With White going it means they really have concerns about Maguire’s fitness.
For me, Ward-Prowse had to go in place of TAA. Don’t get me wrong, I like White and some think he’s better than Mings for example. But you take out Henderson who has barely played, and one injury or suspension to either Rice, Phillips, or Bellingham and you’re left with very little in that midfield. Mount, Foden etc are fantastic, but classed as more attacking players, even if Mount can drop back, it’s not something you particularly want him to keep doing.
White going says to me Maguire might not be considered until the knock-out stages.
Unlucky for Ward-Prowse, thought he was excellent yesterday... Not surprised in a way he's chosen White who gives the option of covering either Henderson or Maguire if their fitness is a concern - Feels he's a bit of an Eric Dier type player.
With White going it means they really have concerns about Maguire’s fitness.
For me, Ward-Prowse had to go in place of TAA. Don’t get me wrong, I like White and some think he’s better than Mings for example. But you take out Henderson who has barely played, and one injury or suspension to either Rice, Phillips, or Bellingham and you’re left with very little in that midfield. Mount, Foden etc are fantastic, but classed as more attacking players, even if Mount can drop back, it’s not something you particularly want him to keep doing.
White going says to me Maguire might not be considered until the knock-out stages.
And I wonder whether Mings having a poor game had dropped him behind White in the pecking order.
I think there's still a chance for JWP, depends on how Henderson reacts to the half he played and training this week. If Maguire isn't going to be fit initially it does make sense to have White in there.
My thoughts on Sterling are that he is fit and player of the tournament material. Of course he is out of form but he has not been overloaded in terms of recent games and we know what he can do. He can always be subbed but I don't see any reason why he can't find form in the tournament,
Unlucky for JWP, when you consider the number of games he's played for England over the last 2 years. I imagine Bellingham will feature during the championships, and maybe Southgate will take the more attacking option of playing Mount in central midfield, rather than one of the attacking midfielders?
Unlucky for Ward-Prowse, thought he was excellent yesterday... Not surprised in a way he's chosen White who gives the option of covering either Henderson or Maguire if their fitness is a concern - Feels he's a bit of an Eric Dier type player.
Yesterday showed that you can’t afford to play Mings. However, if we go with a back 5 against Croatia, I can’t work out who else can go LCB.
Personally felt like he had no other choice that going for White. The fact Henderson played 45 minutes yesterday showed he’s probably fit enough. Sounds like Maguire won’t be fit until L16 at a minimum.
With White going it means they really have concerns about Maguire’s fitness.
For me, Ward-Prowse had to go in place of TAA. Don’t get me wrong, I like White and some think he’s better than Mings for example. But you take out Henderson who has barely played, and one injury or suspension to either Rice, Phillips, or Bellingham and you’re left with very little in that midfield. Mount, Foden etc are fantastic, but classed as more attacking players, even if Mount can drop back, it’s not something you particularly want him to keep doing.
White going says to me Maguire might not be considered until the knock-out stages.
White can also play in midfield so i guess his versatility is what has given him the edge
Unlucky for Ward-Prowse, thought he was excellent yesterday... Not surprised in a way he's chosen White who gives the option of covering either Henderson or Maguire if their fitness is a concern - Feels he's a bit of an Eric Dier type player.
Yesterday showed that you can’t afford to play Mings. However, if we go with a back 5 against Croatia, I can’t work out who else can go LCB.
Personally felt like he had no other choice that going for White. The fact Henderson played 45 minutes yesterday showed he’s probably fit enough. Sounds like Maguire won’t be fit until L16 at a minimum.
Will Croatia be playing the game that suits a back three, or are we wasting a player who may be the key to breaking them down? For arguments sake, a Grealish. Also, if you play a back three, you might want to use your full backs instead of wide players, but offensive players in those positions seem to be one of our strengths.
With White going it means they really have concerns about Maguire’s fitness.
For me, Ward-Prowse had to go in place of TAA. Don’t get me wrong, I like White and some think he’s better than Mings for example. But you take out Henderson who has barely played, and one injury or suspension to either Rice, Phillips, or Bellingham and you’re left with very little in that midfield. Mount, Foden etc are fantastic, but classed as more attacking players, even if Mount can drop back, it’s not something you particularly want him to keep doing.
White going says to me Maguire might not be considered until the knock-out stages.
White can also play in midfield so i guess his versatility is what has given him the edge
White can play there, but you don’t really want to be playing him in midfield surrounded by players who haven’t got that top level experience. If Henderson isn’t fit and say Rice is suspended, if you play White and Phillips/Bellingham, that will get a overrun significantly against anyone half decent.
White has to play in defence if he is to play. That’s my opinion anyway.
You can play with six at the back but individual errors would still cost goals. If we don't have options to make the defence stronger, we need to focus on other areas to compensate.
The team out against Romania seem to have 6 players of the Il Cranko style of Ray Wikins. It is boring football to say the least.
I remember taking AAjr to see Ireland v Nigeria a The Valley. Ireland tried to play it like England yesterday, all controlled possession probing for an opening (ooh, er, missus), Nigeria would get the ball and bomb forward as quickly as possible. Yes, they lost the ball a lot of the time but they terrorised the Irish defence and ran out comfortable 3-0 winners. Sometimes you yearn for a bit of excitement in an England game.
