I'm all for a manager trying new things in a pointless game like that was btw but not start a striker is ridiculous England have 3 good strikers at the minute so give watkins or solanke a start, they'll help the flair players If I was in charge I'd of probably tried something a bit different, I'd of play Saka at LB. He's played there before n done well, would give better width then I'd of started Watkins up front n played Bellingham alongside Rice with Palmer in front n Foden on the right (those last 2 can rotate as they see fit) When Mainoo is fit I'd have a CM 3 of bellingham Rice n Mainoo, stop fitting players in n play a system that fits n having 3 players that can press n cover the ground would suit England Anywhere buzzing to get out n scout Scotland u21 vs Belgium U21s tonight
Didn't even know England were playing until I saw the score on the news last night! Totally lost interest in international football but gutted we don't play for another week. It's a funny old game
As long as the natural position idea doesn't end with us playing players who just aren't at international level (such as Gordon) that's fine International football has more inherent compromises than the club game. Most of the time countries end up having to live with using a more talented player in a less-than-ideal position. Sometimes that is down to availability of alternatives. Sometimes that is just playing a more contained role to compensate for the talent of another player in the team. Maybe the fact that this hits England so much is in part an issue with English football academies? We go through phases of creating the same sort of player. How long were we waiting for a left footed creative attacking type? Now we've got far too many - although being back to wishing for a left back is familiar. It's not just England, though. Even that Spain team is making do to an extent up top. And the Germans can't get a striker working for the life of them. Ultimately it's a balance. We shouldn't ever try to shoehorn 5 attacking midfielders into one team just to pander to talking heads again, for sure. But in the end the reason Spain are able to be so well-balanced is that their good players happen to fit in a well-balanced way. It's not like they left out a tonne of megawatt star players in order to play players in their correct positions.
Was Pickford really bad last night? Never saw any of it but looking at media frenzy he ,ustve been terrible!
He had one horrendous wobble that meant he lost his head and continued into the few minutes after (the clearance off the line followed by the offside goal). Didn't think he was noticeably bad after that tbh - but post-match opinion is usually built on memorable moments and that was a shocking few minutes for the lad
Football media is almost universally stupid. We didn't lose last night because of the goalkeeper. It wasn't really because of the lack of striker either - or the performance of the defence (although they were far from great). The issue all game was the midfield, if we could even call it that. It was an absolute disaster.
Stuck the Gillingham v Accrington game on because I’ve got family from that way, it’s 2024 and I’m now voluntarily watching Donald Love play football, life’s peaked Jonny Williams on the bench too, like a fever dream this
Reece James is playing for Rotherham in the one I'm watching. Grigg and Bass were playing in the early KO. Grim
Rotherham haven’t had a great start. Thought they’d be right up there with Evans and the signings they made in the summer.
