England Senior Team General Discussion Thread

Yeah. WC qualifiers in Europe is brutal. Only 13 teams qualify. Even though Europe has dominted the WC since 2006. Compare that to 24 teams in the Euros. Still England should make it, just need draws againts Hungary and Poland away. And win all home matches, and all mathes against the lesser nations.

 

This doesn’t sound like ideal preparations for the World Cup! We’re off to a great start, lol

England wont play for two months before the 2022 World Cup | @MattHughesDM https://t.co/aLgAcYlX9N

— Mail Sport (@MailSport) July 14, 2021

 

well the PL will be playing so the players will be sharp at least

 

Is it top 2 or first then second place in play offs

 

If we can pick up 4 points from the Poland Hungary games we should be there

 

Hopefully Gareth learns from his debacle against Italy and plays a more aggressive 4-3-3. We don't need Rice plus Henderson/Phillips at the same while Mount/Bellingham and Foden should be in midfield. Also really hope Winks and Skipp can kick on and get into squad contention.

 

Has Hudson oddoi switched nations or is that bs?

 

A reliable journalist with links to his camp has denied it. He has flirted with the idea this summer in interviews. Realistically you'd imagine he'll hold on for England for another season but if he doesn't get in the squad then he'll opt for Ghana if they're offering a place in their World Cup squad.

 

I think ultimately he will end up switching to Ghana unless he has a real upturn in form and first team opportunities as not really sure how he is going to get in ahead of young and talented options in his position already. At least he has another U21 cycle to go at but whether that’s enough to keep him entertained with England I’m not so sure if Ghana offer him a World Cup spot.

 

My guess is there's been some sounding out from Ghana, and a journalist has cottoned on and jumped to a conclusion.
As said above, I unfortunately don't see him becoming a regular for England unless he really steps up, so he's likely hedging his bets at the moment.

 

Hudson Odoi certainly has the ability to be a regular for England and Chelsea IMO, has had injuries that hasn’t helped him, for me he is equally as talented as Foden and Sancho.if he isn’t in Tuchels plans than he needs to get out on loan or ask to be transferred.

 

Grealish really needs to get this move to City over the line. It feels like a make or break moment for his career.

 

Also it looks like Villa have been preparing his departure, with signing Buendia and also want another creative midfielder in Smith-Rowe.

 

In terms of second half management vs Italy;

1) Switch to 4-3-3.

2) Grealish -> Mount and Sancho -> Trippier

Are we in agreement on this? If not would like to hear your suggestions. Also wonder which managers would have made these changes?

 

Even though I've pretty much almost always backed Southgate I don't want us ever to contain for penalties in that situation again. I'd much rather see us throw everything at it for the last 20 minutes and lose by two goals than have to go through what we did on Sunday. It's much fairer on the players because penalties can be really awful.

 

Agreed, although Grealish and Sancho for Mount and Trippier wasn’t me suggesting that we should have thrown everything at it. Just that it would help us defensively too by getting us up the pitch and ask questions of their defence.

 

Certainly I think a system change should have happened around the hour mark, once it became clear that we weren't able to regain the initiative. Whether that was 4-3-3 or 4-2-3-1 (either one requiring a wide forward on for Trippier or Walker), I would have left Mount on for at least another 10 minutes to reassess.

 

Sounds about right to me. You’d like to think that most managers would have done something similar but maybe that’s wishful thinking.

 

Who do you see breaking into Southgate's plans before the next world cup? Smith-rowe? Greenwood?

 

I don't think that is wishful thinking. I honestly think most managers would have made the changes suggested not long into the second half. Towards the end of the first half they had already gained control. So for them to just pick up where they left off wasn't a great sign. We just wasn't competing and couldn't counter effectively.

 

I agree with that. I didn't fancy penalties at all. Nothing at all to do with our history. We had a young squad. The Italian penalty takers had taken 117 penalties for club and country between them. We had 67 and 50 of those belong to Kane. Two of ours had never taken a pen before. 3 of their players had more than 30 pens. Plus they had a giant in the net. Playing for pens was daft.