Okay, it's an all premiership CL and Europa final. Let's say all players with England caps play the full 90 minutes if both games and are knackered for the Nations League semi on 6 June. Let's also assume there are no new call ups. What's the best line up Southgate could put out ? I'd go: Rutland Walker, Stones, McGuire, Chilwell Gray, Rice, Lingard Sancho, Rashford, Sterling. Might even get a result. Mid-field is weak but the rest isn't bad. Shows quite impressive depth, really.
Personally with the future US of E, we might as well have a continents league. Imagine being involved in a game with Antarctica!
Pretty sure we'd get frozen out by their defence. They've got a decent first 11 too: ---------Emperor----------- King - Adelie - Chinstrap - Gentoo Rockhopper - Fiordland - Macaroni -Snares ------- Magellanic - Humboldt ------- None of them exactly fliers, and they haven't got much on the wing, but in wet conditions they're untouchable.
True Rice lives in the London area and Longstaff lives in the Newcastle area. On a more serious level whilst Rice is good I honestly don't think he is as good as reported on the few times I've seen him although admittedly that's not a lot. Longstaff may not currently be better than Rice but I think he has the potential to be better. Again it is also difficult to compare as they aren't the same kind of player.
Longstaffs got to put in a season before I'll judge him properly. Currently rice has demonstrated hes good enough for a sizeable amount of time imo. People are far too quick to start bigging up tripe and its foolish. As for potential it's a well known fact people make decisions based on their emotions and then seek evidence to justify their decisions....I have no emotion.
And finished 4th. Which is where they are in the FIFA Rankings. And the worst they could finish in the Nations League.
Okay. I say they comfortably beat the Dutch and that the final goes to.penalties. Care to nail.your colours to the mast ?
Holland are better than us I'll pick Holland winning. Also Germany Italy and all the other underperforming big guns will improve significantly in time for the next major and we will be out by last 16 at best .
For an Androminian, you are allowing "England is inherently ****e" bias to cloud your thinking. The Dutch are a team with some very good players but not objectively better than England's. Their best player and captain will also be playing 1 June. Their most exciting players are still very young. Nothing is certain but I would make England favourites. As for the Euros, now you are just being bitter. Germany et al will rebuild and be better. They are, however, 2 years behind England in the process. All of England's players are likely to be better next year than they are this year. Semi's at a minimum.
You're falling into the trap mate. England had the easiest run of fixtures we've had in a cup competition and we still struggled . All these irrelevant practice games mean nothing 2 years behind based on one bad competition? Id argue that's down to form firstly and timeframes are pretty irrelevant when it comes to development unless you're dealing with clones. England are looking closer currently I'll agree , but the notion that we will be even closer in 2 years is short sighted because lets be honest the big countries had a bad year 2018 england had an easy run and they've got some confidence from it thats all.
Adromiman: I've numbered your points. 1. Agreed that the World Cup fixtures and results proved only that; a. England weren't utter crap, and b. They were trying hard. 2. The Nations League games weren't irrelevant practice matches. It was clear to anyone watching that Spain and Croatia wanted to win. The euro qualifiers were much easier games but don't detract from having knocked out Spain and Croatia. 3. The 2 years behind is not based on one competition so much as that the competition marked the end a group of established players who had passed their sell by date. The existing squads have been largely chucked and replaced with younger players. This will yield results. It is something Southgate was doing for a year or so before the World Cup, hence the "2 years (maybe 1.5) behind" comment. Bringing on younger players and gelling a team nearly always takes time, so when you start is relevant. 4. All of England's players are younger than the average prime age for a footballer of about 27 - 30. You would expect all of them to improve as they approach their prime. Therefore you would expect all of Englan's players to be better 1 or 2 years from now (as will, for example, the majority of the Dutch squad). It is, of course, possible that some of the other European countries will improve even faster. My only comment was that England's players can be expected to improve and, therefore, they should be expected to do no worse in a year or so than they have currently shown themselves, being about the final four.