Mings is okay with the ball at his feet and I think that's the main reason he's been chosen.
Well, that doesn't sound right.
A defender's principal function is to get the ball off others' feet, or otherwise to make sure they cannot score or create a scoring opportunity with it.
There's too much of obsession with defenders playing around with the bloody thing rather than keeping it out of harm's way.
I can see a valid point if Portugal included an unfit Ronaldo in their squad hoping he may be available later in the competition but FFS neither Henderson nor Maguire are Ronaldo. Send them both home and replace them with fit players. Southgate has gone the same way as so many previous England managers in that he has totally lost his way imo he looks like a rabbit in the headlights and is clearly over thinking things. I would bet my mortgage that our bench will have more talent than our starting 11 next weekend
Maguire is certainly no Ronaldo but him and Stones are the best of a mediocre bunch and that makes him important if he is expected to be fit in the latter stages when it might be harder to get away with the likes of Mings.
Yes I agree but unfortunate even with Maguire and Stones once we play top teams we are very unlikely to keep a clean sheet imo. So play to your strengths not your weaknesses and accept that you are likely to concede goals and pick a team that can hopefully score more goals than your defense leaks
Yes I agree but unfortunate even with Maguire and Stones once we play top teams we are very unlikely to keep a clean sheet imo. So play to your strengths not your weaknesses and accept that you are likely to concede goals and pick a team that can hopefully score more goals than your defense leaks
That is the way I see it. Maguire and Stones are the best centre halves we can put out and that is what we need to aim to do, but we have some great offensive players. I would hope Southgate understands the importance of having goals in the team. I genuinely am not sure he does, but I think this is will be our best chance. One defensive midfielder then all the other positions forward of that needs to have goals or assists in their game or both.
I don't want opponents thinking, if we stop Kane and x, we have a great chance, I want them thinking, who the hell do we stop!
Totally but like you I suspect what we will see if 2 holding midfielders, Rashford & Sterling out wide, with Kane so far back in midfield that nobody has anyone to try and hit when we do get forward. Try to nick a goal from a set piece or penalty and hope to grab a 1-0 victory. Not a chance in hell of that working imo and if he does do as most suspect he should be bloody sacked after the Croatia game and get someone there who knows what to do with the talent at his disposal lol
I think sometimes managers are under such pressure not to lose, they are too frightened to win. We can only imagine what the pressure is like being England manager with the weight of expectation, but the best England manager will be somebody who can rise above that. I really hope Southgate can as he seems like a nice bloke.
In terms of what you suspect, it could work but I can't see it working enough times to allow us to win the tournament with the quality of side we will be facing. Most countries would give their right arms for the offensive talent we have and it would be criminal not to play to that strength.
Again I agree Southgate does seem a nice bloke, perhaps too nice. Pressure comes with the job and if you cant deal with it then you shouldnt be the England manager. I like you really hope England do well but my biggest fear is that once again we fail due to being over cautious and the potential of this group of players is wasted. Time will tell when the starting lineup is announced on Saturday
Here's hoping he proves us wrong. The proof of the pudding is always in the eating. If we go out of the tournament trying to win it and not trying not to lose it I won't be queueing to be critical of the manager.
Seems odd to take him over both JWP and Lingard if he’s just being used for RB/CB cover.
JWP i'd agree with but Lingard offers nothing that we don't already have in the squad. We're already looking at having to leave out 2-3 of Grealish/Foden/Rashford/Sancho/Sterling, so we don't really need to add Lingard.
I think a few people need to chill out a bit until we've seen how we actually play against Croatia. No point getting worked up about who he might select in the opening games until it actually happens. Let's have a little bit of positivity about a young group of exciting talents, something we haven't had for a long time.
Comments
For me, Ward-Prowse had to go in place of TAA. Don’t get me wrong, I like White and some think he’s better than Mings for example. But you take out Henderson who has barely played, and one injury or suspension to either Rice, Phillips, or Bellingham and you’re left with very little in that midfield. Mount, Foden etc are fantastic, but classed as more attacking players, even if Mount can drop back, it’s not something you particularly want him to keep doing.
White going says to me Maguire might not be considered until the knock-out stages.
White has to play in defence if he is to play. That’s my opinion anyway.
Seems odd to take him over both JWP and Lingard if he’s just being used for RB/CB cover.
A defender's principal function is to get the ball off others' feet, or otherwise to make sure they cannot score or create a scoring opportunity with it.
There's too much of obsession with defenders playing around with the bloody thing rather than keeping it out of harm's way.
I don't want opponents thinking, if we stop Kane and x, we have a great chance, I want them thinking, who the hell do we stop!
In terms of what you suspect, it could work but I can't see it working enough times to allow us to win the tournament with the quality of side we will be facing. Most countries would give their right arms for the offensive talent we have and it would be criminal not to play to that strength.
Sod putting in an extra centre half to cover up our weaknesses.
Put Foden-Kane-Grealish up top with Mount behind and Sancho to come in.
Scare the shit out of teams.