England Senior National Team General Discussion Thread

Manchester City are targeting Crystal Palace’s 25-year-old England defender Marc Guehi as the man to lead an overhaul of their defence next season. (Times - subscription required)

Manchester United will try to sign Atletico Madrid's England midfielder Conor Gallagher, 25, in the January transfer window. (Teamtalk)

Napoli and 10 clubs in the Premier League are interested in signing 20-year-old England midfielder Kobbie Mainoo but senior figures at Manchester United are uneasy about him leaving. (Telegraph - subscription required)

Manchester United intend to reject any bids to buy Kobbie Mainoo in January because the hierarchy believe the midfielder could have a bright future at the club - Guardian.

Manchester City have no desire to sell 23-year-old English goalkeeper James Trafford in January amid interest from Wolves. (Football Insider)

England have been allocated fewer tickets by Fifa for their World Cup opener than the tournament's tiniest nation Curacao - which has a smaller population than Milton Keynes - The Sun.

Manchester United are monitoring Bournemouth midfielder Alex Scott, who played in the 4-4 draw on Monday Night Football - The Sun.

 

It's pretty essential that these two are fit imo. I know Gordon isn't in the best form (although I think his poor form is a little bit overblown personally) but I think he's extremely crucial to the way we play. If he's fit, he's going to go and he's going to play a lot, regardless of whether or not he's scoring for Newcastle. You just can't get the right balance to the frontline with someone like Grealish (or even Eze) flanking Kane.

 

I'd love to try madueke on the left

 

Pep has confirmed Man City won’t be allowing James Trafford to leave in January.
Means that if Pope or Ramsdale are doing ok they will probably take the 3rd spot at the World Cup.

 

The way City have treated Trafford is a disgrace.

 

I get the sense that they want to string Mainoo along until Bruno leaves which could be in the summer or the following year. Even when he does leave of course with the Untd budget and expectations Mainoo will be on a short leash to hold down the number 8 spot.

It's really a shame because Amorins system is the sole reason why he does not play and at Bruno's age and not being committed long term plus fairly mediocre results even after the turnaround the club could be left with no Bruno no Amorin and Kobee starting from scratch under immense pressure in a years time or so.

Good situation for Bruno good for Ruben bad for Man U and Mainoo. And obviously England though there are more than enough midfielders doing well this year anyway.

 

the nuance is that Mainoo can flex into that deeper holding role, whereas Bruno shines when playing more up the pitch in that 10 spot.

while both are free-roaming 8s and Amorim sees them as competition, there's a world where they can play alongside each other. the question is if that works in Amorim's system. i don't profess to know enough about the fluidity or rigidity of that setup to know if that's possible.

 

#TheBest FIFA Men's 11 in 2025. ✨

— FIFA World Cup (@FIFAWorldCup) December 16, 2025

 

No Haaland, Mbappe or Kane and Yamal at CF,

Edit and Salah missing as well.

 

Quite interesting having Bellingham and Palmed there when one is in a battle to start at the World Cup and one is in a battle to even make the squad.

 

Have they watched Van Dijk this season?

 

It's not interesting really, it's something you post on here every few days.

 

The selection criteria covered August 2024 to August 2025.

 

Declan Rice’s goal for Arsenal agaisnt Real Madrid finished second in the Puskas award.

 

Yes perhaps but not in a 3421. A two man midfield of Mainoo and Bruno does not work. You need someone more B2B or with holding qualities next to Bruno who is really an 8 and 1/2 that wants to be a 10.

Now the bigger problem is that his system is easily overloaded in the Prem and it's foolish to play with a two man midfield against the set ups he faces. So Mainoo should absolutely be used in a midfield 3 of some kind be it a 433/4231 or 352.

But that won't change and this is where the management is left holding the bag as Amorin and Bruno will likely be gone. It's poor planning but they are in it now and have to just ride it out.

 

Two #ThreeLions have been named in The Best @FIFAcom Men's 11 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿

Congratulations to Cole Palmer and @BellinghamJude! 🤝 pic.twitter.com/t0Ul5svbeG

— England (@England) December 16, 2025

 

not that Palmer isn't top class but feels like FIFA is heavily trying to favour their CLUB WORLD CUP which fair enough but that's why they made those omissions and chose that 442 shape to make it work.


----------Mbappe-----Haaland-------Dembele
-------------------Pedri---------Jude
-------------------------Vitinha
Mendes-------Pacho-----Gabriel-----Hakimi
--------------------------Gigio


that's the best 11 in 2025 if they insist on keeping it calendar year and not for the season.
I have no problem picking Palmer instead of Jude though because there is not a lot between them and perhaps if we are looking at Jan to Jan Palmer has been better.

 

You could go Palmer Jude Vitinha as a 3 but I think Pedri deserves it and Im a stickler for having a player rated via their position and not clumped together. I.E Yamal in a front two as a forward no that is silly.

------------------Palmer--------Jude
-------------------------Vitinha

 

Four English starters for Cardiff (Trott Ng, Chambers and Wintle) + 2 on the bench (Fish and Willock)
Four English starters for Chelsea (Acheampong, Tosin, George and Gittens) + 2 on the bench (Chalobah and James).

 

I don’t think Palmer should’ve been in, but equally it’s not hard to see why he is. FIFA obviously desperately want someone that did well in the CWC so not sure why people can’t grasp that and are surprised, even if it’s unfair.

I really don’t see any justification for Bellingham over J Neves, Rice or even McTominay if we are going off last season’s performances.

I will say mind that I think the uproar over Raphinha’s exclusion is over the top. I really enjoy watching Barca and think Pedri and Yamal are two of the very best in the world, but I do think Barca fans massively overrate a lot of their players and their general level as a team.

They were great domestically last season but their competition was nonexistent with the two Madrid sides being extremely weak. They played nobody of any note to get to the semis in the CL and were then sent packing by an Inter side who were destroyed in the final by PSG. They’ve failed every big hurdle they’ve had this season losing to a second string PSG, and then in the Clasico and then got battered by Chelsea.

 

So at the very least Salah should be in it.

 

There was so much hype about PSG before the CWC, even though they lost five games in the CL (surely a negative record for a winner) that when Palmer pretty much single-handedly demolished them in the CWC final it caught the eye for many.

 

Disagree on McTominay.. Serie A is not strong at the moment. I don't doubt Bellingham would have much superior numbers to McTominay if he was playing there. Jamie Vardy's gone over and just won Player of the Month. He's 39 in a few weeks.

 

Harry Kane agreed with you.

🚨 𝗡𝗘𝗪: Harry Kane’s votes in the Best FIFA Awards.

• Best player:
1 — Dembélé
2 — Vitinha
3 — Salah

• Best goalkeeper:
1 — Donnarumma
2 — Neuer
3 — Raya

• Best coach:
1 — Luis Enrique
2 — Flick
3 — Slot pic.twitter.com/FWsf7fQfoi

— The Touchline | 𝐓 (@TouchlineX) December 16, 2025

Tuchel meanwhile voted
1. Kane
2. Palmer
3. Dembele


Kane won the vote of North Korean and Latvian manager along with several others. Most notable player to vote for him was his Bayern teamafe Alphonso Davies.

Jordan Ayew chose Cole Palmer.

The English journalist was John Cross and he went Dembele, Yamal, Vitinha.

 

For the FIFA 11
Palmer got 11 points from fans and 9 points from the panel
Bellingham got 8 points from fans and 6 from the panel.
Rice got 0 points from fans but got 4 from the panel.
Kane got 9 points from fans but 0 from the panel.