ Foden Roberts / D Grey Sancho / Lookman Kane / Abraham
I much prefer your predictions to theirs. They've just gone with the usual approach of picking whoever's currently breaking into the squad plus a couple of players who probably will in the next year or so. They can't seriously think that we'll go to the 2022 World Cup with a team of players who've all been in the squad for at least four years or so, and not a single one under the age of 24. EDIT: And Walker will be 32. Really? Of all the players who might survive a loss of pace, I'm not sure he's the most obvious candidate.
Guess I'm stating the obvious because by the time I'd typed this up someone had already made half of my points... Teams like this always play it safe by leaning too heavily on players who are currently playing at a good level. Kyle Walker will be 32 in 2022, the same age as the currently very past it looking Glen Johnson. Kenny or Trent AA, even with their current lack of game time, are both much better shouts to be starting right back in that World Cup. The squad will surely bias towards youth as that's where our talent will be. The '97s will be turning 25 in 2022 and the '00s will be turning 22. If only Cook, Rashford and Chilwell has managed to reach the starting XI from players aged 25 and down then we'll be sending an awful team and an awful lot of talents will have failed to progress. I'm tempted to back Rashford missing out on the squad as more likely than him make the starting XI. Kane and Tammy could/would/should both be better strikers and he wouldn't be in the conversation as a wide man. Sessegnon deserves to be ahead of Chilwell in any prediction and I'm not liking the midfield with both Chalobah and Dier in it nor the lack of width in that XI. A 4-2-3-1 pulled out of thin air: Pickford Trent AA Stones Keane Sessegnon Cook Loftus-Cheek Lookman Roberts Sancho Kane I think those centre back slots are winnable by a younger player but I'm not sure who I'd back to do it...
Damn, I actually somehow forgot about Jonjo Kenny so I will replace Walker with him so Alexander-Arnold and Kenny vying for that right back spot. It's actually a real shame that our pathways are such an obstacle as with the potential talents we currently have under the 97's especially you, could probably name two or three quality line ups ( based on potential)
Incidentally, the youngest players in our last few squads: 2016: Rashford, 18. 2014: Shaw, 18. 2012: Oxlade-Chamberlain, 18. 2010: Lennon/Hart, 23. 2006: Walcott, 17. 2004: Rooney, 18. You'd have to conclude that, unless we employ another Italian manager, there's a decent chance that we'll take someone's who's currently aged around 13. (Although no, not all of those players were in the first eleven, and no, I don't seriously expect anyone to predict which 13-year-old will go.)
I think he's a midfielder, based on his performances in 2015/16. I just don't think he has the right partner. Am I wrong?
I think Onomah has more of a future long term than Winks in the England set up, P.S what about Marcus Edwards.
Arguably the most talented of them all, however that doesn't mean he'll be involved in 2022. It's silly to even make an attempt to think that far ahead, too many unknown variables. (doesnt mean i wont give it a go ) Edwards himself at the moment comes off a season ruined by injury - injuries, game time, development, contract issue. Lots on his plate to overcome before 2022.
Here's what I can imagine being the selection, I'm sure it will look silly in 5 years, but this is what I think look exciting from the youth these days. I'm sure there'll be many unknowns coming form no where, difficult to say who'll develop well all the way from 15, 16 and 17 year old prospects. Butland, Pickford, Woodman Alexander-Arnold, Walker-Peters Stones, Dier Tomori, Gomez Rose, Sessegnon (Shaw?) Chalobah (Oakley-Boothe?) Winks, Onomah Baker, Mount Edwards, Roberts (Gomes?) Dele, Sterling (Lookman/Sancho?) Kane (c), Rashford, Abraham
Lol didn't see it before now. This is the midfield talksports believe we'll see in 5 years? One holding midfielder, one even more holding midfielder and then the holdiest midfielder of them all
I'd be looking at Shelvey and Barkley to be our midfield axis by then. Not necessarily players that get the right kind of headlines always but the ablity's there and they are a couple of very few english midfielders capable of really influencing games in the premiership alongside their continental counterparts. If you are watching a game from the stands you can immediately see that they are international class.They always seem to get overlooked and written off though.
Has anyone forgotten future England star Dujon Sterling? And Trevoh Chalobah is much more an England class player than Nat (different positions I know).
