England aren’t far off this year. It’s a narrative created due to years of previous failure.
Tournament success isn’t based on history, it’s based around who has the best squad at the current time. England have a top 4 squad in this tournament and therefore have a chance.
Spain and Germany are great examples on the other side of this argument. Both have been historically great, but I’d be surprised if either won it this year.
I 'bother' because I'm English. It doesn't mean I believe.
'Best young talent' - what a load of nonsense. Better than Beckham, Lampard, Gerard, Rooney, Owen and Scholes? Better than Gascoigne, Shearer? Better than BRobson RWilkins, Hoddle and Lineker?
What is needed is a settled team. Today's young marvels will be thrown on the slagheap in a few years in order to herald the new even better ones. It's like the ever improving washing powder lie. Why for example does Andros Townsend never get considered? He was the best of the ever best ever young talent a few years ago. Is he now a veteran in League One?
I 'bother' because I'm English. It doesn't mean I believe.
'Best young talent' - what a load of nonsense. Better than Beckham, Lampard, Gerard, Rooney, Owen and Scholes? Better than Gascoigne, Shearer? Better than BRobson RWilkins, Hoddle and Lineker?
What is needed is a settled team. Today's young marvels will be thrown on the slagheap in a few years in order to herald the new even better ones. It's like the ever improving washing powder lie. Why for example does Andros Townsend never get considered? He was the best of the ever best ever young talent a few years ago. Is he now a veteran in League One?
And you're fucking miserable when it comes to Charlton and England. Constant negativity, it must be exhausting.
I 'bother' because I'm English. It doesn't mean I believe.
'Best young talent' - what a load of nonsense. Better than Beckham, Lampard, Gerard, Rooney, Owen and Scholes? Better than Gascoigne, Shearer? Better than BRobson RWilkins, Hoddle and Lineker?
What is needed is a settled team. Today's young marvels will be thrown on the slagheap in a few years in order to herald the new even better ones. It's like the ever improving washing powder lie. Why for example does Andros Townsend never get considered? He was the best of the ever best ever young talent a few years ago. Is he now a veteran in League One?
There’s no point in watching in my eyes if you can’t be optimistic about your chances.
England have had a period of about 10 years where we’ve tried to replicate ‘the golden generation’. A lot of youngsters definitely got overhyped by the English media.
Once again, that doesn’t mean that is true of today’s crop of players.
Foden, Kane, Mount, Grealish, Sancho and Sterling would pretty much get into any side in the world. With that much talent you’d have to be a fool to think we didn’t stand some chance.
I don’t mind criticism of our tactics, but this is definitely a very good group of players; especially going forwards.
England aren’t far off this year. It’s a narrative created due to years of previous failure.
Tournament success isn’t based on history, it’s based around who has the best squad at the current time. England have a top 4 squad in this tournament and therefore have a chance.
Spain and Germany are great examples on the other side of this argument. Both have been historically great, but I’d be surprised if either won it this year.
The thing about history is to learn from past mistakes. Therefore success is based on history in this regard.
Fine, just ignore it, and make the same mistake again. We're have fun singing and talking about how unlucky we were.
England aren’t far off this year. It’s a narrative created due to years of previous failure.
Tournament success isn’t based on history, it’s based around who has the best squad at the current time. England have a top 4 squad in this tournament and therefore have a chance.
Spain and Germany are great examples on the other side of this argument. Both have been historically great, but I’d be surprised if either won it this year.
The thing about history is to learn from past mistakes. Therefore success is based on history in this regard.
Fine, just ignore it, and make the same mistake again. We're have fun singing and talking about how unlucky we were.
The lack of awareness in this comment genuinely gave me a laugh.
Over the last 15-20 years England has had a massive shift in its footballing philosophy. As a result you have these fantastic, technical footballers (Foden, Sancho, Mount) coming through.
If that’s not learning from past mistakes and trying to bring success then I don’t know what is.
I don't get what you get from being negative about England's chances, away from a sensible football debate, getting yours and everybody's hopes up around you is part of the romance of supporting England at major tournaments. Wouldn't change it for the world.
