Football in the UK and Ireland season 2019/20

I'm not a part of any Man Utd forums, but I do get a sense of the mood on Twitter. You are right that Man Utd women fans have been frustrated with Neville's selections throughout the season. A lot of early complaints about M. Turner snubs. At the time, those complaints were fair, but M. Turner's had quite a few shaky moments since those first couple of months. You can't really complain about her not being called up. Of course, McManus has been equally shaky at times as well, but she's been in the England WNT picture for a while.

There were also early, reasonable questions about Galton not being called up. However, those were explained by Galton not being quite ready for international football following her only just starting to find her love for football again after her Bayern spell. Plus, Galton's not fit at the moment.

I actually got into a bit of a debate with a couple of people about other keepers being called up ahead of Earps. Not entirely sure if they're all better than Earps, but the omission of Earps isn't all that surprising to me. She makes good/great saves like the Williams penalty save, but she's also prone to mistakes, has recently been inconsistent with her distribution, and has very little sense of urgency when the game is tied or her team is behind.

Not so many calls lately given her current form in the run of play, but there were shouts for Zelem to be called up earlier on in the season. I think she may well see call-ups in the future, but it's completely understandable that she isn't in the SheBelieves squad. I don't think there have been many calls for A. Turner to get into the England squad, and she hasn't been better than her fellow defenders at United.

Now, the player who gets the most fan demands for an England call-up is probably James. I did recently post a couple of long comments about how James hasn't been as good as people are claiming she has been this season, but despite that, I do think it's fair to have wanted her to be in the SheBelieves squad. She has enormous potential, and her performances versus City in the FA Cup and Everton in the Conti Cup and in the league show that. That being said, she is very young, so there's no real rush.

In short, there have been a lot of complaints from Man Utd Women throughout the season. However, the only potential snub in my opinion is James, and given her age and tendency to not impact proceedings on or off the ball for long stretches, her omissions from the England WNT are somewhat understandable. Regarding Stoney, some fans were clamoring for her to become the NT coach, but she's faced a lot of criticism in recent weeks/months from a number of fans. So, at the moment, I doubt many people are asking for Stoney to manage the England WNT.

 

Neville allready picked a high amount of fwds & James will probably battle Russo to get on the NT/btw.....Russo was a speedy & hard working striker for UNC Tar Heels.
Only 4 mids chosen, so this is where Zelem should of gotten in. Taking it though that Neville still got dreams of turning Bronze into an legitimate mid. Guess also the wingers are turned into outside mids as well, since Neville usual plays with just one direct striker—-hopefully this time it’s Beth England, as his usual fav m, Ellen White, is sort of use every trick in the book, type instead of using raw talent(and thankfully for VAR, for catching her so many times vs the US during the WC semis). Speaking of Beth England, she’s listed as 25 years old. Wonder why she’s been under the radar for so long?(she didn’t make the NT until after the WC)

 

https://www.ourgamemag.com/2019/10/...een-a-tough-journey-to-englands-senior-squad/

 

Fair point on Bronze, and Williamson can fill in at CDM/CM if needed as well.

Well, judging by what Klingo3034 linked, the reasoning might be that England had just two noteworthy seasons prior to the WWC. One of them was with a club not part of the big 3, and the other season saw Chelsea underperform a bit in the league. That's maybe not fair, but it is the kind of reasoning that can lead to a player on the fringes going under the radar or not consistently being called up. With the start both she and Chelsea had to this season to go along with her good form in the two previous seasons, she then deservedly became a fixture in the NT.

 

I'm confused with different tournaments or cups. Thought the FA Continental cup was the final between Arsenal and Chelsea. And this cup. What is the difference?

 

Didn’t know the specifics that shlj has provided. Having two domestic cup competitions (on the men’s side as well for ages) is just the way it is in England.

 

A lot of fair grief about the officiating in the WSL, but the VAR officials in the Premier League are in very poor form as well. Both Maguire and Le Celso are very lucky they didn’t see red and a three match ban. If refs in one of the top men’s leagues in the world are making unfathomable mistakes as well, I question just how much improvement we’ll see in the WSL in the coming years even with better officials.

 

big game coming up today; Chelsea vs Man City, my 8 am, central time
The FA Player
that is, if it don't cancel, as Arsenal/Reading all ready is

meantime #5 Man U vs #6 Everton(who still don;t got Izzy Christiansen & Haley Raso in their lineup)

 

Chelsea vs Man City ready time start/Sam Kerr is back!

