England

[roversfan99]

27 minutes ago, joey_big_nose said:

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.

 

But again at the 48 team world cup, you have most 3rd place teams qualifying so there is absolutely no jeopardy in the group stages. You win one game and are basically through.

[joey_big_nose]

1 minute ago, roversfan99 said:

But again at the 48 team world cup, you have most 3rd place teams qualifying so there is absolutely no jeopardy in the group stages. You win one game and are basically through.

Yeah sorry - bit of a maths failure from me. 16 and 32 would be better. Or change the overall tournament to 40 teams in 8 groups of 5 teams with top 2 going through to round of 16. 

[chaddyrovers]

3 hours ago, roversfan99 said:

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.

But what you overlooked time after time is there can play 2 positions unlike Foden can. 

Is Foden going to be ahead of Bellingham and Palmer? if not I wouldn't take him. 

my starting 11 for the first game is 

                   Pickford

Livramento Stones Guehi Hall

                   Anderson

               Bellingham  Rice

Saka                                 Gordon

                      Kane

what would yours been please? 

 

[joey_big_nose]

31 minutes ago, chaddyrovers said:

But what you overlooked time after time is there can play 2 positions unlike Foden can. 

Is Foden going to be ahead of Bellingham and Palmer? if not I wouldn't take him. 

my starting 11 for the first game is 

                   Pickford

Livramento Stones Guehi Hall

                   Anderson

               Bellingham  Rice

Saka                                 Gordon

                      Kane

what would yours been please? 

 

I think having a player like Gordon out wide left is pretty crucial as Kane will drop deep and he will succeed only as much as other players get beyond him. Saka is brilliant but he is someone who is not going to get through the centre in the space Kane vacates. So the left needs a direct runner.

That said surely Rashford will do that job better than Gordon if he continues in the same vein at Barca? Plus obviously much stronger goal scoring record.

[roversfan99]

2 hours ago, chaddyrovers said:

But what you overlooked time after time is there can play 2 positions unlike Foden can. 

Is Foden going to be ahead of Bellingham and Palmer? if not I wouldn't take him. 

my starting 11 for the first game is 

                   Pickford

Livramento Stones Guehi Hall

                   Anderson

               Bellingham  Rice

Saka                                 Gordon

                      Kane

what would yours been please? 

 

I dont see how Foden is less versatile than the other 2. Hes played wide probably more than the other 2 and none of the 3 youd particularly fancy deeper but if you was going to choose any, it would be Foden.

Regarding the starting 11 for the first game, how can we possibly say, its 9 months away? Hall has not even really established himself fully at Newcastle and he and Stones are constantly injured.

[chaddyrovers]

8 minutes ago, roversfan99 said:

I dont see how Foden is less versatile than the other 2. Hes played wide probably more than the other 2 and none of the 3 youd particularly fancy deeper but if you was going to choose any, it would be Foden.

Foden isn't a natural wide player and I never said Rogers should play wide. 

I have given you previously my 4 wide players and Foden is a number 10. 

8 minutes ago, roversfan99 said:

Regarding the starting 11 for the first game, how can we possibly say, its 9 months away? Hall has not even really established himself fully at Newcastle and he and Stones are constantly injured.

its was very simple question to answer. I try another way, if England first game in the world cup was tomorrow what would your starting line up be? 

[Mike E]

On 10/09/2025 at 11:37, Mattyblue said:

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

Oh I don’t know, I’ve seen them win the 2072 World Cup in some ‘San Marino Challenge’ Football Manager saves.