Yeah Phillips was good at the Euros and it’s very difficult to displace players that have previously performed for Southgate and England, even if you’ve been injured all season or been in terrible form for your club. Southgate is also Mr. Safety First. He’ll play 5 or 4 at the back with 2 DMs, and JWP as adaptable as he is, and even with that weapon of a free kick, is probably not out and out defensive enough for Southgate. He’ll take Rice, Phillips, Bellingham and probably Henderson with JWP only likely to get in if one is injured imo.
I really wouldn’t expect too many changes from the euro squad apart from injury enforced ones. DCL might lose his spot to Abraham depending on form Sancho has lost his squad spot for the moment but it is not immediately obvious who too It will also depend on if they go back to 23 players from the 26. Not sure who falls out in that case. He does stick with players which is why Mings and Coady are still in. Mings isn’t good enough and there are probably at least two defenders who should be ahead of him. And Coady plays in a three (pretty much exclusively) which England might be moving away from
Rice? He's good at corners. (OK, we've done that - Mullered it) For the World Cup, I can confidently predict that JWP will either not be selected, or will go, but not be on the pitch, when England are given a free-kick in Prowsie territory. The free kick will hit the wall/be saved/hit the post, and all commentators will say 'James Ward-Prowse would have scored that'. Alternatively, JWP WILL go, will score, and all commentators will say 'He should be playing for a big team'. Oh, and the pope's catholic, and bears s**t in the woods
I don't think you can take someone for their set piece ability when they're not good enough to be on the pitch very much. Imagine the uproar if we needed a goal against say France, and Southgate brought Ward Prowse on.
I would take him ahead of Mount. I know it’s slightly different in terms of positioning, but you have Foden, Sancho and Bellingham who can all play the Mount role.
I know it's a bit late for him and he has a lot of competition but KWP should count himself very unlucky if he is not on the plane for the WC. He was superb again yesterday on the left.
Tbh, for this very reason I'd have JWP as a starter. I remember that match against Greece when Beckham scored to send us to the WC. Whilst everyone remembers that goal, what tends to get overlooked is the amount of free kicks Beck's had in that match prior to scoring. Greece had set their stall out to defend (much like they did during the Euro's when they won) and having a player with that ability in the team from the off gave us an extra attacking threat when our strikers were being nullified. For the same reasons, having JWP in the team could help us with those teams that are difficult to break down but also those defenders who know of his ability would be wary of giving away fouls in attacking positions which might give our attacking options more freedom.
There was obvious frustrations from Che, when he refused to hit that shot with his swinger. But there was a point on about 25 mins when he instinctively volleyed the ball out to the left flank to KWP i think - it made me think his all round play is genuinely very good, and if he was much better, he probably wouldn’t be playing for us.
That's a bit of a daft comment really when he got us to the WC semi final and Euros final just last year.
The same goes for a number of players. The pundit sell-off after a good result or individual players having a good game is irritating to say the least. I think I can say, Billy, it gets my goat.
I still think that the overall squad was lopsided, Southgate has done a great job but fans are still allowed to criticise him. In fact i'm sure that you personally have made negative comments about him before.
Love the silence between JWP striking the ball and the ball hitting the net. It gave the Leeds fans just enough time to think: "****".
If I remember correctly (no guarantee of that!) hadn’t Beckham received a lot of abuse from ‘fans’ and the press before that game? JWP is a lot more popular than Beckham at that time I think.
I think Prowsey is a lot stronger defensively than Beckham was and is worthy of a place in the WC squad.