 

Chelsea vs Man U was pretty exciting, surprised that Man U could keep up the pace of with the Blues. Final score 3-3

other take aways; Sam Kerr was busy, but not so much in zinc with her team mates. I hope she stays & don't fly back to the Matildas for their OG qualifiers two set bouts with the weaker Vietnam.

Beth England scored on a 'carcker' of a shot, but then missed a couple of easy sitters. It's going to be puzzling for Phil Neville on who to pick as startting central striker vs the US a SBC, Beth or Ellen White? I would go with White if there's no VAR cuz you guessed it, she scored once again on what looked like off sides on replay
one person that Neville should start immediately though on left side winger in Lauren Hemp(especially since Beth Mead is insured) as she tore up the Chelsea defence

Arsenal should be sort of happy since the one point for either team still leaves them in contention

 

Random thoughts from Man Utd Women vs Everton Women:

1) Groenen unsurprisingly struggled when the ball was up in the air for an extended time, but her defensive work when the ball was on/near the ground was great in my opinion and has gone under the radar.
2) Sigsworth has taken the lead in overall xA in the United squad and now has a big lead in xA/90 min thanks to her unintentional assist for Toone’s essentially open net goal. If her touch had been solid, Sigsworth probably would have scored herself, but fortunately for United, Toone was in the right place.
3) Contrary to what some United fans think, Galton didn’t do well in creating chances for her teammates (no key passes, 0.0 xA, no instance of teammates taking too long to shoot off of a Galton feed or shots off deflected Galton crosses). What Galton did do incredibly well is create crossing and shooting opportunities for herself, which led to a number of just off the mark crosses and two well-taken goals.

Random thoughts from Man City Women vs Chelsea Women:

1) Contrary to the thoughts of many Utd fans, I don’t think James is the best teenager in the league; Hemp is. (Yes, I know she’s older.)
2) Teams have to do their best to eliminate shooting space for England outside the box. That goal vs City was absolutely phenomenal and even better than her Spurs strike in my opinion.

 

Ann-Katrin Berger’s a particular choice for a Player of the Month nominee. She’s played one league match in February and conceded three times in it. The match was admittedly vs City, and she saved a PK. However, I can’t help but wonder if the committee behind the nominees think Berger instead of Telford started vs West Ham and Birmingham.

 

the Continental Cup finale was played and the score was........Chelsea 2, Arsenal 1. Beth England scored both goals, though the last one Kerr & Mjelde deserve a lot of credit in support. Game was decided in stoppage time. The crowd was around 6,700, taking it the FA Cup is the more important since that usual draws record club crowds when it's played at Wembley. Here's highlights, I didn't see it offered or a replay on the FA player,but apparently it was

 

Arsenal should have won yesterday's Continental Cup final but it's just not clicked for them this year. After giving up yet another sloppy goal to Chelsea to start the match, Arsenal pretty much dominated the match the rest of the way--the Gunners played brilliantly, really--but Berger was stout in goal and Chelsea--on the back heel most of the time--played compact defense and managed to keep Arsenal off the board until late in the game, when Williamson kicked in a rebound of her own header to tie the match, though it wasn't deadlocked for long.

Injuries forced Williamson to play midfield rather than her normal centerback role--Beattie was out injured (again!)--and Chelsea scored the winning goal in stoppage time when Kerr out-fought Schnaderbeck (sp) for the ball, fed it to Mjelde and her centering pass somehow went through two pair of Arsenal defenders' legs to the far side of the net, where England tapped it in for the game winner. And so it goes for Arsenal, who again this year have been racked with injuries. They've struggled to score, despite playing their usual excellent possession style in most games--and they've given up silly goals. I've never seen a team so injury-prone; it's absolutely absurd. Beattie was out for a month, came back, seemed to be healthy--and then was out again yesterday, forcing Arsenal to play two reserves at centerback. Walthi has been out for about 8 weeks, and Little is recovering from foot surgery and hasn't played in a month. Arsenal are simply not the same team without Little. It was an exciting match but a frustrating one for Gunner fans!

 

Berger was indeed good for Chelsea. Would have to agree with one of the commentators and have her as POTM. The saves on Quinn and Miedema’s header from a wayward Foord shot were top quality. Chelsea’s second happened primarily because of Mjelde’s quick touch to get past Williamson (I think). That was a tidy, clever touch from the Norwegian.