So, Marco becomes England Manager. Would Chabs start? Is Rashford a like for like swap for our Boy from Brazil? Would Andre and Tom start? Do we have an English Kiko? Who is the nearest England has to never give the ball away? So, interested to see your thinking of English upgrades or downgrades to play in a national team managed by Marco
Out with the old in with new Pick a squad of players that have something to prove and would wear the shirt with pride, rather than the sorry sack of **** we normally pick
Barring Harry Kane I think we have to accept this generation of English footballer is not particularly good
I think for some nations playing for your country can change your life , with players being plucked from obscurity and poverty to playing in the prem on 40k+ a week , a real incentive to perform. For England you are only going to play if you are already in the prem, if you are in the prem you are already being paid 40k+ a week and may be more interested in your club than your nation. If we would include a few championship players in the squad they would have something to prove I’m sure we would see a greater thirst for victory
Agree. If there was a European squad of 30 announced then only Kane and Alli would get in. We just have a generation of very very ordinary English players at the moment. Unfortunately the more money that gets pumped into the Champions League and the greater the desires to buy ready made players the less development there is for younger footballers.
I rate Winks, Alli, Butland, Pickford, Rose and Lallana to be honest. The rest are overrated trash... Especially Rashford, Sterling, Walcott and Oxlade.
At the end of the day it has to boil down to talent, this is the worst group of England players I have ever known
How we didn't win anything under Beckham, Owen, Rooney, Rio, Lampard, Gerrard et al, I will never know... At least they had an appearance of giving a shít about who they are playing for! Alli seems to be more bothered about sticking fingers up and waving, whilst Rashford seems to be the kind of bloke who goes back to school the next day boasting about everything he has done and will do etc etc. No sense of character from this team... And it's sad to say that I enjoyed watching that Wales v R.Ireland game last night far more than any match England has been involved in this year; including that pathetic performance against the Scots. It's not that our players aren't good enough, it's simply because they have the wrong attitudes
I have no idea where you get that impression of Rashford. I think he is England's best attacking asset aside from Kane, with the exuberance and confidence of youth - a bit like Richardson for us. Unfortunately he plays in an era and for a club where a lone striker is the thing. He should be learning and developing his game playing off the shoulder of the central defenders, like Owen used to, preferably in a partnership, not coming off the wing. He also strikes me as level-headed and modest.
Rashford is absolutely quality, works very hard and is extremely level headed for an England / United player. If you don’t rate him, you’ll basically rate no English player from this point forward and you deserve the perenial dissapointment you inevitably face.
I do think that there are some very good youngsters coming through, there are only a handful of decent older players like Kane. Unfortunately until the FA appoint an attractive football minded manager, these players won't get the opportunity to shine.
I don't see Alli getting anywhere near a European 30 man squad, neither in terms of his fundamental all round game, nor in the terms we'd have to consider, of the players from other European countries in similar positions pushing him out. Germany alone would provide enough players to exclude him. We say this generation doesn't have much talent, and it's possible that we are lacking compared to certain previous eras, sure, but frankly our squad is more talented than it was 2 years ago, or 4. Our current dismal performance level owes as much to weak, uninspired management and the general England hoodoo/curse/nonchalance as it does the players level of talent. We could be performing better than we are.
After 50 odd years of disappointment, I doubt rating a player matters that much in terms of seeing success. As for Rashford, if you think that he's 'absolute quality' then you buy into the big club mentality just like the rest of the England supporting chumps. He plays for Man Utd, so he must be good.
They'd all be **** too though. There were loads of better players around than that lot back then. The only world class player we had was the one you didn't even mention, scholes. That's it.
