UEFA Euro 2024 Qualifiers & Friendlies ** spoilers ** [7th - 12th September 2023]

EH75 said:
Germany are very poor at the moment. To be honest a lot of the traditional big nations in Europe don't seem to be particularly great at the moment. The next few years are England's best chance to win a tournament with the squad that they have. However they need a manager who is of similar quality. Southgate hasn't a clue.
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I keep seeing this sort of thing about the England squad and I really don't see it. We have one exceptional centre forward, the rest are pretty average. Bellingham and Saka aside, who stands out in the midfield and who are the generational talents there? Rice? Foden? Pep barely starts Foden let alone Southgate. Keeper and defence are average at best.
 
Vandle said:
I keep seeing this sort of thing about the England squad and I really don't see it. We have one exceptional centre forward, the rest are pretty average. Bellingham and Saka aside, who stands out in the midfield and who are the generational talents there? Rice? Foden? Pep barely starts Foden let alone Southgate. Keeper and defence are average at best.
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I think there's a cross between the level/quality of international squads and that of England's at the moment. There's no stand out collective of world stars like we had with the Dutch, Brazilian, Italian, Spanish and German teams of the past. Apart from perhaps France, England's squad is on paper the relatively the most talented/Highest playing level team in terms of members. Granted the English rose tinted lense of the PL... although the Champions League shows we're still generally the top league in reality despite the nature of a knock out competition.

Rice is a difficult one, ignore the price tag and English criticism and he's very good. His approach is also one of he actually know he can find a few more gears and yet he's reliable and talented in the centre.

Alas we can talk about players but the point was the standard of other national squads just isn't as cohesive as it has been in the past. It's a bit of a changing of the guard era it feels therefore opens opportunity to win on the big stage.. Southgate prohibits this with his negative and scared approach to teams... He's a bit like Fergie in Europe. Respected the opposition too much and didn't trust the ability to coach his players to be technically better than spanish/italian teams and would often fall short out of too much respect. The times United didn't, they had more progressive technical coach on Fergie's staff.

Southgate is a bloody good man manager but he needs technical coaches in his camp to take advantage of the players to build a cohesive unit that utilises their technical abilities which they use for their clubs.

My two cents... :cry:
 
shipinabottle said:
I think there's a cross between the level/quality of international squads and that of England's at the moment. There's no stand out collective of world stars like we had with the Dutch, Brazilian, Italian, Spanish and German teams of the past. Apart from perhaps France, England's squad is on paper the relatively the most talented/Highest playing level team in terms of members. Granted the English rose tinted lense of the PL... although the Champions League shows we're still generally the top league in reality despite the nature of a knock out competition.

Rice is a difficult one, ignore the price tag and English criticism and he's very good. His approach is also one of he actually know he can find a few more gears and yet he's reliable and talented in the centre.

Alas we can talk about players but the point was the standard of other national squads just isn't as cohesive as it has been in the past. It's a bit of a changing of the guard era it feels therefore opens opportunity to win on the big stage.. Southgate prohibits this with his negative and scared approach to teams... He's a bit like Fergie in Europe. Respected the opposition too much and didn't trust the ability to coach his players to be technically better than spanish/italian teams and would often fall short out of too much respect. The times United didn't, they had more progressive technical coach on Fergie's staff.

Southgate is a bloody good man manager but he needs technical coaches in his camp to take advantage of the players to build a cohesive unit that utilises their technical abilities which they use for their clubs.

My two cents... :cry:
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You have put this a lot better than I did. If they can get a hold of a manager who can get the team properly firing then there is not much out there for them to be massively afraid of.
 
Doesnt matter what/how many technical coaches you have got if the manager is ultra cautious and wants to play a defensive game.

The team seemed afraid to attack - unless they were playing to the plan Southgate had for them. So many sideways/back passes - it was like we had Grealish playing in every position.

Rice spent the entire game with his back to the oppositions goal.
 
It’s pretty simple solution i think, Maguire who’s super slow and not very good out. Stones in - you could have played Tomori while stones out.

Stop playing Henderson, play a game of darts and select any other midfielder from the last couple of squads. Rice is more than enough defensively.
 
Mint8 said:
Doesnt matter what/how many technical coaches you have got if the manager is ultra cautious and wants to play a defensive game.

The team seemed afraid to attack - unless they were playing to the plan Southgate had for them. So many sideways/back passes - it was like we had Grealish playing in every position.

Rice spent the entire game with his back to the oppositions goal.
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I keep half-remembering a post-match interview with Harry Kane. England had looked awful for 90 mins and scraped a 0-0 draw, iirc.

Kane said something like, "The main thing was we defended well and kept a clean sheet."

That's from your main goalscorer. Clearly Southgate wants to be super defensive, to the point where he's telling his strikers their main job is to defend a 0-0 :p
 
You've got to laugh at Southgate, he's saying he won't play Foden in the middle because he doesn't play there for his club. Right then Gareth, so explain why you constantly stick players out of position then? I don't recall Maddison playing left wing for Tottenham, or Mount playing on the wing for Chelsea.

He's a clown.
 
McBain said:
You've got to laugh at Southgate, he's saying he won't play Foden in the middle because he doesn't play there for his club. Right then Gareth, so explain why you constantly stick players out of position then? I don't recall Maddison playing left wing for Tottenham, or Mount playing on the wing for Chelsea.

He's a clown.
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Yet he'll play Trent in midfield who is well known for playing cm for Liverpool...or not.

Guys an idiot
 
Rest of the team isn't so bad. Philips even in the squad is a joke. Can't wait till Southgates done. Saying I'll probably be just as disappointed with the next England manager.
 
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