I would say, he is first and foremost a defender, who can play defensive midfielder as well. But when Spurs play with 3 defenders, he plays at the back.
People tend to go overboard whenever this exercise comes up and end up biasing it too far towards an influx of youth. It's understandable, there's an ongoing malaise in terms of perception towards the senior team, and the youngsters naturally excite everyone, so we want to project their rapid rise. Roughly one-third of the Euro 2012 squad are still in and around the current England squad, though that 2012 squad was considerably older than the current England group is. There's an evident core group of players that should stay in place throughout the coming era, and we build around those. (Ages in parentheses are ages as of June 1st 2022) Butland (29) Stones (28) Dier (28) Alli (26) Oxlade-Chamberlain (28) Sterling (27) Kane (28) Rashford (24) Ox and Dier are probably the most prone to falling out of that group, and you've got some others who could still be in the mix in their early 30s for a myriad of reasons. I'll exclude anyone like Kyle Walker or Ryan Bertrand who might find 2022 too taxing with their diminishing physical attributes, but Phil Jones could hang around as a 30 year-old, Smalling at 32, Lingard at 29, Henderson at 31 etc. If we keep it to just that core of 8 above, we're nicely in and around the same proportion of players remaining from Euro 2012 right now. Then we can start to mix in some more. Here's my first pass in a 4-3-3 (where you can then begin to tweak it to various iterations of it, it's just the most stable base from which I want to build a squad). Butland, Woodman, <someone else (probably a veteran like an older Forster or whoever else happens to be around> Kenny, R.James, Justin (or a similar lower-league full-back yet to emerge) Stones, T.Chalobah Dier, Mawson/Worrall Gomez, Chilwell, J.Dasilva Konsa, Oxford Oxlade-Chamberlain, Ward-Prowse, Palmer Alli, Barkley, Loftus-Cheek Roberts, Sessegnon, Gray R.Sterling, Redmond, D.Sterling Kane, Rashford, Solanke/Abraham Clear weak spots are full-backs (as I reckon Sessegnon and Dujon Sterling will be more dangerous going forward than in defence over the long-term, though that wouldn't preclude them doing a job at FB as well) and holding mid, I've limited this to players who've had some sort of England call-up so far so it's from a smaller pool, but I don't really like any of the DM options (I've moved Dier to CB here because I don't really like how he plays under pressure and his defensive attributes lend themselves to CB better in the longer term) but I do like Konsa. Oxford I think has been overrated a lot so far but will likely get the exposure and opportunity he needs to progress, probably more than Nathaniel Chalobah, who is tailor-made for it if he ever gets to play. Fully agree we'll also be considering some current 13 and 14 year-olds who we've barely heard of at best right now, but to start trying to include them is nigh-on impossible. There are dozens of wildcards I've not mentioned (Foden, Sancho, Hudson-Odoi, Tommy Doyle, Wickens. Luca Ashby-Hammond) that could explode onto the scene and force their way in, but for the most part I wanted to pick players who are either already established or on the verge of doing so. Will probably hate that team later and pick another one altogether.
Agree that they're still in good age in 2022, but I hardly want them in there in 2017. So hopefully others have come through.
I really like these potential options we have, and it appears our talent pool will be substantially bigger than it has been for a long time by 2022. Add in the significant possibility that there will be some unknown players that will come into the fray by then as well.
I still wouldn't be surprised to see that happen to Rashford. It's easy to imagine that there might be better strikers and better wingers than him in a few years.
I'll put you down as a don't know, then. Congratulations on naming such an extensive list of young players. If you can think of any more let us know. For me, I don't like to name players such as Kane and Alli. It's too easy. But yes I know how the game is framed. I wouldn't bracket Sancho with the likes of Tommy Doyle and Wickens. Sancho was the player of the tournament in the Euro u17 finals, as you will know. So, it's fair to say he is progressing very well as to him being a future England star after I nailed my colours to the mast, on here, not long after he turned 16 and was still at school. A bright spark of a couch really should get him working on using his left foot though.
Also Brexit may play a role to determine if our talent pool increases but as yet, I don't think anyone is sure as the consequences.
Yeah I was thinking the same, plus I just don't trust Mourinho to have faith to play Rashford as his main striker, in fact I can see him spending more time on the bench next season than starting games. Having said that, who knows what the situation will be like by 2022.