There are slim pickings for an England coach but plenty of other countries are more than the sum of their parts. We're consistently less than ours. The problem is Southgate (and the previous managers). Southgate is the classic FA pick, someone who sees what the current tactical fad is and tries to copy without understanding why it works and if he has the right players. He started off playing 4-2-3-1 because that's how everyone was playing, now he's said to want to play three at the back at the World Cup, presumably because Chelsea were successful with it last year. Add to that his seriously drippy personality and you can see why we play the way we do. If Silva took charge of England, we'd still have the same crap players but we'd play to a well thought out game plan, with a positive attitude. And I'm pretty sure Chalobah would be ahead of Jordan bloody Henderson in the pecking order.
And I thought during that era everyone was moaning with Sven as the manager for example they were more interested in the limelight off the pitch hence not quite achieving what they could. Remember all those issues with the WAGS in 2006 at the World cup. I think Rashford is pretty decent but seems to be playing out wide now rather than up front where he first came into the Man U team. Goodness knows whose idea is was to put Sterling in midfield as the number 10 - he can only play as a winger. And yes we do need more creative players in midfield - what is the betting one of Dier/Ali or Henderson get sent off next summer. Ali will already have his name marked.
The F.A are responsible for killing three things, the England national team, the F.A cup and a good day out at Wembley
Rashford is certainly a high quality player, but I agree that many players have got into the England team just because they play for Man U, including our own Tom Cleverley. It makes me laugh when Jesse Lingard is referred to as a 'promising young player' when he is nearly 25! Anyone who is really going to be a top player should be getting into their club's first team at 18, like Rashford did.
Don't think the FA have much say in that? They would probably love to have some sort of quota system or restricting number of overseas players in a team.
Rashford isnt overated in the Slightest, Someone Like Wilshire who is both awful and always injured getting into the England squad with on like 6 games and 1 good appearance is beyond me, Same With Sturiddge. "Oh on there day Wilshere/Sturiddge can open up a game and be something different" , What a load of ********.
Agreed and as posted in the England thread, Lee Dixon started going on about Wilshere being the answer to England's midfield 'problem' after a couple of Europa League games against Kazakhstan's version of the Dog and Duck. I see nothing in Rashford that makes me think he isn't the next Sturridge/Welbeck. True average players overinflated by the clubs they play for. His 12 goals in 50 Man Utd appearances is nothing to write home about.
Not sure I agree with this. He's 19 years old and until this season played in a fairly defensive, uninspiring team. 12 in 40 is a solid return. More importantly, he seems like a nice, grounded guy and is completely unfazed by big games. I like him. I'd say he's adequately 'rated'.
Personally can not agree with this. All decent club players, but the worst collective attitude to international football in my time watching England, and totally unable to motivate themselves for the three lions. Makes me sick the plaudits they received as internationals. They were utterly pathetic, and we are still suffering from the culture they created.
12 in 50. A shoddy record in any 'big team'. Considering the amount of goals Zlatan scored in the same team, I think it's fair to say it's a bit meh. The kid has ability, I'm not disputing that, but pundits putting him in the same bracket as Mbappe are insane, as are those that are calling him 'world class'. I'm sure he's a nice guy. So is Hugh Jackman, but I don't think that makes his footballing talent any better than it is.
Is that Hugh's drug-taking brother? Hugh Jackman played Logan didn't he? I bet he could run .........
100% agree with this, I don’t think with international football you have that much scope to be too clever. I think there are three main approaches you can take, you’ve got the Spain of a few years back, basically mimicking their most successful domestic team Barcelona as closely as possible. Then you’ve got the option to look at the best players you have and pick a system that plays to their strengths. Finally you’ve got the option of choosing a manager who has huge respect amongst the players and simply gets them going and motivated to play for their national team. Personally I no longer give a **** about England and see the whole thing as a complete farce, repeated 2 year cycles of qualification and abject failure over and over again, with seemingly nothing at all being learned in the process and no progress being made. I’d advocate someone like Beckham being given the job, yes you may snigger, he’s got no experience, no tactical nouse etc etc, but he’s a name far bigger than any of the current squad. I’d just get someone like him in charge and tell them to get the team motivated and up for it, **** tactics and formations because nobodies cracked that angle got 50 odd years.
