I suspect Mowbray will really struggle to drop Smallwood. He likes his attitude too much. Our best team imo : ---------------------------Raya Nyambe----Lenihan----Mulgrew-----Williams ---------------Reed-------Evans --Rothwell-------Dack--------Palmer ----------------------Graham With a quarter of the season gone I'd say its a top half team possibly playoffs at this level, which is fantastic tbh. Lacks wide players though. And very dependent on Graham being fit and on form. Take Graham and Mulgrew out and we would seriously struggle.

One thing out of that game : five different CMs played the role (Reed, Rothwell, Smallwood, Evans and Rodwell) who would you go for as the starting combo? For me in order they are 1) Reed (he's the best, pacy, strong in the tackle, good with the ball - why play him at RW/RWB??) 2) Evans - had a great start to the season and decent when he came on. 3) Rothwell (I would start him in the attacking three though not CM) 4) Rodwell - showed quite a bit of quality early on. Encouraging signs. Could become a first xi player soon, bit obviously needs fitness 5) Smallwood - I like his spirit, his character, but lacks the technical quality.

Have to say bemused by changes today. Started well, can understand bringing Rodwell off, but moving Reed out to right wing back was crazy. Since he was moved and Rothwell went off weve really struggled. System doesn't look right either. Evans has done okay but Smallwood totally anonymous since he's come on. What was the point.

I agree with this, I only really think we flipped to 3 at the back on Wednesday because Sheffield United were killing us and we needed to match them up. If we can dictate things we are always going 4231 as it suits Dack and Graham as you say. It's just frustrating the single proper wide player we have (Conway) is 33 now, losing pace and thus himself changing his game to play inside more. It really limits our attacking style to only have options who will come inside all the time - Palmer, Rothwell, Bennett, Armstrong, Reed, increasingly Conway etc. At least one decent out an out winger and it's a different story. Mowbray has broadly recruited well, but has too many central players generally. I count eight (!!) centre mids (Smallwood, Evans, Rothwell, Palmer, Reed, Rodwell, Travis, Davenport), plus Bennett who fills in there on occasion.

Probs best 352 team -------------------------Raya -----Lenihan----Mulgrew----Williams --Bennett----Evans------Reed-------Bell --------------------------Dack ---------------Brereton---Graham Hmm..... I'm not really convinced by it tbh. Think 4231 suits us better. Thing is the shortage of wide players we have any formation looks a bit weird.

I thought Dack did okay when he got it personally. Just the service into him was woeful. Graham, Brereton, Smallwood all had very poor games for me. Reed, Evans, Lenihan, Williams Armstrong etc all medioce. No one had a good game. If Graham gets injured (looked like he could be injured today) we will have problems I think.

Have to say I am concerned by Brereton. I can't really see what his quality that he brings to the side. Obviously early days but seems an odd signing on performances so far.

Not sure I get this - he gets in the box loads for us, and has scored one and had a lot of shots. Seems pretty box to box to me despite a poor goal scoring record.

Think this team looks about right. I think Mowbray might go for Conway over Rothwell.

I've never heard our commentators be so amazed that we were awarded a penalty. Sounds like a really abysmal decision But I'll take it!

Id say it has to be that too (or 4231) otherwise who is anchoring the midfield if Leni and Rodwell are in defence in a back three?

Question on this - how would 4411 be much different to 4231? Don't really see it? Same issues you have highlighted persist - defensive midfielders and defensive fullbacks?

I think at Stoke we will potentially start the team that finished the game tonight. Idea being to out work the opposition.

Only watched second half but thought we looked excellent defensively. Graham was superb up front. We should have scored one through the Graham knockdown to Dack. Big thing for me was the workrate of the final four midfielders - Bennett, Evans, Smallwood, Reed - was exceptional. Sticking those four on to defend a lead or hold a draw should be effective. Nyame was brilliant. Bell less good but not bad. First half sounded atrocious but I didn't see it so can't comment.

To be fair he has rotated virtually the entire squad. Decent result in the end - Switzerland are roughly our level. Rose looks like he should start, and against Spain and Croatia we should play both Henderson and Dier together as we looked a lot better when that change was made. Still looks a total toss up between Rashford and Sterling on who will partner Kane. Rashford got a goal but didn't do too much else. Probs best team atm -------------------------Pickford ----------Walker-----Stones----Maguire Trippier------Dier--------Henderson----Rose --------------------------Lingard -------------------Kane---------Rashford Spain will beat us soundly on home soil.

