I wanted him here to play alongside KDB in the box to box role he had at Dortmund.
He is not a 10 however and hasn’t produced any good performances in any game I’ve seen him play this year. Will be interesting to see how he does next season assuming he goes back into midfield.
I think a great many of England problems would be solved by playing him alongside Rice, with Foden 10 and Eze or Gordon on the left ( oh and by having a left sided left back).
Agreed. His best moments at this tournament (aside from the goals) have come from the rare moments when he's dropped deep and surveyed what's in front of him instead of trying to link up play on the edge of the box. He's the guy Southgate thinks he's missing next to Rice - the Henderson/Phillips type - but he's actually right there. Southgate's just not a very functional thinker and doesn't know what international football's actually about. Bellingham's not a link-up guy or a nimble 10 - if anything he's a target man. Ancelotti figured it out after about two games that Bellingham's no good behind the striker - he either is the striker or has to be kept away from him. Funnily enough, as much as Southgate's not much of a functional thinker, he might have accidentally stumbled on the formation that will get England to the final in the last 10 mins of the Slovakia game.
Pickford
Walker, Stones, Konsa
Trippier, Bellingham, Rice, Shaw
Foden
Kane, Toney
One of the big, big problems England have always had - for as long as I've been alive anyway - is thinking that they have to cram (ostensibly) special players into the positions they want to play. I don't know if it's an ego thing or something else, but there's this constant idea in England teams that the top players with big egos have to play where they want and that there's no wiggle room. "Gerrard and Lampard simply have to play in the middle - doesn't matter how many tournaments we get knocked out of because they're both constantly beyond the ball"; "Kane simply must play up front because he's Harry Kane, never mind if Jamie Vardy retires because we never play him"; "Bellingham must play behind Kane because we need him in attacking positions, it doesn't matter if he's clogging up the middle of the pitch and forcing Foden wide", etc. International football is all about mending and making do with what you've got, but with England it ends up being about shoving square pegs in round holes because the top dogs want all the glory. Every international team that's won a tournament has done it by making sure the more dominant players in the dressing room do the grunt work as much as the more deferential, quieter types.
I know hindsight's 20/20 but you get people looking at England teams from the 2000s and asking, "How did this team not win anything?!" Sometimes it was was because of injuries (Sven's England were always unlucky in that regard) but the majority of the time it was because players like Paul Scholes, Owen Hargreaves, and Nicky Butt were overlooked or shoved into positions they couldn't play because Gerrard and Lampard simply had to start every game in the midfield. The same thing's happening with England now, where Foden, Palmer, Gordon, etc. are either being started out of position or being left out entirely because Bellingham simply must play behind the striker. Doesn't matter that he's never played there in his life, doesn't matter that he's stinking the place out, doesn't matter that Foden and Palmer have both played there all season - Bellingham gets what Bellingham wants. You don't see this with countries who win these tournaments. Southgate's not strong enough to tell Bellingham to stay deep - and that's if he even notices the benefits of a Bellingham-Rice pairing in the first place. You don't see this shit happening with Spain or Germany (one of whom will win the tournament) because they've all just got their heads down and got on with it.
