Then play Foden 10. 8 or 10, that doesn’t really matter. As long as we play our most gifted player with the best long range pass of the squad in the center. As for foden playing 8 for England it was Albania I think
I think youth development is hard in England, because that vital stage of development from 18-21 is when it is so difficult to break into a PL side and then we are on back foot. For the French in Ligue Un, the players break through, do well, get dispersed around Europe and then there is room for next one to come through. Put these same youngsters in English Big 6 sides at 18 and they stall. How we solve that, who knows - but it's not B teams, or realistically loans into the Championship
The answer is quotas. There are quotas in every other sport for a certain amount of Englishman in each side, it doesn’t get queried or questioned… why not here?
We were talking about the issue of the run of the ball being a factor in deciding the outcome of the game and I remembered that when watching the argies 2nd goal against Croatia. I mean, obviously we were subject to some very questionable ref's decisions and, also, Kane missing a PK was huge. But, as well as all that, we didn't really get a lot of luck in the game either with a speculative shot from 25-30 yards out through a ruck of players flying straight in the bottom corner and our shots and headers, a proportion of which typically go towards the edge of the goal because they're hard to get on target, (like Bellingham's and Kane's), going straight at the keeper. That's why I'm not too down on the team or manager for this game because, honestly, we didn't get much luck Of course, the main area of 'luck' was the choice of an incompetent and biased ref but that's another matter.
I think it's actually noticeable that a few of the best guys DID go abroad like Bellingham. It's also noticeable that Sancho went abroad to develop and his performances seemed to have suffered a bit since he came back from what I've seen. Not sure what the story is there though.
As big as Man U are, they aren't an elite footballing environment with elite coaching etc, hopefully that changes for the English players there under ETH. Bellingham was playing regularly here at least, but if he was at Man City opposed to Birmingham City would that have been the case? Of course not. Getting first team football in good environments is key, as that is part of your development, not the end point of it - and foreign leagues make it easier to play in European competition
Bellingham is definitely an interesting case. If he had come through at a "big" club's academy, it's hard to see him getting the same opportunities that he got at Birmingham. That said, he's an exceptional case for a 16 year old - very few would be ready for a full Championship season - physically or mentally. The question is whether 18-19 year old prospects get the appropriate first team exposure from the best academies. There was lots of discussions around Foden's development, but again we're talking elite talent with him.
Quotas won't help as intended like the homegrown rule. Designed to help players get more GT at all clubs, you end up getting inflated prices for English youth because of their demand affecting their end destination. Grealish to City comes to mind. He's not been as great since which sucks for Englad as he was that dazzling player coming off the bench. Kalvin Philips, I felt City bought to fill their quotas because Leeds sold high (too high for a crotched player) and he will never be first choice over Gundo nor Rodri. Next is wages. I'm not sure going on a hunch here but youth who get ridiculous contracts young (Nketiah, CHO, maybe Sancho) I feel they tend to nl longer put effort to develop anymore. I mean I'm all for pay for players but we alll know too much money too young dampens development. With the homegrown in place, prayers are being offered hefty sums. Hard to resist. Spain, France, Germany players have to work hard for years to get that money. Just my two cents.
Bundesliga is like a better Eredevisie, they're both very attacker friendly leagues. Bundesliga a lot of teams play extremely high lines so there's a lot of space to exploit, while the defender quality is also pretty lacking. It's perfect conditions for a winger like Sancho to play in. A tonne of his goals and assists came on the break and that's not something you get much of if you play for Man United in the premier and one on one duels are much tougher. Seems to also be a confidence/application issue also mind you, he very rarely seems to ever attempt to dribble past a player these days despite that being his main strength when he was young.
I think if you put Foden (or Saka, for that matter) in Bundesliga they'd put up insane goal and assist numbers. Really think it leads to a lot of Bundesliga attackers being very overrated (of course, you get exceptions like Haaland but there's plenty more Werner's and Havertz). It's really lead to a lot of German players being overrated in particular I think. The reputation of Bundesliga outstrips its quality by a long way.
Anyone know if Mane was with the Senegal squad during the competition to boost their moral or did he stay well away ?