England squad (Games against Czech Republic and Montenegro) | Rashford and Shaw called up

arthurka

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Smalling should focus on us and leave Englands NT for good.
Southgate is wrong but can´t say it bothers me much.
 

TMDaines

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Maddison omission is baffling. He has been one of best creators in any of top 5 leagues this season. Currently one key pass shy of Depay who leads the way, and a few ahead of Messi who is fourth.
 

deadrevelz

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No Phil Foden? Our midfield is terrible and he isn't getting many games for City, Southgate should have picked him.

Not surprised about Smalling, Southgate has his preferred style and I have no problem with it. Just wish Rashford had been rested so he can get some form back. He better not play both games.
 

Hoof the ball

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Central midfield is a glaring weakness for England in general. I like Fabian Delph at City, but he's not been playing, much less at CM at all for them, and he's there in the squad. Ward-Prowse seems a more deserving option. Or perhaps Lewis Cook. Or Hughes. All players who have played very well this season and are consistently playing for their clubs.

I don't understand the process of selection, sometimes.

"Oh, well, I picked X player when he used to play more, so, I'm obligated to pick him even though he's not playing."
 

SalfordRed18

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Just realised Jordan Henderson has more caps for England than Michael Carrick.
 

IrishRedDevil

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Wan Bissaka, Ward-Prowse, Maddison, Coady, Winks and Smalling are all performing better than Trippier, Delph, Henderson, Dier, Loftus-Cheek and Keane
 

Rooney in Paris

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Goalkeepers

Jack Butland, Tom Heaton, Jordan Pickford

Defenders

Trent Alexander-Arnold, Ben Chilwell, Michael Keane, Harry Maguire, Danny Rose, Luke Shaw, John Stones, James Tarkowski, Kieran Trippier, Kyle Walker

Midfielders

Ross Barkley, Dele Alli, Fabian Delph, Eric Dier, Jordan Henderson, Ruben Loftus-Cheek, Declan Rice

Forwards

Harry Kane, Marcus Rashford, Jadon Sancho, Raheem Sterling, Callum Wilson
The midfield just screams meh
 

Paxi

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southgate is stupid cnut. how is smalling not good enough for that squad.
 

Devil may care

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The midfield is weak as most have said and Southgate uses his wingback's for attack so I'm not surprised he's not picked Wan-Bissaka. The odd thing with his Smalling issue is that a couple of the CB's he's picking in place of him are hardly great on the ball. Hopefully Rashford is pulled from the squad as I don't think he's been fully fit since the Liverpool game.
 

DomesticTadpole

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Let Smalling have a rest, we have problems with our CB's and only Lindelof and Smalling look anything like. At least he won't pick up an injury on international duty. It will also give Jesse time to get back to full fitness. Some of the choices in that squad beggar belief. Players who are either off form altogether or like Delph rarely play. If you are going to pick a City player then pick Foden for goodness sake.
 

RedSky

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Goalkeepers
Jack Butland, Tom Heaton, Jordan Pickford

Defenders
Trent Alexander-Arnold, Ben Chilwell, Michael Keane, Harry Maguire, Danny Rose, Luke Shaw, John Stones, James Tarkowski, Kieran Trippier, Kyle Walker

Midfielders
Ross Barkley, Dele Alli, Fabian Delph, Eric Dier, Jordan Henderson, Ruben Loftus-Cheek, Declan Rice

Forwards
Harry Kane, Marcus Rashford, Jadon Sancho, Raheem Sterling, Callum Wilson

When you look at that squad, id say all the players marked in red are having poor/mediocre seasons. Makes the omission of some players even more bizarre, seems like form no longer matters for England. It's a really bad squad imo.
 

saivet

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I do get his reasoning for not picking Smalling, but when guys like Tarkoski and Dunk are making the squad ahead of him it is baffling.

Midfielder looks poor as usual, but options like Maddison might be being saved for the u21 tournament in the summer same with Wan Bissaka I'd imagine.
 

Scarecrow

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I do get his reasoning for not picking Smalling, but when guys like Tarkoski and Dunk are making the squad ahead of him it is baffling.

Midfielder looks poor as usual, but options like Maddison might be being saved for the u21 tournament in the summer same with Wan Bissaka I'd imagine.
What do you mean saved? It's March.
 

Djemba-Djemba

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Not picking on you here but when people say Smalling is clumsy on the ball what do they actually mean? Is it more so how he turns his body before playing a pass? I don’t think I’ve ever seen him struggle to control a ball or misplace passes often. I’d probably go as far to say his passing is fairly accurate. It’s just that 1/2 second delay he has before making the pass. I don’t see any of these England playing defence splitting passes on a regular basis. So I’m not really sure what it is Southgate is expecting. Feel free to correct me if I’m wrong though.

