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The England Thread

nailsy

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Jul 24, 2005
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I think Southgate did okay to try the 343 and it worked quite well. The problem is his selection of players. Redmond and ward-prowse simply not good enough. Livermore did okay yesterday, but I don't think he is good enough for long terms. Though I think he is facing a crisis in the CM selection. Dier keeps playing CB for us, but Southgate has no other CDM better than Dier at this moment. I still think Winks deserves a chance, or maybe I am biased

I've been trying to think of some alternatives to Dier and I can't come up with any. Mason could be an option when fit I guess. I think we're struggling at centre back as well. We're OK for the first three, but the backup squad options are limited.
 

DogsOfWar

Well-Known Member
Jan 12, 2005
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Finally an England manager that made a decision based on common sense.

He knows that Tottenham have 5 of the top performing English players so played the system we have to get the most out of them.
The two weakest links were Bertrand and Vardy and they will be replaced by Rose and Kane so Gareth must be wetting himself to think that, in the future, that team is going to perform even better.
He also had the balls to play lower Prem players in positions where we were short rather than go for round pegs in square holes from the top clubs. Both Keane and Livermore had solid games.
In fact Jake's performance was better than anything I have seen Rooney attempt in the middle and shows that Wayne should never have been played there in the first place.

Southgate has also managed to identify England's most dangerous AMs in Lallana and Alli.
I also suspect, due to the lack of quality CMs, that Winks may be fast tracked into this team.

Southgate just needs the balls to stick to his guns.

And, from a Tottenham perspective, Levy must also be soiling himself at the prospect of 6 Spurs players representing England in a major tournament. Money cannot buy that kind of marketing (well it can as those 6 players only cost us £14 million or less than half a Luke Shaw!).
 

spursfan77

Well-Known Member
Aug 13, 2005
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I was about to post, the reason England have had struggled for decades is they almost always try to squeeze in the best players or those who are in very poor form but are signed to a big club (was going to say play for a big club but sometimes it doesn't even matter if they've been playing at all let alone playing well) rather than building the strongest team.
Then they play these players out of position in a different system to what they play week in week out at their respective clubs.
Then sit there and wonder why it looks disjointed and players don't look as good when they pull on England shirt.
Nothing will improve until this culture goes and seeing Luke Shaw there last night based on hmmm fuck all other than he's Man U tells me we're not changing any time soon.
So I agree with what you're saying

Thing is, we'll never know if it's truely the case until we do it at a major tournament. I've been crying out for system over shoehorning players in for decades watching England.

I remember a tournament where Italy had totti, Cassano and del piero in the squad for a finals. Did they try and get them all in the team at the same time. Of course not.
 

nailsy

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Jul 24, 2005
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I've only just seen that the next match is on Sunday at 5PM. I thought it was midweek for some reason.
 

DJS

A hoonter must hoont
Dec 9, 2006
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Finally an England manager that made a decision based on common sense.

He knows that Tottenham have 5 of the top performing English players so played the system we have to get the most out of them.
The two weakest links were Bertrand and Vardy and they will be replaced by Rose and Kane so Gareth must be wetting himself to think that, in the future, that team is going to perform even better.
He also had the balls to play lower Prem players in positions where we were short rather than go for round pegs in square holes from the top clubs. Both Keane and Livermore had solid games.
In fact Jake's performance was better than anything I have seen Rooney attempt in the middle and shows that Wayne should never have been played there in the first place.

Southgate has also managed to identify England's most dangerous AMs in Lallana and Alli.
I also suspect, due to the lack of quality CMs, that Winks may be fast tracked into this team.

Southgate just needs the balls to stick to his guns.

And, from a Tottenham perspective, Levy must also be soiling himself at the prospect of 6 Spurs players representing England in a major tournament. Money cannot buy that kind of marketing (well it can as those 6 players only cost us £14 million or less than half a Luke Shaw!).

