England Senior National Team General Discussion Thread

I don't understand the significance of this post.

 

“Finishers” is an Eddie Jones idea from rugby again.

Just basically that he didn’t like the idea that if you didn’t start you weren’t valuable. That’s not how he wanted to deploy you and get the best out of you. Etc

 

I'll say it again but when Henderson came on I thought we saw all the limitations from him that we are used to. He came close to players and just passed the ball straight back to them two meters away or passed it back to defenders. He tried a long forward ball once and it went straight out of play. We know he's going to be in the squad whatever comes for his 'leadership qualities' but he clearly isn't up to the level of the other players in this squad.

I don't mind as much if he doesn't get minutes, but it feels like he took minutes from Wharton/Scott to try and impress tonight. I'd rather Maguire came back in for Burn, I still think he has a lot to offer

 

Think l'd still go with the more controlled and defensively astute Hall and Livramento for our WC left backs. Nico O'Reilly was inverting too much for my liking. True, Serbia didn't offer an awful lot, but that long ball over the top seemed to catch both him and Reece James out at times.

 

Yeah I agree. I don’t want to sound like Roy Keane but why are we taking players that are good to have round the place? He’s clearly not going to be a starter.
I’d rather take a wild card and give them some minutes when we get into comfortable positions.

 

Yeah, it seemed a bit of a superfluous substitution. The worst thing about Henderson coming on was that it completely stifled Elliot Anderson, who'd had another impressive game up to that point. The centre of the pitch just suddenly looked crammed, with none of the swift, progressive passing we'd seen earlier.

 

Henderson is just a complete waste of a squad place and that is the only thing that irks me with tuchel’s selections. I think even rogers over Bellingham I got, as our excellent run of results have come from having rogers in the team, although I think if it was a tournament match you’d have to have Bellingham in there. If we didn’t take Henderson you could fit in Bellingham, Palmer, Foden, Rogers and Eze no worries and the CM spots would be covered by Rice, Anderson and Wharton and Bellingham could play there if we had an injury crisis. I’d rather take Scott or Gomes if we have to take another midfielder, at least they can pass the ball forwards unlike Henderson.

A 35 year old Henderson is just a complete waste of a squad place when we have so much talent in other areas and I really hope Tuchel realises the error of his ways as the World Cup gets closer. We don’t need a cheerleader in the squad.

 

If we want a midfielder who covers ground, wins duels and also offers control, Curtis Jones is by far and away the best option for that imo.

 

Sarina Wiegman uses the term as well.

 

I wonder if Tuchel will start Foden on Sunday instead of Kane?


A 19-year-old man has been arrested for verbally abusing Manchester United midfielder Mason Mount during the 2-2 draw with Tottenham last weekend - Daily Mail

 

The words 'fat' and 'chance' spring readily to mind.

 

It was Lee Dixon that started waffling about the pass, worth remembering that Dixon's dad played for City and he was brought up around the club. He has a massive City bias, Bellingham's part in the goal was a lot more impressive than Foden's as well.

 

On the flip side to that, I think the criticism of him from rival fanbases also goes way over the top.

The fact is that this constant discussion around our number 10s is moot because I honestly don’t think any of them are amongst our top 3 most important players.

Kane remains by far and away our best player, whilst I would argue Saka, Guehi and Rice are all more important than Bellingham, Foden and Palmer.

 

Agree with all of that. Pretty sure Foden's pass took a big bobble before Eze hit it too

Gabriel Clarke asked some really weird questions to Eze after the FA Cup final as well. Just hammered him with a barrage of negativity immediately after the best moment of his career. Called a VAR decision that went in Palace's favour "one of the worst calls in FA Cup final history".

Could be some sort of Man City bias with him too, but he does come across as a right prat quite a lot of the time imo.

 

He's been around for years. Time for him to be put out to pasture. Yet they get rid of Clive tilsley for Sam matterface

 

Yeah I mean I think we'll see potentially Wharton starting and O'Reilly playing again. Don't think you'll see any other changes though.

I think Tuchel will want to watch the press, he's fixated at getting that tidied up it seems.

 

I'd like to see Quansah come on at some point. Yes to captie him but also he's been in loads of squads but hasn't seen a minute

 

Alex Scott... he got sent home for the serbia team tho..

 

Marc Guehi returns to Palace, no replacement and we go to Albania with 24 man squad

 

He's taken a lot of flak in the last year and some of it has definitely been overboard. I do think that's a consequence of the way he's treated in the media rather than the other way around. I think he only really started to get a lot of stick from the masses after Euro 2024. I the media really put him in the firing line with their OTT brown nosing of him so he really took it in the neck when he didn't perform. It's unfortunate because it's not his fault at all, but the consequence is often that other players are disrespected, like last night.

 

The Evening Standard are predicting this line up.
England predicted XI (4-2-3-1): Pickford; Konsa, Burn, Stones, Spence; Wharton, Rice; Saka, Bellingham, Rashford; Kane

 

Daily Mail reporting Kane, Pickford, Bellingham. Rashford and Anderson are the five players in the England kit launch (Which is in March but the photos were taken this week.