Not one of Wilshere, Lallana or Shelvey is picked. Compare the creativity in this midfield to that of Spain.
World Cup 2018 - General discussion
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Who would you drop for Smalling?
Feel bad for Smalling but Southgate seems to be clear about what he wants from his CBs. Nothing wrong in wanting the team to play a certain way.
How did I forget about Youngy
My bad.Maguire and/or Cahill
Cahill, Jones, Stones, McGuire.
So is that all of them? He’s better than every one of them.
Young too, think Delph is going as cover for CM as there's only Dier and Henderson
Wilshere shouldn’t be anywhere near the squad.
Neither should Smalling or Jones for that.
Bollocks. You can't be horrible on the ball like Smalling, and claim to be the best defender of the lot. FWIW City have the best defensive record in the league.
Have no idea why either of Trippier or Alexander-Arnold are in there, we have possibly the best right back in the world and we're going to try to avoid playing him in his correct position just so Southgate doesn't have to call up England's best (only slightly dodgy) centre half.
Think Delph is a good shout as he can fill in in 2 weakish positions for us. But the rest of the midfield I don't get, are we really going to play Dier and Henderson together again? Or is Loftus Cheek going to start? All a bit odd that Wilshere didn't get the nod after his recent form and fitness.
And, although I think Pope should be no.1 so I'm glad he's going, not sure why we really need 3 keepers. All 3 are decent enough, if unproven at the top level, but why can't one go on the standby list to give a semi decent centre mid /centre half option a space?
And Stones...don't get it. How many games has he played in the last 6 months? Shite defender, and not even that much better on the ball than Maguire.
Think Delph is a good shout as he can fill in in 2 weakish positions for us. But the rest of the midfield I don't get, are we really going to play Dier and Henderson together again? Or is Loftus Cheek going to start? All a bit odd that Wilshere didn't get the nod after his recent form and fitness.
And, although I think Pope should be no.1 so I'm glad he's going, not sure why we really need 3 keepers. All 3 are decent enough, if unproven at the top level, but why can't one go on the standby list to give a semi decent centre mid /centre half option a space?
And Stones...don't get it. How many games has he played in the last 6 months? Shite defender, and not even that much better on the ball than Maguire.
Thought defenders were meant to defend, old fashioned as that might be. Smalling does that better than any of them.
Also don’t think any of the City centre backs have had much work to do this season for obvious reasons.
Definitely gone too safe with this squad.
Basically taking 6 full backs.. I know some can play out of position, but at least add in some wildcards/flair/creative players.
Basically taking 6 full backs.. I know some can play out of position, but at least add in some wildcards/flair/creative players.
Southgate is either stupid or stupid.
Stones barely played in 2018.
Rose barely played since god knows when.
Shelvey had a good season.
Wilshere was on form.
Smalling had a very good season.
I guess he's just big headed and thinks he's smart.
Even my atrociously bad Romanian national team will walk that midfield if he plays Hendo + Dier. Just imagine that midfield playing against feking belgium, being eaten alive by big Felli. H@H@
Stones barely played in 2018.
Rose barely played since god knows when.
Shelvey had a good season.
Wilshere was on form.
Smalling had a very good season.
I guess he's just big headed and thinks he's smart.
Even my atrociously bad Romanian national team will walk that midfield if he plays Hendo + Dier. Just imagine that midfield playing against feking belgium, being eaten alive by big Felli. H@H@
Ice skating
altjough I kinda admire Southgate for sticking to his guns and sticking to the way he wants to play just seems madness that you wouldn’t take the best English CB, dress it up like it’s because he can’t pass and then decide to take Jones....
He’s picking players on current form rather than reputation.
He should have had Shelvey in.
Jones is much better on the ball than Smalling
Why should we be fecking surprised that England managers are allergic to creative, technical players like Shelvey and Cook? By all means, Southgate, spam our midfield pool with bust-a-lung classic English midfielders with more stamina than ball control. Rinse and fecking repeat.
We will see how they do. I am not expecting them to win it or anything, but I would like to see them go to quarters at least.
He’s really not “much better” and if he is the fact Smalling is a much better defender more than covers that. Also this Smalling is rubbish on the ball thing has been blown way, way out of proportion. It’s snowballed in to Something it isn’t. He’s not Rio or Luiz but he’s good enough to move the ball and not lose it in dangerous areas.
