Sad that this thread is relevant again, but here we are. Troy Parrott's been called up for the Ireland squad, as the September internationals rear their ugly head to **** up everyone's pre-season. The Republic face Bulgaria on Thursday 3rd and Finland on Sunday 6th in Nations League matches. Home nations fixtures: England: Away to Iceland on Saturday 5th at 5pm. Away to Denmark on Tuesday 8th at 7.45pm. Scotland: Home to Israel on Friday 4th at 7.45pm. Away to Czech Republic on Monday 7th at 7.45pm. Wales: Away to Finland on Thursday 3rd at 7.45pm. Home to Bulgaria on Sunday 6th at 2pm. Northern Ireland: Away to Romania on Friday 4th at 7.45pm. Home to Norway on Monday 7th at 7.45pm. Not sure if any travel bans or the like affect any of this stuff. Timing seems really, really ****, though.
Three right-backs, Dier as a midfielder, no Grealish and he's included Maguire, who has other things to concentrate on. Poor.
Very odd squad from Southgate. Omitting Grealish and Jordan Henderson (is he injured?) is very odd. Even odder is listing Dier as a midfielder and no LBs.
He's not back in training yet, as he's still on holiday, for some reason. We should just say that all of our player are, too.
I imagine in instead of Henderson. The lack of LBs just astonished me tbh. Are you telling me there isn’t a single one who isn’t injured or on holiday?
Danny Rose will be fuming!! But Saka at Arsenal played LB at times, as did Maitland Niles, and there is the bloke at the spammers whose name escapes me
Aaron Cresswell, off the top of my head. Not a great player but better than playing someone out of position IMO. But seriously what about Chilwell, Shaw, even Ryan Bertrand at Southampton. Are they all injured? My guess is that we’ll now play TAA at LB and Walker at RB.
Shaw and Chilwell are both injured but Bertrand is a good shout better than Cresswell whose last England appearance lasted about 5 minutes in which time we lost a 2 goal lead v Spain
Charlie Taylor at Burnley? Brandon Williams at Man Utd? Rico Henry at Brentford? Mings out of position, where he's played pretty poorly in the past.
I’ve been a fan of Southgate for England but that really is an odd squad. No natural LB albeit Mings can play there and the midfield just screams mediocrity with the exception of Foden, who himself is still a long way from being at his peak. Forwards are good though.
I think the ideal midfield for England is a deep player (Winks if you expect a lot of possession, a more natural DM like Rice or Phillips if you don’t), a box to box man like Henderson, and then a creative player like Grealish or Foden. I don’t have a problem with our options anywhere on the pitch really, when everyone’s fit, sure the midfield could be a bit better but it has worked against good teams. The below XI is strong. But this current squad selection baffles me. D Henderson TAA Gomez Maguire Chilwell J Henderson Winks Grealish Sancho Kane Sterling
I do love the fact that Winks and Dier being selected sticks in the throats of so many (almost all) of the morons who are tweeting on all of the associated posts. Winks of course was man of the match last time England played, but no one remembers that, and Southgate trusts Dier to follow his instructions better than other more 'talented' players. I know that neither has shown the best form but International form has to come into the equation and on that score they both have credit in the bank. Southgate has always been loyal to his players and I know in an ideal world players would always be picked on current form, but if a player has done well for you in the past that must count for something.