Remember these "youngsters" that have been plucked out of nowhere and replaced a lot of the squad from 2018 have actually won a bloody World Cup !!!!!!. Give them a license to play their game and hopefully their lack of fear might just deliver results. The squads in past years did have a few top players but never in the depth of this squad imo. I just hope Southgate can see that as well and they dont mostly sit on the bench watching. But that is me being negative after I'm Im fully expecting Dier to get a last minute call up lol
I don't get what you get from being negative about England's chances, away from a sensible football debate, getting yours and everybody's hopes up around you is part of the romance of supporting England at major tournaments. Wouldn't change it for the world.
Absolutely this. Love watching the first 6/8 matches before England play and thinking, these lot are piss and England will walk this tournament, before we struggle to get a 0-0 against tournament minnows.
I think most of our have some concerns about whether the manager is tactically good enough, is the back 4 good enough to keep clean sheets etc. We finished 4th in Russia. 3rd in the nations league. No reason why we can’t go one step better this time around.
England aren’t far off this year. It’s a narrative created due to years of previous failure.
Tournament success isn’t based on history, it’s based around who has the best squad at the current time. England have a top 4 squad in this tournament and therefore have a chance.
Spain and Germany are great examples on the other side of this argument. Both have been historically great, but I’d be surprised if either won it this year.
The thing about history is to learn from past mistakes. Therefore success is based on history in this regard.
Fine, just ignore it, and make the same mistake again. We're have fun singing and talking about how unlucky we were.
The lack of awareness in this comment genuinely gave me a laugh.
Over the last 15-20 years England has had a massive shift in its footballing philosophy. As a result you have these fantastic, technical footballers (Foden, Sancho, Mount) coming through.
If that’s not learning from past mistakes and trying to bring success then I don’t know what is.
I think the problem we have now is how do we play?
I don't think England have a set footballing philosophy because Southgate has changed formation 3 or 4 times in the time he's been manager.
4-3-3 yes but I don't see patterns of play in the side that have been drilled into them. It's more pick 11 players and they'll have to get on with it. Especially defensively, we have no shape.
Foden was the stand out when his age group won the WC. The only reason Sancho didn't play in that final was Borussia Dormund wanted him back to play for the 1st team. Back to his best over the last two months. Bellingham is just an amazing talent, not only was he good enough to score against Cafc at the valley when he was 12 ? Ok just 16 but Dormund play him every week. Mount didn't over impress at Derby but has kicked on and is an awesome talent. James, Chilwell and Shaw have had top seasons and are great getting forward.
Walker, Kane, Trippier and Maguire are the experience, plus Sterling who wouldn't start for me.
Pickford and the CB's look like weak areas at international level but TBF to Pickford he has a decent record for England even if he is a puncher compared to the unlucky Nick Pope.
At the moment the egos are different to the 'golden generation' amazing to see Mount go over to his buddy Foden and console him before celebrating at the Final. These young players don't have the baggage of previous players and squads.
Long may that last.
Gary and Laddick are correct in we should believe in this squad.
If it's a 7 game tournament and a player isn't fit for 3 or 4 of them, what is the point?
If we start the tournament and we have a CM suspended and one injured in the 4th game, where's the back-up?
We're too busy trying to plan to have people back for the semi-final when we should have 26 players all raring to go by day 1.
I get your point and obviously in the past we've taken players (Rooney/Beckham etc) when they've not been fit. But this is a squad of 26, not 23 like it usually is, so there's a bit more flexibility in terms of taking a couple of players who might not have been risked in a 23 man squad.
Spain for example haven't even named a 26 man squad, they've only named 24 but left out Sergio Ramos. For me, if you're going to waste 2 squad spaces anyway, you might as well have named Ramos to have him around the squad and he might even be fit to play once you reach the knock outs which are over 3 weeks away.
Foden was the stand out when his age group won the WC. The only reason Sancho didn't play in that final was Borussia Dormund wanted him back to play for the 1st team. Back to his best over the last two months. Bellingham is just an amazing talent, not only was he good enough to score against Cafc at the valley when he was 12 ? Ok just 16 but Dormund play him every week. Mount didn't over impress at Derby but has kicked on and is an awesome talent. James, Chilwell and Shaw have had top seasons and are great getting forward.
Walker, Kane, Trippier and Maguire are the experience, plus Sterling who wouldn't start for me.
Pickford and the CB's look like weak areas at international level but TBF to Pickford he has a decent record for England even if he is a puncher compared to the unlucky Nick Pope.
