English eligible players starting in the Premier League, total per matchday: Season 2022/2023 Matchday 1 - 75/220 = 34.1% Matchday 2 - 77/220 = 35% Matchday 3 - 75/220 = 34.1% Matchday 4 - 76/220 = 34.5% Matchday 5 - 72/220 = 32.7% Matchday 6 - 71/220 = 32.3% Matchday 7 - TBC ( all games postponed ) Matchday 8 - tbc ( Queens death effected fixtures, 3 games still to be concluded) Matchday 9 - 71/220 = 32.3% Matchday 10 - 69/220 = 31.36% Matchday 11 - 69/220 = 31.36% Matchday 12 - 68/198 = 34.34% ( Arsenal v Man City tbc ) Matchday 13 - 75/220 = 34.1% Matchday 14 - 71/220 = 32.3% Matchday 15 - 68/220 = 30.9% Matchday 16 - 64/220 = 29.09% Matchday 17 - 66/220 = 30% Matchday 18 - 68/220 = 30.9% Matchday 19 - 65/220 = 29.54% Matchday 20 - 70/220 = 31.8% Matchday 21 - 69/220 = 31.36% Matchday 22 - 61/220 = 27.72%
27.72% really is appalling. Should be a headline figure in all newspapers. Instead as usual the problem will be ignored till some hand wringing in the future when the downstream effects on the national team pool become particularly apparent. Would be curious to look back at previous transfer windows and see how the percentage of first team England eligible transfers has dwindled over the years. I imagine in January it was near single digit percentage. Seems like all the teams in the premier league this season have a pretty much identical recruitment plan this season. The teams outside the big 6 sign young players from abroad for 20m hoping to sell them on to a big six team, the teams in the big 6 buy expensive young talent hoping to get world class young talents for the long term. Even a side of Bournemouth who's previous success was built on recruitment from the lower leagues have shifted dramatically. From that perspective it doesn't really matter much. Wolves are generally the worst offenders (Craig Dawson was their first signing of an England eligible player for their first team squad since 2018) but it seems teams are aiming to become more like them than vice versa. I guess Leeds would be interesting if they get relegated as relegation seems the only realistic way the many England youth team players for their under 21 side will ever get an opportunity.
Out of interest I looked through the January transfer window to see how many England eligible players were signed. 15% of moves were England eligible players, 11 players, of those 3 were signings for under 21 squads, and 2 were back up keepers. The only new players to the league out the rest were Madueke and James Bree. The players were: Byron Wilson - A 17 year old signing for Brentford B Noni Madueke - Chelsea Jack Butland - Loan move to Man U as backup Anthony Gordon - Newcastle Harrison Ashby - Newcastle Under 21's (plays for Scotland Under 21 but England eligible) Jonjo Shelvy - Forest James Bree - Southampton Jude Soonsup Bell - Spurs Under 21 Danny Ings - West Ham Craig Dawson - Wolves David Bentley - Wolves back up keeper It's really now or never for England success, the next couple of tournaments. The demographics of the premier league are weighed against us. Not only are the vast majority of signings not England eligible, it seems clubs are increasingly less looking to the lower leagues in favour of international markets. This is coupled with more targeted recruitment at academy age creating severe bottle necks. We're a couple of a transfer windows from weeks with sub 20% of players being England eligible I'd suspect.
Yep, it depressing and as predicted by a few, the figures seem to be getting worse but all you will hear from Club fans and those ex players in the media like Paul Merson is that our kids aren’t good enough! Funnily enough I heard Merson last weekend saying that good old phrase, if you’re good enough you will come through which I would dispute if you see young players that probably aren’t as talented as some of our kids but they get that opportunity to play and get the experience to develop in Countries like France, Netherlands and Spain. This fact seems to have eluded Merson who expects an 18 year old kid to be as good or better than seasoned Internationals who play in the Premier League. It’s a worrying time with the decline and unfortunately I’m not sure much will change. We have a weak FA who can’t wipe their own backside and unlikely to put up a fight to introduce a stricter quota or something else to help our kids come through.
It just feels a bit alarmist to me. We have a bigger problem with accommodating talented players at the moment. Players like Maddison, Sancho and Barnes can't get a game for us. I think we'll have a bigger problem at holding on to talented dual nationals going forward, players like Balogun and Nketiah. I'm not convinced on the idea that the young English players with the drive to make it at international level will be content with big wages and a place on the bench either. I think those types of characters will seek out opportunities abroad if they don't get them at home. There will be some disadvantage of course but I'm sceptical on the doomsday predictions.
First and foremost, I appreciate the time and effort that goes into collecting data for this sort of thing. However, it strikes me as a bit of a vague statistic which offers very little context. When the likes of Bellingham, Bynoe-Gittens, Balogun, Gomes, Branthwaite and Edwards are shining abroad, I struggle to care about Crystal Palace opting for a foreign keeper over Sam Johnstone.
Isn't the context that these numbers are falling and have been throughout this season and the past couple of seasons. Both these thing can be important, as both have an impact on the long term success of English football. The fact the pathways are blocked at some of these clubs is the reason in part at least a few of the names above even decided to venture abroad. Minutes played by nationality is also an interesting thing to track, the values over the last few season are a bit up and down due the 5 subs rule being implement during covid and reintroduced a couple of year later. https://fbref.com/en/comps/9/nations/Premier-League-Nationalities. The rise in Brazilian minutes is an interesting development (easier now with points based system) and will only increase as teams look to take advantage of the South American market rather than paying 100m to Benfica, Ajax and the like.
