England Squad

HangTime · 20 Mar 2021 at 00:41

adam cool dude said:
I cannot think of a more balanced team since 96. Even our "Golden" generation was weak up top

Owen and Rooney were good, maybe the backup forwards not the best but I would argue GK was as big a problem as strikers when it came to starting XI.

I look at the squad of the mid noughties (that only got knocked out on pens in 2004 & 2006) and personally I would take that over the current squad every day of the week. Sure there are some exciting prospects but that's always been the case with pretty much every England squad, ever. You also have to consider whether lack of experience could be a factor, the keepers have 5 caps between the three of them, and the only midfielder with over 13 caps is Lingard. Just generally that midfield, you look at it and do you see the leading teams quaking in their boots at the prospect of facing it?.... maybe some of them can become really top players in the future, but they've not really done a lot yet.

adam cool dude · 20 Mar 2021 at 04:33

HangTime said:
Owen and Rooney were good, maybe the backup forwards not the best but I would argue GK was as big a problem as strikers when it came to starting XI.

I look at the squad of the mid noughties (that only got knocked out on pens in 2004 & 2006) and personally I would take that over the current squad every day of the week. Sure there are some exciting prospects but that's always been the case with pretty much every England squad, ever. You also have to consider whether lack of experience could be a factor, the keepers have 5 caps between the three of them, and the only midfielder with over 13 caps is Lingard. Just generally that midfield, you look at it and do you see the leading teams quaking in their boots at the prospect of facing it?.... maybe some of them can become really top players in the future, but they've not really done a lot yet.

I do not disagree. This England team is very young but it does have the potential to blossom into something fantastic. Especially in the next 4 years when a lot of the current squad will be entering their prime.

wesimmo · 20 Mar 2021 at 08:29

This is probably the most roundly talented squad we've ever had, but the other countries have moved on too.

Was Stuart Pearce as 'good' as the options at left back today?

Probably not, but he was one of the best left backs in the world, when it came to impact on the pitch, at the time he played football.

adam cool dude · 20 Mar 2021 at 09:02

wesimmo said:
This is probably the most roundly talented squad we've ever had, but the other countries have moved on too.

Was Stuart Pearce as 'good' as the options at left back today?

Probably not, but he was one of the best left backs in the world, when it came to impact on the pitch, at the time he played football.

Plus they had two fantastic managers in bobby and Terry.

omnomnom · 20 Mar 2021 at 10:19

wesimmo said:
This is probably the most roundly talented squad we've ever had, but the other countries have moved on too.

Was Stuart Pearce as 'good' as the options at left back today?

Probably not, but he was one of the best left backs in the world, when it came to impact on the pitch, at the time he played football.

Look at those cbs and read your comment again. England dont have a world class keeper either.

ik9000 · 20 Mar 2021 at 11:36

omnomnom said:
Look at those cbs and read your comment again. England dont have a world class keeper either.

and pickford isn't even the best of what's available, so I'm glad this will force Southgate to consider alternatives

adam cool dude · 20 Mar 2021 at 13:33

omnomnom said:
Look at those cbs and read your comment again. England dont have a world class keeper either.

Maybe not yet but if Henderson does become United number 1 and becomes World Class. (He was top draw at Sheffield). It will be the first proper decent keeper since Seaman in 2002!

I know your views of Maguire but I could think of a lot worse than Gomez, Maguire and Stones. We are absolutely stacked in lb and RB.

I don't think anyone is saying we are at say France's level but in the next couple of Tournaments it is looking very promising.

omnomnom · 20 Mar 2021 at 16:26

adam cool dude said:
Maybe not yet but if Henderson does become United number 1 and becomes World Class. (He was top draw at Sheffield). It will be the first proper decent keeper since Seaman in 2002!

I know your views of Maguire but I could think of a lot worse than Gomez, Maguire and Stones. We are absolutely stacked in lb and RB.

I don't think anyone is saying we are at say France's level but in the next couple of Tournaments it is looking very promising.

He was ok at S United but he still made quite a few errors. I honestly dont think he will ever be a number one for you mate tbh....I think hes a solid keeper but United need to be looking at the top table level really.

adam cool dude · 20 Mar 2021 at 18:55

omnomnom said:
He was ok at S United but he still made quite a few errors. I honestly dont think he will ever be a number one for you mate tbh....I think hes a solid keeper but United need to be looking at the top table level really.

We will see. He got the Championship Golden Glove and had a fantastic season last year for Sheffield United. He has only just turned 24. Just the few games he has covered for DDG his distribution is a million times better.

omnomnom · 20 Mar 2021 at 19:21

adam cool dude said:
We will see. He got the Championship Golden Glove and had a fantastic season last year for Sheffield United. He has only just turned 24. Just the few games he has covered for DDG his distribution is a million times better.

I'm not sure id use the word fantastic personally. I thought like this season he made quite a few errors.

I said this about Arsenal when they were signing bang average and I got slaughtered on here...if you want to be right up there challenging you need a world class top 10 in the world type keeper. I'm not sure he's that or has the potential to be.

HangTime · 21 Mar 2021 at 22:39

adam cool dude said:
I do not disagree. This England team is very young but it does have the potential to blossom into something fantastic. Especially in the next 4 years when a lot of the current squad will be entering their prime.

The thing is we have this sort of conversation with every generation, I remember watching the U21s in the early 00s and thinking **** me we are gonna be a force to reckon with when these lads mature. But what you tend to find is players that are very good at a young age often don't kick on in the way people expect; what sets them apart is they hit their peak (or near peak) earlier than most players but their actual peak isn't much higher. Say a standard player is 20% better in their mid-late 20s than as a teenager, the top youngsters are maybe only 5-10% better when they hit that age. It's like they have a steeper development curve but it reaches a similar point of plateau. For me the golden generation were definitely better than the current crop and still didn't quite deliver what some expected.

adam cool dude said:
I know your views of Maguire but I could think of a lot worse than Gomez, Maguire and Stones. We are absolutely stacked in lb

You can't with a straight face say you'd rather pick from those three than Sol, Rio, Terry, King, Woodgate etc surely? Cole was better than current LBs too, fair enough one might take Chilwell or Shaw over Bridge.

Current team maybe has a bit of promise and excitement about it compared to the Hodgson era I'll give you that, but throw them up against our 2004 team and it would be a bloodbath I feel unless there was a David James special.