Attention: Please take a moment to consider our terms and conditions before posting.
England World Cup Squad
Comments
-
Of the 23 outfield players who went to Qatar four years ago, four of them played absolutely no minutes at all. Another five played less than 100 minutes each.
That leaves only 14 outfield players who made a significant contribution in playing time.
The established players like Foden or Maguire have been left out to stop people whining in June about why he isn’t getting minutes, because he does not justify being part of that core 15. He’d inevitably be sitting on the bench, for Gary Neville to sit in a studio somewhere at half time in a game and say “give Foden a go”, like we haven’t tried that the past three tournaments to no effect.
A similar argument could be made about someone with fewer caps but is the flavour of the month like MGW or Bowen. Good players but they’re not getting picked to play over Bellingham, Saka et al. and the longer Tuchel drags this out into June by picking public flavour of the month’s, the worse it is for everyone in involved.
My expected core outfield players are: Guehi, Konsa, James, Stones, O’Reilly, Anderson, Rice, Bellingham, Saka, Rogers, Rashford, Gordon, Watkins, Kane and I’m not sure many will argue over those.
The rest of the selections (Burn, Livramento, Quansah, Spence, Henderson, Eze, Mainoo, Madueke, Toney…), we’re seeing people blowing their tops over 300 combined playing minutes being shared across 9-10 fringe players.
4 -
The other element to this is that some players are good off the bench and are used to coming off the bench. That means they don’t take five minutes to get back up to speed (remember Doughty a couple of weeks ago). Eze, Madueke and Henderson are three players off the top of my head who have come off the bench a fair amount. It seems silly but those are the fine margins that matter in tournament footballCallumcafc said:Of the 23 outfield players who went to Qatar four years ago, four of them played absolutely no minutes at all. Another five played less than 100 minutes each.
That leaves only 14 outfield players who made a significant contribution in playing time.
The established players like Foden or Maguire have been left out to stop people whining in June about why he isn’t getting minutes, because he does not justify being part of that core 15. He’d inevitably be sitting on the bench, for Gary Neville to sit in a studio somewhere at half time in a game and say “give Foden a go”, like we haven’t tried that the past three tournaments to no effect.
A similar argument could be made about someone with fewer caps but is the flavour of the month like MGW or Bowen. Good players but they’re not getting picked to play over Bellingham, Saka et al. and the longer Tuchel drags this out into June by picking public flavour of the month’s, the worse it is for everyone in involved.
My expected core outfield players are: Guehi, Konsa, James, Stones, O’Reilly, Anderson, Rice, Bellingham, Saka, Rogers, Rashford, Gordon, Watkins, Kane and I’m not sure many will argue over those.
The rest of the selections (Burn, Livramento, Quansah, Spence, Henderson, Eze, Mainoo, Madueke, Toney…), we’re seeing people blowing their tops over 300 combined playing minutes being shared across 9-10 fringe players.1 -
I would have taken Maguire and Palmer personally. Maguire as an option to try something different off the bench offensively if we are desperate as well as having centre back cover. Palmer again could do some magic off the bench. But Tuchel obviously picks the side he thinks is right and he knows what he is doing.0
-
I don't doubt that but he is more than two years younger than Henderson so he might not have played his final game for England had he not made his omission so public. As it is, he's not going to be retiring on his terms.killerandflash said:
Maguire is at the age where this would probably be his final tournament anyway.Addick Addict said:
Interesting to hear Tuchel's views on Maguire's reaction as against that of Bowen. Safe to say Maguire will never be picked again for England whereas Bowen might.philcafc said:Gibbs-White very unlucky not to make it in my view, especially with some of the players who have made the squad (Spence, Quansah) Maguire a surprise exclusion as well, although I don't like the fact that he commented before the squad was announced. That shouldn't happen.0 -
Shades of SGE when he took a broken Michael Owen and an untested Walcott while leaving Benty at home. Disloyal possibly, but I wasn't unhappy when we got knocked out of that one.arny23394 said:Taking 3 cripples in Stones, Livramento & James, 3 players that aren’t good enough in Burn, Quansah & Spence + no actual left back is mental.5 -
I agree about Palmer and Maguire, the two poorest omissions in my view as their replacements are so obviously inferior. Not sure about your confidence that Tuchel knows what he is doing; his reign as England manager has been poor so far and he didn’t do well at club management in England eitherMuttleyCAFC said:I would have taken Maguire and Palmer personally. Maguire as an option to try something different off the bench offensively if we are desperate as well as having centre back cover. Palmer again could do some magic off the bench. But Tuchel obviously picks the side he thinks is right and he knows what he is doing.3 -
I don’t think that Tuchel will do any better than Southgate. In fact I think he will do worse.Killarahales said:Just watching the news conference and am always impressed with how Tuchel speaks and the way he’s thinking.1 -
Strong starting 11 but not a huge amount of quality depth.
