England Senior National Team General Discussion Thread

🚨 Newcastle (and England) injury news

❌ Tino Livramento (below) a “huge blow” says Eddie Howe after being forced off with thigh injury

❓ Anthony Gordon (hip) missed two days of training this week & is a doubt for next weekend

⤵️ Lewis Hall substitution at HT was tactical pic.twitter.com/p6XEVRmduw

— Craig Hope (@CraigHope_DM) April 18, 2026

 

So I didn't watch the game. Just following it on BBC website. This was the comment on Hall's first half.

It was no surprise to see Lewis Hall substituted at half-time, as he struggled to deal with the threat of Bournemouth attacker Rayan during a difficult opening 45 minutes.

Bournemouth were lighting-quick in transition and Hall - and several other plays - was unable to stop them.

 

ughhh

 

I watched the game live and didn’t see that to be honest. Ok the goal he got the better of him to get the cross in but other than that I wouldn’t say it was a constant problem.

 

I think we should right off this world cup. Too many injuries, too many players out of form. I wouldn't be upset if we went out in the group stage. Save all those early morning get-ups

 

The latest knockout we could play is 1am I think. I don’t think that is an early morning rise.

 

Ok late nights then

 

And if we don’t get out of the group the aftermath won’t be pretty.

Odds on Tuchel and Carrick job swapping? Man United want Tuchel while the FA might feel an Englishman would be needed in such a disastrous situation.

My guess is we will will R16 or QF’s. Before one of those potentially challenging matches trips us up.

 

Not trying to be personal but are you bipolar? You go from one extreme to the other. I’m not necessarily saying we are going to win of course but to throw the towel in already is very extreme and unlike you, anything can still happen and I’m the most pessimistic of fans.

 

Hard to make any excuses for Palmer now. He's clearly fit (and he's said so himself) but he doesn't even look like affecting a game. He just looks utterly impotent going forward.

 

I'm broadly pessimistic as well. To be fair, I always am; I have thought for a couple of years that we're "due" a calamitous tournament at some point to redress what has been an unusually successful period. Outside of Kane, Rice and Pickford, none of our big hitters are really having strong seasons. Saka being out-of-sorts in particular is a concern because we have leaned on him heavily in the last couple of tournaments.

I guess the thing to keep in mind would be that two years ago pretty much all of our attackers *were* in tremendous form - Kane, Bellingham, Saka, Palmer, Foden, even Watkins as a backup striker - and yet nothing really clicked and there were no standout attacking performers across the piece (albeit I suppose we made the final - and competed in it - in part because the likes of Bellingham, Saka and Palmer were able to come up with "moments").

The confounding factor is obviously Tuchel and I think it's fair to say none of us are really sure what to expect in this regard. He could make the difference in the kind of games that we struggled in under Southgate; equally, he may not maintain the standards Southgate set in the other games (at least results-wise). I tend to think the latter is a more likely scenario, but again, I'm a pessimist by nature in football.

 

It's mental the drop off of Palmer and Foden. Ifs a good job we have Bellingham and Rogers.

 

I'm no more or less pessimistic than normal. Our midfield option looks as solid as I've ever seen it. If we win the group(big if) apart maybe playing Mexico in Mexico the draw opens up for us to the semi finals.

 

Crikey mate, what's happened to the usual ridiculously over-optimistic Rover? You're metamorphosing into Fireburn with every energy sapping, doom-ridden post.

For what it's worth, l can't remember a single tournament that England have entered, without having injury doubts or burnout issues surrounding key players. It was Kane, Stones and Shaw at the last Euros - and we made the final! We'll do just fine.

 

This is pretty much entirely how I feel. I was confident earlier in the season but if both Saka and Palmer end up being a shell of themselves, it'll probably prove to be too big of a hit to the team's firepower going forward. Neither player is certain to be that, but it's not looking good.

I'm usually not overly concerned about club form because to a certain point, the connection between club and international form is nowhere as clear as many make out (as you highlighted). I think the situation with Palmer is rough though because he literally looks a shell of himself and he's been off it for about 18 months which is incredibly long and probably hard to recover from in a short period. Most of my concerns for this summer are related to player fitness and Tuchel's selections though.

I think there are plenty of reasons to be positive too, but like yourself I'm a natural pessimist.

 

Good to see Heaven have a good game today.

 

The issue I have that plays with my mind is similar to what others have highlighted, club form doesn’t always replicate at International level. Despite most Newcastle fans seemingly are quite happy to see Gordan sold for the right price but he has been pretty effective for England. Anything can happen in International football, some players could quite quickly get there form back, I wouldn’t be quite as doom and gloom about everything just yet.

 

Tbought Mainoo was good also, very tidy in possession.

 

I've just seen this whole situation before

 

I just have a feeling it's going to be a disaster

 

Why is our record at international level so poor compared to other big countries? France Germany Spain Brazil Argentina Italy. We're a big football nation and its not as if we haven't had great players. Weve won one world cup and made two euros finals. That's pretty pitiful.

 

I agree in general but to me Gordon is if anything better for Newcastle than for England. For England he's usually busy but almost never looks like actually scoring or creating anything.