I rate Maguire and Stones. Around the same level as Smalling in my opinion. I think they’re both similar though. I ain’t having Keane and Tarkowski as better options though.
Clumsy may be the wrong word but essentially he's just not great at bringing the ball out from the back, his range of passing is limited.

But I agree with you, he's not as bad as many make out and when it comes to actual defending he's good and should be in the squad obviously.

The likes of Keane and Tarkowski have never put in a performance like Smallings in Paris last week that's for sure.
 

Judas

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I hoped for better from Southgate, but I'm worrying he's already falling into the habits of the past managers a bit. Quite a few players on current form should have made the squad, but they haven't. Don't care about Smalling as I'm not surprised, he seems to have chosen to be stubborn about that one. But Maddison not getting in when players like Barkley and Dier have is laughable.
 

Sean_RedDevil

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Goalkeepers
No complaints....right decision for me that Gunn and Henderson are staying with the U21's.

Defenders
CB options are okay.

But why again 3 RB's and 3 LB's in the squad :confused:.....to call-up Trippier with his injury problem is so unnecessary and Rose shouldn't be in the squad.

Midfielders
That Maddison stays with U21's is okay because the European Championships will be very important.

To call-up Loftus-Cheek and not Ward-Prowse is a joke :houllier:

Four defensive midfielders is brilliant too :lol:

Strikers
No complaints.
Not now obviously I meant by time the World Cup comes around or possibly even Euros if he has a rapid breakthrough (all dependent on if he lives up to the hype obviously).
Okay okay :)
 

MikeKing

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Truthfully I've seen Smalling play slicker passes and go on better runs than I've ever seen Tarkowski and Keane do.
 

africanspur

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Was there really any need to call up Dele or Dier? Both have played just 1 game since coming back from injury and probably aren't match fit and in Dier's case especially, has shown nothing to be in the squad currently regardless.

Seems like they could have sat this one out.

Otherwise a few interesting players to watch in there.
 

Rozay

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Is Harry Winks injured or something? He should be one of the first names on the team sheet for England.
 

Rozay

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He is injured. He has some chronic problem with his ankles that means he has to play through pain. He needs a break currently. It doesn't really bode well.
Fair enough. Shame as he’s England’s only 21st century central midfielder!
 

Mystry

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Really surprised at no Ward-Prowse. Given up at this point of Southgate potentially picking Smalling even though he's better than most English centre backs.
 

noodlehair

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Better players than the likes of Trippier aren't going to get a look in now, based on a few world cup games. Cody, Ward-Prowse etc.

I still don't understand the issue with Smalling. It'd make sense if England had world class defenders or a team of world class technical players. They have nothing remotely close to either.

Still enough there for us to perform well if he doesn't revert back to playing Sterling or Rashford as a no 10 and dropping the other.
 

billdrama

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Central midfield is a glaring weakness for England in general. I like Fabian Delph at City, but he's not been playing, much less at CM at all for them, and he's there in the squad. Ward-Prowse seems a more deserving option. Or perhaps Lewis Cook. Or Hughes. All players who have played very well this season and are consistently playing for their clubs.

I don't understand the process of selection, sometimes.

"Oh, well, I picked X player when he used to play more, so, I'm obligated to pick him even though he's not playing."
I think there is sometimes a bit too much emphasis placed on players' current form for their club. Of course it's not completely irrelevant but Southgate's job isn't to pick an English 'Team of the month'. I think that you ideally want to have a reasonable degree in consistency in the squad selection rather than changing 8 or 9 players every time depending on who happens to have done the best in the few months in between, especially as there are so many variables and circumstances that can affect this.

The core of the squad were part of the group that reached the World Cup semi-final and won their Nations League group so it is not as if the national team is in bad shape; indeed, I think it's in the best place it's been in for a while.

It's true Delph hasn't played much for City recently but he played very well in England's last game against Croatia (Southgate said yesterday that he thought he was England's best player) so I can understand why he has been retained.
 

dbs235

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Playing out from the back is very important for England's game these days. Which is why Smalling isn't picked despite being a good defender and why Pickford remains number 1 despite making many errors. It's no surprise that England's upturn in fortune has coincided with this new style. Hopefully people understand this. That being said, would happily swap Smalling in for any of the defenders other than Stones and Maguire.
 

Fridge chutney

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Baffling that Smalling isn't picked over the dross. Especially after his recent performances.
I agree. Smalling has raised his game for big matches recently. Baffling how players who have less big match experience and are worse defenders than him get picked.