England Thread - 2023/24

Really strange picking Phillips. Have no idea what's going on behind closed doors at City but him being dropped from the England squad might have given him the kick up the arse to either push for a move or push himself harder at City. Now he'll just rest on his laurels, ie the bench.

Southgate may have his favourites but nobody's going to learn anything new by picking the likes of Henderson and Maguire.b
 
Ah Southgate picked Henderson and Maguire. In other equally surprising news I've just learned that smoking is bad for your health.....
 
A joke of a squad that. If you're picking a tournament squad and players who have got you there suddenly drop out of favour with their clubs and don't play I can understand them still being picked. But now is the time to pick form players, give others experience so that there are options ready for the Euro's.

To suggest Maguire has never let England down is just such a poor mentality. It was back in 2018 when he was very good for England. In the World Cup he was at fault for the goal that put us out of the tournament. He missed a free header he should have scored minutes before failing to track Giroud who then scored the winner. It's time for someone else to be tried and it would be a much better message from Southgate to say to Henderson, Phillips and Maguire "I don't care what you've done, this England side needs players who are in form and playing regularly at a top level so if you're not you're out". Then they might move and go and get football. He's rewarding mediocrity.

Apart from our lads, plus Bellingham and Kane, they’re all mediocre (at best) aren’t they?
 
Apart from our lads, plus Bellingham and Kane, they’re all mediocre (at best) aren’t they?
Not really. I’d say the only ones I have issues with are: Pickford, Alexander-Arnold defensively, Maguire, Henderson, Phillips due to lack of game time yet I do genuinely rate him, and Gallagher.

Sterling, Bowen, Gordon, Ward-Prowse, Rice, Maddison, Eze, Trippier, Saka, Wilson, Nketia, Dunk, Guehi, Colwill… are all good players.

Apart from maybe France we have the most good players of any squad around and we could be winning tournaments if we picked the right team with the right tactics.

With possible attacking options from these players (mix and match wherever you want, change the formation), I’d say we have the best consistency of depth options in attack around:

Grealish————Kane—————Saka
————Maddison———Foden————
—————————Rice————————

Gordon————Wilson—————Sterling
——————Eze—————Bowen————
————————Bellingham———————

Neither Germany nor Spain have that depth.
 
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