Is this the best (most promising) England squad (inc manager) we've had?

[0le]

Its definitely the best we've played as a team for quite some time. But individually, the players are not better than teams we have had in the past. The midfield is average and there are serious question marks over the defence. But the attack is fantastic and Kane and Sterling are world class and would make most England teams, past and present.

 

[dbs235]

Southgate needs to work out ASAP who's going to be Maguire's partner, and use the friendlies before the Euros to build some kind of partnership and chemistry between them. But I'd imagine he'll give the likes of Mings, Dunk and Tarkowski caps for the sake of experimenting. Same with the mdifield to be honest.

 

[amolbhatia50k]

The side lacked technical leaders though.

What on earth is a technical leader?

 

[Jeppers7]

Who cares ?

United >England.

Only interests are Maguire and Rashford.

 

[Flying_Heckfish]

Its definitely the best we've played as a team for quite some time. But individually, the players are not better than teams we have had in the past. The midfield is average and there are serious question marks over the defence. But the attack is fantastic and Kane and Sterling are world class and would make most England teams, past and present.

This is bascially it. We've got a wealth of attacking options, and for once we are making itr count agaisnt the minnows in qualifying.

On the big stage thouh, I think we do lack real quality in midfield so let's see what we can do when the going gets tough.

 

[Red Keane]

I would say that the current squad (The Southgate Generation as I like to call it) is the best England have had since the Golden Generation started to decline after 2008. But so long as it continues to have issues in the CB/DM positions*, it would be very hard to surpass them talent-wise on paper, even if they have managed to surpass them in a major tournement.

*One would hope that Tomori, Jonathan Panzo & Hamza Choudhury end up being the solution to those issues.

I want to know what happened to our World Cup winning U17s and U20s. I don't think any of them have made it through?

Dean Henderson (U20s), Tomori (U20s), Jaden Sancho (U17s) & Callum Hudson-Odoi (U17s) have already been called up for the England Senior Team (in fact all of them where called up for the most recent matches) and play regular football in the PL/Bundesliga while Lewis Cook (U20s) (Who also got a few callups before the 2018 WC), Ainsley Maitland-Niles (U20s), Ademola Lookman (U20s), Dominic Calvert-Lewin (U20s), Jonathan Panzo (U17s), Phil Foden (U17s) & Morgan Gibbs-White (U17s) all play on a semi-regular basis (if not better) at a senior level and all likely end up being called up for the England Senior Team at some point.

Which by the way is a better record than the likes of France & Germany for both these tournments, since they have collectively given a grand total of zero senior caps to any player who played for their respective U17/U20 teams in said tournments.

Look at the debacle towards the end of the Nations League.

Which was caused by an obession of certain players to keep passing the ball backwards & sideways at all costs, Southgate refusing to call up Vardy instead of allowing Kane to force himself onto the field (despite being unfit), Stones & Barkley trying their best to kill off their England careers all in one game, Chilwell ending up getting scared of Denzel Dumfries (The Dutch RB), Rice doing the same with the entire Dutch NT & Walker seemingly forgetting that he has 3-4 players all fighting for his place (and playing as such).

Overall, I still mantain that we could have beaten the Dutch that game had we avoided making basic tatical/squad selection mistakes England make far too many times (lets not forget we won against Spain & Croatia to reach the finals in the first place), such as thoughout the entire 2018 WC and of course the recent defeat against the Czech Republic...

And that is a competition no one even takes that seriously.

Well the Dutch & Portguese certainly did...

And we seem to have forgotten our performance at recent Under 21s

Fair point.

Our attack and full-backs are fantastic.

Everything else though....

I would argue that our goalkeepers are better than they were thoughout most of the Golden Generation era (i.e. after Seaman stopped getting picked for the Three Lions).

Kalvin Phillips would be in the squad if Leeds had got promoted, he's exactly what this squad is missing.

Well we do have a set of friendlies coming up in March next year, I don't see the harm in Southgate giving him a chance to both him & Hamza Choudhury in the DM role.

I think Grealish should have definitely got a call up.

Especially when Barkley withdrew from the squad...

Golden generation were better - they just had poor managers.

Neville, Cole, Terry, Rio, Campbell, King, Carrick, Gerrard, Scholes, Lampard, Beckham, Rooney, Shearer, Owen.

Albeit they did suffer from not having a decent LW.

Not helped by the fact Giggs ended chosing Wales over England. Regardless the likes of Sven should have adopted a 3-5-2 formation to get around this problem (and the issue is picking the right midfield lineup) during this time. Especially when England managers such as Hoddle & Taylor were willing to use this formation themselves (as would Southgate before the emergence of Sancho & CHO).

 

[The Boy]

Its definitely the best we've played as a team for quite some time. But individually, the players are not better than teams we have had in the past. The midfield is average and there are serious question marks over the defence. But the attack is fantastic and Kane, Rashford and Sterling are world class and would make most England teams, past and present.

