So that’s why Maddison is starting, Southgate was forced into playing him it seems. I hope Toney gets some game time later and he doesn’t flog Kane again
He's had all season to do that. Waits till the international break to do it. On the one hand can't blame players like rashford foden pulling out when he persists with under performing players like Grealish Sterling mount
Another reason for Maddison likely starting is that we would have zero width on the bench if Grealish and Saka both started. At least the bench has enough variety to cover all positions. Really stupid from Southgate again though to not replace options at the earliest opportunity.
Don’t they usually release the line up an hour before kick off ?? Why give our opponents more time to plan around the changes ? Throwing Maddison in an hour before would have given them some serious issues
Special boots for a special player.👊 @HKane pic.twitter.com/h9ITGhDhBt— England (@England) March 26, 2023
Yep and it won’t have been picked up by the journalists who never ever ask Southgate about his decisions not to call up replacements or his apparent objection to do so. I just find it quite bizarre but then again we shouldn’t be surprised when he doesn’t even give fringe players much game time anyway.
On the other hand it means that Maddison and Toney will actually get on the pitch today. Toney didn't get any minutes in his last call up and Maddison got no minutes at the World Cup.
He was asked about it but said it was too late to call anyone at this point(day after Italy game). So why did they not ask ‘was it too late to replace Mount?’ You could even ask ‘if you are concerned about a dwindling player pool do you not need to get more players involved when the opportunity arises?’ He said something like replacements would come from the U21’s. That’s fine but do it. Someone like Jacob Ramsey would have been a good replacement for Mount.
Not too bothered by that. Henderson gives us energy. Pressing. Something which Philips didn't do. Chilwell is a better left back than Shaw in my opinion
So little options from the bench. Grealish and toney that's it. Pathetic that he hasn't brought anyone in
Philips looked rusty and low on confidence in the last game so he needed dropping. Maguire is lucky to be getting another start. It would be nice to see him play Guehi although I think we should see a lot more rotation in the next break. Personally I'd like to see Colwill and Stones in the backline.
If Colwill had not got injured a while ago he might have got his chance in these games. Probably better long term to leave it for the next meet up.
Off topic but look at one of their goals - WHAT A GOAL! 😱😱A spectacular strike from Askhat Tagybergen stuns Denmark as Kazakhstan come from two down to equalise 🇰🇿💥#EURO2024 pic.twitter.com/wv2HkUZt1I— Premier Sports (@PremSportsTV) March 26, 2023 His first international goal in his career
Ukraine XI: Trubin, Matviienko, Stepanenko, Svatok, Karavaev, Mykolenko, Zinchenko, Sudakov, Malinovskyi, Mudryk, Yaremchuk