England

[RevidgeBlue]

Anyone watching today?

I've just remembered why I dont usually bother watching England outside of tournaments. Like watching paint dry.

We'll win the game, we always do against this sort of opposition, but it's completely joyless stuff. Football by numbers.

What on earth has Marcus Rashford done in the last few years to warrant selection.?

[DE.]

Feels like Tuchel has somehow managed to make us even more dreary to watch than when Southgate was in charge. Perversely impressive. 

[rigger]

5 minutes ago, RevidgeBlue said:

Anyone watching today?

I've just remembered why I dont usually bother watching England outside of tournaments. Like watching paint dry.

We'll win the game, we always do against this sort of opposition, but it's completely joyless stuff. Football by numbers.

What on earth has Marcus Rashford done in the last few years to warrant selection.?

played for Manure.

[K-Hod]

The pace of the game is slower than me, the morning after a night on the beers.

Awful to watch, this.

[roverandout]

Tuchel needs to go

[rigger]

My impressions of todays game is that the commentators speak utter shite.

[roverandout]

Fa need to hold their hands up and admit tuchel was a mistake and sack him and bring back carsley 

[roverandout]

Tuchel makes Southgate look like Kevin keegan

[bazza]

Southgate was best England manager since Robson

[roversfan99]

As if Lee Carsley is the man to turn things around.

The quality available has fallen off again. Key players have all had their day and we have big drops in quality in certain areas. The squad is not one of the best around now. If Dan Burn is close to your first 11 then you arent an elite national team.

Not saying that Tuchel isnt doing his best to make things look even worse.

[RevidgeBlue]

42 minutes ago, roverandout said:

Tuchel needs to go

It's been a desperately difficult watch, granted, but surely you have to give him one chance to show what he can or can't do in a tournament.

Edited 5 hours ago by RevidgeBlue

[chaddyrovers]

Well I am no fan of Tuchel and don't think he should have been appointed as England National head coach, The time to proper judge him is the world cup not these qualifiers. 

On today's performance, you got more of sense of what Tuchel wants tactically but these games are difficult cos Andorra will just defend and defend without trying to offer much going forward. 

Our best player was Elliott Anderson who shown what you want from your number 6 and what his role is. 

[roverandout]

14 minutes ago, chaddyrovers said:

Well I am no fan of Tuchel and don't think he should have been appointed as England National head coach, The time to proper judge him is the world cup not these qualifiers. 

On today's performance, you got more of sense of what Tuchel wants tactically but these games are difficult cos Andorra will just defend and defend without trying to offer much going forward. 

Our best player was Elliott Anderson who shown what you want from your number 6 and what his role is. 

I saw nothing of what tuchel wants tactically.  I just saw the same shit we saw under Southgate pass sideways backwards 

[roverandout]

50 minutes ago, roversfan99 said:

As if Lee Carsley is the man to turn things around.

The quality available has fallen off again. Key players have all had their day and we have big drops in quality in certain areas. The squad is not one of the best around now. If Dan Burn is close to your first 11 then you arent an elite national team.

Not saying that Tuchel isnt doing his best to make things look even worse.

Don't agree. We've got a great squad but as usual a shit coach

[Andy]

I had it on in the background, as I did a bit of work on the laptop - I think I must have glanced at the telly 3-4 times in the 90 minutes.

Dreadful, turgid stuff.

Outside of major tournaments, international football is the absolute pits.

Edited 4 hours ago by Andy

[roversfan99]

These games are a waste of time for everyone involved. Just ones to get out of the way.

Mind you, its very poor to only score 3 in 2 against these no hopers.

The rationale behind Tuchel's appointment (especially considering contract length) seems to be to get someone proven as a final push now the foundations are built. Its totally flawed.

Our chance of winning a major competition in the immediate future seem to have almost certainly passed. A number of key players from those teams are no longer what they were. Walker, a spent force. Stones, a spent force. Shaw, a spent force. Trippier, retired. Even Maguire and Henderson, similar. The squad is massively inferior, yes we missed a few players but the talented players we have all play in the same position so the attack is so imbalanced too.

A similar side to the one tonight would be swatted aside by a number of countries. Dan Burn is not a top player.

[roverandout]

4 minutes ago, roversfan99 said:

These games are a waste of time for everyone involved. Just ones to get out of the way.

Mind you, its very poor to only score 3 in 2 against these no hopers.

The rationale behind Tuchel's appointment (especially considering contract length) seems to be to get someone proven as a final push now the foundations are built. Its totally flawed.

Our chance of winning a major competition in the immediate future seem to have almost certainly passed. A number of key players from those teams are no longer what they were. Walker, a spent force. Stones, a spent force. Shaw, a spent force. Trippier, retired. Even Maguire and Henderson, similar. The squad is massively inferior, yes we missed a few players but the talented players we have all play in the same position so the attack is so imbalanced too.

A similar side to the one tonight would be swatted aside by a number of countries. Dan Burn is not a top player.

I know I'm going to get some stick from you. But this is a better squad than 2021. Trippier is nowhere near james' level.  Ghuei is better than Maguire.  Its not the squad it's tuchel who isn't up to it

[roversfan99]

19 minutes ago, roverandout said:

Don't agree. We've got a great squad but as usual a shit coach

You always say that to be fair.

