UEFA Euro 2020: England Tournament Thread [R]

I can't wait to see Pepe knock people to the floor mma-style in this tourno. At the age of 38 going on 39 no less.

 

The fact that we have so much strength in depth up front may give us a n edge in any tight games. With 5 subs GS should not hang around to replace front men early in second half. England won't find themselves in the same boat as Man U in the EL final where any changes would have introduced inferior players.

 

Well judging by the leniency shown by the refs to them kicking Grealish all over the shop in those two ‘friendlies’ ... Pepe will be just fine .

 

Great to see slabhead back in training. Sunday might come a bit too soon for him. But wouldn't be surprised to see him start.

 

If Pickford scores a penalty to win a shootout

 

I'd be somewhat concerned if we decided to randomly spring back to a back three, I am not convinced its particularly a more defensively solid formation it means England getting overran in midfield against Croatia again. England won the midfield battle against them in the Nations League games by playing a 3 there - and hardly a particularly good 3, I don't think Tyrone Mings is so disastrous he warrants an entire formation change. And if he is, then playing him in a three isn't going to help much given his biggest problem is individual errors more than lack of ability.

I would think if we were planning to be a back 3 on sunday then we would be rigidly practicing it now, given how little time this side has had together at least.

 

I did find all the questioning of whether Maguire should have been called up a bit strange. Does it ever occur to any of you that maybe just maybe Southgate and the England staff might have a better idea of his recovery timeline than we do?

 

I think we look much more solid in a back three, personally. You can also overload the midfield if the "wide" players are Grealish, Foden or Sancho if it's akin to Chelsea's 3-4-2-1.

 

But a back three in Southgate’s mind maybe Walker / Stones/ Mings

GULP ! ( we’d have to watch from behind the sofa !)


Plus he’ll probably play two holding midfielders


I’d sooner we start with Kane , Grealish , Sancho as front three with a midfield of Foden / Mount / Henderson or Phillips

Most of our games are at Wembley on home soil - massive advantage so why not play to our strengths and win games 3:1 or 4:2 or whatever

 

I haven't heard the questions, but we have heard this so many times before, Rooney, Wilshere, Barry, etc. All apparently manageable. Also I don't see how something as unpredictable as injuries can be predictably in such a short timescale.

 

Would love to see James stones walker in a back 3

 

A back 3 with two DMs though will just be drab as we saw last Autumn when we couldn't score.

A back 3 is OK if Maguire is out so long as Mount is one of the two midfielders, if not it pushes him to one of the wide spots, dulls our midfield down and we're left with an unbalanced team with most of our attacking threat on the bench, so I just can't get excited about it.

4-3-3 as people on here have said - we beat Croatia and Spain with it and we need to not concede the midfield as we have done in the past in tournaments

 

Will Southgate have the guts to use our attacking strengths I wonder

 

Well it's definitely a positive that Maguire is back training. I don't think he should play the first two games, but say we win against Croatia and then we're winning v Scotland, it's a good opportunity to bring him on then, if not he should at least get the last group game

 

If we have maguire fit for the knockout rounds I would fancy us against anyone

 

It's a bit different for Harry. He's the opposite of explosive and he's not going to be running all game. Obviously he will be a bit off pace a bit but it's not as key those other positions when it comes to fitness. It depends on the player too. Pogba can be out for months and play world class in his first game back. Not sure about Barry but Rooney was a player that took a long time to find his rhythm and really needed to play every game or he would start getting heavier. Wilshere had problems far beyond any individual injury as well.

 

Wilshere is a great shame, he should've had a great career

 

He should still be having one. Poor boy's only 29.

 

I recall seeing a sports doctor saying that Wilshere’s bow legs were at the root of all his ankle issues .. kinda makes sense as well

 

The only player since Gazza who could control games for England. International football was made for him