Carsley has said he might recall Ivan Toney soon. ‘England do not have another No 9 in their squad after Ollie Watkins withdrew and Carsley left out Ivan Toney, who has since completed a move to Al-Ahli. The Netherlands coach, Ronald Koeman, said this week the door was closed on Steven Bergwijn’s international career after the forward’s move to the Saudi Pro League but Carsley said he would like to watch Toney in action before deciding whether to call him up. “As an interim head coach I don’t think I can rule anyone in or out,” he said. “It would be really interesting to go out and see Ivan play and see the level and see the tempo and see the standard. We’ve got access to the games so I’ll definitely be following his progression out there. “It would be good to go and see an actual live game to get a feel of the atmosphere and the pace of the game because sometimes you don’t quite get that on a video. But yes, he’s definitely not ruled out. We have to be mindful. I’ve got a perception of the football out there but I’ve not been out there and seen it. So I think it would be reckless to rule somebody in or out.”’ https://www.theguardian.com/footbal...ng-englands-national-anthem-before-first-game
Carsley said that he didn't sing the Irish anthem either as he was always in the zone during that period. That may sound odd but Keiron Cunningham told me the same thing many years ago. In that moment his head was just totally in the game already and didn't even listen to the anthem.
In America it’s often considered rude ro sing the anthem if it’s being performed by a singer at a sporting event.
You would have to be incredibly naive to think that Lee Carsley and the FA weren't expecting to be questioned on this at some stage. The fact that the press have waited until the eve of the game to drop such an irrelevant yet divisive story shows, once again, just where their loyalties really lie.
You would have hoped he would have been prepared for this and just how much noise some people can make about it.
I just hope morons don't spoil the game. Having kick off at 5 is a bad idea. People have all day to get tanked up. The game should have been a 12.45 kickoff
Levi Colwill is in line to start at left back for England against Ireland today 🏴Jack Grealish is expected to start for England in a no10 position alongside Declan Rice in midfield 👀 pic.twitter.com/Sye3LcLuyY— Sky Sports News (@SkySportsNews) September 7, 2024
So are we looking at? Pickford TAA Maguire Guehi Colwill Rice Mainoo Grealish Saka Kane Gordon Wouldn't have predicted Grealish at No.10 in a million years?!
Carsley is a massive fan of Grealish but it is bold - he hasn’t shown too much of his best recently for Man City and I didn’t even expect him to be recalled.
I for one don’t give a shit if he sings the national anthem all I care about is playstyle and winning
I don't think Grealish will play as a #10 as such but maybe he'll defend centrally. I could see it basically being the same fluid 4-4-2 that he played at the U21 Euros.
Carsley starting Maguire does make me a bit concerned he's a bit like Southgate as I thought he'd be phased out by now and I'm not sure why Grealish is suddenly starting despite playing well against West Ham. Other than that the team looks decent enough so will be interesting to see how we perform in his first game.
Grealish really made his name as a free-roaming 8. Pep simply decided he wanted to turn him into a touchline winger. Grealish's skillset is not, nor has it ever been, best utilised out wide.
It’s a position I’ve always hoped he would end up in to be honest and surprised he’s only really played out wide as I’ve always thought it’s not his best position but who am I to criticise someone like Pep who obviously thinks otherwise.
Of course what happens when Bellingham is back. He could justify leaving Foden out but not Bellingham I think.
If you asked Pep I'm sure he'd tell you himself that Grealish works better with more access to central areas. Managers often don't use players in the role that best suits the individual, but rather the role that best suits the team. That's why it's important that players surround themselves with good people who know what's best for their development, managers will always be team > individual player.
Note how many of these papers, who are telling us how unpatriotic and disloyal it is to not sing the National Anthem, also revealed the England starting line-up 24-hours earlier. Yeah, cheers for that lads.
It seems likely that Carsley's intention is to continue with Rice as the deepest midfielder rather than move him into a box-to-box role. Gomes, given his recent head injury, is probably not going to play both games, and he could have brought someone like Lewis Cook if he wanted to experiment with that. Combined with his approach to the left-back situation (i.e. not picking one), it sort of makes you think that, on the key issues, his intuitions are similar to those of Southgate. Which, as we know, is fine up to a point but doesn't get us over the line in big games.
Probably the major achievement of Carsley's under 21 side was how positionally flexible the side was, on paper the Under 21s Euro's side often looked horrifically unbalanced but they made it work by being genuinely free flowing in positioning, while also not sacrificing positional discipline off the ball. It was genuinely a rare feat at international football at any level and one of the main reasons Carsley is perhaps worth gambling over. With that in mind I wouldn't be particularly drawn to Grealish being "10", most likely the idea is he will be interchanging positionally throughout the match.