At the moment the egos are different to the 'golden generation' amazing to see Mount go over to his buddy Foden and console him before celebrating at the Final. These young players don't have the baggage of previous players and squads.
Long may that last.
Gary and Laddick are correct in we should believe in this squad.
Good post mate. You didn't include Rice though, he has also kicked on and improved massively this season. I see Rice as important as Kane at the moment.
If it's a 7 game tournament and a player isn't fit for 3 or 4 of them, what is the point?
If we start the tournament and we have a CM suspended and one injured in the 4th game, where's the back-up?
We're too busy trying to plan to have people back for the semi-final when we should have 26 players all raring to go by day 1.
I get your point and obviously in the past we've taken players (Rooney/Beckham etc) when they've not been fit. But this is a squad of 26, not 23 like it usually is, so there's a bit more flexibility in terms of taking a couple of players who might not have been risked in a 23 man squad.
Spain for example haven't even named a 26 man squad, they've only named 24 but left out Sergio Ramos. For me, if you're going to waste 2 squad spaces anyway, you might as well have named Ramos to have him around the squad and he might even be fit to play once you reach the knock outs which are over 3 weeks away.
Leaving two squad places unfilled seems a bit daft. Imagine how their manager will feel when he's had four players sent off in each of their first three games and he's only got 12 to pick for the first knock out stage.
Foden was the stand out when his age group won the WC. The only reason Sancho didn't play in that final was Borussia Dormund wanted him back to play for the 1st team. Back to his best over the last two months. Bellingham is just an amazing talent, not only was he good enough to score against Cafc at the valley when he was 12 ? Ok just 16 but Dormund play him every week. Mount didn't over impress at Derby but has kicked on and is an awesome talent. James, Chilwell and Shaw have had top seasons and are great getting forward.
Walker, Kane, Trippier and Maguire are the experience, plus Sterling who wouldn't start for me.
Pickford and the CB's look like weak areas at international level but TBF to Pickford he has a decent record for England even if he is a puncher compared to the unlucky Nick Pope.
At the moment the egos are different to the 'golden generation' amazing to see Mount go over to his buddy Foden and console him before celebrating at the Final. These young players don't have the baggage of previous players and squads.
Long may that last.
Gary and Laddick are correct in we should believe in this squad.
Good post mate. You didn't include Rice though, he has also kicked on and improved massively this season. I see Rice as important as Kane at the moment.
I didn't in this post but i said earlier that Rice has the defensive midfield position and i agree with you he has blossomed this season. Getting the balance right in whatever formation we go with will be interesting. Harry Kane is probably the best passer of the ball ( his relationship with his Korean team mate Son is amazing) from a forward i have seen in the England team along with Rooney. If Harry is going to have licence to roam, the attacking midfielders need to attack the box in numbers.
Foden was the stand out when his age group won the WC. The only reason Sancho didn't play in that final was Borussia Dormund wanted him back to play for the 1st team. Back to his best over the last two months. Bellingham is just an amazing talent, not only was he good enough to score against Cafc at the valley when he was 12 ? Ok just 16 but Dormund play him every week. Mount didn't over impress at Derby but has kicked on and is an awesome talent. James, Chilwell and Shaw have had top seasons and are great getting forward.
Walker, Kane, Trippier and Maguire are the experience, plus Sterling who wouldn't start for me.
Pickford and the CB's look like weak areas at international level but TBF to Pickford he has a decent record for England even if he is a puncher compared to the unlucky Nick Pope.
At the moment the egos are different to the 'golden generation' amazing to see Mount go over to his buddy Foden and console him before celebrating at the Final. These young players don't have the baggage of previous players and squads.
Long may that last.
Gary and Laddick are correct in we should believe in this squad.
Good post mate. You didn't include Rice though, he has also kicked on and improved massively this season. I see Rice as important as Kane at the moment.
I didn't in this post but i said earlier that Rice has the defensive midfield position and i agree with you he has blossomed this season. Getting the balance right in whatever formation we go with will be interesting. Harry Kane is probably the best passer of the ball ( his relationship with his Korean team mate Son is amazing) from a forward i have seen in the England team along with Rooney. If Harry is going to have licence to roam, the attacking midfielders need to attack the box in numbers.