Quarter-final should be seen as the absolute minimum and imo anything past that is a positive tournament.2 -
Sponsored links:
-
Taking Djed Spence is such a weird decision, he's shit2
-
We've got this in the bag. Easy victory. All hail Tuchel.1
-
And his role at city is nothing like a traditional left back0
-
Maybe we should get Graeme Le Saux back if we are going to play a traditional left back.0
-
Sponsored links:
-
Or we could have just taken Luke Shaw or Lewis Hall along. Having a bloke that rarely has to defend for his club, and likes to drift into midfield as your only viable left back option with an inverted winger who doesn’t track back in front of him doesn’t seem very sensible to me.WSS said:Maybe we should get Graeme Le Saux back if we are going to play a traditional left back.2 -
I feel very sorry for McGuire…..he had an excellent season.
I would like to hear from the horses mouth why he has been excluded.
I see this as a huge mistake, he is always a significant danger for a goal or two from set pieces when the chips are down.0 -
Expecting Tuchel to leave Bellingham on the bench for Rogers until the standard must win game in our third group match to get through...... I would consider playing one of them in Rashfords position seeing as O'Reilly will be bombing forward on the left at will. Looking at the back up 3 behind the main striker.... Madueke stands out as one i would swap for Palmer. And would potentially have gone Wharton for Henderson but then again if they arent really gonna play anyway, you can see why he went for leadership and experience with Henderson. Finally - would have gone Shaw for Spence. Dont get that one at all.1 -
The video posted on social media with Come Together is pretty bloody good as well.
https://x.com/england/status/2057748306839622050?s=46&t=ynww82GMl7VKBjthBflU0g
2 -
Does anyone wanna know what I think?
No, thought not
1 -
Has Connor Gallagher gone so far off the boil that he's not included?0
-
Yes.gringo said:Has Connor Gallagher gone so far off the boil that he's not included?4 -
arny23394 said:And his role at city is nothing like a traditional left back
O'Reilly has played more games at LB and like many of the City players other than Haaland can play in many positions;
Possibly add Donnarumma to the Haaland list !
Luke Shaw who has always been excellent in tournament football ended up being our main attacking option down the left in the World cup and even scored the quickest ever goal after 2 minutes against Italy in the Euro final at Wembley when he passed the ball to Kane who passed to Trippier who at RB gave a beautiful assist to Shaw who ended up in the box unmarked and scored a wonderful goal.
Unfortunately Southgate was more of a stick than twist manager and the rest is history ☹️
LB, LWB or whatever O'Reilly will operate down the left including getting forward. Gifted footballer but I'm surprised that Hall wasn't in the squad as a bona fide attacking left back for competition for that spot.0 -
Been well out of form for an out of form side in a position we have some decent playersgringo said:Has Connor Gallagher gone so far off the boil that he's not included?2 -
Covered End said:Does anyone wanna know what I think?
No, thought not
Yes I do CE, as you have some good opinions accrued over dozens of tournaments 😀0
