England 2020/2022

Is Kyle Walker calling it a day on international football?

If not then he’ll be one of the first names on the squad list for 2020.

Good post CCU, some good young footballers in the roll call.

No Ashley Cole?

I think the Euros will be a tougher competition that the World Cup - with 32 teams all the big teams are bound to qualify.

France will be even stronger, Germany will be a force again along with Italy & Holland.

Portugal will go back to their traditional selves without Ronaldo and won't be a threat.

Croatia will be past their best but Belgium will still be a force.

Wales will probably qualify again - Scotland will not as usual.

I think Jordan Henderson would be better in goal as well.

CCU wrote:

crunchblue wrote: Is Kyle Walker calling it a day on international football?

If not then he’ll be one of the first names on the squad list for 2020.

Daft as it sounds, and just my opinion, but he’ll struggle to get a game for me. He’s lost the RWB gig, we’ve two excellent players there in Trippier and TAA, and as he’s not a natural CB, can see Gomez overtaking him...

It’s your opinion but I disagree that he’ll struggle. He’s not just a better right back than Trippier, he’s a way better right back than Trippier, and they are the same age. Southgate obviously really rates him as a RCB to move him there, but that’s partly down to the roles the full backs at Man City do. But if Southgate did happen to decide he doesn’t want him at CB, he’ll be back to right back. I like Trippier but Walker is simply a better player.

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No way on earth is Walker better than Trippier, hence why Spurs fans weren’t bothered when Walker went to City as they knew a better player was ready to take his place. Walker hasn’t had a good tournament for me, easily the weakest out the three centre-backs, his positional play is poor and often relies on his pace to get himself out of trouble. His decision making going forward when playing full-back leaves a lot to be desired also.

Man City don’t play traditional full backs either. They either tuck in as defensive midfielders or bomb forward as extremely wide wingers when Fernandinho drops back. Walker certainly has the attributes to play as the RWB in the England system. But I think Southgate likes him at RCB for his athleticism, ability on the ball and pace.

It’s the forward positions which I’m most concerned about. Apart from Kane I can’t say I’ve been all that impressed by anyone else bar maybe Rhian Brewster at Liverpool. Rashford could go either way but I fear for him under Mourinho, Ambrose doesn’t impress me at all, Calvert-Lewin seems average at best and I’m not keen on Solanke either.

No Jack Grealish?

Profpieman wrote: No Jack Grealish?

He’ll improve when he moves to a big club!

The Dortmund lad is good, from the bits I’ve seen of him last season.

My concern for Phil Foden is the amount of game time he gets if he stays at Man City.

Whose that toon player with the foreign name? Centre back he always looks decent too

Profpieman wrote: Whose that toon player with the foreign name? Centre back he always looks decent too

Lascelles? Decent player

Thats him.

I said as soon as they won the u20 WC and they were raving about the future that it depends on how they are nurtured and brought through, at club level and international level. If they can move through the age groups as a group then we could well have a good crop ready in 2-3 years. It’s the club level which is the concerning part though, quite a few lads have been loaned out this last season and not done too well. The two who most impressed me in the WC winning team, Tomori and Onomah, struggled a bit in the championship last season, while Clarke-Salter was a disaster at Sunderland, probably the wrong move for him though tbh.

Fair play to the young lads who have chosen to go to Germany to further their careers though, experience of playing abroad has always been something which I’ve though would benefit the national team but very few have actually done.

Lascelles along with Shelvey are Newcastles most important players probably he's proper captain vocal and leads by example Burnley have a couple of excellent centre backs aswell

Shelvey should have gone and if he plays as well this season I don't think he can be ignored .That Croatia game was made for him second half he gets the ball and immediately looks to pass the ball forward the one frustration I had was us in possession of ball well inside opposition half and the ball being passed back to our keeper far too often

We missed Lallana aswell who I think is an excellent footballer

We definitely missed someone with a bit of drive in the middle of the park against Croatia. Henderson reminds me of Luke Joyce, a nice neat footballer but plays most of the game facing his own goal, plays far too many balls back to his centre-backs and hasn’t got the ability or willingness to dictate a game. A very limited footballer.

Unfortunately it has been a real weak spot in the side, that central midfield area.
Henderson won me over in this tournament, as he put in some very good displays. Everyone can see he is a very average player, but he didn’t hide. I take my hat off to him.
Even if he is crap, he can be proud of his efforts this summer.
The pessimism surrounding England’s chances before the tournament, was based on the fact we knew we lacked talent in certain areas.
I feel really positive about how it went. Never in a million years did I think we would win , before the tournament.
I am sure Southgate will be even braver still with selections now and ditch Henderson and Dier.