Would rather Kane stayed up instead of running about in midfield. We have some great crossers, Shaw/Chilwell, TAA/James, and that is just the defenders. I know he does it for Spurs as the main man but for England he needs to trust the team and stay around the box.
I also think that is key with Kane. If he is dropping back to pick the ball up we need players to run ahead to get in the box. He played a few balls to TAA last night who looked up to see nobody in the box so had to check back which gave Austria the chance to get back into their defensive lines. With Spurs he always has Son surging forward
Hopefully its between Godfrey | White | Ward-Prowse for the spot rather than Lingard, nothing against him, just dont think we need another attacking player - Would rather Southgate named a backup for whoever lacks the most fitness between Maguire and Henderson.
Hopefully its between Godfrey | White | Ward-Prowse for the spot rather than Lingard, nothing against him, just dont think we need another attacking player - Would rather Southgate named a backup for whoever lacks the most fitness between Maguire and Henderson.
Agreed, or maybe even Watkins as a striker. At least both Godfrey and JWP have played right-back if Gareth is adamant he needs 4 of them!
Hopefully its between Godfrey | White | Ward-Prowse for the spot rather than Lingard, nothing against him, just dont think we need another attacking player - Would rather Southgate named a backup for whoever lacks the most fitness between Maguire and Henderson.
Agreed, or maybe even Watkins as a striker. At least both Godfrey and JWP have played right-back if Gareth is adamant he needs 4 of them!
I'd be tempted to go with Ben White seeing he can play both Defensive Midfield and Centre-Back
His lack of minutes last night though makes me doubtful that'll happen.
Ben Godfrey's moment where he tried to eclipse our Naby will probably give the spot to Ward-Prowse.
Hopefully its between Godfrey | White | Ward-Prowse for the spot rather than Lingard, nothing against him, just dont think we need another attacking player - Would rather Southgate named a backup for whoever lacks the most fitness between Maguire and Henderson.
Agreed, or maybe even Watkins as a striker. At least both Godfrey and JWP have played right-back if Gareth is adamant he needs 4 of them!
I'd be tempted to go with Ben White seeing he can play both Defensive Midfield and Centre-Back
His lack of minutes last night though makes me doubtful that'll happen.
Ben Godfrey's moment where he tried to eclipse our Naby will probably give the spot to Ward-Prowse.
Ward-Prowse is probably the best option if Henderson is struggling. If Maguire is going to be out for 2+ games I'd definitely go with a CB. Godfrey for me I think.
I wonder how many collective hours were spent between the media and football fans talking about whether or not Alexander-Arnold would make the squad only for him to get injured in a pre-tournament friendly. We'll never get those minutes back.
Ward-Prowse seems like the logical choice given that I think Southgate's master plan was to bring TAA on in midfield if we were pushing for a goal towards the end of a game. TAA was there for his crossing ability more than anything else and Ward-Prowse is the closest to him in terms of delivery
I have long believed that the penultimate pre-season friendly should be treated by managers as the first game of the tournament. I think there is an even greater advantage in this approach when your first match is a tough one like ours is.
This is example of what we we hearing 8 years ago.
Townsend, Barkley, Baines, Jack Wilshere, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Phil Jones, Sterling were all heralded as the bright new future of English football and only the latter is now really on the scene.
I want England to win but I'm realistic. I'd say that us winning the Euros this year is about the same in likelihood as Charlton doing a double promotion like Adkins did with Southampton. It's quite possible but unlikely.
I think your derision is unsubstantiated. Against Austria, a week before the tournament we played a player who hasn't even been picked for the squad, lol. We have central defenders who are very 2nd class internationally. It doesn't matter if we have great young attacking players. You need a strong spine of a team and 6 or 7 players with first team tournament experience to realise your expectations.
I hope I'm wrong but since attending every England match in Euro 96 and the devastating disappointed that brought, I've learnt to try to predict things objectively.
Comments
Spain and Germany are great examples on the other side of this argument. Both have been historically great, but I’d be surprised if either won it this year.
I 'bother' because I'm English. It doesn't mean I believe.
'Best young talent' - what a load of nonsense. Better than Beckham, Lampard, Gerard, Rooney, Owen and Scholes?
Better than Gascoigne, Shearer?
Better than BRobson RWilkins, Hoddle and Lineker?
