England Senior National Team General Discussion Thread

If you say it a third time, do you think it might help you justify what you’re going to say next………we know what’s coming, the big hype before the World Cup only for you to start swearing and raging when we start to lose a game.

 

Tottenham are among a number of Premier League clubs interested in Atletico Madrid and England midfielder Conor Gallagher, 25. (TBR Football)

 

England should win something. Right we're going to win it next year now. Tbf I was a bit drunk last night after that rashford performance

 

I also think we have no chance next year. I'm looking towards euro 2028

 

The old adage is that you’re only as good as your last game so we do have a chance!

We don’t have anymore of a chance than Spain, Germany, France, Argentina, Brazil, Portugal etc. All these sides are on a similar level to England and only one can win.

I think the general discourse on tournament success is reductive and incoherent. We’ve reached back to back Euro finals which is a great achievement in and of itself. Across the men’s age groups and in the men’s and women’s seniors we’ve actually been in a bit of a golden period.

 

I think the conditions next year are our biggest enemy. We've definitely got the players and coach. But I think Spain, Brazil and Argentina will have the best chance of coping with the heat

 

Good to see Foden back in form although I think having so many options excelling at AM and in the right wing and right inside forward positions creates issues for the manager. A bit like when Carsley had all those options available in one squad and put out a team with 7 attacking players which ended in an embarrassing defeat.

When you have more limited options you know what the best side is. After all these years of having so many quality attacking players I don’t think any of us on here really know what the best combination is. In international football there’s little chance to experiment either.

 

What I like about rashford is his head doesn't drop. If something doesn't come off he'll try again. He just needs consistency. If we can get a consistent rashford in the England team, he'll be a hell of a weapon on the left. Especially if we have a fully firing saka on the right

 

I don’t know Rover I think the problem with Rashford is that his head drops for long periods. Great goals last night but let’s see if he can keep it up. Quite an interesting few days seeing all these English players excelling and for teams like Barca and Bayern too.

 

Issue is now that Spain look very very strong, France have some amazing talent as always, other teams are stronger than they were 3/4 years ago which was why euro 2020 was a massive missed opportunity.

No doubt we have the players and squad to compete and win, but there are 2/3 other teams for euros and 4/5 other teams for the WC who are equally as strong/stronger and you can easily play well and lose to in a one off KO match.

If only we could replay the euro 2020 final now with our current squad I think we would win

 

You're right aj but when I say doesn't drop what I mean is he's not afraid if things don't come off. I think last night will be the making of him at Barcelona. I can see him going full flow from now on. At the weekend he had a wonderful assist for raphinha. His only problem is when Yamal is fit he'll probably lose his place

 

If only we had tuchel against italy

 

It's also a bit easier to build your team around your best players. Argentina have always been at their best when they have a handful of top players to build around rather than a stacked squad.

If you look at the Spain team that beat us and France at the Euros, it wasn't all that impressive 1-11.

-------------------------Simon--------------------------
Carvajal----Le Normand----Laporte----Cucurella
-------------------Rodri-----Ruiz-------------------
---Yamal-------------Olmo-------------Williams---
----------------------Morata---------------------

They didn't have much off the bench either. There are roughly 3-4 top players there that they built around perfectly. I'd still always rather have a stacked squad and try to figure it out from there because ultimately injuries are becoming a bigger issue in the sport, but there are definitely some advantages to having more limited options as far as team building goes.

 

It's more important to have a stacked squad next year as there is an extra game

 

Yep, I actually think in attack we are stronger than Spain, in terms of the entire department and depth we have there, even if they have Yamal. They are much stronger than us in midfield though. It’s scary to think that last time we played them they didn’t even have Pedri and Rodri went off injured at halftime. You then have the likes of Zubimendi, Ruiz as well as yet more players rolling off the production line in that area. They are also much stronger at centre half as even though the likes of Asencio, Huijsen and Cubarsi are young, at the end of the day they are playing regularly for two of the biggest clubs in the world.

That’s before you get to the fact that unlike France, they are able to perform equal to or even above the sum of their parts. They’ll be very tough to beat.

 

Yep Spain are the team to beat for sure, and with the heat next year if we have any chance of winning we need to try and avoid them as the conditions won't suit a high pressing game, they have the ability to just hold the ball and tire us out.

I agree I think we have better attacking depth, we are possibly the only contender with an elite striker, it's all about getting our team balance right. Like you say Spain outside of Yamal, Williams, CM aren't particularly world class but they built around them, whereas we tried to shoehorn in all our talent last year. We should've picked a LB to do a role rather than worry that they aren't an elite player, so many of our issues last year were caused by that.

You look at past winners and there are plenty of examples of average players playing a big role. I also think we have some good CM players coming through which has always been our problem. If we can build around Saka, Kane, Anderson/Wharton and Bellingham we have a very strong core

 

Mate, his head drops more often than Bonnie Blue, it’s always something I thought he did a lot. If and it’s a big IF, he can string say 5 consecutive games of being consistent then it will be a big plus. One swallow doesn’t make a summer with Rashford, seen it time and again.

 

He had an excellent game at the weekend too

 

I don't think Spain are particularly strong at centreback either. As good as curbasi and huijsen are for their age they always have a mistake in them. Vivian and laporte aren't world beaters. Neither are our defenders but ghuei and konsa seem to compliment each other. Plus we have stones and colwill to come in

 

Our midfield if we can get Wharton rice and Bellingham playing together will be as good as anyone's. Not to mention Anderson. I'm probably hyperboling again but it's hard not to get excited with the potential of this squad

 

People misread me. What I mean is he's not afraid to try something even if it doesn't come off

 

Rover is on a bit of a rollercoaster here, saying we don’t have a chance to how we’re better than Spain all in a single page or two!

 

Never said better than Spain lol. They're the best team on the planet. We have more depth than them but the weather next year will be our downfall

 

We definitely don’t have more depth in the centre midfield roles or the goal keepers.

 

No you're right about those positions