Danny

I read somewhere by a City journalist that Grealish has played in a left sided centre mid role for City this season. Yeah I've no idea how we'll play but the numbers are interesting

Numbers have been released... Maguire looks certain to start, obviously squad numbers don't dictate the starting eleven but that does read like he might lean to a 4-3-3 at some point. Pickford Walker - Stones - Maguire - Shaw Grealish - Bellingham - Rice Sterling - Kane - Rashford

id go back 4 too but I feel Southgate will go for a back 3 and work at a consistent formation rather than changing it around seeing as we have no warm up games. Bellingham and Rice dont have to play as DMs, both can be much more offensive. Bellingham specifically can play as an attacking midfielder. Personally I dont think Foden suits the England team in its current iteration, purely based off of his form for England. At City he plays in a team that creates more space and has players like Gundogan, de Bruyne, Rodri and Bernardo who can all find a pass to feed Foden. When Foden plays for England there really isnt anyone that can feed balls through to him and neither is there the movement around him that allows him to exploit space. For me this has been a problem for Foden throughout his international career so far and the reality is that even though hes been great for City, hes never really been much more than average for England. Sterling on the other hand stretches the game, creates space for others and is able to exploit an opposition defence when theyre in transition. Sterling is fundamental to how England play and the success that we have had, would be a bad move to drop him imo.

Knowing we will most likely play a back 3 I’d like to see the below go out. Feel like you could chuck Trippier in as hes been great this season but I’d still rather Trent. Not a lot of options at centre back, the back three is lacking in pace but ive had enough of Kyle Walker at centre back, open to see him playing right back though. Midfield is cut and dry, Phillips not fit enough to start otherwise id have him over Rice. Maddison has to start imo alongside Kane and Sterling. Pickford Trent - White - Dier - Stones - Shaw Rice - Bellingham Maddison - Kane - Sterling

Liverpool for sale

You can't regularly play South Africa, New Zealand and Australia if you're a northern hemisphere side in a competition, the nature of Rugby is similar to Cricket in that regard. So you play test matches instead, friendlies don't really exist.

Considering his physical condition there’s no reason why he can’t play at this level for another 3-4 years at least and with his contract running out this Summer now is the time for him to move. Not sure Arsenal will still want him with the options they have going forward now. Wouldn’t surprise me if Spurs went in for him though.

Not often this sort of fun presents itself

Moura's hattrick against Ajax proved he has the big game mentality that Spurs need

Lucas Moura should without doubt be starting ahead of Richarlison

I thought Baumgardener should have but I can also be a terrible judge of boxing lol.

What a fight and what a night at the o2. A million times better than a stadium fight. Marshall and Shields were phenomenal, as were so many more of the women in there. What a legend Alvarez is, see the joy when the fight was over and she got to celebrate fighting at such a big occasion. Massive.

Mount and Maddison aren't really in competition with each other, Mount is picked for his ability to act defensively in a midfield 3. Maddison doesn't have that and so isn't in contention as a midfielder.

That was sort of my point, he prefers players who can attack from the wings rather than just centrally.

Wouldn't disagree with the bold tbh, but it's brought him relative success so he'll stick with it. One thing I'd say is Maddison benefits a lot from being in front of Ndidi and Tielemans, both players are better than any options we have in the national team and Tielemans especially can actually play as a more deep lying playmaker, England doesn't really have that at all. I don't see why Maddison couldn't play behind a two up top and still have the defensive solidity behind him, but unless he can play multiple positions (some defensively) like Saka for example, it seems to come down to whether or not Southgate prefers Maddison over Foden/Grealish/Rashford/Sancho etc.

Grealish really faded out of that game, lost his head and got a silly yellow too.

Have been saying this for a while and it’s why Maddison doesn’t make the team. Our best centre mids are either best at tackling, carrying the ball or a Jack of all trades, but no one is a stand out passer of the ball who can dictate play and unlock defences. Because of this our midfield needs to be defensive and behind them even more because creativity has to come from the wing backs rather than through the middle.

You're having a stroke son

So we’re just disputing factual statements now

Us getting beaten by Belgium twice was a big talking point of the World Cup. We were all aware Germany were not the Germany of previous years. Southgate took us from being a side that couldn’t get past a group stage or past Iceland to a side that beat those teams and we all enjoyed that a lot because supporting England is mostly a shit experience. You are also forgetting that in the build up to the Euros, Southgate was heavily criticised and was up until the Scotland game. The limitations he imposed on the team were obvious, but he’d then managed to get us to a final which is a nice experience so we decided not to get angry at him. A very normal reaction. You only see Southgate’s tenure and the fans reaction in black and white, but the truth is that at the World Cup when he took over we knew we were shit, we were just happy to be winning football matches because the tournament before we got knocked out by Iceland. At the Euros vs Scotland most fans were annoyed with the style of play, the annoyance wasn’t born out of a surprise as if we had believed we were amazing, it was just a natural shift from the positivity of the previous tournament as we’d all watched Southgate’s England struggle to be anything other than direct and void of creativity in the time between those two comps. What we are now seeing is a further build up of that. There is no “gotcha” moment that you crave, even if we’re average or shit were not going to be dwelling on that when after decades of failure we have managed to reach a semi and a final. No one expects England to be world beaters, so we’ve enjoyed the ride whilst it lasted and all we can hope is that Southgate can pull a rabbit out of that hat, however that looks increasingly unlikely as if we make it out of the group stage we will have to play much tougher KO games than in previous tournaments.

What’s happening now isn’t a shock though, it’s a departure from previous form at the World Cup and the Euros which is naturally frustrating but it’s not a shock because we have never seen a progression in Southgate’s England and it’s been quite commonly known that he’s not trying to win competitions in a way a side like Spain or Italy did.

Mate this is a load of shit. A big pile of shit. A semi-final and a final is a good result, regardless of how we got there. England are not a world class team, we do not have a group of world class players, we are not one of the best national sides in the world, they are good results. Celebrating them isn't ignoring the blatantly obvious that Southgate is a limited manager, it's giving him a chance to create more good times. Anyone that looks back on the final and semi-final as missed opportunities are vastly overestimating the quality of our team and where English football has come from. Imagine not celebrating two good competition results because we might be shit at a comp in 2022.

I think there’s deserved criticism for Southgate and it does feel like we could be going into the beginning of the end. But the thought process that he’s just been lucky is wildly mental. Prior to Southgate we were embarrassed by Iceland at the Euros and didn’t make it out of the World Cup group. And contrary to popular belief we do not have a world class group of players, the only players you could put in that category throughout his tenure were Kane and Sterling.

I would genuinely be surprised if he left us it’s been such a big project and there’s still more to get out of it, but with you he will have the chance to break the top 4 eventually so I can see why he would take it. The thing that keeps him with us is that I think we can be in the same position as you and West Ham within a couple of seasons and it’d be a much better story if he does that with us. Not to mention we have a support system that is probably not really topped by any club in the league. If he were to go it wouldn’t surprise me if his current assistant Brian Reimer took over as Frank did from Smith.

You can collectively suck my ball