What is needed is a settled team. Today's young marvels will be thrown on the slagheap in a few years in order to herald the new even better ones. It's like the ever improving washing powder lie. Why for example does Andros Townsend never get considered? He was the best of the ever best ever young talent a few years ago. Is he now a veteran in League One?
Andros Townsend hahaha. - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andros_Townsend
Hardly burst onto the scene like Foden, Sancho, Bellingham......
'One of the best ever young talent'....Christ.
Once again, that doesn’t mean that is true of today’s crop of players.
Foden, Kane, Mount, Grealish, Sancho and Sterling would pretty much get into any side in the world. With that much talent you’d have to be a fool to think we didn’t stand some chance.
I don’t mind criticism of our tactics, but this is definitely a very good group of players; especially going forwards.
Fine, just ignore it, and make the same mistake again. We're have fun singing and talking about how unlucky we were.
Over the last 15-20 years England has had a massive shift in its footballing philosophy. As a result you have these fantastic, technical footballers (Foden, Sancho, Mount) coming through.
If that’s not learning from past mistakes and trying to bring success then I don’t know what is.
I don't think England have a set footballing philosophy because Southgate has changed formation 3 or 4 times in the time he's been manager.
4-3-3 yes but I don't see patterns of play in the side that have been drilled into them. It's more pick 11 players and they'll have to get on with it. Especially defensively, we have no shape.
Bellingham is just an amazing talent, not only was he good enough to score against Cafc at the valley when he was 12 ? Ok just 16 but Dormund play him every week.
Mount didn't over impress at Derby but has kicked on and is an awesome talent.
James, Chilwell and Shaw have had top seasons and are great getting forward.
Walker, Kane, Trippier and Maguire are the experience, plus Sterling who wouldn't start for me.
Pickford and the CB's look like weak areas at international level but TBF to Pickford he has a decent record for England even if he is a puncher compared to the unlucky Nick Pope.
At the moment the egos are different to the 'golden generation' amazing to see Mount go over to his buddy Foden and console him before celebrating at the Final. These young players don't have the baggage of previous players and squads.
Long may that last.
Gary and Laddick are correct in we should believe in this squad.
Spain for example haven't even named a 26 man squad, they've only named 24 but left out Sergio Ramos. For me, if you're going to waste 2 squad spaces anyway, you might as well have named Ramos to have him around the squad and he might even be fit to play once you reach the knock outs which are over 3 weeks away.
You didn't include Rice though, he has also kicked on and improved massively this season. I see Rice as important as Kane at the moment.
I didn't in this post but i said earlier that Rice has the defensive midfield position and i agree with you he has blossomed this season. Getting the balance right in whatever formation we go with will be interesting.
Harry Kane is probably the best passer of the ball ( his relationship with his Korean team mate Son is amazing) from a forward i have seen in the England team along with Rooney. If Harry is going to have licence to roam, the attacking midfielders need to attack the box in numbers.
I know he does it for Spurs as the main man but for England he needs to trust the team and stay around the box.
Thank God Southgate picked 4 RBs
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/57351839
Hopefully its between Godfrey | White | Ward-Prowse for the spot rather than Lingard, nothing against him, just dont think we need another attacking player - Would rather Southgate named a backup for whoever lacks the most fitness between Maguire and Henderson.
His lack of minutes last night though makes me doubtful that'll happen.
Ben Godfrey's moment where he tried to eclipse our Naby will probably give the spot to Ward-Prowse.
A centre back would make some sense too given Maguire is injured.
This is example of what we we hearing 8 years ago.
Townsend, Barkley, Baines, Jack Wilshere, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Phil Jones, Sterling were all heralded as the bright new future of English football and only the latter is now really on the scene.
I want England to win but I'm realistic. I'd say that us winning the Euros this year is about the same in likelihood as Charlton doing a double promotion like Adkins did with Southampton. It's quite possible but unlikely.
I think your derision is unsubstantiated. Against Austria, a week before the tournament we played a player who hasn't even been picked for the squad, lol. We have central defenders who are very 2nd class internationally. It doesn't matter if we have great young attacking players. You need a strong spine of a team and 6 or 7 players with first team tournament experience to realise your expectations.
I hope I'm wrong but since attending every England match in Euro 96 and the devastating disappointed that brought, I've learnt to try to predict things objectively.