England Senior National Team General Discussion Thread

Yeah I still have my doubts about Rogers as a truly elite attacking midfielder. He's obviously a really good player but I think he clearly lacks things that he'd need to be a top, top player.

 

I noticed this as well, the ground swell around seems to be because he's fairly unproven at the top level (and people like jumping on the bandwagon for that type of player).

Before I'd start him in the World Cup I'd like to see him do it more consistently against the very top teams in the league (basically only City and Arsenal) and the later stages of the Europa League.

 

This was last season I think when he bullied the arsenal midfield which contained rice so he can do it

 

He can, but I'd like to see more evidence of him doing so, the other players he's competing against have for years against even better teams, including in major finals and semi finals.

 

I don't think you need to be elite to be effective. Foden is considered elite but when he plays that attacking midfield role for England he hasn't been anywhere near as effective as rogers

 

I hope Jude doesn’t cause issues if he does start regularly on the bench. Unfortunately they are bad actors who will be hoping he does for one reason or another.

 

🚨 🚑 Dan Burn was taken to hospital in an ambulance with a rib injury suffered in the Wear-Tyne derby.
👨🏻‍⚕️ The defender was taken off, complaining to the bench that he couldn’t breathe properly, following a challenge by Sunderland’s Nordi Mukiele. #NUFC #SUNNEW pic.twitter.com/rWOPbLlZ9z

— Keith Downie (@SkySports_Keith) December 14, 2025

Manchester United manager Ruben Amorim will block 20-year-old England midfielder Kobbie Mainoo from leaving the club in January amid interest from Napoli. (Metro), external

Ruben Amorim has told Kobbie Mainoo to knock on his door and tell him if he wants to leave Manchester United next month - Daily Express

Chelsea and Bayern Munich are the frontrunners among a number of clubs trying to sign Mainoo.(Football Insider)

Pep Guardiola reserved a stern critique for Phil Foden's performance against Crystal Palace, despite the England international netting one of three goals which saw Manchester City claim another important win on the road - Daily Mail

 

He looks like Jesus too. That's a plus.

 

Aston Villa as a whole has the stats of a bottom end of a league team. Most of there goals have low XG. Its like they've broken the way football is usually played.

 

Over performing xG normally means one of two thing, 1) you have elite finishers, not sure that the case with Villa, there forwards don't really overperform xG historically (it was with Spurs with Son and Kane) or 2) at some point your forwards will revert to the mean (maybe that will be next season rather than this season)

 

The reason there XG is so low is there shoot from outside the box so much. Which goes against the stats based thinking of don't shoot from outside the box. I think people have forgotten the only stat that really matters is the score. I was watching a podcast where a guy basically said Villa heeded to turn there season around because there stats were so low. But in the real world they'd won 8 in 9.

 

What those stats tell you about Villa is that if they go on a bad run of results sometime soon then it won't really be a surprise.

 

They are low xG chances because its very difficult to score from those positions, and scoring regularly from unlikely positions its not very sustainable. I was at the Spurs game when they scored from 2 long range efforts (basically the only chances they had in the match), on another day they would have lost that game. They haven't broken any mold on how football is played.

 

Regarding the 10/Attacking midfielder debate, I would at this point much rather we took an extra one of Grealish or Eze as cover on the left for Rashford than take Gordon, who quite frankly I think is limited and not just in poor form.

 

Yes but what if they don't. It would be funny if they won or got close to winning the league playing the way they are at the minute. It would turn the stats based bullshit style of football on its head They're also a good team to watch because so many of there goals are screamers.

 

The issue with xG is that it fails to take player quality into account.

The positions Foden typically scores his goals from mean that statistically they are low xG chances. But I would fancy him or KDB from outside the box much more than a Championship player like Gyokeres from 10 yards out.

 

They've been told to shoot from distance because everyone was playing low blocks against them and they couldn't break teams down. So what will probably happen is that teams will stop playing low block against them and they can win games in a more normal way.

 

The whole point of xG is that it's a statistical average based on historical data. If a player consistently overperforms their xG across multiple seasons, it normally suggest they're an excellent finisher. Conversely, sustained underperformance suggests the opposite!

 

🎙️ Enzo Maresca. #CFC #Carabao_Cup

Team news...

On Cole Palmer...

'I've already said many times... he needs to be protected in this moment, and he is not available to play two games in three days.' https://t.co/6HZvjXvAfo

— Ben Dinnery (@BenDinnery) December 15, 2025

 

If they don't then they don't, statistical outliers exist.

As an example in 2017/18 Man Utd finished 2nd in the league. In that season De Gea conceded 12-14 goals less than expected, depending on the model used. It was one of the best goalkeeping performances in terms of shot-stopping in Premier League history. In that season he was a statistical outlier.

The next season De Gea regressed all the way back to the mean conceding 50 goals from approximately 50 expected and United finished 6th.

You could've looked at De Gea's data in that season and from other seasons to deduce that he was unlikely to perform to that level again in the next season and as such United's 2nd place finished was caveated. That doesn't mean it wasn't possible for him to repeat that performance, only that it wasn't probable.

Whatever Villa do this season won't change the fact that players are more likely to score the closer they get to goal. The only thing that might change the style of football back towards teams taking more long shots would be if players became more consistent in scoring them, like a proliferation of peak Messi level talents. That seems quite unlikely.

 

This is the video that got me interested in what was happening at Villa.

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/articles/ckgdvdewzpno
People forgot Mount was another Foden at one point - decent league player, never really good for England but popular with the media who are now going to write everytime he assists or scores about he can’t be be discounted from being called up (Ignoring the Daily Mail report that Tuchel doesn’t think he suits the team at all.)

 

You're literally on record saying you thought Mason Mount should retire, so I'm not really sure you're in a position to be critical of a couple of media outlets' speculation about whether he has an outside chance of a World Cup place!

 

I was a bit hasty there.