England

[superniko]

Pickford, James, Guehi, Rice, Bellingham, Saka, Kane likely all start if fully fit, so about 4 spots up for grabs.

I did like the directness and pace that Gordon and Madueke brought, felt like a step away from boring Pep-Ball that hopefully stops getting adopted.

            Pickford

James - ??? - Guehi - ???

    Bellingham - Rice

Saka  -  Palmer  -  ???

              Kane

Maybe we shouldn't shoe-horn Bellingham and Palmer together, but it's tempting to. Obviously I'd love to see Wharton make the position his own next to Rice, but without a competitive cap yet I'm not sure we can expect it too soon.

This week I was unfortunate enough to go to the Andorra match rather than the Serbia one! 😁

[davulsukur]

A really good performance from England, first time in quite some time i've watched a game and been impressed by what we did.

Madueke was superb, a proper winger. Put in the type of performance we've been missing for years.

Thought Anderson was superb also, with performances like that, he'll be keeping Wharton waiting a bit longer for a place in the team. Rogers played well, a great option to have going forward.

Saka takes Gordon's place and you bring Bellingham back in and we're looking even better. 

We really need another striker. If Kane is injured/rested we're looking at Watkins, who's a good player but he's not top level and we'll struggle if we need to rely on him for any reasonable length of time.

I think Tuchel has to make us greater than the sum of our parts in the main and then use the likes of Kane/Bellingham to grab that vital goal/moment of magic ad we could be onto something.

It's 1 performance but it's been badly needed for sooo long.

 

Edited 2 hours ago by davulsukur

[DeeCee]

Still wondering why Jordan Henderson got on the pitch, surely he's not gonna be part of the World Cup squad?

[joey_big_nose]

16 minutes ago, ... said:

Part n parcel of being an England fan I guess. Everyone's the England manager always critical. I didn't mind Southgate but grew board of parking the bus. I think Tuchel is taking us to the the next level. 

With this selection of players we could beat anyone and that includes Spain. 

Looking forward to the world cup it's ours for the taking

Love the seesaw we all go through from being no hopers to it being there for the taking in 4 days.

Think we'll need to see how the games evolve over the next 9 months to really say one way or the other.

[Mattyblue]

The qualifiers are a waste of time and tell you very little, good or bad. Full of mismatches and 11 players camped in their own box.

Scrap them, sort out qualification through the Nations League and play offs and give the actual season some time back.

[superniko]

7 minutes ago, Mattyblue said:

The qualifiers are a waste of time and tell you very little, good or bad. Full of mismatches and 11 players camped in their own box.

Scrap them, sort out qualification through the Nations League and play offs and give the actual season some time back.

Yeah, perhaps a shift towards a format like the new champions league would benefit all (essentially nations league). Fixtures next week of Bayern v Chelsea, Liverpool v Athletico. Albeit, it wouldn't be good for the stat-padding international strikers! 

This was our toughest match on paper, and maybe that's why we looked so much better than against the likes of Andorra.

Some proper strength in depth, and maybe this is the time we look for the best 'team' rather than the best 'individuals' - the likes of Anderson, Madueke, Rodgers looked very good.

[...]

27 minutes ago, Mattyblue said:

The qualifiers are a waste of time and tell you very little, good or bad. Full of mismatches and 11 players camped in their own box.

Scrap them, sort out qualification through the Nations League and play offs and give the actual season some time back.

Perhaps an FA cup style entrance for higher seeds

[...]

41 minutes ago, superniko said:

Pickford, James, Guehi, Rice, Bellingham, Saka, Kane likely all start if fully fit, so about 4 spots up for grabs.

I did like the directness and pace that Gordon and Madueke brought, felt like a step away from boring Pep-Ball that hopefully stops getting adopted.

            Pickford

James - ??? - Guehi - ???

    Bellingham - Rice

Saka  -  Palmer  -  ???

              Kane

Maybe we shouldn't shoe-horn Bellingham and Palmer together, but it's tempting to. Obviously I'd love to see Wharton make the position his own next to Rice, but without a competitive cap yet I'm not sure we can expect it too soon.

This week I was unfortunate enough to go to the Andorra match rather than the Serbia one! 😁

Isn't that the stuff we all wanted to see! When we come against teams who have that and we didn't play like that. Refreshing to see players being explosive and running on goal

[Mattyblue]

8 minutes ago, ... said:

Perhaps an FA cup style entrance for higher seeds

Exactly, there’s a reason Chorley and Liverpool don’t enter the FA Cup at the same stage.

[roverandout]

It would be cruel to discount the minnows like San Marino, Andorra, Scotland, Wales  (just kidding) the only way they improve is playing against the best teams

[roverandout]

28 minutes ago, superniko said:

Yeah, perhaps a shift towards a format like the new champions league would benefit all (essentially nations league). Fixtures next week of Bayern v Chelsea, Liverpool v Athletico. Albeit, it wouldn't be good for the stat-padding international strikers! 

This was our toughest match on paper, and maybe that's why we looked so much better than against the likes of Andorra.

Some proper strength in depth, and maybe this is the time we look for the best 'team' rather than the best 'individuals' - the likes of Anderson, Madueke, Rodgers looked very good.

Keane compares rogers to gazza, I know that's hyperbole but he's very similar.  His strength, technical ability 

[Mattyblue]

San Marino will never be anything but a mismatch, adds absolutely no value for them to be playing top tier nations again and again.

[K-Hod]

19 minutes ago, roverandout said:

It would be cruel to discount the minnows like San Marino, Andorra, Scotland, Wales  (just kidding) the only way they improve is playing against the best teams

They've been playing the best teams for years and been getting battered for years, to be fair.

[roverandout]

8 minutes ago, K-Hod said:

They've been playing the best teams for years and been getting battered for years, to be fair.

But the likes of Luxembourg Armenia have improved.  Who's to say the others won't get better at some point 

[Mattyblue]

And that’s fine as they would work their way up the Nations League groups accordingly.

However, open qualification groups are no longer fit for purpose post the proliferation of ‘new’ and micro-states as UEFA members these past twenty years or so.