That team looks dreadful. You know its bad, when your scratching your head wondering who half the names are on the squad, even when you consider yourself someone who watches a lot of football..
🚨🇫🇷 Olivier Giroud will retire from international duty after Euro 2024.“Obviously I’m going to miss it a lot, but I need to cede my place for the young players”, told L’Équipe.🇺🇸 Giroud will play for LAFC starting from July. pic.twitter.com/AMkXwZGDU0— Fabrizio Romano (@FabrizioRomano) May 23, 2024
🚨🇪🇸 OFFICIAL: Spain provisional squad for Euro 2024. pic.twitter.com/aTLWdmf1fm— Fabrizio Romano (@FabrizioRomano) May 27, 2024
Some exciting young players but it doesn't look a particularly strong squad. They're still relying on morata which Says alot
Tbf Morata is pretty underrated imo and often produces the goods at international level, even more so at tournaments where he has 9 goals in 14 games at World Cups and Euros. That's a damn good squad for me that will probably give any side a run for their money.
It depends partly on if Pedri can keep fit. Baring in mind he has a terrible injury record now a days.
I'm probably doing them a disservice. Comparing their squad to their golden generation. Their young centreback looks an outstanding prospect
Yeah it's certainly not that level but it's still good. I see what you mean though, bar Rodri it lacks World Class players bang in their prime. Most of their best players are either very young or the wrong side of 30.
So many options in that Spain squad with unusual career paths. Ayoze Perez the latest one. With the way club football is going it will likely become the case that nations will have to find more ways to utilise these older almost ‘journeyman’ options. Or redeem the previous boy wonders. We just seem to close the door on them. That can’t last.
I don't reckon it will last tbf. Many of our journeyman types are from a barren era of English football where the quality at the top end was fairly low. The one player I can think of that we arguably shut out too early was Chris Smalling when he was at his peak at Roma. Could maybe argue Milner, but from memory I think he didn't have much interest in playing for England past a certain age anyway.
The Spain squad is mixed. Cubarsi and Yamal are two of the best young players in the world and they obviously have exceptional players like Rodri and Pedri in their midfield and decent attacking players like Olmo and Oyazarbal, but then the squad also includes meh players like Cucurella and the ex Leicester winger Perez and they still haven't unleashed a top striker seeing as Morata is still being picked. As much as we rave about the Premier League only three players have been selected from here, one is a backup goalkeeper and Cucurella is a dubious pick. Two big omissions were Pau Torres and Porro and I'm surprised they didn't make the final squad let alone the provisional one.
I don't think any of that is massively different to every other squad tbf. Kane is the only elite 9 in the whole tournament and Morata is probably one of the better ones. Recent history shows you don't need an elite striker to win a tournament anyway. I also think France, and maybe arguably Portugal, are the only nations without any real meh players. We've certainly got our fair share.
Maybe journeyman was the wrong word. Fluctuating career paths. Dier and Barkley the best current examples.
And with so many players now being eligible for multiple countries, that is going to get increasingly difficult, Brahim Diaz recently switched from Spain to Morrocco because he felt he should of been given a look in and wasn't selected for the squads
Lewis Dunk is one really. And he is hardly popular on here. But what journeyman are even pushing for a place in the squad? Lewandowski was elite at his best but he is decline now.
Not disagreeing, I mean you rarely if ever have a squad full of world class players (at major tournaments I can probably only think of Spain 2010 and Brazil 2002 but there were probably still one or two lesser players in there). I even think France and Portugal have dubious squad selections, France have brought back Kante whose club career was over 2 years ago and Portugal still have Pepe in their squad. I think Spain will do like they usually do these past few tournaments, probably quarters or semis. I don't see them winning it and think they probably had a stronger squad at their last 2 tournaments.
Southgate used to love Dier but for some reason didn’t want to recall him now and took a quite a while tor recall him in 2022 as well
He’s been at the same club, playing the same role at pretty much the same standard for his whole career. So, wasn’t the type of player I was thinking about. More about options that can get lost in the big squads of modern club football but do have talent that can influence a squad at a tournament. Beginning to think this scenario possibly one makes sense in my head now.
Ademola Lookman is a good example. Seemed to love playing for England youth teams but had three challenging PL moves. So we had no chance with him. With the current competition I am not sure how many caps he would have got anyway TBF.
The thing is there have to be playing regularly to get selected. Nobody gets debut or recall by any manger just not playing. All the unusual German and Spanish options are playing regularly.
Yeah Lookman clearly dreamt of playing for England, it's quite obvious what he wanted at international football. And he actually left it quite late to make the switch to Nigeria. I think the best case scenario is that young players don't give up on playing for the country they grew up at 21 years old, to make the switch too early based on where they're at in their careers. Folarin Balogun and Yunus Musah clearly didn't fancy their chances with England and knew their chances of playing in a world cup shot up astronomically by switching to the US, Balogun even went to Monaco because it's an easier league, he strikes me as the type who will always take the easier option
Most of the big teams at the Euros won’t have many PL players. There is only two in the provisional German squad, two in the provisional Italian squad and three in the French squad.
I don't think we have too many meh players certainly not any less than Portugal or France. Rabiot is pretty average. Kolo muani isn't particularly good. Dembele flatters to deceive. Portugal still rely on a 40 year old and 41 year old Ronaldo and pepe. The only meh players In our squad are at centreback