Your England Squad For This Summer (vs Romania page 27)

AndyG said:

cafcfan1990 said:

SELR_addicks said:

cafcfan1990 said:

Callumcafc said:

That’s a wind up surely 

It's not what I would have gone with but I can understand the logic. If Southgate goes with it, you have to question why White, Mings and Coady are all in the squad though. 

Exactly, why call up White if he's going to be behind two full-backs in the CB position? 

Agreed, Maguire not being fit leaves us with an issue, but Southgate must surely have either been planning this or Mings' performance put him off. Either way, if we play 1 CB in a back 3 when we have 4 fit ones in the squad it's ludicrous. 

Maguire not being fit creating an issue then it's a self inflicted one. He should have gone if they didnt know 100% imo. Also I wonder what price Henderson limps off during his first game and is out for the rest of the tournament?

Maybe, but Southgate still has 4 other CB's in the squad so there's absolutely no reason to only play one of them. If he's worried about us at the back (with good reason I feel) then he should play Rice and Phillips for me in CM. 4231 and still gives us 4 attacking options. He's going to go 523 with just the three. 

Brilliant. Let's go into a major tournament and play 2 players (Walker and Shaw) in a position neither of them have played all season, although i know Walker has played there before. As others have said why would you pick Mings/Coady/White if you're not going to play them when you have to.

I guess he could've been put off by Mings' performances last week but then why call up White not to play him? Also Coady plays in a back 3 for Wolves and has done well for England previously.

However i really do wish Southgate would stop worrying about losing games and go for wins. A back 5 with Rice and Henderson sitting in front is way too cautious with the players we have at the other end of the pitch. Given that Kane and Mount will start, that would leave just 1 other attacking option we can field from Foden/Grealish/Sancho/Rashford/Sterling, and we're playing at home!! Such a waste.

I wouldnt be surprised if the press have got it wrong about the team against Croatia - They were banging on about Alexander-Arnold being out of the team right up until the day before Southgate made his final selection and got proven wrong.

Either way, I still think we'll chop and change formations per game, dont think we'll stick to a single set eleven

If I was the manager, I would be saying I won't do things that I would consider doing to throw opponents off the scent. Mind you Southgate seems very honest and not the sort to do this. Although it could be a double bluff on his part . It certainly seems strange if he means what he says to publicly discount an option that could be forced on him depending on how things go.

I think we have to judge what we see on the pitch as I think throwing bluffs is a small thing but if it helps you even slightly it should be done. The objective has to be winning this tournament and we are playing teams that will have the attitude of winning it at all costs and that should be ours too.

stackitsteve said:

No idea why but I always enjoy watching the players arrive at St Georges Park.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PPerz8shvj0

Good group of players. Good atmosphere. 

colthe3rd said:

I've said it before but why is everyone getting worked up about something that hasn't happened yet?

Personally I don't think he will play 3 at the back, sure that was a preferred formation in the past recently though he's switched to a back 4 and given the questions over Maguire I think that's what will happen. Either way though I'm not going to get upset about whatever he selects until I've seen us play.

Exactly. I will dissect our performance and tactics after the game for days. But i give no attention to media hype before it. 

Just gotta trust that hes learnt lessons since 2018.

I'm not putting too much stock in it. It would be very odd for any manager to be openly disclosing their tactics and decisions for the whole tournament in advance and letting all and sundry know exactly how to play against that.

Bluff and double-bluff.

Listened to Guardian podcast and the "pundits" saying Grealish wouldn't make their side.

FFS

I'm not sure which other country can have a player man of the match in the two games immediately prior to the tournament and in five of his last six England games, including versus Belgium and it still be in doubt he should start.

It's genuinely what's wrong with football in this country at times.   What more are we expecting from him?!

Yet Tyrone Mings could genuinely start DESPITE being absolute dog shit in his last two games?!

MuttleyCAFC said:

The problem in this country is we have a player like Glen Hoddle and build the team around Bryan Robson. We have a player like Matt Le Tissier who always had to prove himself, and that was under Hoddle! We value things that don't give us an edge. The teams we play work as hard as us and are as fit as us so we have to be better than them. One development in recent years is we do have players than are up there with the best technically.

Probably deserves a separate thread, but is that as you say "the problem", or is/was it a pragmatic strategy based on the overall strengths/weaknesses of the squad?
FWIW. I would have have said yes to Hoddle and no to Le Tiss!!
Also, back then there was an argument that we expected too much of our flair players.
As Jon Barnes once said, "if I don't beat 5 men every time, I am a failure"

Six-a-bag-of-nuts said:

MuttleyCAFC said:

The problem in this country is we have a player like Glen Hoddle and build the team around Bryan Robson. We have a player like Matt Le Tissier who always had to prove himself, and that was under Hoddle! We value things that don't give us an edge. The teams we play work as hard as us and are as fit as us so we have to be better than them. One development in recent years is we do have players than are up there with the best technically.

Probably deserves a separate thread, but is that as you say "the problem", or is/was it a pragmatic strategy based on the overall strengths/weaknesses of the squad?
FWIW. I would have have said yes to Hoddle and no to Le Tiss!!
Also, back then there was an argument that we expected too much of our flair players.
As Jon Barnes once said, "if I don't beat 5 men every time, I am a failure"

My point with Le Tissier was more that he didn't get a chance. It was always he had to perform in this game or that and it probably didn't suit his personality. But I think he was worth trying to accommodate for what he offered. He should have got a run of games with the instruction that he had time to prove himself.

Although I am not claiming Darren Bent falls into this flair category, he did have pace playing on the shoulder of defenders which could have been very effective against a lot of international sides IMO. It was effective against the best defenders in the Premier League after all. When he got his England chance, you had players like Lampard and Gerrard doing absolutely nothing to play balls to his strength and he was expected to play a game which took his advantages away. It is about looking at something that could give you an edge and TRYING to integrate it, not expect it to fend for itself.

I'm not sure of the logic between us thinking we have a good chance of winning this tournament but then playing a load of defensive midfielders in order to 'contain' Croatia - i'm not saying we should go all guns blazing but the noises i'm hearing from the radio is that Croatia have some sort of supreme midfield that is a cut above and a draw will be a decent result? 

If Croatia play 3 in midfield and that is there strong point i would go:

pickford

walker - lb
stones -cb
mings - cb
chillwell - rb

rice - cdm
foden - cm
mount - cm

stirling - rm / rw
grealish - lm / lw

kane - cf 

what's happened to this site? can't even get an argument about an England line up !! I noticed our mayor said if you boo the players taking the knee, you can't be a  true England supporter - he clearly doesn't realize what he's said - certainly no politician