England

[roversfan99]

I suspect that once Raphinha and Yamal are fit, Rashford will be on the bench.

Bellingham will play. Rogers has had a couple of good games for England amidst some very poor form for his club but in reality he should struggle to make the squad with Bellingham, Foden and Palmer.

[roverandout]

2 hours ago, Waggy76 said:

I wouldn't, I am not the slightest bit interested in international football.. 

It is the pits! 

I was drunk when I wrote that but I still love watching England 

[roverandout]

38 minutes ago, joey_big_nose said:

Morgan will be hard to shift too. Big call to bring Bellingham or Foden back in for him.

Feel like with Rashford doing well at Barca he should come in for left wing.

I think across the 25 players England might be looking at their best ever tournament squad. Certainly since 1990 when I started watching. 

I dont think England have ever been in a position before where they have players on the bench who are key players for major Champions League clubs like Real, Barca, Man City.

We have probably got the best strength in depth behind France 

[roverandout]

20 minutes ago, roversfan99 said:

I suspect that once Raphinha and Yamal are fit, Rashford will be on the bench.

Bellingham will play. Rogers has had a couple of good games for England amidst some very poor form for his club but in reality he should struggle to make the squad with Bellingham, Foden and Palmer.

I've watched Barcelona every week.  Rashford will take some shifting.  He's been phenomenal 

[roversfan99]

14 minutes ago, roverandout said:

I've watched Barcelona every week.  Rashford will take some shifting.  He's been phenomenal 

Some shifting probably equates to arguably the best 2 wingers in the world.

[chaddyrovers]

1 hour ago, joey_big_nose said:

Morgan will be hard to shift too. Big call to bring Bellingham or Foden back in for him.

Feel like with Rashford doing well at Barca he should come in for left wing.

I think across the 25 players England might be looking at their best ever tournament squad. Certainly since 1990 when I started watching. 

I dont think England have ever been in a position before where they have players on the bench who are key players for major Champions League clubs like Real, Barca, Man City.

Do Foden even make the squad? That's debatable. 

Rice, Anderson, Henderson, Rogers, Bellingham, Palmer all going. Probably Wharton. 

Gordon and Rashford are your left sided options with Saka and Madueke on the right. 

3 strikers. Kane, Watkins then either Delap or Solanke. Maybe even Welbeck. 

 

 

[superniko]

3 hours ago, Waggy76 said:

I wouldn't, I am not the slightest bit interested in international football.. 

It is the pits! 

Yet we watch Rovers every week 😂 glutton for punishment

[K-Hod]

1 hour ago, roverandout said:

We have probably got the best strength in depth behind France 

Spain have entered the chat.

[K-Hod]

18 minutes ago, chaddyrovers said:

Do Foden even make the squad? That's debatable. 

Rice, Anderson, Henderson, Rogers, Bellingham, Palmer all going. Probably Wharton. 

Gordon and Rashford are your left sided options with Saka and Madueke on the right. 

3 strikers. Kane, Watkins then either Delap or Solanke. Maybe even Welbeck. 

 

 

Foden is better than Gordon, by some way.
I’m not interested in who Tuchel is more likely to pick, that’s a separate discussion.

What makes you think Wharton will be picked, when he hasn’t been picked so far?

[superniko]

1 hour ago, roversfan99 said:

They have massively reduced the enjoyment of either tournament by making 24 and 48 teams. With 3 teams qualifying from most groups, it removes much of the jeopardy.

100% - particularly for the Euros where there are so few real quality teams - when you’re getting down in the 20s the standard is pretty poor.

Look at these belters back when it was set up better…

 

Edited 7 hours ago by superniko

[Gav]

On 09/09/2025 at 22:43, Gav said:

Very good performance that tonight, credit where credit is due.

Onwards and Upwards. 

An even better performance against Wales, although the opposition froze on the night for me. I felt for Bellamy, who is still the best player since Shearer to pull on the famous Blue n White in my book, even with those dingle links.