I've always felt the 5 subs rule has not helped the numbers of English starters per week. We're not looking at the overall minutes of English players who play some part of a game. You could have a player come on at 50 minutes and still have a solid half to their name, but, because they didn't start, we're not taking any notice of that. The stats are alarming, but we need to start looking at the bigger picture since the 5 sub rule was brought in.
Just digging to the FBREF numbers Percentage of total minutes by English players is 31.66% so far this season 21/22 Season was 33.55% 20/21 Season was 36.52%
I don't think this is particularly true though is it, like compared to who? Mid-tier nations maybe but I don't think there's another team around the top tier of nations who's anything like as weak in depth for the spine of the team as England. Our central midfield options in particular massively lack in depth compared to "big nations". Centre back is also a big issue. England produces well with wide players and right backs, I think partially because these are the positions teams are most willing to give chances to compared to the spine, but our depth in general is not favourable. I think this is a very charitable view, I mean, are we really saying people like Chukwuemeka don't have the drive to make it? It's not an either or between money and drive. Indeed for a lot of these players the temptation to go to huge clubs is probably that they probably do genuinely believe they can make it there, despite the evidence that there is a block in development for most of them. Even then pretty much none of the smaller clubs trust academy players either.
Goalkeeper Pickford - average PL keeper but a consistent top performer for country. Ramsdale - starting keeper for the team 1st in the world's top ranked league Pope - starting keeper for the team 4th in the world's top ranked league and arguably the best keeper in that league this season. Right back Arguably one of the most stacked positions in international football history Centre back A little weak with the starting options but numerous good PL level defenders and promising young players like Colwill and THB coming through. Left back Luke Shaw - arguably one of the best in the game currently Ben Chilwell - a very good player Centre Midfield I agree this is a weak spot for the XI Attacking Midfield & Wings This is a completely stacked part of the squad as discussed. Striker We currently have the 2nd, 4th & 6th top scorers in Europe's top 5 leagues this season and two of them haven't even played for the seniors. Beyond that we have a number of good PL level strikers. Personally I think that you have unrealistic expectations of the level of depth an international side can reasonably expect. The team is imperfect but I think we're pretty stacked at the moment all things considered. I don't know if Chukwuemeka has the drive or not but I'm not as worried as you seem to be about players rotting on the bench at big clubs.
Again I think you're extremely charitable here. Our centre back depth is some mid-table premier league centre backs - that is extremely unfavourable to most top teams. Our attacking midfield isn't stacked really is it, there's Maddison, Mount and no one else. The other attacking midfielders are all wide players. We just produce very good wide players, but without a strong spine you don't really win tournaments and there's precious little evidence England are going to be especially competitive there going forward.
Morgan Gibbs-White has been one of the best creative attacking midfielders in the league this season. Bellingham by most data sets is classed as an attacking midfielder and one of the best in the game currently. What level of depth are you requiring for one position?
Emile Smith-Rowe is an attacking midfielder as well, he would be also in contention if not being injured.
To be fair he's plays all the midfield positions from time to time but analysis of his average positions for Dortmund have him as an attacking midfielder mostly.
On average, he was the most advanced player on the pitch for Dortmund at the weekend. He can do it all like you say but he’s involved in too many attacking phases of play to not be considered an attacking midfielder.
Bolton are a pretty interesting team from a England perspective right now - three England youth internationals in their starting eleven - James Trafford, Luke Mbete and Shola Shoretire. Trafford I say is probably the most talented keeper in the 2000-2002 group in what has been a position of weakness for that group, it will be interesting to see what becomes of him next season after some very successful loans. Mbete seems to have started well, after looking well out of his depth on loan at Huddersfield. The most interesting one is Shoretire who's getting rave reviews for his start there, interestingly playing in a central attacking midfield role.
Trafford is having a comparable loan, age and performance wise, to Dean Henderson at Shrewsbury. Next season will be huge for him, just hope he doesn’t settle for being back up at Man City.
Bolton are also interesting because of their manager: Ian Evatt looks like someone who could do it in higher divisions too.
English eligible players starting in the Premier League, total per matchday: Season 2022/2023 Matchday 1 - 75/220 = 34.1% Matchday 2 - 77/220 = 35% Matchday 3 - 75/220 = 34.1% Matchday 4 - 76/220 = 34.5% Matchday 5 - 72/220 = 32.7% Matchday 6 - 71/220 = 32.3% Matchday 7 - TBC ( all games postponed ) Matchday 8 - tbc ( Queens death effected fixtures, 3 games still to be concluded) Matchday 9 - 71/220 = 32.3% Matchday 10 - 69/220 = 31.36% Matchday 11 - 69/220 = 31.36% Matchday 12 - 68/198 = 34.34% ( Arsenal v Man City tbc ) Matchday 13 - 75/220 = 34.1% Matchday 14 - 71/220 = 32.3% Matchday 15 - 68/220 = 30.9% Matchday 16 - 64/220 = 29.09% Matchday 17 - 66/220 = 30% Matchday 18 - 68/220 = 30.9% Matchday 19 - 65/220 = 29.54% Matchday 20 - 70/220 = 31.8% Matchday 21 - 69/220 = 31.36% Matchday 22 - 61/220 = 27.72% Matchday 23 - 65/220 = 29.54%
So apparently with the new regulator coming into football the Government have also agreed to review the current rules about signing young players from abroad and presumably the EU with the aim of relaxing the rules! So, not only we are seeing the decline of English players in the league but this will also affect youth level. I somewhat wouldn’t mind if our young players can equally go abroad and play but I don’t think that’s the case. What a win win for the Clubs, not only can they just hoover up all the domestic players with the knowledge they can’t go abroad until over 18 but they will soon be able to hoover up all the foreign players again…..another nail in the coffin for the National team long term.