England National Team

[Cereal Killer]

Still going for Kane, Bellingham and Foden in same bit of the pitch? Happy days

[Shogun]

Do think Gallagher complements Rice better in there but... yeah. You can't moan about not having a Kalvin Phillips replacement and then leave Wharton and Mainoo on the bench behind Gallagher and Alexander-Arnold.

[AjaxAndy]

Mad how obvious it is that Adam Wharton should come into the side


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Wharton is so inexperienced so I don't think it's that cut and dried. He's had half a season in the premier league and half a game at international level... To ask him to come in at this stage and perform isn't realistic imo.

If the options are Gallagher or TAA then there's no doubt the former is far better a fit for this team, it's just unfortunately highly unambitious as you'd expect with Southgate.

Doesn't solve the left side issues either so he needs to address that too for this game.

[Goaljira]

Wharton is so inexperienced so I don't think it's that cut and dried. He's had half a season in the premier league and half a game at international level... To ask him to come in at this stage and perform isn't realistic imo.

If the options are Gallagher or TAA then there's no doubt the former is far better a fit for this team, it's just unfortunately highly unambitious as you'd expect with Southgate.

Doesn't solve the left side issues either so he needs to address that too for this game.

Its effectively a free hit though, as even with a loss we'll end up qualifying for the next round with 4pts already. Bring him in now rather than it being in the knockout stages.

[Bluedylan1]

I think experience is wildly overrated tbh (as numerous young players have showed in this tournament), and nowhere near as important as actually having someone who can play the position.

[Audrey Horne]

i actually think the fact he has no experience is a good thing. Young player, no expectation or pressure, he would be able to relax and just play the game he plays.

We know what Gallagher brings, not much...

We know what TRENT brings, fuck all in that position...

Go with a very good, yet inexperienced player and support him to step up.

[Shogun]

Or even just go Rice-Bellingham-Foden in midfield and Gordon on the left.

Bellingham earned a move to Real Madrid playing as an 8 at Dortmund and that's where he'll be next season with Mbappe's arrival. Foden in his proper position. No inexperience worries.

Baffling that Southgate won't even consider it.

[cassius]

And it's not really a "tweak" it's keeping pretty much the same game plan and formation but replacing one player for another.

[AjaxAndy]

Or even just go Rice-Bellingham-Foden in midfield and Gordon on the left.

Bellingham earned a move to Real Madrid playing as an 8 at Dortmund and that's where he'll be next season with Mbappe's arrival. Foden in his proper position. No inexperience worries.

Baffling that Southgate won't even consider it.

This is what I'd be going with, they can all play those positions and it's better than chucking in some young player who might completely wilt under the weight of expectation.

Or put Mainoo in there as he's played more football at a higher level than Wharton.

Only issue with Rice as the 6 is his passing isn't good enough to break a high press.

[Stumpy]

Anyone else think the reaction from the England camp towards criticism has been really poor? Kane and Rice both making a point that those players failed with England and that they should just be positive and bigging the players up.

I watched the BBC post-match and it wasn't even bad. They didn't criticise the application of the players or fault their quality, they just analysed the poor play. If anything the pundits were going at Southgate without doing it directly.

It's another instance of the wrong attitude to me. I feel a winner's response would be to brush it off, say they've had a couple of poor performances but they're still top of the group and they know there's a lot more to come from the team.

This 'oh no, please don't say bad things about us' is such a whiny loser mentality. Have a snap back after you win the tournament.

In fact Shogs i'd go as far as to say the reaction to the criticism has been pretty pathetic.
They were poor in the 1st game and piss poor in the 2nd.
They deserved everything that came their way off the press and the pundits.
Did they really think they are exempt from criticism after 2 abject performances and making a a meal about qualifying from a group they should piss with the players they got

[Toffee1]

He was not fit before the squad was put together and now might play in the knock-out phase with no game time since February and Southgate wonders why people are questioning his decisions.

[Gash]

People getting prickly at criticism's nothing new, it's getting worse but it's not just the England team. I remember when Villas-Boas was Spurs manager and thinking he wouldn't last long in England as he took every bit of criticism personally. Mourinho was the same at Man Utd and Spurs, Klopp's done it for years, Van Gaal did it, so did ten Hag, pretty sure Guardiola has too. Most of it's pretty low grade stuff and I've often thought they've surely got enough to worry about without getting into some petty feud with a pundit.

It's probably not helped that the media in this country are generally a bunch of cunts too and want a story, they're not really that interested in hearing how training's going or what the fettle is in the squad, they'd far rather tell managers and players what Lineker or Neville or Carragher have been saying about them and get a reaction. Not sport but it's the same in politics at the moment you only need to look at some of the election interviews, "Sir Keir, everyone in the country thinks you're really boring, what have you got to say about that"? It's very toxic, not particularly nice but it gets the reaction and answers they want, fuck actually asking a relevant question.

[Cods]

Thought Pickford interviewed pretty well on ITV, wasn't really an attack piece like alot of the gotcha media frame their line of questioning. And he can only answer the questions he's asked.

He gave standard answers but also a bit of honesty around performance could be better.

To be fair to Gareth there might well be some hidden gears or other tactics that they don't necessarily want to highlight early on and give too much away. Ramp up when required.

[Gash]

I see Rice was being interviewed, he was asked about criticism James McCLean made about him. Obviously McClean has a motive more than just football, playing for Ireland then switching to play for England is a big no in his book so he's had a go at him, overhyped, not world class etc, nothing too controversial though. Fair play to Rice he's brushed it off, said he's got nothing against McClean and not going to say anything bad about him but it's a perfect example of the media trying to stir up grievance and get a headline.

[Toffee1]