We really need someone to claim that 3rd midfield role.
Going in with either Henderson or Phillips is going to be trouble.
Rice should be a good enough holding midfielder to play 2 more adventurous midfielders with him. Bellingham as the box to box and someone like Maddison as the most advanced midfielder I think would be fine
Whilst I completely agree, history suggests that Southgate won't consider that the case.
The usual England bias is strong on commentary tonight, Rashford mis-controls the ball and has to race on to it, then loses it easily to an Italian player, but because he's English and can do no wrong, they mention how "three players had to stop him" even though it was just one player Rashford ran up to and was then tackled by.
Same thing happens with club football, of course, but with international sport they dial it up to 11 and it's almost insufferable
The way I saw that VAR involvement, there was an angle that wasn't conclusive on whether the Italian defender made contact with the ball. I don't blame them for making absolutely sure.
Malta are beating Ukraine. If both results stay the same, England would be qualified for next summer tonight.
Never mind - Ukraine equaliser. England need to better their result to guarantee qualifying tonight.
don't we qualify if we beat malta regardless?
Four points from our last three games means we don't have to care about any other results. I was just talking specifically about what has to happen for us to qualify tonight before playing Malta and N.Macedonia next month.
Edit: technically our goal difference is so good compared to Italy and Ukraine that three points against Malta as you say would likely be enough, though not mathematically guaranteed.
Comments
Trippier - out of position
Maguire - never plays
Phillips - never plays
Stones - only just coming back from injury
Rashford - seriously out of form
Basically we're relying on Bellingham, Kane and possibly Foden to do something.
Why?
It's a penalty, but let's not gloss over the fact that most of the time these players are taking a 20 yard touch in these situations
Never mind - Ukraine equaliser. England need to better their result to guarantee qualifying tonight.
Same thing happens with club football, of course, but with international sport they dial it up to 11 and it's almost insufferable
I think it's why many people like Roy Keane, because he has the balls to actually be critical of Man United despite being a club legend there
Four points from our last three games means we don't have to care about any other results. I was just talking specifically about what has to happen for us to qualify tonight before playing Malta and N.Macedonia next month.
Edit: technically our goal difference is so good compared to Italy and Ukraine that three points against Malta as you say would likely be enough, though not mathematically guaranteed.