England U-19 Discussion Thread #3 (2005 born) [R]

Won a penalty on the weekend with some nice footwork.

 

"Jonathan Leko is like the Lord of the Dance and I would hate to be a defender playing against him." - Lee Johnson, Bristol City manager after the match

 

GOAL: #SaintsFCU23s 2-0 #SCFC U23s (@Callumslattery8 44)

Slattery strikes just before the break to double the lead. pic.twitter.com/b4Wo45hsyM

— Southampton FC (@SouthamptonFC) September 18, 2017

Callum Slattery goal against Stoke U23's

 

Sterling has come on for Chelsea. I was thinking he might get a look in with not being involved with the u23s the other night (but I didn't know if he was injured or not).

 

Squad announced at 11am

 

From last squad, Flynn Downes is injured until after break so won't be available for selection. Tristan Nydam fit, started at Leeds on Saturday and got 90 minutes and came on for last 20 minutes v Sunderland on Tuesday.

Dozzell obviously still unavailable

 

Ellery Balcombe (Brentford), Ryan Schofield (Huddersfield Town)

Defenders


Trevoh Chalobah (Chelsea), Morgan Feeney (Everton), Reece James (Chelsea), Dujon Sterling (Chelsea), Japhet Tanganga (Tottenham Hotspur), Jake Turner (Bolton Wanderers), Josh Tymon (Stoke City)


Midfielders
Dennis Adeniran (Everton), Sadou Diallo (Manchester City), Elliot Embleton (Sunderland), Mason Mount (Vitesse Arnhem, loan from Chelsea), Tristan Nydam (Ipswich Town), Ryan Sessegnon (Fulham), Joe Willock (Arsenal)

Forwards
Ben Brereton (Nottingham Forest), George Hirst (Sheffield Wednesday), Daniel Kemp (West Ham United), Jonathan Leko (Bristol City, loan from West Bromwich Albion), Reiss Nelson (Arsenal), Edward Nketiah (Arsenal)

 

I guess that answers the question of where they currently see Ryan Sessegnon.

 

With Arsenal including a lot of teenagers tonight, it will be good to see Nelson and Willock involved.

 

So what do people think is the best 11 from that squad? I still have quite a few question marks.

[GK?]; Sterling, Chalobah, [Tanganga?], [LB?]; [CM?], [CM?]; Sessegnon, Mount, Nelson; [ST?]

You could obviously shift Sessegnon to left-back and pick someone else further forward - possibly allowing you to go with a two-striker formation - and I guess Willock would probably be one of the CMs on the basis of his recent progress. Dozzell would be an easy pick if he was available. Are there enough good centre-backs to play Sterling and Sessegnon as wing-backs in a 3-4-3, with Mount and Nelson flanking a striker?

 

Almost wish they'd push one of Brereton, Nketiah or Hirst up to the U20s. Kinda pointless having all three of them in this squad with only Davis + Mavididi as pure strikers in the group above.

 

19s is always a difficult age to tell as you have the players who start getting senior football and they begin to kick on loads at this age group.

From an ITFC bias, Nydam is one like this - was always good but now he has adapted so well to senior Championship football physically, despite being small, he could begin to run all over this age group player.

 

Very true. I remember having it in my mind that the clear stand-outs from the 98s were Oxford, Dasilva, Willock, and Edwards. Now Alexander-Arnold and especially Davies are comfortably outstripping all four, but it could just as easily flip back in the next couple of years.

I don't really know Nydam but I found myself looking at the midfield here and wondering how many 2000s would get in if they didn't have the World Cup to go to. The same goes one or more centre-backs, perhaps.

 

Once the u17 World Cup is over, obviously Hudson and Sancho, at least, will move up to the u19s.

 

On ability/performances, you'd think so, but they'll be competing with Nelson and Mount among others. I suppose those two could plausibly get promoted too, but I'm not sure if it's worth having all four in the same squad all season - it wouldn't be great to see any of them stuck on the bench.

 

They can't be holding back Hudson and Sancho just because of competition for places.

 

For half a season? I don't think it would be the end of the world.

For what it's worth though, if Sancho starts to get first-team football then he might skip the under-19s altogether.

 

The U19s won't be together much until the final run to the actual tournament anyway. Pretty easy to integrate the worthy 2000s into the squad in March for the final qualifiers before bringing them to Finland next summer. It's not like they'll be missing out on much, if any U18 football in that timeframe.

The more interesting one will be seeing how the squads are potentially divided up for the 2019 U20 WC + U21 Euros in the same summer. There should and could be quite a few players who could move pretty fluidly between them two squads.

 

Fair point.

 

I'd definitely be starting Tanganga alongside Chalobah. I'm somewhat surprised Brown wasn't called up as they could make a good back 3.

It's funny how so much of this is just dependent on what chances they get. I don't doubt that if any of the original 4 had the same opportunities they'd do just as well. But even though everyone saw how good they were, as managers aren't bold enough to play them, they now appear to have stagnated.

 

If you wanna play a three with this group Reece James is your RCB, he's perfect there.

Turner
James-Chalobah-Tanganga
Sterling-Nydam-Willock-Sessegnon
Mount-Nelson
Brereton

Something like that.

 

Well then that looks like the way to go really, doesn't it. Sterling and Sessegnon seem such natural fits for the wing-back roles that it would be a shame not to at least try it.

 

And Foden. Could throw in a couple other names too like Oakley-Booth and Panzo.