Much better second half. Think changing to two sitting midfielders has helped us a lot.

Certainly looks like we could lose this one. I really really don't like our system in midfield. 3 very average midfielders who are totally out numbered and out skilled. What purpose does it serve to have Welbeck on the pitch in the place of a midfielder?

Yup, France are a fabulous side who can go on to dominate the next two or three tournaments. Quality absolutely everywhere. A lot of players who they left out of their world cup squad would not only make the England first XI, but also be amongst our best players - Benzema, Poyet, Koscielny, Lacazette, Martial, Coman. Mad and terrifying.

I would have agreed with this 10 years ago, but not now. Lots of skillful high technique players coming through (Sterling, Kane, Wilshire, Rashford, Trippier, Stones etc.). Think we've turned that corner on skill and technique. What we do lack though - like you say - is vision. Not had anyone who could pick a pass and control the ball like Pogba, Kroos, De Bruyne etc.. We've just got a massive hole there.

This is bang on. We're second tier nation until we produce a few world class central midfielders. That's just brutal reality. For the players available Southgate is doing a very good job. No point jumping off a bridge about it. Question for me is where from? Wilshire decided he'd rather play relegation football than go abroad and play Champions League which is such a British thing to do. Also too injury prone, and not really a creative mid, more a number 10. Honestly you look across all of the Premier League and the only English creative central mid is Shelvey. There's a lot of scrapers, a lot of players who can play behind the strikers, a lot of box to box types. But he's the only one who you can say had the allround passing game to dominate the ball from deep. He's got flaws but I think we have to give him a shot. He's another who should be asking how to get regular CL football, potentially looking to move abroad to do so. That said - do I think putting Shelvey in the XI will make us competitive against France, Brazil, Germany, Belgium, Spain? Of course not, he's maybe the best we've got but he wouldn't get anywhere near their squads. It's going to take time. To be competitive we need to have the extraordinary talent pipeline those countries have, and start exporting large numbers of players to other leagues like those countries do. 10 years at least I would say.

Trippier is arguably our best player. How can he be left out? I'd swap Walker out for Trippier, and maybe Lingard for Alli Apart from that probably the best lineup there from the squad. I would have liked to see someone like Shelvey in for Dier but Southgate is not a fan. On the nations league - think it could be a good thing. It means we should play more top quality opposition in (at least theoretically) competitive games. Will reserve judgement on it till weve completed a few rounds.

We've had a stack of players who should have done better with their ability. Dunn, Bentley, Jansen, Samba, Nelsen, Tugay, Thompson, Freidal all should have won more than they did but failed for varying reasons. Dunn, Bentley, Samba - lack of discipline and focus, stupid transfers. Friedel, Tugay, Nelsen - arrived at the premiership party late and the big clubs did not want to pay big money for players late in their career, even after they showed they were world class Jansen, Thompson - Injuries All the above were good enough to play in the Champions League when they were on song for us. But never quite got the opportunity (except for Tugay who had played a lot for Gala in the CL before he rocked up to Ewood via Rangers).

Yes. The newspaper article above does say he was played out of position so I'm putting it down to that. Could be that Mowbray wants us to pay a more fluid front line with all forwards dropping off etc. But Tony seems too much of a traditionalist to me. My guess is we will see Brereton deployed central with the expectation to win the knock downs and lay offs.

Somewhat improbably given where we were six weeks ago we actually have got to the point where we have two full XIs of experienced players of mostly decent quality First XI ---------------------------Raya Nyambe---Lenihan-----Mulgrew----Bell ------------------Bennett----Evans --------Armstrong----Dack-------Palmer --------------------------Graham Second XI ---------------------------Leut Reed-------Rodwell-----Downing----Williams --------------Davenport---- Smallwood -----Samuel-------Rothwell-------Conway -------------------------Brereton Looking at that second XI I would say we need better reserve options than Samuel (Chapman would be ideal) and at least one quality centreback. I'm not convinced by Downing, and Rodwell is a total gamble. Maybe a stronger keeper too, but he has hardly played so difficult to judge. Apart from that it seems a solid squad. So kudos to Tony. Expectations have been upgraded from relegation battlers to comfortable mid table.

I watched the you tube clips and he looks reasonable, rather than excellent. Also - maybe as a result of playing on the wing in those clips - I was a bit surprised to see him more as a face to goal drift wide type, rather than a Danny Graham style hold up which is what I assumed we were after. Anyhow as we are clearly going to play one up top this season having the choice of Graham, Armstrong and Brereton seems a decent stable.