Okay, it's probably merely the case that Alli has been temporarily side-lined because of Kane's injury. But it's probably no coincidence that his being excluded comes at a time when he has suffered a general dip in form. Do you lads think his being excluded from the England starting XI is a good thing, and that it might encourage him to buckle down?
Extending the ITV pundit musings the other day, the England player pool divides into three groups. *** Specifically, players who : 1. will be in the starting XI if fit 2. will be in the squad 3. are in danger of not being included *** Who you may think is in which group is not necessarily what Southgate thinks (the usual buckling to the media mob howl, FA sponsor malarky etc) . So only those players who are in group 3 are really going to try and pull their finger out between now and season end. At the moment Alli IMHO is in group 2. And over the past two seasons, and to a lesser extent this one, he has earned sufficient credit to not be in group 3.
Dele hasn’t covered himself in glory for a number of reasons this season, but performance-wise he hasn’t been far off it and has worked hard from what I have seen. Not sure there’s too much ‘knuckling-down’ required. Southgate might not be every bodies choice for England coach, but he’s no fool and knows well enough that Dele is still head and shoulders above the likes of O-C. He was taking the opportunity to test a few others - even admitting that Dele would have appeared on a Tuesday if not for Stones injury. The WC will be the usual unmitigated disaster, but Dele will be there!!
It does make me wonder what the England line-up will be (injuries permitting). Southgate seems to have settled on 3-4-3 or 3-5-2 so.... Butland Walker Stones Gomez Trippier Dier Henderson Lingard Bertrand Rashford Kane Seems to be where he's going with Pickford Pope or Heaton Maguire Keane Jones Rose Young or Shaw Alli AOC Vardy Sterling This is my prediction of Southgate's selection. Not mine.
I'm sure the media will have their knives out for Southgate if he omits Alli from the WC squad just like they did when Hoddle left out Gazza in '98...
I hope Alli isn't as confident as we seem to be about his inclusion. I hope he wants to prove to Southgate that he should be a starter for game 1. Truth is he probably knows he's on the flight to Russia...however a bit of doubt might just focus him for our run in to the end of the season.
England don't have anywhere near enough good players to consider leaving him at home. If Southgate's willing to consider taking 'The Wheelchair' and Phil Jones but leaves Dele at home, he'll be getting it two times over when we get knocked out early, as is going to happen, no matter who he picks.
Not likely. His main competition in the squad is probably Lallalalalalalalalalalalalana and Barkley, both of whom are seriously lacking match fitness and are unlikely to clock up many miles between now and the end of the season. He's pretty much nailed on to start despite a pretty meh year. Same can be said about quite a number of England players unfortunately.
The clamour over Wheelchair is a strange one. He’s playing in a declining Arsenal squad and with a backlog of sicknotes that would make Darren Anderton blush. Yet the media is building him up into the prodigal son of English football! Arsenal are ****e for a reason, and he is one-eleventh of that reason.
Which begs the obvious question: which clubs with a lot of friends in the press is he signing for this summer?
The fact is that even a meh Alli (by his recent standards) has contributed more to his clubs' PL/UEFA competition performance to date this season than Wilshere has. The same for other players, some of whom will no doubt end up in the final squad even though their current season + past England performances do not justify selection.
Case in point, this is from yesterday's Standard please log in to view this image Is it even possible to make a non-insane argument for taking Hart, Rose, Wilshere or Lallana, to name but four? Even worse, this has led to additional doolally suggestions in response, such as Welbeck or Sturridge to go in place of Rashford.
Indeed. "Even worse, this has led to additional doolally suggestions in response, such as Welbeck or Sturridge to go in place of Rashford." I would be open to Southgate taking a couple of the best U19/U20/U21 talent this season along instead as wild-cards.
The sad fact is there is no one even remotely as good as Dele to suggest he'd have trouble getting in the England XI so long as he's fit - Southgate did mention the reason he wasn't involved much in the friendlies was due to having a slight injury that stopped him from training. Come the World Cup, he starts as long as he's not injured. I hope he raises his game for us, though, this has been his worst season performance-wise. First two seasons he was immense, often being a MOTM contender and producing bits of skill and magic, this season so many times I've been left dumbfounded at how he's lasted the 90 mins. That said his stats are still relatively impressive, he's the only Englishman inside the top ten of Prem assists (third, behind KDB and Silva) but he's had a poor return of goals with just five, considering last season he hit eighteen in the Prem and ten the year before. Starting with Sunday, it'd be an ideal time to rediscover that excellent form of the past two seasons.
Alli doesn't fit into the present formation preferred by Southgate. That seems to be a 3-4-3 with full backs playing on the flanks, two holding midfielder and two players either side of a central striker with pace. Alli is best as the player playing behind and around a central striker or in a midfield three with licence to get forward. However, does anyone really know what England's best formation or best XI is? It seems to change depending on any number of variables. Personally, I'd play a 4-2-3-1 with two holding midfielders, two wider players with pace and Alli reprising his Spurs role behind Kane.
Considering that Southgate plays Walker as a centre back in that formation, he comes across as someone who puts the system first and tries to hammer the players to fit into it - which has routinely led to disjointed performances from players being deployed in unfamiliar roles or positions, players getting marginalised because the manager isn't flexible so refuses to accommodate them, and at the end of the day when failure inevitably comes it just leads to resentment from fans because they needlessly fiddles about and it blew up in their face. Which reminds me, what's Juande Ramos doing these days?
Is Troy Deeney English? If he is I'd take him instead of one of the midfielders, We need to be able to bully the smaller clubs when we are 2-0 down after 75 minutes.
He's English and a pretty good shout. 3 forwards are not enough, no matter what. This is especially so, given that Rashford is still a wild card and Vardy's talents lie with him receiving the ball facing the goal. Having someone, in addition to flogging HK into the ground in every game, who can hold onto the ball would be a big addition given that we're not the best passing side.
