For a glorified friendly I'm amazed at the quantity of fans that went out to Portugal.
Sky said this was England’s chance to win their first trophy since 1966 which I thought was overselling it a bit, shouldn’t it be in the same class as La Tournoi that England won prior to France 1998?
Agreed, if this was a "proper" tournament, we'd have played a warm up game to prepare for it for a start!
Shame to see people turning on John Stones so quickly. He's a good player. He goes through patches and sometimes he gets a bit silly with his risk taking at the back, but he's not won the Premier League twice by accident, and there were relatively few complaints about him when we made it to the semi-finals of the World Cup (where he scored two goals in one game). He just goes to show that most English fans would still prefer a centre half who hoofs the ball clear at every opportunity rather than a more modern one. There's risks in playing out from the back but it also can prevent teams building up a lot of momentum driving the ball at you again and again when everything is a clearance. Stones made a mistake and had a bad game, but writing off completely a bloke who has an immediate history of winning the English league and being a key part of our most successful England squad in years is bonkers
Man City won the league, Stones has barely played of late. If we start picking players just because of what their club has done then we're right back to the England of old.
Yes, I am aware that Man City won the league. Stones lost his place to Kompany, who played out of his skin at the tail end of his City career because of course he did. Stones started the win (and clean sheet) against Tottenham, was rested four days later and then didn't regain his place from Kompany for the last four games because Kompany didn't do anything to get dropped. We shouldn't rewrite history to suit a narrative. He was a central part of that title winning effort.
Would probably put Maddison or Foden in ahead of Oxlade Chamberlain
For me in the Euros next year would have
Pickford Alexander-Arnold - Gomez - Maguire - Chilwell Henderson - X - Rice Sancho - Kane - Sterling
One of Foden / Maddison / Alli / Barkley in that "X" role depending how well they do next year, playing just in front of both Henderson and Rice (needs time) in support of the front three
Chilwell v Shaw is another position that will be one that could chop and change ahead of the Euros next summer
I like the look of that, but we all know X will be Delph
Delph wouldn't of been in that team had Henderson and Dier not played in a CL final 5 days prior.
Shame to see people turning on John Stones so quickly. He's a good player. He goes through patches and sometimes he gets a bit silly with his risk taking at the back, but he's not won the Premier League twice by accident, and there were relatively few complaints about him when we made it to the semi-finals of the World Cup (where he scored two goals in one game). He just goes to show that most English fans would still prefer a centre half who hoofs the ball clear at every opportunity rather than a more modern one. There's risks in playing out from the back but it also can prevent teams building up a lot of momentum driving the ball at you again and again when everything is a clearance. Stones made a mistake and had a bad game, but writing off completely a bloke who has an immediate history of winning the English league and being a key part of our most successful England squad in years is bonkers
Man City won the league, Stones has barely played of late. If we start picking players just because of what their club has done then we're right back to the England of old.
Yes, I am aware that Man City won the league. Stones lost his place to Kompany, who played out of his skin at the tail end of his City career because of course he did. Stones started the win (and clean sheet) against Tottenham, was rested four days later and then didn't regain his place from Kompany for the last four games because Kompany didn't do anything to get dropped. We shouldn't rewrite history to suit a narrative. He was a central part of that title winning effort.
He made 24 appearances. To call him a central part of the title winning effort is a bit of a stretch.
Shame to see people turning on John Stones so quickly. He's a good player. He goes through patches and sometimes he gets a bit silly with his risk taking at the back, but he's not won the Premier League twice by accident, and there were relatively few complaints about him when we made it to the semi-finals of the World Cup (where he scored two goals in one game). He just goes to show that most English fans would still prefer a centre half who hoofs the ball clear at every opportunity rather than a more modern one. There's risks in playing out from the back but it also can prevent teams building up a lot of momentum driving the ball at you again and again when everything is a clearance. Stones made a mistake and had a bad game, but writing off completely a bloke who has an immediate history of winning the English league and being a key part of our most successful England squad in years is bonkers
Man City won the league, Stones has barely played of late. If we start picking players just because of what their club has done then we're right back to the England of old.
Yes, I am aware that Man City won the league. Stones lost his place to Kompany, who played out of his skin at the tail end of his City career because of course he did. Stones started the win (and clean sheet) against Tottenham, was rested four days later and then didn't regain his place from Kompany for the last four games because Kompany didn't do anything to get dropped. We shouldn't rewrite history to suit a narrative. He was a central part of that title winning effort.
He made 24 appearances. To call him a central part of the title winning effort is a bit of a stretch.
24 out of 38 is a decent chunk, considering Pep regularly mixes up his starting lineup knowing he can afford to do so, even if they’re winning game after game.
Shame to see people turning on John Stones so quickly. He's a good player. He goes through patches and sometimes he gets a bit silly with his risk taking at the back, but he's not won the Premier League twice by accident, and there were relatively few complaints about him when we made it to the semi-finals of the World Cup (where he scored two goals in one game). He just goes to show that most English fans would still prefer a centre half who hoofs the ball clear at every opportunity rather than a more modern one. There's risks in playing out from the back but it also can prevent teams building up a lot of momentum driving the ball at you again and again when everything is a clearance. Stones made a mistake and had a bad game, but writing off completely a bloke who has an immediate history of winning the English league and being a key part of our most successful England squad in years is bonkers
Man City won the league, Stones has barely played of late. If we start picking players just because of what their club has done then we're right back to the England of old.
