—————Pickford————
James Stones Maguire Shaw
———Bellingham—Rice———
Sancho Grealish Sterling
——————Kane—————
James Stones Maguire Shaw
———Bellingham—Rice———
Sancho Grealish Sterling
——————Kane—————
Pick your England team for the World Cup
- Thread starter Zoo
- Start date
Bit early for this thread mate
Why?
Because...it's next year?
Pickford
Trippier
Mings
Coady
White
Chilwell
Rice
Henderson
Phillips
Kane
Heskey.
Trippier
Mings
Coady
White
Chilwell
Rice
Henderson
Phillips
Kane
Heskey.
Pickford
TAA Stones Maguire Shaw
Phillips Rice
Sancho Grealish Sterling
Kane
TAA Stones Maguire Shaw
Phillips Rice
Sancho Grealish Sterling
Kane
Wheres Rashford?
You can’t play Phillips and Rice again. It lacks so much quality.
Lets hope grealish is given a fair go. He'll be 26 by this WC,
Same as this year. The WC is only next year I doubt much will change.
Impossible to say when it's like 18 months away or something. Who knows what kind of form certain guys will be in? Someone like Dele Alli could be rejuvenated under a new manager and be back in contention and others could have a similar fall from grace that he's had in recent years.
They aren't the best footballers but they do a lot of dirty work which is pretty valuable given Southgate's defensive minded approach.
Midfields win these tournaments. You need to have much more possession. That was a disaster tonight after 20 minutes or so. Rice and Phillips won’t win you anything.
Enough of 4-2-3-1s. Enough of 2 DMs while playing a right-back who's in the team to defend.
Could almost have written those two sentences about United.
More balanced midfield. Rice sitting, Bellingham box-to-box, Grealish orchestrating in an Iniesta-style role.
High technique, high intelligence attack. Right footer on the left, left footer on the right.
Could almost have written those two sentences about United.
More balanced midfield. Rice sitting, Bellingham box-to-box, Grealish orchestrating in an Iniesta-style role.
High technique, high intelligence attack. Right footer on the left, left footer on the right.
Henderson
James Stones Maguire Shaw
Bellingham Rice
Sancho Grealish Sterling
Kane
Manager: not Southgate. Rashford and Sterling rotate, Bellingham and Mount rotate, Rice and Phillips rotate. Grealish and Sancho guaranteed starters pretty much. TAA and James competition to each other.James Stones Maguire Shaw
Bellingham Rice
Sancho Grealish Sterling
Kane
Pickford
Walker Stones Maguire Shaw
Bellingham Rice
Sancho Grealish Sterling
Kane
Walker Stones Maguire Shaw
Bellingham Rice
Sancho Grealish Sterling
Kane
Won't matter with Southgate at the helm
My thoughts exactly. This world cup is pointless with the coward in charge. Hopefully, by the next Euros, we have a proper manager and then we can talk.
I hope we try something different and not play Kane - he doesn’t seem to fit in that well with the other players on the forward line.
Greenwood or even Calvert Lewin hopefully have good premier league seasons.
Greenwood or even Calvert Lewin hopefully have good premier league seasons.
Simplest option for England to dominate midfield more would seem to be Phillips in a double pivot with Foden as the 10 having room and Sancho hugging the right touch line to make room, but I have no idea who to pair with Phillips, or if Foden can consistently get on the ball and do the work defensively.
Phillips at the base after another year playing that role for Leeds with Bellingham and Mount either side has 3 players who can run and move the ball, but it’s probably too much to ask of them defensively.
I felt before the tourney that only playing a 3 of Grealish-Foden-Sancho behind Kane would allow England to keep the ball enough in high pressure games, but the more conservative midfield they went with almost surely had a better tournament than that team would have. So yeah, that band of 3 with Kane dropping off and a Phillips-Henderson pivot behind them would at least look to have the ball for 90 minutes instead of what happened in the 2nd half half today. Might be worth trying out as plan A if the plan is for this generation to play more pleasing on the eye football. Though dropping a good presser in Mount and Sterling also seem like tough calls.
So yeah, no idea, but I think you have to try Phillips as the most defensive midfield or in a pivot with another proper passer, make Rice the guy who comes in to shut things down, not first option, since it has the higher ceiling.
If Foden and Greenwood were Italian, Spanish, French, Dutch...name it, their team would be built around them. Absolutely outstanding talents.
Based on current form?
------------------------Pickford
James----Coady-----Maguire------Trippier
-----------Bellingham-----Rice-----Phillips
------------Saka--------Foden------Mount
------------------------Pickford
James----Coady-----Maguire------Trippier
-----------Bellingham-----Rice-----Phillips
------------Saka--------Foden------Mount
Eh? Greenwood has easily had a better season so far than any of those front three.
Partly for the World Cup, but mostly for the future beyond that:
Henderson
James Godfrey Stones Shaw
Bellingham Rice Mount
Sancho Greenwood Foden
James Godfrey Stones Shaw
Bellingham Rice Mount
Sancho Greenwood Foden