England Senior Team General Discussion Thread

If Welbeck is fit or fully fit i'd be very happy to see

Chamberlain - Dier
Alli
Sterling - Kane - Welbeck

 

I don't want to get too technical and I hate making references to the FIFA rankings, but it is important we get results from friendlies because it makes our FIFA ranking go up. Currently we're at #14 and we have to make it to the top 8 if we want to be a seeded team in the World Cup. Hence an easier group.

If they still do that of course.

 

Incidentally, Wilshere is saying that he definitely wants to be in the England squad, which suggests that he thinks he's fit.

 

It's only a matter of time, and it wouldn't surprise me if Harry Winks will be in there already.

Is it a given Southgate will go 4321 btw?

 

Of course, but still the shortage of quality midfielders is worrying. Hopefully Winks, JWP, Tom Davies or other youngsters will improve nicely until the World Cup.

 

It isn't great, but then we've had a shortage since at least 2012 and I don't think this is the worst it's been.

It actually might be a good idea to call up Ward-Prowse on the understanding that he'll return to the under-21s for the Euros. He's playing pretty well (albeit not spectacularly so) and there will still be too many good midfielders in the under-21 squad for them all to get a game: Chalobah, Baker, Loftus-Cheek, Hughes, Winks, Swift... We don't need another one in there.

 

Is everyone forgetting Barkley?

 

Not at all, but he's playing an exclusively attacking role for Everton. Unless he's repurposed, he isn't competing for the places that we're talking about.

 

Yeah, that's fair. Just talking about midfield options in general though.

 

Using the whoscored ratings is only a marginal improvement on using the old ratings from Shoot! magazine.

 

BBC: Marcus Rashford to be called up to England senior squad

Understandable under the circumstances but I'd have preferred for him to be preparing for the under-21 Euros. Hopefully he'll still go.

 

Kane was called up to the seniors in March of 2015 and still played at the U21 Euros.

 

Sure, but he'd already played about a dozen times for the under-21s and knew the squad/coaching staff/set-up well. Rashford has only been part of one under-21 squad and could possibly benefit from a bit more time to acclimatise before the Euros.

 

If you mean the seniors then yes he should and hopefully he will. He's got a decent chance.

 

I won't get too technical either but if we want our ranking to go up it would be more effective to not play friendlies at all. Just another demonstration of how flawed the FIFA rankings are.

 

You guys should start Vardy

 

I'd like Jermain Defoe to get a call up. Obviously he's not a long term option but he deserves some recognition for his excellent form and calling Rashford up just disrupts the U21 group.

 

I kinda hope everton get rashford for lukaku in some kind of deal so he can get guarenteed first team football

He could be the player we thought welbeck might be with finishing and fitness long term

 

I'd rather give a call to Andre Gray before Rashford at the moment.

 

I did not expect to see that name.

Is it that random though? He's playing pretty well for a top-half team in a position that we're short in. Nobody's going to be excited about Jake Livermore, but... I don't know. I can see the logic.