England Senior National Team General Discussion Thread

I think England peaked in 2023. Just a gut feeling.

 

Based on what

 

Not sure he’s wrong to be fair, not saying we won’t get better again in a few years time but think we will go through a transitional period where we might tail off a bit.

 

Well I said, just a gut feeling. Despite what others thought, I saw it that Southgates tactics helped keep England competitive enough by plugging holes in the weakness of the team. Tuchel's tactics aren't going to help, I don't think.

 

Tuchel is a far better tactician than Southgate. The only major weakness in this team is left-back. Maybe keeper. Tuchel has shown he can get the best out of average or slightly above average teams. Not saying England are average we're probably way above that but tuchel knows how to set a team up

 

I'm not sure about that. In tournaments we played under Southgate I'd say we won every game we'd expect to win and lost any game that was 50/50 or worse. E.g Belgium, Croatia in 2018. Italy in 2021 (Germany the exception though they were poor), France in 2022, Spain in 2024.

All other teams we faced we should have expected to win, not to put down our achievements as we've historically struggled against the 'big teams' but Southgate didn't really help with that. He instilled confidence in the team and got us through that hurdle of reaching latter stages of tournaments. He also really hindered us in the games that mattered - Croatia, Italy and Spain where we were played off the park without threatening, especially disappointing with that last two being finals and the strength of our squad.

I'd say if anything our midfield looks stronger moving forward, defence we have some good players coming through and in attack we are as good as ever

 

All depends on how good the young players are coming through.Midfield we should be alright because of the age of the players already. Defence the young players coming to be on a par with the older players. The only problem is we don't have anyone coming with walker's pace. Attacking wise take your pick.Its as strong as its ever been in my lifetime. Maybe we lack a bit of pace on the left. But thats about it.

 

I'll be extremely disappointed if we don't see an England team in the next four years that performs to a higher level than anything we saw throughout the Southgate era.

That doesn't necessarily mean we'll make another major tournament final in that period though. There'll be numerous other factors that dictate that.

 

It's guesswork, but I'd be surprised with as many young players as we currently have who are unlikely to have peaked individually. Kane will be hard to replace in the next few years and we're obviously crossing fingers on left-backs, but I'm not sure where else I can see us struggling to maintain or improve on the current level.

 

Just catching up on the City-Brighton game; I don't know how bad Kyle Walker has to play to lose his place in this team. It's not his fault because he's not the one selecting the team but all his experience has no net value if he can't contribute on the pitch and he's consistently been a liability in that regard for a while now.

I wasn't going to talk on this squad because Carsley is leaving straight after but with Trent now injured it could turn out to be quite an impactful decision to include Walker. Carsley really needs to be scrutinised about this imo. You can't just pick players on experience because in situations where the first choice is injured, like Trent now looks to be, that player needs to be relied upon to contribute.

It's also worth mentioning that with Livramento's form, Rico Lewis' inclusion is pretty questionable too. I think they've got the two of them the wrong way around, Livramento seems far more ready for senior international football and Lewis would probably be better served in the U21s.

 

Dunno, I’m going with 1966.

 

‘Arne Slot on Alexander-Arnold, who was substituted after 25 minutes at Anfield last night due to an apparent hamstring issue.
‘It's difficult to say how serious it is, but it's always serious if a player goes out in the first half. That's not a good sign, but it is always difficult so close after the game to tell you exactly what it is. Let's wait and see. I would be surprised if we will see him playing for the England national team this week, but hopefully he can.’’

 

Martin Samuel suggests Rice and Grealish will both withdraw to appease their club coaches. (The Times)


Barcelona have withdrawn their interest in Liverpool and England defender Trent Alexander-Arnold, 26, to suit the preferences of their young Spanish forward Lamine Yamal, 17. (Football365)

 

Yes let's appease arteta who drives his players into the ground by playing them every minute of every game. Hopefully tuchel won't bow down to club managers like carsley and Southgate do

 

New England boss Thomas Tuchel has handed Marcus Rashford an olive branch. The German told the Manchester United forward that he wants him in his Three Lions squad - as long as he keeps his form up. (The Sun)

Steve McManaman insists Trent Alexander-Arnold's decision over a move to Real Madrid will be a personal call, but he has reminded the Liverpool man he enjoyed himself after making the same switch. (Mirror)

 

Odd year to have it even for the recent England side. In 2023 you could already see most the issues England would ultimately be hit by in 2024. Namely that the squad had seen very few new players since 2020, but clearly needed upgrades at center back and central midfield, while Trippier was the only Shaw alternative, and England never were able to replace Sterling and his role in the side.

I think one of the main reasons England ended up looking so bad I euro 2024 was southgate based on his 2023 choices seemed to think he could juice one more tournament out of his 2021/2022 main squad options then got caught out leading to the weird situation he bought in a load of new players at the last minute but refused to deviate from 10 of his 11 starters.

Hard to look past 2021 as the squads best moment in terms of player form, fitness, and depth all coming together at the same time.

 

I'm talking defensively. I know it's arguable but if Southgate didn't play the way he did, I think the back line would have been exposed more. I don't think Tuchel is the kind of tactician that will give the attention defensively that can make that difference, do you?

 

There seems to be a decline in left backs across the board. Do you think the centre backs can hold up without playing a back three?

 

I think performance-wise we played our best stuff under Southgate in Qatar in 2022 (USA game aside). The thing that was sorely missing was an in-form Sterling or Rashford, although you could argue Rashford should've seen a lot more minutes.

 

It sickened me when he brought on sterling when we were searching for an equaliser against France ahead of rashford who was full of confidence. Sterling had just left England to go back to Qatar and clearly wasn't in the best mindset

 

If he brings Rashford on earlier I think we take that game to extra time. It was never a game to be playing Foden on the left wing.

Kane was actually doing a lot of good work dropping deep in that game but he had no outlet to distribute to.

 

I think Southgate got scared of the media in Qatar. At that time the media were all obsssed with how Foden just start and how he was being snubbed. The pressure was for Foden to be involved not Rashford.

 

Rashford starts for Manchester United. Heaton and Mount are on the bench.
Justin and Winks start for Leicester. Coady, Choudhury, Skipp and Mavididi are on the bench.

Gibbs - White, Yates and Hudson - Odoi start for Nottingham Forest. Anderson and Ward - Prowse are on the bench,
Pope, Hall, Livramento, Burn, Willock, Longstaff and Gordon start for Newcastle. Targett, Kelly, Barnes, Murphy and Miley are on the bench.

Solanke starts for Spurs. Forster. Spence, Maddison, Gray and Lankshear are on the bench.
Davis, Johnson, Delap and Hutchinson start for Ipswich. Walton, H Clarke, Woolfenden, Townsend, Chaplin, Hirst and J Clarke are on the bench.

 

You put these hacks on a pedestal like I’ve never seen anyone else do, he wasn’t scared of the media.

 

That was one of southgate's great qualities not bowing to media pressure