England Senior Team General Discussion Thread

Excellent points

 

The Grealish thing is beyond bizarre. He should have been starting over Rashford today or at the very least given a 30 minute run out.

Most of us have suffered through England teams that simply didn’t have creative talents. Now we do have one in top form - we’re not going to let Southgate get away with ignoring him.

Absolutely fuming when Sancho and DCL came on!

 

DCL over Grealish is an amazing call.

"We need power, pace and penetration on the sides"

What a bloody slight on Grealish that is.

"We need people who work really hard"

He couldn't give a toss about Grealish. He doesn't like him, doesn't fancy him and doesn't watch him.

 

If you are going to start Grealish, he needs to play instead of Phillips.

Sticking him wide and high isn't getting the best out of him

 

Let’s hope so. Unfortunately BBC commentators seem to be oblivious to his struggles. I hope he gets slaughtered in the press tomorrow because this has been shambolic and embarrassing

 

Its soul destroying having this clown in charge. Such an incredible group of talented players. Hes going to be the ruin of these young lads. I also fear for the future of players like grealish maddison and foden. We probably have the best group of attacking talent in Europe and hes not flaming utilising them

 

I usually find Football365 to be the most accurate thoughts


https://www.football365.com/news/england-player-ratings-denmark-kane-rashford-mount

 

I worry for players like Foden in this set up too. I feel like he won’t get game time either now.

strange to feel so down about such a potentially exciting team.

 

We have to go win in Brussels

Fascinating to see what team he picks there

 

Proof that my view on Southgate has evolved !

@GarethSouthgate keep up the great work with the u21.. people who follow youth football appreciate what you're doing. #possessionfootball

— Benjamin Sharp (@Sharpovic) January 1, 2014

@Sharpovic thanks, appreciated

— Gareth Southgate (@GarethSouthgate) January 1, 2014

 

5:4:1

5 CBs
4 defensive midfielders
Kane

 

Thing is, results like the Belgium one are a one off and pure luck. We play a bunch of cloggers vs Denmark and lose (no thanks to the main one making two rash challenges)

southgate doesn’t care about form, he’s got his ‘good boys’

maybe he should remember gazza in 96? I’m not saying we can play like Brazil but at least attempt to control a game ffs

that run in the World Cup was fake too. We lost every game to a decent side and scraped through vs Columbia and beat a very ordinary Sweden

southgate has shown very little imo

 

Southgate was raving about Gazza only a few days ago on telly ... after media reports were suggesting Grealish shared similar qualities to Gazza ( fed by his performances against Liverpool and Wales ) . Southgate rather than praising Grealish chose to kinda ridicule him saying that it was crazy to compare the two and that Gazza was on a completely different level ...

I thought I’d seen somewhere that Southgate was an intelligent guy but after watching that interview and the after match one last night plus all the bizarre team selections and piz poor tactics - it’s difficult to believe

 

I’m doubting if Southgate will actually bother picking Grealish in the next squad if he’s no intention of playing him in games that matter like last night when he was needed. Only going to be picked to play in friendlies to keep the public happy as I think it’s clear Grealish just doesn’t fit into Southgate’s plans, what’s the point really if Southgate has made his mind up. The same applies to Maddison, not sure he has much of a future short term if Gareth continues to ignore flare players.

 

England are 5/1 favourites to win Euro 2020 after being paired with Croatia and Czech Republic in Saturday's draw.

France are second favourites at 11/2 despite being drawn in the 'group of death' with Germany (17/2) and holders Portugal (19/1).

 

So ********ing depressing. Some highly talented players and Southgate doesn’t know his arse from his elbow

 

I didn't watch the game, it was on Sky!!! Two home England matches not on freeview. I did heard that Mcguire was poor from the outset, firstly, why play him? he's been on the wrong end of a 6-1 drubbing and was poor against Palace. Even if you did start him, once on a yellow card and playing badly, take him off. I agree about Rashford, he shouldn't be guaranteed a place on reputation and because he plays for United. Southgate said he would play the in-form players, that went out with the last breeze.
He had a vision when he first came, he liked playing youth and the players seemed for once, to enjoy playing for England. He's gone over the top with that and is now doing what other England managers did, just playing it safe. Playing the stars in the hope that they will come good. We are a long way from the heady days of the 2018 World Cup with our refreshing performances.

 

Notes for Southgate:

1) Pope or Henderson please
2) Saka or Shaw if Chilwell is injured
3) Rice or Phillips but not both
4) Most importantly either start Grealish or give him 30 minutes - the public are turning against you on this

 

Our back 4 should unquestionably be james coady gomez chilwell. 3 in midfield winks foden Henderson and kane sterling and for me grealish. That would be a pretty solid team

 

Tbh - just play one DM.

why the fascination with 2 its inherently defensive from the get go.

 

Not just the public.. I haven’t seen or heard one single pundit / ex player or manager who understands why Grealish didn’t start last night never mind not even get on the pitch ..

As I said his after game interviews and ramblings last night are bemusing !

 

I love that team ...

I’m not sure Coady is proven in a four but presumably he would adapt easily enough .
Maybe play that eleven ( not Pickford) in a three ?

 

There is absolutely zero chance we will go to a back 4 again based on his comments. I don't know what he thinks we're doing better right now than we were the previous two years but its clear he thinks we're playing better than we were.

The best we can hope for is that one of Henderson/Rice gets changed out for someone slightly more attacking. I expect Mount might end up there when Sterling is back next month.

I'd be really interested to see an in depth interview from Southgate with a football man like Gary Neville to get him to explain his thinking because the journalists questions are generally terrible. If you're lucky there might be one vaguely tactical question a press conference and never a follow up to it.

 

The issue with the 3-4-3 within the last two games is you end up with 8 ( inc GK ) defensive / positionally rigid players on the pitch . If you add Harry Kane to that who is more of a fixed Striker you have 9 players that don’t interchange and rotate. It’s a little predictable 🤷🏻‍♂️

— Gary Neville (@GNev2) October 15, 2020

Neville stating the obvious but still nice to read.

 

The Rice one is by far the most frustrating for me. I still think Rashford is quality when on form and is capable of bringing an x factor to the side, so deserves a little persistence . I feel the Rice one is just indefensible however and has no justification. I don't have anything against Rice personally, but as a footballer, I just don't particularly rate him nor do I see what he really brings to us that we didn't have before from the likes of Delph, Dier etc.

I also don't feel it was fair that he secured his place in the side off the back of a relatively short purple patch, when others such as Grealish, Maddison etc have performed at a very high level for a much longer period of time, and barely had a look in.