England Senior Team General Discussion Thread

The downsides of playing converted centre backs as DMs were ruthlessly exposed by Holland. Rice and Dier aren’t able to play through a press, they tend to panic and just play back to the defence which increases the pressure on us.

Top DMs like De Jong, Busquets and Kante are adept at moving the ball forward under pressure. We don’t have one of those but Winks is the closest thing (for now.) He won’t win as many headers or tackles as Rice but must be worth a try.

Another option might be to play Henderson as a DM and Winks as a CM. Either way, Winks must play when fit.

 

Thing is, they have lots of options of deep playmakers

We don’t

 

I'm pretty sure bisakka won't defect to Congo at this stage. He's still very young so it's pretty certain he will be an England international before long

 

Hopefully Southgate has just given him guarentees though that he's part of the future plans to avoid any chance of his head being turned. Whilst I do like to see youth come through I suppose you can also make a case that it's a risk to introduce and integrate them into a national team too soon as they may take it for granted or lose a bit of hunger. I can therefore partly understand why Southgate has decided to stick with a more senior experienced core this season even if I don't necessarily agree with it.

 

Walker's just won the league with City, let AWB prove himself at the Euros, let's see how he does. Having him as a solid defensive right-back and TAA as an attacking right-back will be good for our depth depending on which system/tactics we're employing.

 

Is it me or should Foden walk right into our starting XI?

 

I wouldn't have a problem with him being in the side, and that's not just based off his goal against France.

 

City are on the verge of breaking their transfer record for yet another great midfielder.. Spanish international Rodri . .. Foden is not certain to start as many games as last season ..

 

Isn't he more of a holding midfielder? See him providing competition for/replacing Fernandinho.

Foden will be David Silva's long term replacement. Silva is getting on now and surely won't play as many games this season.

 

Man City are managing Foden's early career brilliantly, anyone moaning about lack of minutes isn't looking at the bigger picture.

A year ago, Silva & De Bruyne were the obvious go-to guys with Bernardo Silva and Gundogan as backup.

There's a decent case for Foden to be picked ahead of Gundogan now and Bernardo Silva has established himself as first choice wide right, so from on the fringes of 5th choice at 17, by 19 he's heading into a season as first backup for an ageing David Silva and a (recently) often injured De Bruyne.

Rodri is irrelevant to this discussion, he'll be bought because Fernandinho is getting on a bit and either experiments of Stones pushing forward or Gundogan dropping back haven't been a success.

 

Yeah I completely agree. As much as I would love to see foden thrust into the first team, holding him back and letting him develop around world class players is just what he needs. We have potentially the best midfielder in the league on our hands for many years but the last thing we want to do is put too much pressure on the kid too young, just like we did with Rooney, walcott, Wilshere etc.

 

Even if he has absolutely no intention of leaving City I think it would still be foolish not to at least hint at a move away. He doesn't want to be in a situation where City just take him for granted.

 

I don't think they do to be fair. I was watching the build up on bt sports a couple months back and they were talking about how well wolves are intergrating Morgan Gibbs White into the team without putting him under too much pressure too young and I think that is identical to man city with foden. Notice how all these players they are buying but not buying anyone to replace silva. That spot is fodens when Silva leaves.

 

We thought that before Bernardo Silva leaped ahead of Foden in the pecking order ..

 

KDB and Bernardo are both under 26 though it'll be tough for him unless KDB breaks down again.

 

I'd like to see Foden eased into the senior set up in the same way that TAA has been. I don't want to have all the creative burden put on him alone. It's not necessary either, when we have the likes of Grealish and Maddison - who are also knocking on the door and will likely play more minutes.

 

The problem with Maddison is he's not particularly a central midfielder, Rodgers played him there for a few games but then mainly used him out wide, or occasionally as a number 10 type.

England's biggest problem against the best teams has been our midfielders being unwilling, or unable to drop deep and receive the ball. So we end up either losing it either through aimless booting it (Croatia semi-final), or suicidal dribbles out of defence (nations league semi-final). I'm not sure putting someone like Maddison who will likely spend most of next season far advanced than the position we need for England is any kind of solution to that problem. Foden may well get there although with his goalscoring ability I wouldn't be surprised if his career ends up being further advanced. Grealish is probably the most natural at it at the moment but it remains to be seen how that will translate to the premier.

 

I'm not saying that Grealish or Maddison fit seamlessly into our system but neither do Rice, Alli, Dier or Delph. The point is that we need to be experimenting with creative players - to see what works and what doesn't work.

 

I hear you, parts of the Holland game were so similar to Croatia at the World Cup. I don't think this is solved by Maddison either. More suited to Winks.

 

Heaton is a fine goalkeeper but he’s 33 now. Henderson or Gunn must be in with a good chance of replacing him, particularly if we’re looking to the future

 

Loftus cheek is capable of dropping deep

 

Very much so. Whatever doubts people might have about Foden's chances, Rodri isn't a factor - neither of them can play the other's role.

 

The side of England fans that the press don't report.

England fans disgrace themselves that much, the locals decide to line the streets and applaud us as we leave Guimarães. Brilliant! pic.twitter.com/NidHGasv9M

— Wor Flags 🏴🏳 (@worflags) June 9, 2019

and before anyone thinks it was sarcastic applause

1138185525360287750 is not a valid tweet id

It was great to witness!

 

The media always desperate to cast english fans as villains

 

I've noticed a difference between the England fans who go to the actual games and those who just want a lad's holiday. I'm generalising of course, but the behaviour of the fans in Guimaraes was much better than in Porto.