Think we’ll have to agree to differ.
Kane and Bellingham aside, personally think Foden the best English prospect since Rooney.
Internationals March (Euro Play-Offs + Friendlies)
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Kane and Bellingham aside, personally think Foden the best English prospect since Rooney.
That may be the case at City but he's been largely wank for England. It's not exactly like it's a small sample size either, he's played 33 games. Saka has shown much more in an England shirt and has nailed down that RW slot.
I don't think he's a better player overall than say Foden or Bellingham but today he added a real cutting edge when coming on which really stood out.
If the midfield going forward in Mainoo and Rice, then he shouldn't play ahead of Bellingham obviously, but in games England should win I wouldn't be against Bellingham, Rice and him in a 433 with Saka and Foden on the wings.
I think he'd do really well with Bellingham running beyond him.
Should he go to Euros?
We already have that, it’s called the National League
Definitely an “i” missing from that post
He was outstanding tonight, his awareness and will to actually progress the ball forward is fantastic.
I hadn’t realised he’d gone straight from U19 to first team without any U21 appearances. Just made for the shirt!
Not sure, think he did a lot of work. The worry for me with the whole team was we have now come up against two very organised defences and had difficulties getting through. We kept going though.
Hope we take him and Watkins in squad,however doubt it as Southgate would worry about not having enough defensive options
Because you have better players starting
Funny, because I thought England were slightly better than Brazil and actually out played Belgium especially in the 2nd half, despite the results. The only reason the results weren’t better was down to individual mistakes in defense and the goalie. But the actual play by England was very promising in both matches and that’s also what the stats of both matches suggest.
Brazil were way better. Look at the chances on both sides. England showed definite problems in defensive transition in that game
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It's going to be a real interesting Euros isn't it?
If we just went by the March friendlies then Germany would be clear favourites especially with home advantage.
They've improved plenty in last six months but no one would put them in that bracket just yet.
My hunch would be on Portugal but feels they are too wedded still to Ronaldo and things will stagnate too much in the final third even though they have many other wonderful attackers and a reasonably solid defence.
Not sure France are that strong as they were 3-4 years ago.
These two friendlies have shown England must have Kane out there to have any chance. Final squad selection will be very interesting given we're going back down to 23 players, Southgate probably going to have to leave a player or two out he doesn't want to.
If we just went by the March friendlies then Germany would be clear favourites especially with home advantage.
They've improved plenty in last six months but no one would put them in that bracket just yet.
My hunch would be on Portugal but feels they are too wedded still to Ronaldo and things will stagnate too much in the final third even though they have many other wonderful attackers and a reasonably solid defence.
Not sure France are that strong as they were 3-4 years ago.
These two friendlies have shown England must have Kane out there to have any chance. Final squad selection will be very interesting given we're going back down to 23 players, Southgate probably going to have to leave a player or two out he doesn't want to.
I thought England had the better of the play, but Brazil had too many clear cut chances mainly down to individual errors in defence. But in terms of the football England shaded it in my opinion. Yesterday England should have hammered Belgium.
Rather two weeks than six months... everything last year was bleak, even after Nagelsmann took over. But now he pretty much decided "f*ck that shit" and threw away the whole team as it worked during the last years and made a real fresh start. Kroos' return surely is the change which gets most attention, but other adjustments as well. Finally this feels like a team again and not just like a bunch of random players.
Pointless to call it now. Two months still to go, we don't actually know what the teams will look like come June. France and England on paper have more talent than everyone else but they're both a couple injuries away from dropping back into the middle of the pack
Problem is Kroos playing with Andrich means we need a third central midfielder who contributes to the defensive side (Gundogan/Kimmich), and cover for Kroos. I think if we play Kimmich or Gundogan with Andrich, then we can have Wirtz at CAM and it not be a detriment to how ability defend through the center, but then Kroos is the best passer in the team so its difficult to leave him out.
Havertz at ST was great in the ball but you can still see a clear lack of goalscoring threat, which is different with Fullkrug. I feel if we're playing a weaker team that will defend deep, go with Fullkrug, while playing against a dominant team, where you may need some extra technical ability to hold the ball and play passes, you go with Havertz.
I am very sure that we won't see Kimmich in midfield again under Nagelsmann as he quite clearly identified him playing there as a problem. Also Kroos obviously is the one the team is built around now, and he isn't that weak defensively that he would need another one to cover for him. I actually think he is far more reliable than Kimmich in that regard at the moment.
I also think that both Wirtz and Havertz have the workrate to play as CAM instead of Gündogan if needed, but generally I expect a definitive settled "back eight" and variation on the wing and striker position.
Has he said outright that Kimmich there was a problem? Kimmich didn't start against Austria, which we still lost 2-0, didn't play at CM in the 4-1 against Japan as well. This will go around in circles though because we've had this Kimmich is bad in midfield debate before, one thing I will say though is that he's definitely better defensively than Kroos though.
If we think Kroos is good enough defensively to not need another CM to help out defensively, then I don't see a reason to have Gundogan there other than experience. Muller, who also played really well after coming in against Netherlands, or Wirtz would be much better for our attack.
He has said that he plans with Kimmich as RB. I don't know if this is because there are better CM options than RB options or if it is because he doesn't want him in the CM.
I think the big difference between Kroos and Kimmich is their movement and positioning. Kroos stays much deeper while Kimmich likes to move more. I just don't think that works well in a national team that doesn't have much time to get used to that, so Kroos definitely provides a more stable defensive structure than what I have seen from Kimmich there lately.
Because Kroos stays relatively deep it makes sense to play another midfielder in front of him as there is space he can operate in. Müller would leave much space in behind, except if the team really pushes forward like late against the Netherlands when he was subbed on.
Germany's coming off such a bad period, it makes sense Nagelsmann would just go for the current best german players around and figure to build around them. That's why he convinced Kross to come back. Likewise, Gundogan is undroppable. Those are Germany's 2 best players right now, Wirtz nothwithstanding
That's an interesting take, if you look at the defensive stats (don't have them at the ready but remember from a while back when comparing Kimmich to other CM's), Kimmich has many more defensive actions than Kroos but that can sometimes not tell the complete picture.
I know people are starting to get on board with Germany after these two matches, but I'm still worried that we're going to be too passive and central like previous teams.
How has Gundogan been for Barcelona?
pretty great
I'm absolutely not surprised by those stats. It fit's with my perception that Kimmich too often tries to be at the heart of the action even when that's not the smartest move for a player supposed to orchestrate. That's just not what Kimmich excels at in my opinion. He excels in midfield if other roles have to be fulfilled, but I feel like that last was the case in Flick's sextuple season, that it really worked with him (and even then he played some of the most important matches at RB).
We looked more fluid than against Brazil which I feel was down to Kobbie,Bowen and Toney. They should all go to Euros but I reckon one of the last two is going to miss out unfortunately.
Gareth apparently wants to take 26 rather than 23. Not sure if that is just him or all the teams involved want bigger squad due to so many injuries.
It's not only him. Koeman already talked about wanting to increase the squad size and said that Nagelsmann would agree on this. But in the end UEFA has to decide. Ultimately this is also a question about how to balance the tournament between big and small nations, the big nations definitely have an advantage with bigger squads while the smaller ones simply don't have enough top class players to make it a difference for them.
I'm optimistic because of exactly that
The last two or three tournaments were defined by coaches trying to play the RB way for all the wrong reasons, in my opinion. I want to see a more "passive" (I'd rather use a term like "patient" or "in control") team. We don't need to press like madmen and play completely vertical just because Germany.Hope we do because would mean we could take additional defender (Branthwaite) midfielder/wide player and striker (Watkins)