Despite the early signs in his tenure being positive.... Southgate has again fallen into the inevitable England manager black hole of making something relatively easy, so very very difficult by not choosing players on form, by choosing the big club players despite them being injured or not in form.... and continuing the trend of slightly bizarre decisions. All of the decisions have left me feeling as I have before with other managers.... just not fussed either way. We don’t yet know our best team and we have no style of play that is consistent. It’ll be same old same old.... we’ll flatter to deceive.
I am irritated with the selection, but if he does well then fair play. Just on the face of it, the squad looks unbalanced and choc full of players with questionable fitness. Which I suppose makes it the same as every other England squad at a major tournament.
Let us be honest England are as big a routine let down as Saints. They build up your hopes and then dash them.
JWP has filled in at right-back for Southampton on a number of occasions. If England needed a 4th choice right-back, but primarily a good deep-lying midfielder with a speciality in set-pieces, he should have been picked.
I don’t think England will be ****. No idea. I decided Southgate is **** long ago, from his managerial record and from the squads he picks. Much as I think Chris Coleman, or Mark Hughes are ****. And I think you’d agree with the latter ‘before a ball has been kicked’, no? Keen to know how that makes me ‘ignorant’.
It’s coming home. Today I have a sign. We are getting our new lawn laid today and the two young lads digging it up are called Harry and Kane. Harry Kane is doing our lawn. "He's doing our lawn, he's doing our laaawn, Harry Kane is doing our lawn" #ICH
Just thinking about the very large possibility that the likes of Foden and (in particular) Grealish will win a lot of fouls around the box. Now, if only we had someone who was fit, and a free kick expert in the squad - that could be a really powerful advantage.
TBF even if JWP was in the squad he wouldn't be a starter. Having said that, if we had a free kick 25 yards out in the last few minutes needing a goal JWP's right peg would have been an excellent weapon off the bench. Southgate really is thick. In a tournament, having someone of Prowsie's ability from a dead ball could make all the difference.
I don’t think you include a player in the team simply because you might win a dangerous free-kick at some point. Not when you have the attacking quality that we have. Sure Prowsey is a weapon from 25 yards but if he weakens the midfield over the whole 90 minutes, it isn’t worth it.
No, I do agree, and was making the point slightly tongue-in-cheek. He's a funny one is Prowsey, if he could add a more decisive/incisive element to his midfield play, he'd be some player. I don't think he's a lot worse than any of the other midfield options (and the Phillips/Prowse difference is minimal). I'd have found a place for him because he can bring that extra element into play as well. Drop Trippier out, bring in Prowse to bolster the midfield options (particularly with Henderson's fitness being questionable - you can't afford to have someone 'getting up to fitness' in a tournament). I wouldn't have had a problem with Bellingham being left out either - massive talent, but not sure if he's completely ready yet. Still, there might be injuries in the warm up games. Who knows?
Agree with all that. To be fair I think we're missing a trick not at least having JWP on the bench, just in case... I haven't seen enough of Phillips, Rice or Bellingham to give a fair comparison. But yeah, Trippier is a daft choice.
For those wondering why players not in the final 26 are available and will feature in the warm up games, this is because Man City, Chelsea & Man u were all in european finals and their players are not yet with the squad. So we are about 8 players down. Seems sensible to me.
