England Thread - 2022/23

[BlueHammer85]

To be fair, we have had one legendary manager, Sir Alf. He won the World Cup.

Picking where the rest of our managers are in the list is moot. They’ve all been failures to varying degrees.

Indeed - but unless a England Manager actually wins a major tournament (which is a massive massive ask regardless how good the squad is) then they simply get labelled as ‘failures’ , always said it’s the ultimate poison chalice

Every fan has a different view on formations and players with tribal club loyalty a factor so there’s no squad or tactics that can please ever.

Not defending England or Southgate in the Nations League, we’ve been awful. But for Major Tournaments is where I reserve judgment and Southgate has done more than enough to have another crack imo.

 

[Alan Harper's Tash]

There’s only been one England manager with a 100% win record and it wasn’t Sir Alf.

Indeed, it doesn’t make Big Sam our best manager ever though, does it?

 

[applejuice]

Another take - I don't know why but Sterling seems to develop backwards a lot...
He was really bad today. Only one run but it was far from enough for his role in England.

 

[Alan Harper's Tash]

I get that. I'm not sure if he would work at City, I think he's an option purely because of his ability for his age, not for his ability overall.

He hasn't played with many, if any world class midfielders yet, so I suppose i'd like to see how he'd react alongside Kev, Bernardo, Rodri.

I'd say the reason I'd rate him higher than Rice is because Bellingham can change the pace of his game, he can slow it down when he needs too. I think Rice still struggles with that, everything has to be at 100mph and that hurts England when we need to control games.

I think it’s no coincidence that Pep hasn’t put any English player in his midfield 3 for any length of time.

It requires intelligence. Foden has awesome footballing abilities, but his brain may well prevent him being a great unless the penny drops at some point. He’s had 5ish years of Pepball and he still isn’t trusted in his midfield.

Bellingham has less natural ability and seems similar in mental capacity to Foden.

Obviously these are my own humble opinions and Pep could prove me a complete idiot, but I struggle to see what Bellingham adds.

 

[Alan Harper's Tash]

Indeed - but unless a England Manager actually wins a major tournament (which is a massive massive ask regardless how good the squad is) then they simply get labelled as ‘failures’ , always said it’s the ultimate poison chalice

Every fan has a different view on formations and players with tribal club loyalty a factor so there’s no squad or tactics that can please ever.

Not defending England or Southgate in the Nations League, we’ve been awful. But for Major Tournaments is where I reserve judgment and Southgate has done more than enough to have another crack imo.

I guess it depends on how important the FA deem this World Cup.

It seems since the final loss to Italy, we've lost the ability to score let alone win.

Would it surprise you at the moment if we didn't score in Qatar?

 

[Grassland Blue]

Gareth Safegate.

Playing safe isn't working though.
I propose Gareth UNsafegate.
Losing to quite possibly the most defensive minded team in Europe!
Now, I believe John Sheridan is available.....

 

[BlueHammer85]

Would it surprise you at the moment if we didn't score in Qatar?

Yes it would, honestly this happens all the time at club level - lose a few pre season freindlys, everyone goes mad. Then the season starts and you win a few games and the pre season games get totally forgotten.

Come the WC with all the hype that surrounds it , likes of Foden, Grealish, Kane and other young class players we have will click and we’ll get the results (I’ve never found international football delivers much on quality for most sides)

But yes, I’m confident we’ll have another good tournament again regardless how bad we’ve been in these Nation League matches

 

[55yr old teenager]

We won't get out of the group at the world cup

Good. It means our boys will get a longer rest, which will be need for the run in to the end of the season

 

[Alan Harper's Tash]

Yes it would, honestly this happens all the time at club level - lose a few pre season freindlys, everyone goes mad. Then the season starts and you win a few games and the pre season games get totally forgotten.

Come the WC with all the hype that surrounds it , likes of Foden, Grealish, Kane and other young class players we have will click and we’ll get the results (I’ve never found international football delivers much on quality for most sides)

But yes, I’m confident we’ll have another good tournament again regardless how bad we’ve been in these Nation League matches

Time will tell. These haven’t been preseason friendlies. These have been games played where our players are up to speed and we were still shite tonight.

We lost 4-0 at home to Hungary 3 months ago.

Each time we play, it’s making us look worse. We created nothing tonight.

Italy are shite. Hungary are shite.

We‘re going to struggle next month unless something miraculous happens.

 

[Stephen230]

Indeed, it doesn’t make Big Sam our best manager ever though, does it?

It’s a results based business I once heard.