Forgot about that and maybe he couldn't be persuaded. He has looked excellent in that central midfield role though.
I'll not comment on saying why the ones selected are bad - - that's shooting fish in a barrel. I'll just comment on the ones that you say should have been picked Sancho. Not seen much of him but he is very young. Lascelles: a good defender but not as good as we like to think Shelvey: has had half a good season. Southgate likes pace and power though, which is a reasonable enough preferance Tarkowski: is on stand by. I would have picked him above Cahill Lallana: is, at the moment, a crock. And on standby Wilshere: see above Milner: is the player that all former England managers got slated for picking, before he got old Bertrand: meh Not to have picked Tarkowski is arguable wrong. Not to pick Shelvey is dictated by the football you want to play. The rest ? Meh.
So Lascelles makes it to Opta Team of the Season (only other English player is Harry Kane) but doesn't make the World Cup squad
What style of football are we going to play with all these crabs? Slow sideways football wondering why none of our pace and tricky players are getting involved? More than anything else, why are we taking 6 full backs to a world cup Sorry there isn't a defence for this. At least not a credible one. He has literally managed to **** up selection worse than any England manager in history. That is an incredible achievement given our recent woes at international level. Perhaps I have it wrong and full backs are actually critical to success in modern football. Perhaps we will full back the other teams into submission.
Gareth Southgates starting 11: ---------------------------------------------------Pickford-------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------Cahill---------------------------------------------------- Walker-Trippier------------------------------------------------------------------------------Rose-Young -----------------------------------------------------Dier------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------Henderson---Alli------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------Sterling---------------------------------------------------- -----------------------------------------------------Kane-------------------------------------------------------- Revolutionary full back buddying system introduced. Takes the world cup by storm.
I always think you have to factor his personality in too. He will drag his team mates up to his level with his leadership qualities and intensity, even if he is just in and around the squad and not starting. The lad is a winner.
I don't like Southgate and think he is a crap manager but the judgement on his squad selection will be in how far the team gets in the world cup. Reach a quarter-final and they will have done well. Go out in the last 16 and it's a bit of a disappointment given we would play one of Poland, Senegal, Columbia and Japan. Edit: we would most likely meet Brazil or Germany in the quarters if we got that far so highly unlikely we would ever get any further
I must admit I think Alli hasn't been as bad as some suggest. I'm sure I read he had been directly involved in 31 goals this year. He probably set the bar pretty high. I think he is talented and is excellent at arriving in the box at the right time. He needs complete freedom to get the best from him. I like him as an option but he is a luxury as he is not some cultured playmaker.
The maddening thing is for me is England have the players available to get the most from Alli and Sterling. Neither will create much on their own but if you get the balance right elsewhere they can be very effective. Even if we ignored the bad picks and went with some of Southgates selections. Pickford Walker Rose Stones Maguire Dier Henderson Shelvey Sterling Alli Kane The use of Dier is crucial. His ability to drop in to make a 3 and act as a libero gives your team so much flexibility. It releases the full backs to give you width. Henderson could do the water carrying and breaking up of play. You then have Shelvey dictating the play and picking the passes. Alli and Sterling have complete freedom to create havoc and prevent us becoming predictable. Kane puts the ball in the net. Alternatively if you had Lallana available (Milner would have been ideal given he has broke record for assists in CL this season), he could step in for Henderson to bridge the gap between Alli/Sterling and the midifield to play the Eriksen or Silva role picking the holes. That would be your more attacking option for teams who sit deep and allow us possession. My main issue with Southgate is he has severely limited his own team selections with the types of players he has selected. Selecting so many full backs is weird to be honest. I think he must have had a curry with Pards last night and ended up taking on water. I'd have made Dier captain too. Give him the responsibility to dictate the shape depending on the game situation.
I know you're on one to be the one awkward ****er/voice of reason, but pace and power... what the **** are you talking about? What part of selecting Henderson or Delph is pace and power? If we actually played the game with pace and power, and picked fast and powerful midfielders, fair enough, but we never have in International football. Most of the pace options like Lingard are weak, and the rest are carthorses. They tick distance-run stats only. If we play slow build-up play (not really an if with England), then there is only three English midfielders in the country who can ping balls around and probe behind the defence with any accuracy, playing the Pirlo quarterback role (Drinkwater, Henderson and Shelvey), and Shelvey is by far and away the best of them. Southgate has sealed his own fate. We were never going to win the world cup, but now we will be lucky to win a game.
In that, I agree completely with the set up except I'd then swap Alli for Rashford all day long. Problem for me is Southgate clearly has no plan apart from swapping four at the back for three, then hoping for the best. There's no real tactical ideas or shape ahead of the defence - and, as a limited defender, that's probably why this is all he's looking at. Not sure what he is hoping to achieve with this tactical genius - everyone looking at the squad can see it, so I'm fairly certain competent international managers can see it. Such a shame - you hope England will do something different, because we're a crap team with or without a Shelvey in it. But to stick with safe passers is ludicrous. What's he expecting Sterling or Alli to do when there's nobody even close to De Bruyne or Erikson in the line up? Guys a complete loser. Always has been.
He's a simple minded bore-a-tron who has been given the senior management position via default. Stuart Pearce must be cursing his luck, because he did much better with the youth squads and he never got this chance. The funny thing is, some of the players not going, including Shelvey, may well seal big moves this summer which will put them in the frame for the next idiot we employ!
