England Senior Team General Discussion Thread

I do like our initial squad before all the pullouts happened. I'd swap Welbeck for Abraham if he can crack on as he always is decent for England. Then again if Abraham keeps it up then it'll be difficult.

I agree mostly with Jason Burt's picks. I'd still call up Hart over Heaton, but IMO Pickford should be the No. 1. I'd replace Henderson with Wilshere and wwap Chalobah for Barkley.

 

Along with his other odd selections, I'm really not convinced about Dunk being given the nod over the likes of Jones, Cahill, Keane or Smalling.

 

Gareth Southgate’s World Cup blueprint https://t.co/t4sneApU5m

— John Cross (@johncrossmirror) November 15, 2017

WARNING! This is not for the faint hearted!

According to John Cross, apparently Southgate plans to use Dier as a Centre back rather than the deep lying midfielder with Henderson ( Jesus Christ ) occupying that role with Lallana in midfield also ( fair enough ) but then he says that Livermore is in contention for a starting role there which implies that he's going to be at least in the Squad.

Spurs' Harry Winks, Chelsea's Ruben Loftus-Cheek and even Jake Livermore of West Brom are all in the hunt to get the last place in midfield.

I'm sorry but come the World Cup if all our other options are fit and in form which you have got to hope for, how in living heck does Livermore get in there. I'm sorry, it's just bonkers! We have better 19 year old midfielders than him.

I really hope John Cross is completely wide if the mark and it's some kind of covert operation to confuse our opponents.

 

Livermore wasn't even in the most recent squad until the pull-outs was he?

 

They said on the TV that he was going to the airport until they rang him and asked him to turn up because of all the pull-outs so, yeah... I suspect he won't be in the squad unless something goes seriously awry with the rest of the guys.

 

I would love it if one brave journalist asks Southgate what he see's in Livermore. Nothing on the offensive, just his opinion on why he's been consistent on calling him up. I wanna know what Southgate see's in him!!!

 

He hasn't been consistent in calling him up. Again, he tried to leave him out of the latest squad. Currently what Southgate seems to see in Livermore is that he's in one piece.

 

As is Cork, Cleverley or Shelvey.

 

I never trust Southgate..
his squad selection for the under 21 cup was disastrous and ignored a load of good options. But that pundit who claims to know England blueprint has no history of getting anything right ,apart from when Woy was leaking everything to the press days before games.

 

It's a bit frightening that journalists seemingly trust Southgate and think of him as a brave and forward-thinking coach, and I saw a lot of fans commenting the same.

 

I bet the honest answer will be that he turns up. Unless he's genuinely injured I find it crazy Winks pulled out, he could have cemented his spot.

 

I like Southgate.

 

I like Southgate too, but he does have a very patchy record as a coach and whether he can make a success of next summer very much remains to be seen. I liked Capello too, but 2010 was an absolute slog. I like Gary Neville but ******** knows I'm glad I wasn't a Valencia fan when he was there.

At least Southgate is throwing stuff at the wall though, so you never know. The "glacial" rate of change has gone out of the window.

 

Daily Mail is reporting much the same about Southgate's intentions. They haven't randomly thrown in Livermore though, which seemed like the least likely part of the John Cross article.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/fo...ss-Gareth-Southgate-World-Cup-masterplan.html

I'm not at all convinced by the idea of Henderson as the holding player - isn't that what he's been failing to do for Liverpool? - but if it's in Southgate's mind then I can only hope that he gets to try it out as soon as possible. If I'm wrong, then great, but if it goes badly, I hope he realises why. It does at least allow him to put in two more creative players into midfield. Not sure what Sterling has to do to be taken seriously though.

 

I can see what Southgate is trying to do.

Replace Dier in the back 3 with another centre back.

Replace Henderson with Dier. I am at the point that I almost want Henderson to get injured.

I can live with that team. Don't have to shoehorn Rashford or Sterling in. Nothing wrong with having good options off the bench.

My issue is this - These articles are making it sound like he is so wedded to a particular 11. We are gonna play 3 games in 10 days or so, it would be idiocy for the same 11 to start all three games.

Too much focus on an ideal team instead of the ideal squad, that is balanced and covers all eventualities.

 

I would favour Trippier in wing-back role.
Walker never delivers any attacking threat. Every cross hits the first man with him..

and I wager that every player who pulled out of the games , plays over the weekend.

 

The only thing I'l say for Southgate is, he hasn't been afraid to drop the 'big' names. Unfortunately, as we've discussed, he now seems unable to drop guys like Livermore or Henderson.

Having said that, it is fair to point out that, although we didn't give much of a showing in the Brazil game, we HAVE played probably the two best sides in the world, (albeit in friendlies), and not conceded. That's actually reasonably respectable.

If we could go through the group stage and guarantee even THAT, I'd be reasonably happy because, with the guys we've got up front in a full squad, I'd be reasonably confident we could grab a goal in one of those games for a win.

IOW 1 win and two no-score draws probably sends us through to the knock-out stage. After that it's a crap shoot anyway.

Of course, I realise that's not how it works... I'm just saying. We've had a couple of reasonable results with who we had available. That's all.

 

Spurs down 2-0 after using the international break to rest their players..
karma ?

 

They haven't had the best of games which is quite clear, Kane didn't look to sharp probably due to his injury and Alli was just not very good, his first touch at times is awful. In regards to Arsenal, Wilshire really needs to get out of there, I mean if Coceqlin is getting brought on ahead of him then it's game over.

 

Kane did have a hammy problem..
but Pochettino continued to play him and even used him in a league cup game.

but to be fair , we got alot out of the friendly games and used players who wouldnt have got a game.

 

Some good news: Loftus-Cheek is straight back into the Palace team.

 

I suppose we could turn this thread ( whilst we have the World Cup Thread ) into a lets complain about Premier League managers thread. I see Klopp is doing his best to dwindle any English influence from his first 11, just two starting today. I really had hoped after Gomez excellent display against Brazil he might get a chance in his best position Centre back but he's on the bench and instead it's Klavan & Lovren ( who was awful in there last game if I recall ) starting. At least TAA is starting.

 

Klopp is looking increasingly clueless..
continues to picks the likes of moreno .