Yes, I am aware that Man City won the league. Stones lost his place to Kompany, who played out of his skin at the tail end of his City career because of course he did. Stones started the win (and clean sheet) against Tottenham, was rested four days later and then didn't regain his place from Kompany for the last four games because Kompany didn't do anything to get dropped. We shouldn't rewrite history to suit a narrative. He was a central part of that title winning effort.
He made 24 appearances. To call him a central part of the title winning effort is a bit of a stretch.
24 out of 38 is a decent chunk, considering Pep regularly mixes up his starting lineup knowing he can afford to do so, even if they’re winning game after game.
But only played in 2 of the last 15. Make of that what you will.
For a glorified friendly I'm amazed at the quantity of fans that went out to Portugal.
Sky said this was England’s chance to win their first trophy since 1966 which I thought was overselling it a bit, shouldn’t it be in the same class as La Tournoi that England won prior to France 1998?
To be fair, despite not being a WC or Euros, we quailed out of a group of Spain and Croatia to even reach the finals. In fact on that basis alone you could argue it was harder than previous WC’s and Euro’s for us, but it’s certainly a step up from Le Tournoi in France.
For a glorified friendly I'm amazed at the quantity of fans that went out to Portugal.
Sky said this was England’s chance to win their first trophy since 1966 which I thought was overselling it a bit, shouldn’t it be in the same class as La Tournoi that England won prior to France 1998?
To be fair, despite not being a WC or Euros, we quailed out of a group of Spain and Croatia to even reach the finals. In fact on that basis alone you could argue it was harder than previous WC’s and Euro’s for us, but it’s certainly a step up from Le Tournoi in France.
Likewise for Netherlands to win it they will have won a group with Germany and France, then beat England and Portugal. Hardly a cake walk. Portugal would have had an easier run but all competitions have easier routes, England in Russia is often mentioned.
Why does Delph keep getting in? There is no element of looking to the future with him, there are so many better options that offer more going forward. You have Dier in there so you don’t need Delph too.
Queue hundreds of people complaining as it goes against England.
You're inviting defenders to go down easily though and everything looks worse in slow motion. It's a joke.
Pretty simple solution for a striker. Don't pull the defender's arm or shirt.
In that case maybe, but that's not the point I'm making. Champions League final saw the first blatant instance of someone playing for a handball, we'll have the same thing with minimal contact in the box - defenders playing for VAR
Queue hundreds of people complaining as it goes against England.
You're inviting defenders to go down easily though and everything looks worse in slow motion. It's a joke.
Pretty simple solution for a striker. Don't pull the defender's arm or shirt.
In that case maybe, but that's not the point I'm making. Champions League final saw the first blatant instance of someone playing for a handball, we'll have the same thing with minimal contact in the box - defenders playing for VAR
So how is that any different from diving to play on a refereeing error? Or a sneaky foul like Wilson did there to gain an advantage?
Queue hundreds of people complaining as it goes against England.
You're inviting defenders to go down easily though and everything looks worse in slow motion. It's a joke.
Pretty simple solution for a striker. Don't pull the defender's arm or shirt.
In that case maybe, but that's not the point I'm making. Champions League final saw the first blatant instance of someone playing for a handball, we'll have the same thing with minimal contact in the box - defenders playing for VAR
So how is that any different from diving to play on a refereeing error? Or a sneaky foul like Wilson did there to gain an advantage?
I would like to see that Wilson incident again in normal speed.
Could argue the two hands Mbabu had on Sterling were a foul in slow motion.
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Portugal would have had an easier run but all competitions have easier routes, England in Russia is often mentioned.
England XI vs. Switzerland: Pickford, Alexander-Arnold, Maguire, Gomez, Rose; Delph, Dier, Alli; Lingard, Sterling, Kane.
Switzerland XI vs. England: Sommer; Schar, Akanji, Elvedi; Mbabu, Xhaka, Freuler, Rodrigues; Shaqiri, Fernandes; Seferovic.
Not sure how Delph still gets in the side though. Henderson is a much better option than him or Dier. Wouldn't play Lingard ahead of Sancho either.
Why?
Just doesn’t make sense
Pickford
TAA, Maguire, Gomez, Rose.
Rice, Henderson.
Alli
Sancho, Kane, Sterling.
have they watched Kyle Walker play in an England shirt for the last 6 years?
If you slow down anything enough it’ll look like a foul, I don’t like it.
Queue hundreds of people complaining as it goes against England.
Could argue the two hands Mbabu had on Sterling were a foul in slow motion.
What England should be looking at is why they’ve created 7 or 8 golden chances and missed all of them.
I don’t rate several of the players in this team particularly highly, but they’ve done more than enough to win it. Sterling, however...