England Senior Team General Discussion Thread

You know what Rover is like, he just can’t help himself

 

Mmmmm

De Bruyne is often unplayable , Lakuku has transformed himself into a goal machine with good all round build up play.. good keeper .. some great CBS plus an array of talented players .

I’d say they have the edge over us .. especially given Kane is blinkin fragile

 

We've got some fantastic attacking talent, both young and established, but we really lack depth in some key positions - centre back and centre midfield. Keeper is also a bit of a concern.
There's no reason with the players we have that we couldn't win a tournament, but we're not a top tier team at the moment. Everything would need to go right for us.
I don't think anyone would be confident in facing us though. We have the players to beat anyone on the day, but we lack the depth at the moment to be among the clear favourites.

 

They don't have any great centrebacks. I said lukaku and de bruyne were world class.

 

Yeah, Walker has been immense recently. As good as I've seen him. Looked like he was strongly leaning towards him anyway, but barring something odd, he appears nailed-on now.

Looking like:

Pickford
Walker Maguire Stones Shaw
Henderson/Phillips Rice Mount
Foden Kane Sterling

...although possibly Sterling is the most under threat

 

Bellingham over Henderson and rashford over sterling but yeah that's pretty much what I would pick

 

I'm just expecting an unforseen injury from somewhere. Possibly foden or mount. You just know it will happen. With Grealish saying he expects to be back in 10 days. Kane fit again. Sancho back. Rashford fit. Its all going too smoothly. Its the English disease that we will have a devastating injury picked up weeks before the euros

 

I think they have better CBs than us tbh

I love John Stones as a player but he just can’t be trusted imho

I honestly thought he’d grown up this season but the errors returned in that England game and in following games ... sure he’s had two real good games lately but ....

 

Deffo. ... if he’s fit Grealish has to start on the left now with Sterling as the impact sub ..

 

People forget how good Sancho is because we don't have the constant reminders that we do for Foden and Grealish. Once he's playing in the Premier League, the pressure on Southgate to start him will go through the roof.

 

Just for what it's worth, I'm 99% sure that Tito was not Greengrass. Not convinced by this new guy though, I have to say. There's that same orthographic idiosyncrasy again.

 

I think foden is exceptional but I don't think he will quite reach gazza level.

 

and what evidence do you have to support this?

 

I actually think Sancho has the better vision and is more clinical with his passing in critical moments. The main thing Foden has over him is his athleticism and his drive to be the best. I think for all his flair Sancho does not assert himself the way he should do at Dortmund. He needs to stop idolising people like Neymar and become obsessed with numbers and marginal gains like Ronaldo.

 

If he reaches 80% of Gazza's level and does it for a decade, then he will be a far better player.

 

Not a better player ... maybe have a more successful career .

That said Gazza’s career was cut shorter with that dreadful injury

 

A better peak, but it's no good if you only have a couple of years at that level. The best players do it for a decade or more.

 

Not if they get injured ..

 

Plenty of players recover from the same ACL injury that Gazza had. It wasn't the injury that hurt his career, it was that he lacked the mental strength to focus on his recovery.
He was often out getting drunk in Newcastle, and even picked up another injury in a fight while doing so.

 

3 of our back 4 are playing in a champions league final. Walker stones chilwell. Not bad

 

He's going to have a better career.

 

You could argue Fodens already had a more successful club career than Gazza already.

 

Think Southgate said he wants to give all the players a week off after their club season so the Manchester United players might not be available either. Ian Dennis just suggested on the radio it'll be about half the squad!

It's a good sign overall though, if you look at teams that do well at International tournaments they're usually filled with players at the strongest clubs competing for the biggest trophies.

 

Hopefully Bellingham gets a chance in one of the friendlies then and takes his chance. Conversely it could work against someone like Greenwood if he's in the preliminary squad