The Road To Germany 2024

[Elephant Pyjamas]

FBs don't have to be attacking. Walker isn't. Stones is excellent too. Issue is who he picks alongside him. If it's Maguire then we'll need about 4 DMs.

Well it has to be Maguire really, Dunk is nowhere near as good as he and the media thinks he is.

Beyond that we've got the injury prone or inexperienced.

GS should have blooded other CBs, but then I guess he thought Dunk would be better.

 

[Elephant Pyjamas]

FBs don't have to be attacking. Walker isn't. Stones is excellent too. Issue is who he picks alongside him. If it's Maguire then we'll need about 4 DMs.

Stones is excellent as a CB for City, its a different game being a CB for England.

 

[Elephant Pyjamas]

We'll have to play that system then otherwise how will poor Jude adapt?

Strange comment?

Maybe we play Kane left wing too eh? He'd probably still be decent..

 

[Nando]

And no one was moaning until he scored four LAST NIGHT.

There's been chat around his inclusion for ages, it didn't start last night, but that'll teach me to make a flippant comment on here again.

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

If Grealish plays well against Real Madrid and Chelsea this week then he'll be the next one that we simply must pick and Southgate is being incredibly negligent if he doesn't.

Toney was getting it when he came back and scored in his first 3-4 games, funnily enough not the same noise now.

 

[MARKakaJIM]

To be fair plenty of players play different roles for their nations compared to their clubs. Saiss used to go and play centre half for Morocco when he was playing every game in midfield for Wolves. With someone like Bellingham I don't think it's a case of just trying to lamp as many attackers onto the pitch as possible, he's playing very well in an attacking role at the moment but he's got the skill set to play deeper too. From England's POV I think there are plenty of games where you could have Rice as the sole holding playing in midfield with Bellingham withdrawn a bit to add an extra player like Palmer, Foden, Madison or whoever into the attack.

Tournament football might not throw up too many of those games though, well this one might to begin with considering the bloated format.

 

[The Bear]

Saka, Palmer, Foden, Grealish and Bellingham should all get plenty of minutes in a squad where they're playing every 3 or 4 days and it's 5 players for 3 positions behind Kane.

And yes, Toney should still go along with Watkins.

 

[Elephant Pyjamas]

... but that'll teach me to make a flippant comment on here again.

Hope so.

 

[Elephant Pyjamas]

 

[Templeton Peck]

Well it has to be Maguire really, Dunk is nowhere near as good as he and the media thinks he is.

Beyond that we've got the injury prone or inexperienced.

GS should have blooded other CBs, but then I guess he thought Dunk would be better.

Hopefully Guehi is fit. He's simply not given himself any other options.

 

[Templeton Peck]

Strange comment?

Maybe we play Kane left wing too eh? He'd probably still be decent..

Response to a comment about needing to play Bellingham where he usually plays as we won't have enough time to coach him how to play somewhere else.

 

[Templeton Peck]

View attachment 10156

Very excited to see him come on after 80 minutes when we're 1 nil down to the French

 

[Elephant Pyjamas]

Hopefully Guehi is fit. He's simply not given himself any other options.

Well he's only played around 20 games this season.

 

[Elephant Pyjamas]

Very excited to see him come on after 80 minutes when we're 1 nil down to the French

If Saka, Foden, Kane and Bellingham have played the 80 mins and failed to score, then yes its a good sub.

Palmer has scores some good goals (many penalties, and many just at Stamford Bridge) but has his general play even been *that* good?

 

[Nando]

If Saka, Foden, Kane and Bellingham have played the 80 mins and failed to score, then yes its a good sub.

Palmer has scores some good goals (many penalties, and many just at Stamford Bridge) but has his general play even been *that* good?

Yes, he's an excellent all round player. Very comfortable in tight spaces, doesn't shirk it out of possession and obviously clinical.

He's surprised me to be honest, I thought he was more likely to drift into your 'lovely left foot' cliched player, but he's stepped up big time.

 

[Carrotdude]

I’ve seen chelsea fans say his defensive work/tracking back is pretty poor at this stage so that’s something that you have to factor in too especially in tougher games

 

[Lupo]

That should rule Rashford out altogether then

 

[Templeton Peck]

Well he's only played around 20 games this season.

Still better than Maguire. Stones isn't quick so we can't have another carthorse next to him. Branthwaite would have been my pick but he's not given him any opportunities. Never given Tomori a chance either.

 

[Elephant Pyjamas]

Well Guehi has been injured since early February.

Branthwaite has looked desperate lately, particularly against Newcastle and last night - I don't get the buzz with him at all.

Tomori is another who hasn't played much this season, he's been dropped of late.

Lets be honest CB is a real problem, i know it's fun for everyone to mock Maguire, but it isn't the crazy pick it seemed to be 12 months ago, there's very little competition for his place. With what's available he's the best of a bad bunch AND he has the experience the others don't, and look at the state of Dunk when he played against Brazil and Belgium!

Much like with Pickford, loads of people moaning he gets picked. But the drop off to 2nd choice keeper is astronomical.

 

[Nando]

I expected Colwill to make the LCB position his own after he excelled it at Brighton, but it's fair to say he's underwhelmed this season.

I still think he's probably the long term option there and he's been left in a difficult position at times due to Chelsea's wider issues, but no doubting he's also let himself down at times too. If he can form a consistent partnership at club level, I'd expect him to make the step with Branthwaite.