League A - Group A1-A4 Fixtures - 14-18th November, 2020

[Panna King]

8 hours ago, Dan said:

6-0 Jesus Christ. It got me thinking if England have ever been properly hammered like that. Unless I'm forgetting something really obvious the nearest I can think to a pasting we've taken is 4-1 from Germany in 2010, and 4-1 from Denmark under Sven.

Germany should never ever be losing 6-0. That's outrageous.

Yes they should, did you see their defence line up?  Koch of Leeds!  its awful and I wasn't surprised about the score line. 

[The Käiser]

Kroos and gundundan (sp?) are not the midfield needed. 
man city and Madrid are not as they were, both players dipped in their performances/form 

[Smiley Culture]

Crap that we’ve come third despite a better goal difference than the Danes. Think the Nations League is still a good competition, if convoluted and confusing outside of the top group of nations. 

[Danny]

Didn't manage to watch the game but seen the highlights...what was the reasoning behind not getting the likes of Foden, Sancho, Abraham and Winks on against Belgium for most of the game? As the Belgium game was the one we needed to throw everything at. If it's shown one thing imo it's shown that Saka > Chillwell, we're not going to get great defensive output from either but that's why he's gone three at the back, so chuck the superior attacking player on and the one who has pace to burn. Chillwell is great backup.

For me Foden is a must, technically our best centralish midfielder, left footed, capable of scoring and assisting. Sancho too, I feel like he's had a bit of stick this season for whatever reason but he is hands down our most talented player and he has the work ethic and numbers to go with it. Southgate should be doing everything he can to get him on and allowing him to play.

I like Grealish, he's hard to dislike, flair player, almost a player from a bygone era, individually he is fantastic. But the implementation of playing systems, quick technical players and passing that we've seen over the last decade really makes him stand out because he is very slow on the ball. Slows the game down a lot, I'm not sure if that's going to be a hinderance or a career defining characteristic at the highest level yet tbh. If it works out it means the game will almost revolve around him, move as he wants it to, slow down and speed up as he wishes...if that is the type of player Grealish will turn into then he will be almost impossible to drop. But he was like most players fairly non-existent until the 80th minute against Belgium and he's a big fish in a small pond at Villa where he can do what he likes in a team that has no expectation other than safety. The first real test at the highest level will be Euro 2021 when rightfully or wrongly there will be expectation for this England side to progress well and beat up some of the bigger nations.

It's great to be in a position where we have this wealth of attacking talent in Kane, Grealish, Mount, Foden, Sterling, Sancho, Rashford, Abraham, Calvert-Lewin, Saka, Ings.....but what's the point in having it if our game plan is to lean more to a defensive minded team than attacking? I have no real strong feelings on sacking Southgate, I don't think he's proven himself to be that great of an England manager, but he's proven to not be incompetent and to be able to get the basics right. I just don't think he's capable now of managing all of these emerging attacking talents to the level that they're capable of being coached