[roversfan99]

7 minutes ago, roverandout said:

I know I'm going to get some stick from you. But this is a better squad than 2021. Trippier is nowhere near james' level.  Ghuei is better than Maguire.  Its not the squad it's tuchel who isn't up to it

What about Stones, Walker and Shaw who you have missed from your comparison, who were all key parts of a solid defence whose bodies are now failing them?

Our defence is now James, Guehi, Burn and Lewis Skelly. A huge difference.

Although to be fair, in those Euros we again got a fortunate path to the final but thats a seperate argument. The foundations of the team over the last 7 or 8 years has now gone.

[Darrenbot]

 i know it was only Andorra he was up against but it looks like Anderson might have jumped ahead of Wharton in the search for a holding midfielder that spreads the ball around

[chaddyrovers]

I would be getting Lewis Hall in this squad for the next matches. Quality 

How is Tomori playing for AC Milan? 

I would play Ben White next to Guehi at centre back

Edited 3 hours ago by chaddyrovers

[roversfan99]

Tomori only started 19 games last season in the league, White predominantly is a sub full back for Arsenal and Hall seems to be 3rd choice in the full back position at Newcastle.

Unfortunately, we have a really weak choice in terms of defenders across the back line. We did have a solid defence but it has gone with time.

[joey_big_nose]

3 hours ago, roversfan99 said:

These games are a waste of time for everyone involved. Just ones to get out of the way.

Mind you, its very poor to only score 3 in 2 against these no hopers.

The rationale behind Tuchel's appointment (especially considering contract length) seems to be to get someone proven as a final push now the foundations are built. Its totally flawed.

Our chance of winning a major competition in the immediate future seem to have almost certainly passed. A number of key players from those teams are no longer what they were. Walker, a spent force. Stones, a spent force. Shaw, a spent force. Trippier, retired. Even Maguire and Henderson, similar. The squad is massively inferior, yes we missed a few players but the talented players we have all play in the same position so the attack is so imbalanced too.

A similar side to the one tonight would be swatted aside by a number of countries. Dan Burn is not a top player.

I disagree personally on the quality point. England have a very good available players, for the first time in the last few years a lot of players playing abroad in Champions League teams.  I haven't seen a lot to suggest we are far behind other European nations in quality except Spain who are in a bracket of their own. 

Walker retiring is a big loss but most of the other players you mention (Maguire, Henderson, Shaw, Trippier) don't think is a significant issue. I would not say any of those are better than what we have. Stones on his day is a step up, but he's still got fuel in the tank.  When Kane retires (after this world cup?) that will be another challenge.  

On the English attack being too similar I do agree... lots of players who want to cut in or play at number 10 makes us very narrow and not get in behind. Only really Gordon who wants to get to the byline. We do need to figure out how to address that. Kane always wanting to come short doesn't help. 

As for whether Tuchel is the right guy... somehow we have only managed to play 5 games since he took over 300 days ago so it's too early to tell really. 

[Waggy76]

4 hours ago, bazza said:

Southgate was best England manager since Robson

You cannot argue that ! 

But, what is twice nowt ?

[roversfan99]

29 minutes ago, joey_big_nose said:

I disagree personally on the quality point. England have a very good available players, for the first time in the last few years a lot of players playing abroad in Champions League teams.  I haven't seen a lot to suggest we are far behind other European nations in quality except Spain who are in a bracket of their own. 

Walker retiring is a big loss but most of the other players you mention (Maguire, Henderson, Shaw, Trippier) don't think is a significant issue. I would not say any of those are better than what we have. Stones on his day is a step up, but he's still got fuel in the tank.  When Kane retires (after this world cup?) that will be another challenge.  

On the English attack being too similar I do agree... lots of players who want to cut in or play at number 10 makes us very narrow and not get in behind. Only really Gordon who wants to get to the byline. We do need to figure out how to address that. Kane always wanting to come short doesn't help. 

As for whether Tuchel is the right guy... somehow we have only managed to play 5 games since he took over 300 days ago so it's too early to tell really. 

Defensively, we look really weak, in terms of being at the top level. Stones and Walker were stand outs of the defence we had, they were key for Man City amidst their dominance. Stones just simply cant stay fit anymore, his involvement at City in the last couple of years has become massively reduced as a result. Walker was so important but his main asset has gone hence why he got bombed out and left to Burnley. Shaw was also important and his body has long since given up on him. The likes of Maguire and Trippier werent at that level but they themselves are out of contention. What we have now is really underwhelming.

Rice is a really good player but finding a suitable partner to sit and protect the defence and use the ball well is a problem. Wharton is the obvious choice but until he is allowed to step up, is fit to step up and proves it then we cant assume. Anderson did well today but it was Andorra and im not convinced that he is a holding midfielder at all.

We do obviously have some good players in attack but as we agree there is a big imbalance. Our best 2 players are probably Bellingham and Palmer and if you try and squeeze them in together, then one would be out of position. All the options out wide beside Saka are far from being top class.