Seeding is based on the total points obtained by teams in the last five FIFA U-20 World Cups, because that is so relevant to the strength of the current group of players. It looks like New Zealand and the USA do well out of this current system being stronger teams from weaker confederations who always qualify. A group of death could be something like France, Argentina, England/Italy and Ecuador while at the same time we could see USA, New Zealand, Saudi Arabia and Vanutau in another group. But IMO the worst thing about those pots is we could potentially see a group with all 4 South American teams, imagine going to a world cup expecting to get experience playing a diverse array of teams and being drawn with all the same teams you face in your continental championship. That's a piss take. They should have stuck the 5 European teams in Pot 1 with the host, put the two Oceania teams in a pot with the four Asian teams, put all four South American teams in one pot with two strong teams from North America or Africa - perhaps the national championship winners - then the rest of Africa/North America in the 4th pot. The Asian championship winners would probably feel hard done by but I think that would produce much more balanced groups.
France always gets an easy group at any level of the World Cup nowadays. USA gets another easy one too. We will play Korea in the opening game
Not sure what to make of Argentina and Guinea. Argentina is usually decent at this level and Guinea will probably have some players that will be hard to deal with.
On the plus side it's three different styles to play against in competitive games. Guinea qualified third of the four African teams. Argentina qualified fourth of the four South American teams.
Given we never play Argentina in friendlies ever it'll be very interesting to see how the teams match up. South Korea at home is a challenge, hopefully they won't get home refereeing.
all depends on what squad we end up bringing, hard to make any judgement calls when we don't know if half the squad will even be available.
Pleased to see Ezri Konsa in, he's quite similar in body type and playing style to Joe Gomez. Never thought there was all that much between them in talent either tbf.
No Gomez and no Izzy Brown. Maybe a first chance for Brown with the under-21s? No Crowley either, but what's new there.
Predictable squad. Basically Konsa replaces Oxford is the only change. Simpson said: “A couple in the squad have not been regulars, but I’ve called up Ezri Konsa who has been a regular in the Charlton Athletic defence lately, so he’s getting a lot of League One football. “Rico Henry, from Brentford, has been in the squad before, but he has been injured, so it gives us an opportunity to have a look at some new faces. “We’re limited to taking 22 players in this competition and I have a list of 48 names who could all come in. “So it’s been a really tough task to stick on 22, but I’ve said to those not involved for now that they need to keep working and push their way back in.” Would have liked to have seen a different CM/AM given a chance.
Anyone know how long has he been fully fit for since his last injury? I would have thought he would be a cert for this squad if fit.
He's been back for a few months but his most recent performances for Liverpool U23 have been disappointing.
Yeah, Ojo has been back to his old unfocused,uncommitted ways, since his return. Odd really. He'd been getting first team games before the injury of course and you'd think he'd be determined to carry on where he left off..
Ok, well that explains Ojo then but what about Lewis Cook? I thought he was injured or something as not noticed him playing for Bournemouth lately or is he stuck playing for there reserves now? Obviously he's in the squad but just haven't heard much about him for a while which is ashame since he did really well for Leeds.
Guardian - you're uncomfortably quick to jump on some players and call them 'unfocused' and question their commitment and determination. Or you just have some severe personal grudges against some players.
He [Cook] has had ankle issues that kept him out for a few months but obviously he must be OK at the moment if he's still getting called up for England U20 and he played 70 minutes for Bournemouth reserves against Sampdoria a couple of days ago. At least his ghost act hasn't been as complete as Jordan Rossiter's.
When we were asked to pick youngsters to do well at the start of the season I picked Ojo and Cook. Thinking they had a decent path to regular games. Then they got struck down with long term issues almost instantly. I am backing off predictions for a while.
There is nothing "uncomfortably quick" about it. Nor do I have some "severe personal grudges against some players". Also, it doesn't matter one iota what club they play for. I couldn't be more unbiased. Have you been watching these u23 games? I have. The other week his coach when prompted to say something about him, commented that one good game in 12 was not acceptable. Clearly not impressed. And neither are the England selectors it seems. Hope this helps.
Realized that the majority of Guinea's African U20 squad was comprised of 98' borns. That strongly suggests that they'll bring a fairly young squad, but most of those players probably would've played in the 2015 U17 WC and they were very fast, but very open. In the nine games Argentina played in the COMNEBOL U2o finals, they conceded 14 goals and through their group with three draws and one win. If it wasn't for a 90 minute goal in two separate games then they wouldn't be at the tournament.