England Squad Confirmed vs Holland & Italy

endless_wheelies

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Goalkeepers

Joe Hart, Nick Pope, Jordan Pickford, Jack Butland

Defenders

Ryan Bertrand, Joe Gomez, Harry Maguire, Alfie Mawson, Danny Rose, John Stones, James Tarkowski, Kieran Trippier, Kyle Walker

Midfielders

Dele Alli, Lewis Cook, Eric Dier, Jordan Henderson, Adam Lallana, Jesse Lingard, Jake Livermore, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Jack Wilshere, Ashley Young

Forwards

Marcus Rashford, Jamie Vardy, Danny Welbeck, Raheem Sterling
 

Who Loves ya Bebe

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Joe Hart, Danny Welbeck, Ryan Bertrand & Jake Livermore.... is this the best we can offer before a World Cup!
 

Maagge

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That looks incredibly underwhelming.
 

bond19821982

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No smalling yet again. Feel bad for him though. Having a much better season than everyone selected yet he is dropped.
 

The holy trinity 68

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Mawson, Maguire, Tarkowski but no Smalling or Jones :houllier:

Welbeck does not deserve a call up either.

This is the worst England squad of my 20 years of following football.
 

SalfordRed18

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Yeah, call me bias but I'd much rather a defence with smalling and Jones than Maguire and Stones.

Some of the call ups make me question southgate tbh. Same old same old.
 

Prodigy24

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That has to be the worst England squad I've ever seen. Also, Smalling is better than all of the defenders selected, Southgate is an idiot if he doesn't select him for the World Cup.
 

Annihilate Now!

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That has to be the worst England squad I've ever seen. Also, Smalling is better than all of the defenders selected, Southgate is an idiot if he doesn't select him for the World Cup.
Southgate's made his bed on Smalling now - he won't backtrack on it.

He's a football manager at the end of the day, saving face is more important to him then actually picking the right players.
 

BigBebe

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a very uninspiring group of players.

I think Southgate has backed himself into a corner by dropping Smalling last time then being stupid enough to comment on it. The idea that Smalling does not get selected before the others in that defence is ridiculous.
 

Shimo

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That has got to be one of the most underwhelming squads in a while. Not that Smalling would bring it up but, just nuts that he is overlooked again. England against the big sides are not going to be able to play it out the back, they are hardly going to have possession and are going to have to actually defend. Going to be great watching them go down in flames.
 

klsv

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Decent squad, should be able to avoid relegation easily if thrown into the EPL.
 

Swift Football

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People will have some complains whoever Southgate selects. I feel Southgate has largely make right choices.

Only few things i feel - Why to take 4 keepers in the friendlies. The forward department looks short in numbers (counting Sterling & Rashford as wide forwards) but Kane will be added in the actual competition. Not a fan of Wilshere, but apart from Dele Alli there is nobody who can play passes in tight spaces for england, so I can understand his inclusion.

Some people will want Smalling to be included because he is good only from pure defending perspective, But Gareth has already mentioned there are other CBs who can bring the ball out better than him, so justified for me.
 
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James Peril

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The curse of the England-striker is on again, even though Kane might/will return long before the WC. Ankle injuries are tough though, it can reduce you by 10% the next year, that fear of doing the same again.

England look weak on paper this year, but who knows. The biggest problems are GK, cental def and midfield for sure. A midfield of Dier, Henderson and/or Oxlade will not go far in a World Cup. Butland or Hart at the back? No good.

Walker, Sterling and Kane are good enough for most teams, then there’s Alli and Rashford ready to do some damage as well.
 

DomesticTadpole

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Jones is injured isn't he? Nice to see Pope called up. Unfortunately for Chris, Southgate made his feeling clear and would rather pick John 'accident waiting to happen' Stones.
 

Catt

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Is Joe Hart in the squad because they feel bad for him? It can't be for his goalkeeping ability.
 

Trizy

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Mawson, Maguire, Tarkowski but no Smalling or Jones :houllier:

Welbeck does not deserve a call up either.

This is the worst England squad of my 20 years of following football.
To be fair to Maguire he's better than Smalling both technically and physically. Smalling maybe faster but Maguire is a better defender imo.
 

