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World Cup 2022: England squad features Maddison, Rashford and Wilson - BBC Sport
Personally I wouldn't have taken:
Phillips
Maguire
Gallagher
Sterling
Henderson
Grealish
His team will be:
Pickford
Trippier
Maguire
Stones
Dier
Shaw
Rice
Bellingham
Saka
Sterling
Kane
So seven defensive players. It'll be like watching Spurs.
I agree I'd not take Maguire (out of form, and how you pick him over Fikayo Tomori I have no idea), Grealish (over-rated and never showed it for England) and Philips (not been playing). I would have not been bothered to not take Sterling or Henderson either. He better not play Henderson over Maddison!
The more I look at it the more boring it looks. Where's the magic? The stardust? Who's going to win us a game with a bit of genius? Who's going to get me out of my seat? It won't be Maddison as he won't play. There literally isn't anyone.
It's such a pragmatic and boring selection.
Can't wait until it is all over and we get back to proper football in the form of the Premier League
The boy Southgate is a total plum…Quote:
Originally Posted by TaketheCannoli
Way too defensive …. I expect us to bore our way to a quarter final where we get dumped out by a better team
I’m not remotely excited for this World Cup
I wouldn't have taken:
Maguire - lacks the awareness & positioning of a top defender - & he's glacially slow by today's standards.
Sterling - lost his goal scoring knack since Chelsea move ( maybe not getting the same service - & he won't get it with England either)
Phillips - not played, looked rusty v Chelsea last night - passing accuracy not up to par & gave the ball away too often
Grealish looked good against Chelsea last night.
I think he was (or felt) unleashed with the youngsters around him, rather than how he plays with the first team.
On that basis I think he might look better for England ( than he does in City first 11 where he seems to limit himself )
z
This ^ the whole thing is just so wrong on so many levels:confusion:Quote:
Originally Posted by ryanb741
Also true...Quote:
Originally Posted by mart broad
z
Agree.Terribly uninspiring.Quote:
Originally Posted by TaketheCannoli
There's been plenty of revalations about Blatter and his FIFA crime family.
The awarding of World Cups has been bent for decades. None more so than the current Qatar tournament.
You can re-live it on the Netflix series below.
https://amp-theguardian-com.cdn.ampp...fa-uncovered-r
What sticks in my craw is the rank hypocrisy of the football authorities, players and media who espoused the taking the knee and support of BLM, but who are happy to hold their noses and take the Danegeld of the despots in Qatar.
The sooner we get knocked out in the quarter final the better.
Same crap, different game!
Blimey. It's not taken you very long to get gobby, has it?Quote:
Originally Posted by TaketheCannoli
FTFY :angel4:Quote:
Originally Posted by zelig
Going to have to put up with England flags on white vans and in the windows of houses in somewhat less salubrious areas of town.
Then fighting outside pubs once we get knocked out.
Haha, sorry 😞
Quote:
Originally Posted by learningtofly
I won’t be supporting England by virtue of where they are playing. Clearly money trumps morals. Disgusting!
I couldn't care less who he takes - it's a world cup free household this year.
At least it'll save us suffering the inevitable disappointment after investing our time and emotion, only to be crushed by pedestrian play and lack of tactical ingenuity.
Out of interest who would you have taken instead of the above 6?Quote:
Originally Posted by TaketheCannoli
I'd take Sterling, he's generally performed better for country than club for the last couple of seasons and he was our player of Euro 2021 for me.
I'd also take Grelish, he's not been quite the same player at club level since joining Man City but he's still been decent for England.
Maguire should be nowhere near the squad and Gallagher hasn't had a great season so far either.
Philips is worth a punt given his previous England performances. I hope we get to see Maddison get a decent chance in the team too.
Overall I think this squad is a little worse / off form in comparison to the Euro 2021 squad. I'm not confident at all given our issues at Center Back and recent results but then I was very pessimistic before the Euros too!
The man who said he’ll pick on form subsequently picks several players out of form.
I’m tempted to have £20 on them not getting out the group stages.
It's all academic anyway as Southgate said, "We'll probably only get to quarter finals".
