Yeah but he wasn't officially named in the squad, he went as third goalkeeper for training/emergency purposes.
Would Gibbs-White start though? Surely not if TOB and Gomes were available. I suppose you could say that, if he'd been called up, he might have taken TOB's place after his concussion. Bit convoluted though, and if we're just naming players who'd have played ahead of Denny then Kirby and probably O'Riley are also part of that group.
Angel Gomes,Matt O'riley, Kirby, Kane Wilson, Gibbs white,Steven Sessegnon and Oakley-booth back, that squad would be formidable.
There's Rabbi Matondo too, was in this squad at under-15 level, still could be an England player though Coleman trying to persuade him not to play for his country. Incidentally was I the only one thinking Chris Waddle when that penalty flew over the bar? It was inevitable by that point though. Well done to Spain; I thought Chust, Morey, Torres, Ruiz and Sergio Gomes all looked top class and would be in the team of the tournament and as always the play the style of football that the FA are trying so hard to get England to play but we're just not quite there.
Although it is disappointing to lose, this is easily the best bunch of of U17 players we have produced so far, and injuries and desire permitting, quite a few of them can go on and become legit stars, I just hope we can take a strong enough squad to the U17 WC, because if we do then we are more than capable of winning it IMO.
Or even our second-choice midfield. But the more I think about it, the more I think someone relatively senior needs to sit down with Cooper and have an honest look over his decisions in this tournament. There are far too many choices that look like mistakes, and he won't learn from the experience if they aren't questioned.
Based on performances in the tournament, next line up should be: Gibson, Panzo, Guehi, TOB, Sancho, Foden, Hudson-Odoi all get a place in the 11 I'd add Gomes for Denny, Latibeaudiere for Eyoma, Anderson for Bursik I'd bring Barlow, Smith-Rowe, Taylor Richards, Brewster, McEachran, Eyoma, and maybe if things are looking positive for Ian Carlo Poveda then why not?
How can you pick Poveda when he is getting no game time for Man City and also he said he would rather play for Colombia than England.
I feel like we're a bit too harsh on Bursik. I mean he didn't do a great job, but I think see some potential in him to be a great keeper, yet he made two bad saves that cost us.
There's no point musing over missing players unless we know who Spain had missing too. All in all a draw with a very talented Spain side only to lose on penalties is not the end of the world. If the point is education then we got almost as much out of the tournament as we could have done. I'm sure the staff - when the disappointment of losing has faded - will be quite content with how things went.
Don't know if Rabbi Matondo would be eligible or not for the FIFA u17 World Cup, due to playing for Wales u17's in the same year. I wondered if he would be picked though. with cooper being Welsh? I think he would pick him but it's just a thought.