Tapori

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Jones is injured.
Smalling not being picked in the Squad at least is absolutely baffling by a fellow Centre half in Southgate. He's been a colossus in key games recently.

I like the call ups for the in-form uncapped players.

Don't understand Livermore, Lallana (not enough games)
 

Tapori

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Lingard may well be England's most important player in that creativity vacuum that is the England midfield.

Wilshere and Dier have to play.

Rashford
Sterling Lingard
Wilshere
Dier Henderson (reluctantly)
Young Stones Maguire Walker
 

kundalini

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Must have made some impression in those 375 mins
Lallana, Welbeck and Rose are all in the squad due to past England performances rather than current club form. None of them are first choice for their club sides right now. Southgate may just want a closer look at how they are doing. If they are totally out of form then he can leave them out in the summer.
 

OnlyTwoDaSilvas

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This might be the first time we go in to a competition without any crippling and undeserved hype and the expectancy that we were going to blow the world away. If that's anything like the final World Cup squad, we should be going to Russia with the same mentality Iceland and Wales did in the last tournament, with no hope but lets see how far we can get. We certainly can't play with the arrogance we normally do. At least it was somewhat justified in years gone by with the likes of Rooney, Gerrard, Cole, Terry, Lampard, world class players. This squad has none. Besides Lingod, obvs.

Feel bad for Smalling, but glad he's glad he's not picked. He's played an enormous amount of consecutive games, so a rest will be good for him. For him on a personal level, it must be hard seeing the likes of Mawson and Tarkowski picked ahead of him. I understand Southgates criticism of Smalling, but neither of those two are really any better at what Southgate supposedly wants. Stones can't even get a game at City either. Smalling has been better than all of them this season. If England were flooded with technical ball playing centre backs, it'd be another matter. The only one England really has is Stones, and whilst he's got a great deal of technique, his ability as a pure defender is questionable to say the least.
 

kundalini

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England need players that perform near the top of their ability in a summer, high pressure, tournament, not necessarily star names for top 6 sides.

The team that lost to Iceland 1-2 was:

Hart, Walker, Rose, Cahill, Smalling, Dier, Rooney, Alli, Sterling, Sturridge, Kane - with Wilshere on as a half-time sub, then Vardy midway through 2nd half and finally Rashford late on.

Team for Slovakia 0-0 in group stages:

Hart, Clyne, Bertrand, Cahill, Smalling, Dier, Henderson, Wilshere, Lallana, Sturridge, Vardy - with Rooney and Dele Alli on early in the 2nd half, Kane later.

Team for Wales 2-1 in group stages:

Hart, Walker, Rose, Cahill, Smalling, Dier, Rooney, Alli, Lallana, Sterling, Kane - with Sturridge and Vardy on as half-time subs, Rashford a late sub.

Same starting 11 for Russia 1-1 game. Subs were Wilshere and Milner near the end.

My memory is hazy but how many of those players performed reasonably well ? I remember Rashford doing ok in his few mins. The performance against Iceland was horrendous.
 
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endless_wheelies

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People will have some complains whoever Southgate selects. I feel Southgate has largely make right choices.

Only few things i feel - Why to take 4 keepers in the friendlies. The forward department looks short in numbers (counting Sterling & Rashford as wide forwards) but Kane will be added in the actual competition. Not a fan of Wilshere, but apart from Dele Alli there is nobody who can play passes in tight spaces for england, so I can understand his inclusion.

Some people will want Smalling to be included because he is good only from pure defending perspective, But Gareth has already mentioned there are other CBs who can bring the ball out better than him, so justified for me.
Phil Foden?
 

JSArsenal

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Southgate's made his bed on Smalling now - he won't backtrack on it.

He's a football manager at the end of the day, saving face is more important to him then actually picking the right players.
What did he say about Smalling?
 

Bobski

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If Southgate is committed to building from the back then going a different direction than Smalling is understandable. However if he gets to tournament time, bottles it, and then starts sitting and hoofing it will have been for naught. Southgate is not inspiring but he is one of the few England managers I can recall who seems to have a vision of how he wants to play rather than being dominated by names. Something encouraging there.
 

giorno

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People are actually moaning about Chris Smalling not being called up. :lol::lol::lol:

Also interesting how quickly people adapt to lower expectations without really changing their attitude :D