Great message Southgate is sending to players trying to get into the squad on merit. ‘Sorry, lad, you might be good but I can’t drop Maguire for you even though he’s not playing for his club and when he does he’s ****e because he drops half-decent performances against Andorra and San Marino.’
Moved abroad too soon then? Marcus Edwards seemed to have developed well enough, reckon he'll come back to England in the near future?
No because better players have emerged and Alli has fallen down the order. That hasn’t happened to Maguire in an England shirt.
Had a poor season last year at Milan. Still think he’s better than Maguire though. But with the amount of good English centre-halves who are playing every week for their clubs and performing well, it’s criminal Maguire still gets picked.
Aside from Tomori (who is in the squad) and White (who was sent home from the World Cup), which of these players has experience of playing at a higher level than the Premier League on a regular basis. Im not going to argue with you that these aren’t better than Maguire, you might very well be right. But calling up a squad full of players without experience is a risk Southgate doesn’t have to take. Don’t lose to Ukraine and we’ve pretty much qualified for the Euros and then we have lots of games to experiment. Scotland is a friendly on paper but it’s not really is it? With Stones out, I’m very happy Maguire is still there and I want him to start.
It's cool to **** on Maguire, but he's still England's best centre back after Stones, his England performances have never dropped (despite enormous pressure on him and a lot of people wishing for it to happen for a long time now) and he's still the guy that Guardiola really wanted before he went to Man U instead. He's just got caught up in the ****show that is Manchester United over the last few years. It's always been popular to say England should get rid of whoever the established players are. For years it was Sterling, but now he's been out of the squad for a few months he's back trendy again and people want him calling up. Laughable.
Harry you can almost justify, but Can anybody justify Phillips being in the squad....? Never plays at club level and has never done it for England.
It’s not about being cool. He’s ****, he’s been **** for a while and he’s not getting regular game time. Wow, Guardiola once wanted to sign him years ago. Does he want to sign him now?
I think that's harsh, he was good at the Euros. I can understand why Southgate called him up - the season hasn't really got started yet so you can't really judge the squad on this season's form so much. But at the same time, I'd have understood if he'd have been left out. I think Henderson moving to Saudi has meant Phillips probably was more likely to be called up. Southgate will need a back up to Rice, but won't be sure of Henderson's fitness so much as he's training with a new club.
Your right the season hasn't really started yet, so how about judging Phillips on last season.... He started 1 game in the prem
How is that relevant to how he's playing now though? Southgate knows how good he is and how he fits in the team, again the question is who is he going to call up that he is confident is massively better than Phillips? I'd be very surprised if Bellingham and Rice weren't our main starting midfielders for years to come. In club football we seem to accept that different players fit better into some teams than others, why is England any different? Just because Phillips might not be the best fit for the best team in the world, does that mean he's not the best fit for the England squad, a completely different team? I really don't understand why form is so important to England fans. Its an interesting way of judging sure, but there's so much more to consider.