Stones barely played in the 2nd half of the season, so he can't take much credit for that. He's a good passer, but he can't defend.
Cahill is garbage on the ball too. Jones is marginally better with the ball, but still a bit naff.
Aye when he's sliding about the floor nudging it with his face.
Don't see much value in a creative midfielder when England come up against better sides - realistically they haven't got anyone good enough to influence games of that magnitude. That said, I wonder who can unlock a deep-lying defence with a midfield four sat on top of it - the sort of situation England really struggled with two years ago.
Jones is better than Smalling.
Wilshere should be in squad.
Wilshere should be in squad.
Correct leaving out Wilshere. Could understand Smalling if he feels badly done to. He should be going!
Always makes me laugh how you get a player who fans consistently shit all over for being terrible or whatever....then when they're not in the England squad those same fans band together to decry what a disgrace it is.
------------------------------------------------Pickford-------------------------------------------
-------------------------------Walker----------Stones--------Dier-------------------------------
-----------Trippier-----------Henderson-------------------RLC---------------------Young------
-----------------------------------Alli---------------------Sterling-------------------------------
------------------------------------------------Kane---------------------------------------------
Don't see what's so bad about that. Get the full backs bombing on against Panama and Tunisia and there's plenty of creativity there. Against better teams probably Dier in for RLC and Jones in at centre back.
------------------------------------------------Pickford-------------------------------------------
-------------------------------Walker----------Stones--------Dier-------------------------------
-----------Trippier-----------Henderson-------------------RLC---------------------Young------
-----------------------------------Alli---------------------Sterling-------------------------------
------------------------------------------------Kane---------------------------------------------
Don't see what's so bad about that. Get the full backs bombing on against Panama and Tunisia and there's plenty of creativity there. Against better teams probably Dier in for RLC and Jones in at centre back.
He has to play Kane Rashford and Vardy together. It's the only way other teams will fear England. If he plays just one striker, that person will be isolated from midfield and won't find space exactly like in the Euros.
Delph I believe is going as a cm
Would any other nation pick a defender part of team that has one of the worst defensive records in the league over a player that has been part of the best defense in England for four years? Then you have Cahill who barely played for his club this season. Makes sense.
I'm not sure why Smalling is the hill everyone is choosing to die on.
Smalling is a great defender in a low ball system. He is the perfect defender for a Mourinho team.
But with this English team, the defense will have to push out of the back in order to support the mediocre midfield and the rest of the team. Imagine Smalling in that setup. A player like Stones can bring the ball out of the back, switch the ball between both sides, and evade the press with the ball. Plus, contrary to belief on here, he's a good defender that played a lot of games in side that conceded the least amount of goals and shots on goal in the league. If you want to credit City's defensive record on their possession, then I'll credit United's defensive record on DDG, given the amount of shots we concede.
Jones is comfortable playing in such a setup, plus he's not a significantly worse defender than Smalling. Ditto for Maguire. Smalling may be the best pure defender, but his absolute inability to do anything with the ball makes him a liability in a side not playing hoof ball. And he's not good enough to build the team selection around him.
Delph and Arnold are actual proper center midfielders who can play wide
it's not blown way out of proportion, he's terrible on the ball, that fact cannot be disputed. He has other aspects to his game that are good but it's panic stations every time he gets the ball. Game v Newcastle, he tried to carry the ball out of defence, lost control and then did his infamous dive. They scored from the free kick. He has pluses to his game, but the ball at his feet is not one of them
He was injured for a good chunk of it. He was excellent for them in the first half of the season.
England are going to get fecking destroyed then.
Has Delph at any point played central midfield for City this season??
It’s a shame, Welbeck
I personally think Jones is a much better player than Smalling all round, hampered only by a complete disregard for his own safety and sicknoteitis
I would have taken Smalling, if only because the understanding between Jones and Smalling (and potentially Young) is going to be better than any other partnership English can come up with. Hes clearly hard done by to be behind the likes of Tarkowski in the pecking order but that more down to public spat between him and Southgate
Seems Southgate is playing safe. No real attacking midfielder.
It is when you read half the stuff that is written in his performance thread. This season Bailly, Rojo, Jones, Matic have all made horrendous atrocious passes out from defence more than Smalling has yet they haven’t been brandished with the same rubbish statements.
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