Fixed for you

 

[VJ1762]

Fixed for you

Hold on. He is still potential. He was looking good at the start of Ole's tenure too, before he turned to shite. He has to perform for a full season before naming him 'world-class'. The only genuine world-class players in the England squad are Kane and Sterling.

 

[The Boy]

Agree he's developing and not world class yet, but he does not deserve the reputation he gets from some posters here, calling for him to go on loan to the Championship and describing him as gash. I think his development compares very well with Sterling's record.


Sterling, age: 24-25 this season---------------------------Rashford, age: 21-22 this season-------------------------------------------------------

Season-------App----Ass Goal----------------------------App----Ass----Goal-------------------------------------------------------------------------

12/13---------24-----2-----2----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

13/14---------33-----5-----9-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

14/15---------35-----7-----7-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

City Transfer-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

15/16---------31-----2-----6-------------------------------11------2-------5----------------------------------------------------------------------------

16/17---------33-----6-----7-------------------------------32------1-------5------------------------------------------------------------------------------

17/18---------33----11----18------------------------------35------5-------7-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

18/19---------34----10----17------------------------------33------6-------10------------------------------------------------------------------------------

19/20---------11-----1-----7-------------------------------12------3-------6---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

[JulesWinnfield]

The lionizing of the golden generation to castigate the current generation is among the more bizarre oddities of the current stereotypical cynical England "fan".

The fact is the golden generations best performance at a tournament has already been beaten by a weaker version of the current generation. Indeed their best performance was also matched by a rag tag squad in Euro 2012 who had Hodgson parachuted in at the last minute who without a suspended Rooney was left starting Welbeck and Carroll as lone strikers.... I mean I see someone earlier in the thread claiming the golden generation would "smash" the current side. On what basis is that? Certainly nothing they ever showed as a team.

So what is it people are trying to achieve with the comparisons? Is it that England aren't now doing better? Well already that's not really the case, as shown by them already outachieving that side. Is it that this England team can't win anything because better players didn't? Well again the supposedly worse England sides have previously matched and/or exceeded their achievements, and indeed far worse international sides have won tournaments - not least Greece in 2004 when the supposed golden generation were at peak, or indeed Portugal in the last Euro's.

England fans really need to get over the golden generation. Their quality and failings bare absolutely no influence on the current sides chances. It makes no sense to constantly compare everything to them as if they're the gold standard.

People also act like the golden generation failed because they never changed anything - well Steve McClaren did what most people wanted and broke up the Lampard/Gerrard axis.....and they did even worse. Indeed Lampard/Gerrard didn't start together in a midfield 2 in a single crucial defeat in a tournament/qualifying after 2004. England played 4-3-3 in the 2006 knock outs as well, and lo and behold they were extremely stilted then also.

 

[Robertd0803]

Best team. Probably not by a long way. Best cohesion as a team in a very long time maybe.

 

[Thiagoal]

England should be a contender at the Euros looking at that attack on paper. Add to that arguably the best right back in the world supplying them! Just wondering how people would line up to get the best out of them all! I’d personally have a fluid front three and bench captain Kane!

Pickford
Smalling. Maguire. Gomez
TAA. Chilwell
Henderson. Foden
Sancho. Rashford
Sterling

 

[Mr Smith]

England should be a contender at the Euros looking at that attack on paper. Add to that arguably the best right back in the world supplying them! Just wondering how people would line up to get the best out of them all! I’d personally have a fluid front three and bench captain Kane!

Pickford
Smalling. Maguire. Gomez
TAA. Chilwell
Henderson. Foden
Sancho. Rashford
Sterling

Mental.

England are definitely candidates for the Euros, but to be fair, they're one of 8 teams who could realistically win it. It looks like arguably the most open international tournament in decades.

 

[Bebestation]

I'm not sold on Southgate & I genuinely think he's only done well because he's been a relatively young manager in comparison to the older types of managers we've tended to have before.

 

[Ban]

Amazing talent to front, great FBs, solid CBs but average midfield and awful first choice keeper.
Haven't watched England much, they play with 3 at the back? In any case cobs our game in June I fear their fullbacks at most. Especially TAA it he'll be a starter.
On the other hand we have amazing quality in midfield which won us the game in Russia.

 

[izec]

Southgate and occasional arrogance could be the downfall.

The talent is there, without a doubt. Not on every position, but you can compensate. International football/tournaments is also a bit more forgiving if you are a proper team

 

[Ekeke]

England expects once again.

Will be the same result as always

 

[Lee565]

Do England have the most in form players going into the euros?

When was the last time the England team were going into a international tournament with so many players having a good season, the 90's maybe?

The only worry is southgate will screw up his selection and include the likes of rice, keane, Wilson, delph and alli and continuing with the stones/Maguire partnership for the euros.