9 of the 11 that started against Wales are dual nationals, (Pickford and Stones might be for all I know aswell). Two of them have actually played for other countries! I just don't think its true that they don't make them feel wanted, 80% of our player pool are likely a dual national, they are literally all treated the same. Nketiah hasn't done enough to warrant a call up since his Palace move, why would he be called up when he's not performing anywhere near the required level? Hudson-Odoi, has been close to a recall, but equally duals such as Gordon, Madueke, Eze and Grealish have all established themselves since his appearances in 2019.
Hudon Odoi could've been cynically cap-tied but calling Nketiah up when he just doesn't really play much football would've been hard to justify.
Yeah it’s hard to justify but you could probably argue due to lack of current striker options it could be a possibility? I mean the list isn’t very deep, after Kane and Watkins we have an injured Delap, then it’s probably Toney or Abraham who seem to be down the list. I mean other than playing false 9’s, our options are pretty limited currently.
Taylor Hinds has been called up the Lionesses despite last year playing a friendly for Jamaica after a prosecution England youth career. Talk is problems getting her Jamaican passport meant she was not cap tied by them and after her move back to Arsenal she has been called up.
Tbh, I wouldn’t even give our FA any credit for securing them players. When 90 percent of your player pool is dual national, eventually you’re going to have duals playing for you that didn’t take any convincing at all. I’m talking more about the players who would have been more open to playing for other countries. Maybe nketiah is a really bad example but we can’t be turning our noses up at players just because they’re not scoring hattricks every week. Our player pool is getting smaller by the week and we need fringe players who can come in if we’re blighted by injuries. I mean, why don’t we call up replacements when we have 2 or 3 drop out? That would be a perfect time to bring in some new faces and show them that they are in the managers thoughts. France did it last week. If I’m a dual and I can’t even get called up after a few players drop out, I’m going to feel pretty peeved tbh.
Nketiah is 26 and has never scored more than 5 goals in a league season, he's very lucky to have a single cap, yet alone the expectation he should have had more. Contrast that to Mateta who France have only just capped after scoring 14 and 16 goals in the last two seasons. The player pool being deeper for the sake of it doesn't really matter. Its about retaining high end quality. Of course you can never entirely know who's going to make it, but anyone who's not england standard by 25 is unlikely going to be a player we miss.
So if if you give no credit for the actual duals in the team (some of whom definitely would have chosen another nation eventually), why discredit the FA for ones on the fringes who aren't be capped.
Didn’t they even make the rules even looser AFTER we had already capped CHO a few times? Add in a few career altering injuries and we end up potentially losing him.
I think Hudson-Odoi could've been called up at some point over the last year or so, but his case probably isn't really much stronger than those of Harvey Barnes and Jacob Murphy, for example (both of whom are also dual nationals who we could yet "lose", incidentally). I agree it would be sad to lose someone like him though as his best years could very well be ahead of him.
I'd very much like to keep both Hudson-Odoi and Nketiah in the system. Unlike players like Barnes and Murphy, CHO has qualities that will scale up very well to better/higher-level teams imo, while our striker pool is just still too slim to ever write someone like Nketiah off. No PL-level striker is ever that far away from a senior England call-up in reality. All it takes is a good run of form to be in the conversation and the position will become even more open as Harry Kane ages.
You can’t find a way to cap Nketiah though. Even now in a scenario when we need a starting CF for a key game. Are you picking him over other options that are playing? It would make zero sense. He might even start for Ghana. They don’t seem to have any decent CF’s. It amazes me that these big African nations lack quality in attacking areas.
Because the FA and the England manager should be more proactive in these matters. It’s all well and good having favourites but what if they get injured? And what if the back up players get injured too? We’re only 2 or 3 injuries away from having no strikers to choose from. Take Kane, Watkins and rashford out, who do we have left?
I think nketiah is a bad example to be honest, I admitted in a previous post that I was using him as an example to highlight the dual issue. Question is though, would you be happy to lose these players, let them leave with your blessing if it meant the premier league English opportunities became much more limited as a result? I’m just curious, im not trying to start an argument with anyone. I’m just keen to know what other people’s thoughts are.
It is never about what I want or what I am happy about. It is about dealing with the reality of the circumstances created by the rules. The players have free will to do what they desire. I don’t think the rules are fair personally. Options have numerous opportunities to declare for a nation and then switch again. But my opinion is irrelevant.
I would say I’m concerned about it long term if the trends continues as can only see it hampering our player pool eventually but short term probably not. It’s player pathways which is the real issue though imo, we need more kids being given a pathway. If we had that then the Duals would take care of itself as we would have more English players coming through.
Yeah didn’t think of them tbf. All roughly around the same quality as nketiah too. Just goes to show after Kane and Watkins our striker options are all pretty average.
I think Solanke, Abraham, Nketiah and Watkins are all at a comparable level tbh. A lot of their differences are more down to environment, circumstance and injury luck than quality imo.
Same with most big countries in most positions after their best player. England just happen to be totally stacked in the attacking midfield positions currently. I can only think of France that has a similar amount of depth overall in attacking positions currently.
Yeah that’s true. I’m of the older generation where there were about 10 world class English strikers, I still expect it to be the same today but football has changed. Finding a good striker is almost as hard as finding a good keeper these days