England Senior National Team General Discussion Thread

The Atheltic’s weekly article about the team is this week suggesting Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall is making himself harder and harder for Tuchel to ignore.

 

As an Everton fan he's been even better than Grealish. But he's going to have to keep this up all season to just get in the squad.

 

Kane hits the woodwork

 

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One of the questions put to Mason Mount in the immediate aftermath of his man-of-the-match display at Wolves was whether he can force his way into Thomas Tuchel’s England World Cup squad. Mount answered as you would expect, promising to keep working game by game and see what happens.

It should be pointed out that Tuchel was understood to have been very warm to both Mount and Luke Shaw during a long chat in the tunnel after the recent defeat by Everton, even if United’s media team didn’t make as much of a fuss of it as Everton did for James Garner and Jack Grealish.

Nonetheless, Confidential understands from conversations around the England camp and also at United that there is a feeling it is highly unlikely Tuchel will look in Mount’s direction between now and the tournament starting next summer, no matter how impressive his form.

Tuchel and Mount worked together at Chelsea and were successful in that partnership. But the German is said to have reservations about how much Mount could actually impact an England group that plays a totally different style to United's under Amorim.

There’s always one or two who make a late burst to get a seat on the plane… but Mount has serious work to do to banish concerns.

Wonder if he is the player Tuchel won’t call up then because he will demand to play? Rather than Maguire who I still think it’s most likely is.

Mount’s PR team was very good at one point and easily able to make him into a player all the media criticise Tuchel for leaving out if he has only decent form.

 

I highly doubt that Mount is the kind of player that demands to play every game, nor Maguire. I’d be surprised if it was Shaw either.

 

The only other one it could be if it’s true is Walker then.

 

All of these journalists who claim that Tuchel is fond of X player and is considering calling them up etc etc, would be so much more easily discredited if they actually named the player they think is going to drop out in favour of said player.

I'd probably call Mount up tbh but you'll have to drop one of Rogers, Foden or Eze to fit him in. And who exactly does the Athletic journalist think is going to drop out to accommodate Dewsbury-Hall?

 

Mount is a tough one. He doesn't have the technical ability of a rogers or foden or Bellingham but he presses well.

 

For a journalist with a ton if Man United connected to say it’s highly unlikely makes me think Tuchel has pretty much said that to Mount. Tuchel is blunt and I could easily imagine him telling players directly you not really on my radar due to this and that reason.

The Athletic article doesn’t say. It’s worthy to note the England weekly articles are by Rob Tanner who is also their Leicester City correspondent. So he might be a bit biased towards a player who came through their academy. Below is the full article.

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Even before the disappointment of England’s Euro 2024 final defeat by Spain had dissipated, thoughts had turned to next summer’s World Cup in the hope that England could go one better.

Part of the reason for such hope has been the emergence of genuine young talent that could finally propel England to a second-ever major trophy and first on foreign soil.


At the heart of that talented blossoming group was Jude Bellingham, a player with so much potential that Real Madrid, Europe’s most decorated club, had spent €103million (£86m) to sign the then 19-year-old in June 2023. He had already enhanced his growing reputation by winning the European Golden Boy and the worldwide Kopa Trophy, the awards for the most promising young player.

In his first season, he was top scorer as Real Madrid won La Liga and the Champions League, and the personal accolades kept rolling in. He was La Liga player of the year and included in the FIFPRO Men’s World 11 for three consecutive years in 2023, 2024 and 2025. Having finished third in the Ballon d’Or and the FIFA The Best awards in 2024, it was inconceivable that England wouldn’t kick off their campaign in Texas against Croatia without Bellingham starting in midfield.

A shoulder injury has hampered Bellingham this season and was the main reason why he was left out of Thomas Tuchel’s squad in October, but now he faces serious competition to start in the No 10 role behind Harry Kane next summer.

Chelsea’s Cole Palmer is an excellent option to play in that central role himself, although he has also played effectively in wide positions for club and country, while Phil Foden has proven pedigree too. But it is the emergence and development of Aston Villa’s Morgan Rogers that will have impressed Tuchel and presented the England boss with another strong candidate to rival Bellingham.

Since failing to win their first five Premier League games – with Rogers being criticised by Villa fans for his poor performances – Villa have developed into genuine title contenders. Rogers has emerged as a strong option to start for England when they face Croatia at AT&T Stadium on June 17.

Croatia are a side with proven tournament pedigree. They knocked England out of the 2018 World Cup in the semi-finals and lost the final against France and finished third in Qatar four years later. But many of those Croatian players are still important figures in an ageing squad.

In the mid-afternoon heat of a Texan summer, running power and athleticism could be a defining factor, and Rogers is a supreme athlete. Like Bellingham, he can drive at defences with the ball and commit defenders.

His ability to find pockets of space against Arsenal on Saturday was a key factor as Villa consistently hurt the Premier League leaders.

He may have had a slightly different brief, to come in off the left of midfield, but he frequently found himself in central areas and caused Arsenal’s defence problems.

The fluidity of Villa’s attacking line and how they interchanged positions to drag Arsenal’s defenders out of their shape should be food for thought for Tuchel too.