Onwards and Upwards.

[chaddyrovers]

12 minutes ago, K-Hod said:

Foden is better than Gordon, by some way.
I’m not interested in who Tuchel is more likely to pick, that’s a separate discussion.

What makes you think Wharton will be picked, when he hasn’t been picked so far?

Foden isnt the left sided attacking player. 

Foden is a 10 and competition is Bellingham and Palmer. I would both of them before Foden sadly. 

My opinion and the fact we need a ball controller in there. Whether Tuchel will is a seperate discussion 😉

[Waggy76]

23 minutes ago, Gav said:

An even better performance against Wales, although the opposition froze on the night for me. I felt for Bellamy, who is still the best player since Shearer to pull on the famous Blue n White in my book, even with those dingle links.

Onwards and Upwards.

I have a feeling he will be the dingles next manager , when Parker gets potted around New Year !

[roversfan99]

Foden is better than Rogers though. And the latter hasnt even been in good club form.

 

[roversfan99]

41 minutes ago, superniko said:

100% - particularly for the Euros where there are so few real quality teams - when you’re getting down in the 20s the standard is pretty poor.

Look at these belters back when it was set up better…

 

Youve got a combination of poorer groups, and even with them, when 2/3 of the teams qualify, youve got to do well not to qualify anyway.

Id even prefer a 32 team euro and 64 team world cup compared to the sham we have now. But it should be 16 and 32.

[K-Hod]

Ultimately, if Tuchel wins the thing without picking his best players, then sound.

If not, why on earth would you have taken that risk?

[roverandout]

1 hour ago, K-Hod said:

Spain have entered the chat.

I'd say we Spain and France have the best depth. But they don't have any decent forwards. I'd say we're slightly better depth wise than them

[Gav]

1 hour ago, Waggy76 said:

I have a feeling he will be the dingles next manager , when Parker gets potted around New Year !

I'll have to draw the line at some point Waggy 😉

[chaddyrovers]

If someone like TAA or Foden are left out then so be it. 

TAA wouldn't be first two choices at right back. 

Is Foden better than a Bellingham, Palmer or Eze? 

We shouldn't shoehorn players in for the sake of it but we need to take a balance squad and players playing in their proper position. Something we should have learned from previous tournaments 

Edited 3 hours ago by chaddyrovers

[roversfan99]

Foden wouldnt necessarily start but anything like in form, hes a level or 2 up from Eze/Rogers/MGW.

[chaddyrovers]

But do we need a third number 10 after Palmer and Bellingham in the squad? I dont think so. 

 

[roversfan99]

Then surely Eze and Rogers are also left at home?

You take 26 players, I think if you have 3 players of that quality, you take them for sure. 

[chaddyrovers]

I would take Rogers as he plays as the 8 plus 10. 

Eze can play wide left and number 10..

I would take both and left Foden at home. Just like I would TAA. 

Its 27 man squad

[roversfan99]

Questioning why we need 3 number 10s then advocating 4.

I would suggest that Foden is more comfortable as a deeper midfielder out of the 2 although you wouldnt start either there.

[joey_big_nose]

5 hours ago, superniko said:

100% - particularly for the Euros where there are so few real quality teams - when you’re getting down in the 20s the standard is pretty poor.

Look at these belters back when it was set up better…

 

I am not so bothered by this personally. The tournaments are only every 4 years each so having quite a big tournament where there is a fun group stage for a couple of weeks and then it gets serious in the knockouts is fine my me. Agree max that should get out of a group of four is two though. The 24 euros was fine. There were still a lot of fun games in the euros group. I think it should be similar at the 48 team world cup. 

In an ideal world as others have said there should just be a nations league over two year seasons that also covers the qualification for the major tournaments. No separate qualifiers, very few friendlies. You'd end up with the same amount of games, but many more played against higher quality opposition, and with something at stake.