It’s the perfect balance. Foden advanced, Bellingham box to box and Rice sitting. We should be getting as many Pep and Arteta players in the side at a time.
In a recent interview Pep said he was aware of Foden's desire to play more centrally, but that he'd have to improve the defensive side of his game if he was to play there for Man City in the future.
Man City are playing very good sides week in, week out though. England are playing teams like Scotland, Slovenia, Albania. It would be a good time for Foden to flourish and grow into the role
It's a good problem to have, he's clearly a great player, though he's often looked not looked as good for England as he has for his club (last night aside). He's not alone, I think there's several who fall into that category, Mason Mount, Jaden Sancho, Reece James, Connor Gallagher.
I wouldn’t say we dropped deeper or slowed the pace down when Maguire came on. Dunk is a master of just standing with the ball until someone either closes him down or he’s sees the movement in front of him that he likes. It probably felt slower as the Scottish fans were making a racket whenever he had the ball and cheered when he released it. Up until his own goal the Scot’s had been cheering Maguires 100% pass completion rate (and they weren’t all sideways or backwards). If he hadn’t scored an own goal there wasn’t much wrong with his 45 minute appearance. The ridiculous nature of social media creating meme’s or jumping on a trending bandwagon has really ballooned the ridiculous criticism of his performances. That being said, he shouldn’t have been selected in the first place.
It’s gone on record Maguire receives the most hate out of any player globally, and that’s largely been due to being at United. The fact he wants to stay says a lot about his mental resilience, but **** knows from a career standpoint why he’d want to. He’s 4th choice FFS
But we haven’t done well have we? Lost to Croatia after going ahead in Russia, then lost 3rd place play off v Belgium, lost in the Euro final at Wembley to Italy after going ahead, lost to France in 2022 whilst leaving the most fouled player, Grealish, on the bench until Stones got injured in the 98th minute That’s failure in three tournaments, the **** should have walked after Italy and deffo been sacked after France.
I certainly think the one that really got away was the euro final. Southgate just wouldn’t let the young uns of the leash. Against an aging Italian defence he should have gone for it. Saka was nearly assassinated when he left the Italian defender for dead( should have been a straight red but that’s another debate). We really could have won that one with more positivity. In the end he brought youngs kids on to take the penalties. That for me is Southgate’s Achilles heal. Negativity.
I think he needs a loan out to someone higher than York, before he gets in the first team, just look at Vaughn last year, he made 6-7 appearances towards the end of the season, but isn’t really getting a look in with all the new signings. I think Bolton or another top L1 side would suit both Bellingham & Vaughn so they can learn their trade & get decent amount of games under their belts.
I will give you France possibly better, but we went ahead against Croatia and Italy battering them both, then Southgate did a Bruce and tried to sit on the lead., I doubt there’s a person apart from you, who thought England should have won all three of those games
This is a popular view but be pragmatic and look at how other teams do. Brazil can't be accused of being negative, they played four out and out attackers in every game at the World Cup, ended up being ground down by a much weaker but much more savvy Croatia side despite going ahead late on. They let Croatia back in by being caught stupidly on the counter with far too many bodies up the field while already ahead. Southgate's England consistently get further in tournaments than sides like that, and than any other England team in history save for '66 of course. It isn't a coincidence. He has a plan that works, and it involves sometimes leaving flashy but realistically less effective players on the bench. Call it negative if you like but it's effective, and it's got us far more success, goals and great moments than we ever had in the 20 years before him.
I actually concur with what you say. Southgate does get us further in tournaments consistently than ever before and it’s a great thing. What I am puttImg forward is the final push which I feel was there in the Euro final. We were definitely going for penalties and it blew up in our faces. I just feel the match was there to be won. It wasn’t and I genuinely feel it was an opportunity lost. Southgate has organised a team and style to make us very hard to beat. I would love it for him to bring a trophy home and it could well be. Against France he let England attack and it could have gone either way. Maybe he has looked at it differently and realises we are good enough. For me only France can stop us winning next year. Time will tell.
We really didn’t deserve to lose against France, you can hardly accuse us of being negative, after a shaky first few minutes and going behind, we battered them all game long, controlled the game, missed a load of sitters and then typically got hit by a sucker punch. Didn’t Kane miss a penalty?
Harry Maguire's mother, Zoe, has taken to social media to defend the "disgraceful and totally unacceptable" abuse her son continues to receive. She wrote on Instagram: "As a mum, seeing the level of negative and abusive comments which my son is receiving from some fans, pundits and the media is disgraceful and totally unacceptable to any walk of life never mind someone who works his socks off for club and country. "I was there in the stand as usual, It's not acceptable what's been created, over nothing. I understand that in the football world there are ups and downs, positives and negatives but what Harry receives has gone far beyond 'football'. "For me seeing him go through what he's going through is not ok. I would hate to have to see any other parents or players go through this in the future, especially the young boys and girls breaking through the ranks today. "Harry has a massive heart and it's a good job he's mentally strong and can handle it as others may not be able to. I wish this sort of abuse on nobody." via BBC
It's not a good look when your mam comes to fight your battles when you are 10. Insert picture here of a nearly 30 year old Harry going, aw mam don't do that.