I just hope he KEEPS Rooney out of the squad and it's not a case of as soon as Rooney gets a sniff of first-team football somewhere that he suddenly appears back in first team due to his 'wealth of international experience'...
 

nailsy

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Jul 24, 2005
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I've just read that Bradley Lowery's going to be a mascot on Sunday. Great for him that Defoe's in the squad this time.
 

nailsy

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Jul 24, 2005
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More Man Utd players crying off with injuries that will have miraculously healed by the time of the next Man Utd game.

Who are we left with now? Keane, Stones and Gibson? Obviously we've got Dier as well, but he's been playing in midfield for England.
 

DogsOfWar

Well-Known Member
Jan 12, 2005
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I just hope he KEEPS Rooney out of the squad and it's not a case of as soon as Rooney gets a sniff of first-team football somewhere that he suddenly appears back in first team due to his 'wealth of international experience'...

This is my big worry too. Rooney should have been moved on after the Euros but England always seem to cling on to these players for too long.
Hopefully, if we can stay around second and Winks becomes a bigger part of that, he'll look to youth like Harry rather than flogging a dead horse like his predecessors.
 

ComfortablyNumb

Well-Known Member
Jun 28, 2011
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Finally an England manager that made a decision based on common sense.

He knows that Tottenham have 5 of the top performing English players so played the system we have to get the most out of them.
The two weakest links were Bertrand and Vardy and they will be replaced by Rose and Kane so Gareth must be wetting himself to think that, in the future, that team is going to perform even better.
He also had the balls to play lower Prem players in positions where we were short rather than go for round pegs in square holes from the top clubs. Both Keane and Livermore had solid games.
In fact Jake's performance was better than anything I have seen Rooney attempt in the middle and shows that Wayne should never have been played there in the first place.

Southgate has also managed to identify England's most dangerous AMs in Lallana and Alli.
I also suspect, due to the lack of quality CMs, that Winks may be fast tracked into this team.

Southgate just needs the balls to stick to his guns.

And, from a Tottenham perspective, Levy must also be soiling himself at the prospect of 6 Spurs players representing England in a major tournament. Money cannot buy that kind of marketing (well it can as those 6 players only cost us £14 million or less than half a Luke Shaw!).

Sounds as though he's planning to go back to a back four. Seems like a mistake to me.
 

nailsy

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Jul 24, 2005
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Scholes on Rooney....

I don't want him to go to another English club, I hope he gets back in the United team," he added. "If he gets back in the United team then he is straight back into the England side

Why would he be straight back in the England team? He scores less than Kane, (lets face it he scores less than Cahill), he's not as creative as Alli or Lallana, he's not a central midfielder, and I can't really see him in defense. If you want him in the squad he could be useful for his experience, but I can't see him starting many games.
 

nailsy

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Jul 24, 2005
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Sounds as though he's planning to go back to a back four. Seems like a mistake to me.

He could be worried about playing a back three where 2 of the players have just 1 cap between them. Hopefully he'll stick with it though as we looked good the other night and today's opposition aren't the strongest.

And to be fair we do need two systems as teams in tournaments often just try to frustrate us so the more options we have the better.
 

davidmatzdorf

Front Page Gadfly
Jun 7, 2004
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I'm not sure there's more than a nominal difference between 3-4-1 and 4-1-4-1, if Eric Dier is going to be posted directly in front of the central defensive pair. The moment the fullbacks advance, Dier will drop back to form a back 3 anyway.
 

ComfortablyNumb

Well-Known Member
Jun 28, 2011
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I'm not sure there's more than a nominal difference between 3-4-1 and 4-1-4-1, if Eric Dier is going to be posted directly in front of the central defensive pair. The moment the fullbacks advance, Dier will drop back to form a back 3 anyway.
Where we've been really good with three at the back is holding the offside line. If Dier is meant to drop in when required, it'll probably mean the two CBs will stay relatively deep. If we play a high line, with Dier not sure if he's in our out, we could get caught. I'd prefer one thing or t'other, not some hybrid.
 
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