Rogers played off the left and then the right later in the game, but when he popped up in central areas, he interchanged with his team-mates, throwing Arsenal’s man-marking defence into turmoil.

Tuchel is spoilt for choice in attacking midfield positions, with so many of his options possessing the ability to play multiple roles behind Kane.

If Rogers continues his impressive form for the rest of the season, he could be near the top of that list of options, and with his versatility, he could be playing alongside and interchanging with Bellingham instead of two talents vying for just one position and one role.

Much of Tuchel’s squad for next summer seems to be already set in stone. But there is often one player who comes from nowhere to make a late claim for a place on the plane.

James Maddison was a surprise inclusion in 2022 and Crystal Palace midfielder Adam Wharton came up on the rails to grab a spot for Euro 2024.

A midfielder whose current form cannot be ignored is Everton’s Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall.

The 27-year-old has been a late developer. He is uncapped, hasn’t been involved in the England pathway development process and didn’t make his Leicester City senior debut until 2020, but after two loan spells at Blackpool and Luton Town, he made such a big impact at his boyhood club he was snapped up by Chelsea for £30m two seasons ago.

He didn’t get many opportunities at Chelsea but since joining Everton, he has become a match-winner.

Dewsbury-Hall’s shot was turned into his own net by Nottingham Forest defender Nikola Milenkovic for the first goal in Saturday’s 3-0 win and he smashed home the third.

Naturally left-footed midfielders are not in abundance and Dewsbury-Hall has formed a good understanding with Jack Grealish on Everton’s left side.

His four goals and two assists in the Premier League this season make him the highest goal-and-assist contributor for Everton. Only Phil Foden and Eberechi Eze, of the England midfield candidates, have contributed more this season.

That is a statistic that has to make Tuchel take notice.

 

Watching Bayern Munich vs Sporting and its lovely to see the Bayern players pay tribute to there former teammate Leroy Sane by not ********ing passing the ball to Kane.

 

Why the ref didn't pause the game while all that smoke was on the pitch I'll never know

 

2 English starters for Liverpool (Jones and Gomez) + 3 on the bench.

4 English starters for Chelsea (Chalobah, Acheampong, James and Gittens) plus 3 on the bench.

2 English starters for Spurs (Spence and Gray) + 4 on the bench.

Rashford is on Barcelona’s bench. Gomes and Egen-Riley are on Marseille’s bench. Gallagher is on Atletico’s bench.

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Acheampong looks like a real talent for Chelsea

 

Assist James

 

Let’s hope Ghana don’t tempt him with a World Cup place.

 

Can't see it

 

James now that he's been injury free for a while is turning into serious player.

 

I don’t think there’s any indication of him wanting to switch so I think you can relax. We all know he’s eligible but has there been any mumbling from his end about this? I don’t think there has right?

 

Assist for Rashford.

 

Chelsea just can't defend. Sanchez should have done better

 

Like others have highlighted above. There is nothing that Mount offers over Bellingham, Foden or Rogers.

People forget he started alot for England, under Southgate before Bellingham effectively displaced him from the team. And although Foden gets a lot flak for his England performences, I dont remember a single standout performance from Mount in an England shirt.

He's almost a slower, inferior version of Rogers. I would even rather start Kobbie Mainoo as a no10 over Mount, even in spite of the fact that (fraud) Ruben Amorim doesn't fancy Mainoo

 

This. Mount is a great presser, very energetic. I wouldn't be adverse to him being a no.8.option if he was performing at this level for a sustained period, but for now it's too soon.

He never had a great game for England, though that's not saying too much as he was usually on the left and sterling on the right of Kane, with Rice, Phillips behind him, hardly a creative side.

 

It's definitely true and worth noting about Mount that he never played all that well for England but I think there are reasons for that.

He was always quite far up the pitch (and often out wide) and we didn't progress the ball through the middle of the pitch well under Southgate. Most of the midfielders who shone during the Southgate era were defensive midfielders, mostly for their work off the ball. Similar issue with Foden in that there wasn't a natural place for him in that wide 3-4-3 we used to play.

I think an Anderson/Bellingham/Mount midfield three would be very interesting to see. Anderson as the 6 plus those two as 8s.

 

In theory, having a midfield three of a number 6 sitting and then Mount/Bellingham ahead should work well. Because they should be able to rotate between doing the work of an no8 and a no10, along with sharing the high intensity/pressing when we don't have the ball.

But in practise, it just doesnt seem to click. Watch the England vs USA game in Qatar. It was basically Rice, Bellingham and Mount. With Sterling and Saka on the wings, and that was undoubtedly, England's worst performance in Qatar. The midfield was all over the place and Mount got dominated by bloody Yunus Musah. So after that game, Southgate dropped Mount for Henderson and pushed Bellingham in to the AM. And it worked so much better with the Rice/Hendo double pivot.

Edit: I remember that game and watching Bellingham/Mount giving me flashbacks to Gerrard/Lampard playing together for England

 

Some players it's time to move on from. Sterling Philips mount etc. We have better options in those areas now. I just wish we could ditch Henderson too