England Senior National Team General Discussion Thread

I don't actually remember him playing as a 10. He played on the left side of a three in the Ireland game which was his standout performance. Like most players in our squad, I think Grealish is much more suited to playing on one side of the pitch. He's absolutely not a winger but he heavily favours the angles on the left side.

For me, the player who's stood out the most as a 10 is Bellingham by a distance. He's not a natural fit there but he has a great ability to thread a through ball through the eye of a needle behind a packed defence. I think really though we should look at playing 4-3-3 and not bothering with a 10. It suits our squad better.

 

Are you one of those fans that instantly make an opinion on a player after one poor game? I don’t blame you, you’re just part of the modern day culture sadly.

 

Manchester City will battle Liverpool plus European heavyweights Bayern Munich, Barcelona and Real Madrid to sign Crystal Palace centre-back Marc Guehi, 25, in the January transfer window. (Star)

Morgan Rogers has emerged as a January transfer target for Tottenham.Spurs boss Thomas Frank is a fan of the Aston Villa midfielder, 23, who is currently on international duty with England. (Teamtalk)

Crystal Palace asked for Joe Gomez as part of the deal for Marc Guehi before the move to Liverpool ultimately collapsed. (The Sun on Sunday)

Marcus Rashford's dream move to Barcelona could be turning into another nightmare with the Spanish giants already considering sending him back to Manchester United, according to reports in Spain. (The Sun on Sunday)

 

Guessed wrongly on both accounts.

 

No I'm not. I've been following football since the sixties and can detect who is right or wrong for which team in a lot of cases. Not all but I just feel in this case that Eze would have been a mistake for Spurs. Not sure why you're wetting your pants about it.

 

I want to see Grealish and Palmer operate in the same lineup .

 

I ain’t wetting my pants about it, lol! If that’s your opinion and you don’t rate him then fine you’re entitled to it, I thought you were suggesting that he’s a bad fit for Spurs after one poor game which was the way it came across.

 

I had exactly the same feeling about Richarlison. Ok then.

 

Anyway what a crap result. All England could muster was one goal against microbes so something is wrong. Maybe time to drop Kane. I noticed when he was absent at Spurs it freed up the others and they scored more without him so it might work for England too.

 

Microbes seems a disrespectful term.

 

I think that's very hard to work personally unless you drop Kane. I think it brings up too many imbalances on and off the ball.

 

I think we need to give Eze time. He's just started at a new club and hasn't started for them yet. His heads probably all over the place.

 

Just on Eze, did Arteta really criticise him after he came on as a substitute on his very first appearance for his new Club against the best team in the Country and after a handful of training sessions?

 

Then you remember it wrong: in last September's Dublin match, Gordon played on the left wing, Saka on the right, and Grealish clearly played as a number 10 behind Kane, not as a winger.

 

When I said left side of a three I mean left side of a midfield three, not a front three. Sofascore says it was a 4-3-3 with Grealish as a left sided interior. Grealish's heat map from that game would back that up, it was a very left side heavy role: https://www.sofascore.com/football/match/england-ireland/TTbsnUb#id:12057873,tab:lineups

 

Well, most match reports saw him as a no. 10, including The Athletic ("This was a great day for Grealish. Back in the England team in his favoured No 10 position, he was integral to everything good that England did") and The Guardian ("Grealish isn’t on the left, he’s the No 10, with the speedier Gordon on the left wing").
The question here, anyway, was whether Grealish is better on the left wing or deeper, in this case it was the latter, and maybe he started from the left side, but he was clearly playing higher up the pitch than the other two midfielders. So I think we can safely say he was playing as a number 10 or at least in the position closest to a number 10. And of course, Bellingham should be the one playing there if he’s fit, but Grealish has already proven he’s capable of it too, and it would be silly to push him out wide to the left.

 

Eze started last season off really slow as well.

 

Thomas Tuchel is preparing to drill his England players in set-pieces, including long throws, before the start of the World Cup.

More from @JackPittBrooke ⤵️https://t.co/E86h0qK9Yb pic.twitter.com/6s4T9jBvBF

— The Athletic | Football (@TheAthleticFC) September 7, 2025

 

Guehi is injured and major doubt for Serbia. His replacement by Konsa was unplanned and Tuchel intended to replace Kane with Watkins before that,

Means surely Burn and Konsa will start in Belgrade.

Kane confirmed to be starting in Belgrade.

Thomas Tuchel warns England about “physicality” they'll face in Serbia on Tuesday. Says Harry Kane will play again and that Marc Guéhi went off with groin problem v Andorra. Guéhi is a doubt.https://t.co/RCNHVFNVke

— Dom Smith (@MrDomSmith) September 7, 2025

 

Tuchel has also said Rashford, Bowen and Gordon are backups to Kane alongside Watkins.
And that Foden and Rogers can also play as 9’s.
Doesn’t mention Delap or Toney which suggest they not on his radar.

England boss Thomas Tuchel ready to go full Tony Pulis and Mikel Arteta and go route one and set pieces at the World Cup https://t.co/qeknMXBW3p

— John Cross (@johncrossmirror) September 7, 2025

Dan Burn will start at the World Cup - his hight and heading ability seems to really impress Tuchel.

 

I agree that Grealish is wasted pinned to the wing, I say that pretty often on here. It's just hard to be a top 10 if a player's game is particularly suited to one side of the pitch and I think Grealish's is.

It's a bit of a headache that we have so many of these players who are halfway between a winger and a 10 because they don't fit seamlessly into every setup. Players like Eze, Palmer, Grealish etc have all shone brightest when their club has built the entire team around them and they've been given ultimate freedom. It's much harder to do that with England.

 

England's stars on racism alert in Belgrade: Thomas Tuchel's squad discuss how they will react to potential racial abuse - as Serbia's FA urge fans to behave after being hit with partial stadium ban https://t.co/1P3IrHOuzx

— Daily Mail Sport (@MailSport) September 7, 2025

 

https://www.theguardian.com/footbal...land-2026-world-cup-qualifiers-serbia-andorra

The plan doesn't sound very Jack Grealish.

 

It sounds like a recipe for every match being a turgid watch as we hope to scrape through 8 times to win it.
Not sure this squad have the energy to do that.

 

Isn't it more likely that he's referencing Rashford, Bowen and Gordon because they're all in this particular squad? I'm sure Liam Delap is firmly on Tuchel's 'radar'. He's just injured this time around.