England Senior National Team General Discussion Thread

1844495274242404530 is not a valid tweet id

I’m sorry but it’s a bit of a lol after the press last week said it was a good idea that Carsley might one day start all three of them for it suddenly be super naive.

 

Justin has been playing right back all season and has been a turnstile there.

 

I don’t think Carsley will pick a left back in November if he arround anyway. He will just stick Colwill there probably.

 

Lots of people on here tell you that the press don't have any idea what they are on about, but you hang off there every word. Maybe a lesson for you here? Although I'm sure you be back to parroting everything they say as gospel soon enough.

 

Liked the idea of this starting XI until it clearly wasn't working by halftime. Way too open at the back and very susceptible to counter-attacks. You play like that and you're going to be under threat by many teams with lesser quality in professional football at most levels especially against a hungry, emotional Greece team who deserved to win. I was a quiet Foden supporter, but now it's obvious he can't start until he proves his worth. Palmer should own the No. 10 spot.

I don't know about Carsley's future, but we need to score goals in our next game. So much possession and very few clear cut scoring chances, which is ultimately the most disheartening takeaway from me. All of that superstar talent on the pitch and only one game late in the match!

As someone pointed out this was like if Twitter picked the team.

 

He's played a lot of his career at left back though and looks just as comfortable there. I thought he's been one of Leicesters better players this season. Shame he had such a bad injury when he did as it he had looked such a hot prospect

 

I was at work so missed the game. Looks like it was a disaster. Unless Carsley goes on a goal scoring ramage in the next few games his goose is cooked.It looks clear now that you can't play Foden Bellingham and Palmer. Carsley should probably have played a safe 4 3 3. It wouldn't surprise me if someone like Potter gets appointed before the next international break. A penny for Southgates thoughts.

 

1844516293614968954 is not a valid tweet id

 

https://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/match-reports/jordan-pickford-england-lee-carsley-33867873
If Eddie Howe does take over it will be Pope or Trafford (Who he wants at Newcastle) as number 1 for sure.

 

I’m intrigued to see what he does on Sunday now? Surely he won’t just throw all those players in again and hope it works better. He has to have a better balance that doesn’t leave us so vulnerable on the counter attack. Even against Finland a few weeks ago we looked dodgy which just shouldn’t be happening but shows we don’t have the right balance. Maybe we just have too many gaps to fill which makes it difficult but we seem to struggle against mid teams far too often.

 

I think it looked like a manager with no high level experience afriad to put some really big names on the bench. At least that's one way you can interpret it.

 

I'd expect him to play Colwill left back, Gomes in midfield and a striker up top at the very least.

 

Yeah I’m not the biggest advocate for playing Colwill at left back but we need a bit more solidity and as much as I rate Lewis, his defending isn’t his best attribute especially when he’s physically outmatched.

I still can’t get over the shocking Sunday league style defending for both goals last night. I mean, I’d expect my old Sunday league defenders to defend that better and put in a tackle for that first goal. So, so poor it was unreal!

It’s also not just the defending but going forward we struggle despite supposedly having a ton of quality attacking players! Something isn’t right and can’t really put my finger on it.

 

i agree, there was a typo in my post, it should have said i dont think theres any other way to look at it than as a bottle job.

it reminded me somewhat of Hodgson 2014 onwards who often gave the impression of being unable to make big decisions and playing more attacking than he should to appease critics.

 

I think part of it is that Carsley's tactics demand progressive passers in midfield because he always wants to play through the middle. Southgate set the team up to attack from wide areas because he favoured more robust midfielders who are more limited passers but there was a misalignment between tactics and personnel last night.

I get what Carsley was trying to do but he went too far with it. Putting Jude so high up killed the whole thing. If you put Jude deeper instead of Foden, someone like Mitchell or Branthwaite at left back, Solanke/Watkins up top and a keeper who's better with their feet in goal I think there's a decent chance that works.

I think the players also took the game very lightly too. They clearly thought they'd just turn up and win and Carsley's XI reflected that mentality.

 

I think when you said playing Colwill at left back last night hit the mark. Trent goes AWOL all the time so at least we can go into a legit back three with him there for a stronger defensive base.

 

More than anything, it proved that Gareth Southgate really was the exception to the rule in being able to make that transition from inexperienced U21 coach to a bona fide international manager capable of taking England deep into major competitions. I said recently that Carsley needed an old hand like Steve Holland beside him, who had been an assistant to Mourinho, Benitez, Hiddink and Conte, with all the serious, strategic, big game nous that brings - and that's what was badly missing last night. We could all see that he had to reign things in a little to stifle the counterattacks at half time last night. The fact that he didn't shows he's not the man for the job.

 

Southgate is a bad example, because he had the same problem of never making changes, no matter who was sitting next to him on the bench.

 

Southgate also had a tonne of advantages. He took over at a time when expectation levels were on the floor and the team more or less picked itself with how few options there were compared to now. The early performances under Southgate were pretty damn poor, but to his credit he got enough results to get the job permanently. It wasn't until close to the 2018 World Cup that we actually started playing well under him so it took him nearly 18 months to get things to click.

He's also naturally a much more conservative manager whereas Carsley is naturally extremely adventurous, so that in itself makes the initial transition to senior football a bit easier. I still think if Carsley were to get time with the side things might click as he learns and develops down the line, but unfortunately nobody is going to be afforded that much patience with how high expectations are.

 

Southgate was for the most part good at ignoring outside pressures and valuing solidarity in his set ups, even if he was always far too reactive rather than proactive in in game decisions. At least before 2024, the euros was just odd throughout and a real mess.

Still managers being unable to drop big names has long haunted the team. Sven’s teams were long accused if the lack of balance, Hodgson sabotaged himself 2014 and 2016 with frankly bizarre very not roy hodgson set ups, and who can forget sam allardyce claiming he cant tell wayne rooney where to play after a woeful rooney midfield performance in his only game (an issue southgate to his eternal credit immediately addressed). Last night was an unfortunate continuation.

 

Of the prospective (realistic) candidates, the only manager who we know for certain wouldn't bow to those pressures is Tuchel. I still don't know if I'd want him, though.

 

Another option if you go down that route would be Dan Burn. He's played that exact role for Newcastle to allow Trippier to have the freedom to attack.

 

its a difficult balance to find someone whos both a good man manager and also completely uncompromising with external influences, which i guess comes with a large ego in most cases.

Pochettino was probably the best bet in balancing it. Just one of the many downsides of dragging out the managerial hunt. If Carsley was the plan they should have just committed to it, now these “audition” games have massively backfired and made it far harder to appoint him.

 

I was amazed gomes didn't come on. He gave us balance alongside rice in the previous two games. Instead he went for broke and brought on two strikers

 

I think it was.