I mean, when the alternative is Stones and McGuire, it doesn’t sound far fetched.
The quality of CB’s that England produced has been shocking for awhile.
From Terry, Rio, Campbell, King to Smalling, Jones and Gary Cahill. And now Dier, Stones and McGuire.
Its been poor, peak Gary Cahill would be comfortably England’s best CB now.
I just have zero idea if Conte turning Dier into a decent defender will translate. That said, it looks like 3 at the back for England so might as well have Dier centrally in charge, two decent options on the right in Stones and Walker and then I guess you gotta play Guehi on the left because at least he plays on that side every week and he's quick. You can always sub in Maguire for the last 20 minutes if you're just holding on I guess.
England have lots of talent, but no serious #8 until Bellingham matures and the CBs are weak, and I'm not sure there's really a formation to hide that other than playing Moyes ball and hoping Rice and Phillips can turn the midfield into a draw and Kane up top can create a lot with either Mount as a hard-working 10 or Grealish told to go win the game by himself, and I guess play Rashford and Bowen on the wings and hope they get in behind a couple times a game. Also there's no real left-back in the squad, but I guess you could play Chilwell against weaker teams and I guess Reece James on the left and Walker on the right in knockout games. But the football would be truly awful.
I'd be shocked if England can play one way through the tournament. They're probably going to need one team to play football and break down Iran (always annoying), the Americans and Wales and win the group and then reset completely for the knockout fixtures. At the moment, my bet will probably be that England wins the group but then loses in the round of 16 to Senegal, who are a quietly decent squad, have a tough if unskilled midfield (Kouyate, Gana Gueye, Mendy) who know the Prem well, a front 3 that makes sense since their 9 scores consistently for them and Mane and Sarr are good on the counter and Diallo-Kouyate is a good CB pairing.