Owen, Heskey Certainly not carragher. Carragher was considered inferior as he rarely crossed the half way line as a full back yet here we are with walker who won't cross the half way line really. If you really look at the "best English players" we have had since 2000 then you'd.be looking at Glen Johnson. Pillioried at tournaments Carragher. Called a traitor for retiring. Gomez. Dropped (also injured a lot) No lb in that time. Milner the closest thing amd he was retired out Gerrard - consistently played out of position at 6 or lw or anywhere to accommodate lampard. Henderson - absolutely slaughtered every game by fans and pundits Ox. As above also injured Lallana. As above also injured Sterling. Not played till he left us Sturridge always injured Crouch. Also slaughtered until he left us at which point he then became this odd cult legend. Owen. England superstars until he left us then injured. Heskey. Also slaughtered for being too fat or slow when he wasn't. There's a every consistent theme here. It doesn't seek no matter where you come from in England, if you were an lfc shirt you are not welcomed as England fans. Some players seemingly can do no wrong when they are London based but they might be terrible.
Maybe we can change it around because we’ve got some really good young English players coming through - Quansah, Danns and Scanlon to name a few and Elliott could have been picked this time.
We will see. England fans love a scape goat. In fairness the online scum tore into saka last time so his London roots didn't save him from the racist scum Look at the list of hero's John terry Rio ferdinando Lampard Kane Look at the scapegoats Southgate (pizza hut paper bag) Beckham (later a hero then a zero again) Phil neville Saka Rooneys broken toe Scholes There always has to be a scapegoat so the cycle of rampant optimism can start again as soon as the world cup qualifiers roll round. As long as someone was to blame for not winning we will definitely win the next time
Anyway the build up continues in the sunshine in Germany with this game being an ironed on draw as that's all Slovenia need to progress. I can only presume they will sit off and England will continue in the same way they have been playing. Serbia v Denmark requires some level of Denmark win to take the top spot in the group if England do draw. A Serbia win (they have to) would put Denmark out. A draw puts both of them in the mix. Will anyone be brace enough to risk losing in order to win the Big prize?
So despite the fact TAA actually been one of most creative in his limited appearances so far, he’s the easy scapegoat to take out while foden continues to play wide left… even though he won’t stay there giving any width, trippier continues at Lb mainly cos we apparently have no left footed player in whole of England we could have chosen. Southgate just doesn’t rate TAA. He doesn’t know how to use his skill set in the line up and has almost been forced into it and now reverted to type. Stick a quick winger wide left who will actually stretch play, let TAA pick him out and spread the game or find those through balls behind.
I think he does rate him, otherwise he wouldn't have picked him ahead of so many other midfielders. However, he doesn't know how to set up a team, particularly one to get the best out of Trent. I mean, not one single player making runs ahead of Trent with which to use his range of passing. Not one.
England need to top group or they play Germany next... then potentially Spain in Quarters (if they can get past Germany)... then potentially France in the Semis (not that England would be likely to get that far). So three teams definitely out. One correct prediction so far. Croatia not 100% out yet but looking like it. Scotland, Albania, Poland
Don't how accurate this is... IF England finish 1st in Group C: vs Netherlands IF England finish 2nd in Group C: vs Germany IF England finish 3rd in Group C: vs Portugal
So, if we want to avoid being in the same bracket as France/Spain/Germany... need to finish 1st. Netherlands, so far, the only big team in the other half of the bracket. Besides Italy, not sure if they count as big team this year... they barely qualified.
Not sure if it can change, Netherlands are in third in their group so assume this could change depending on the "third place table"
It would be super amusing if Netherlands ended up on the other half of the table so we didn't have to play Germany, Spain, France, OR Netherlands until the final... Probably the only way we'll make the final!
England are playing alight. Why? Foden is going a bit wider. Thry opponent isn't able to hold the ball amd hurt them as much and they can also get the ball forward a bit easier. I have not seen too many nervy horrid passes miles away from the intended target in our own third shot just helps too.
Right now England top the group. It's not assured they play the Dutch either? Any goal confirms this group imo. Finishing 2nd to anyone out of this group from here will be poor. It will take a dnasih goal to make this happen amd this staying 0-0 Finishing 3rd by losing this gsme would be pathetic given the state of Slovenia going forward.