No spirit at all, no passion. 😐
Having reflected overnight my picks, based on form, would have been:
I see the point of Phillips now for cover
Burn or Tarkowski for Maguire. I'm pretty sure there isn't another Top 10 country that would have Maguire anywhere near a WC squad. It's embarrassing.
Gallagher - I think he's only there because there isn't any anyone else!
Toney or Abraham for Sterling
Henderson - don't need any more cover there so take another forward or defender
Grealish - unsure. He's not performed for club or country. Like Gallagher, he's lucky to be in
Quote:
Originally Posted by watchcollector1
Hard to feel confident about having Maguire and Stones at the heart of the defence. Pleased to see Coventry's Wilson going, but I'd have been genuinely interested in seeing Toney have a go alongside Kane and leave Rashford behind.
Quote:
Originally Posted by redsox78
To be fair Southgate as hardly ever started him. If Grealish had played from the start against Italy we would have won it. One thing Grealish gets you is plenty of free kicks around the box.
I think these two statements contradict each other. I agree he travels towards the box at pace and gets a lot of free kicks. However, I think the reason he's fouled a lot elsewhere on the field is that he doesn't read the game quickly enough. He's thinking when, and after, he receives the ball rather than being ahead of the game and knowing what he's going to do. So I think saying we'd have won that game is a massive stretch.
Quote:
Originally Posted by hilly10
Southgate is just terrible, he will start Sterling and Maguire for sure. Toney should have gone, he needs to start playing in form players not just his favourites.
I wouldn't have taken Saka, White or Ramsdale. Much rather keep them fit and rested for when the Premier League returns
Pickford must have back ache from picking the ball out of the net recently
And that’s quite a challenge with little arms.
Quote:
Originally Posted by thegreatdogwood
😂😂Quote:
Originally Posted by thegreatdogwood
Managers always take their tried and trusted players, however out of form they may seem to be.
Ronaldo hadn't scored for Brazil in 3 years before 2002. Pogba was pretty poor for Man Utd leading up to the 2018 WC and had an excellent tournament. Iniesta had been injured for most of the 09-10 season but scored the winner in the final. Schweinsteiger was Germany's stand out player in 2014 but had been rubbish for Bayern and everyone thought he was past it.
I guess with relatively little time to work with player (particularly this year) a manager isn't going to rely on a player they haven't worked with regularly. I know Maddison has a place in the squad but I doubt he'll get more than 10 minutes on the pitch.
Mings for Maguire. The whole Villa squad has had a really tough time of it with Gerrard pretty much guaranteeing most of them won't be selected for their World Cup squads, with some players who've previously played for their national squads not being given a chance. But back to Mings, England didn't lose when he played, and have lost (or drawn?) every match since he was dropped. On the plus side, new manager and most of the squad having a nice holiday somewhere sunny and then back for a few weeks of training. We've just beaten two top ten teams in ManU and Brighton, next up a couple of top four teams in Liverpool and Spurs.
Incidentally I have no interest in the men's World Cup, roll on the women's one next year. Six weeks of boredom with no Premier League, I'll be watching a few Championship matches.
I think Southgate has chosen solid players most of whom have played on big stages before. Better than flash in the pans IMO.
World cup is a lot different to the Premier league.
I think all is clear now why Ivan Toney didn't play in the last set of fixtures nor was selected for the World Cup!
All bets are off in his case😉Quote:
Originally Posted by ryanb741
[emoji1787][emoji1787][emoji1787]Quote:
Originally Posted by seabiscuit
Yes, better to be knocked out with safe experienced players who haven't been playing well (or, in Maguire's case, very much at all) than risk taking in-form players who might do something.Quote:
Originally Posted by Neil.C
Quote:
Originally Posted by Foxy100
Or, another way of looking at it, take a group of players that you know well, know the system and what's expected of them and hope they come into some form rather than spending the minimal amount of training time they have trying to embed a load of unknowns (to you) who happened to have had a good couple of months in the Premier League.
Given that the squad size is increased I think there was probably room for a few 'riskier' selections but you wouldn't be looking to use those as anything other than last 15 'finishers'.
Exactly.Quote:
Originally Posted by Meesterbond