CCU wrote:

Urban Designer wrote: I think the Euros will be a tougher competition that the World Cup - with 32 teams all the big teams are bound to qualify.

There’s only 24 teams?

He probably meant that only 24 out of the 32 teams competing will qualify....

Yep 24 stand corrected. Turnip Taylor got us to the last 8 of Euro '92 - only 8 qualified - that would be seen as an achievement today!

CCU wrote:

Urban Designer wrote: Yep 24 stand corrected. Turnip Taylor got us to the last 8 of Euro '92 - only 8 qualified - that would be seen as an achievement today!

Bumped into Taylor in Belarus a few years back, absolutely lovely fella. Derided by the gutter press to hide the fact we were shite anyway....

That always pissed me off the flack that Taylor got, he was my top job for the job at the time.

The 'Donkey Adams' headlines did not last long, folk jumped on the bandwagon didn't they because he was rubbish and he won nothing in the game

franksidebottom wrote: I said as soon as they won the u20 WC and they were raving about the future that it depends on how they are nurtured and brought through, at club level and international level. If they can move through the age groups as a group then we could well have a good crop ready in 2-3 years. It’s the club level which is the concerning part though, quite a few lads have been loaned out this last season and not done too well. The two who most impressed me in the WC winning team, Tomori and Onomah, struggled a bit in the championship last season, while Clarke-Salter was a disaster at Sunderland, probably the wrong move for him though tbh.

Fair play to the young lads who have chosen to go to Germany to further their careers though, experience of playing abroad has always been something which I’ve though would benefit the national team but very few have actually done.

Think the import philosophy of the Prem is forcing them now. Hopefully more will follow!

CCU wrote:

Urban Designer wrote: Yep 24 stand corrected. Turnip Taylor got us to the last 8 of Euro '92 - only 8 qualified - that would be seen as an achievement today!

Bumped into Taylor in Belarus a few years back, absolutely lovely fella. Derided by the gutter press to hide the fact we were shite anyway....

Great bloke, loved him at the Villa. His books good too.

It’s as pathetic calling Taylor turnip now as it was at the time, those close to him said shortly after his death that the personal mocking of him really got to a thoroughly decent bloke. Really don’t see the need in the personal insults; the mocking of Hodgson because of his slight speech impediment, the donkey Adams crack, the list goes on. Very, very childish.

CCU wrote:

Urban Designer wrote: Yep 24 stand corrected. Turnip Taylor got us to the last 8 of Euro '92 - only 8 qualified - that would be seen as an achievement today!

Bumped into Taylor in Belarus a few years back, absolutely lovely fella. Derided by the gutter press to hide the fact we were shite anyway....

Took Daley and Sinton to Sweden in 92 instead of Waddle and Beardsley. Nice bloke but miles out of his depth at international level. Massive opportunity to win a trophy squandered.
As for 2020, Henderson is the best CM so he plays.Terrific against Sweden. Winks was made to look average by Rochdale and Newport and should be nowhere near. Walker is the squad/team to keep out Jones and Smalling which is no bad thing. I'm with frank, striking options are limited - Calvert Lewin getting a mention shows this.
At least we aren't a shan anymore though!

Hope he returns to form but I'd have Daniel Sturridge upfront all day long from that squad. Sadly we are looking up from the deepest pit looking on Earth for at least one creative MF.

Lots can happen between now and 2022 but I'd expect Freddy Woodman to be in among the keepers given he's a World Cup winner, Golden Glove winner and an instrumental part of that success...
All depends on how he develops.

Even Bobby Robson got flak before Italia 90, in fact the team got flak during Italia 90 for drawing with Ireland, Holland and a narrow win over Egypt (our only win in 90 mins in the whole tournament, at least we got 3 this time)

We then sneaked past belgium in extra time, before the indignity of being taken to extra time by David Cameroon - the papers at the time were saying we should be winning easily

It was only after getting knocked out by Germany the press decided to get on England's side

orfc wrote: Even Bobby Robson got flak before Italia 90, in fact the team got flak during Italia 90 for drawing with Ireland, Holland and a narrow win over Egypt (our only win in 90 mins in the whole tournament, at least we got 3 this time)

We then sneaked past belgium in extra time, before the indignity of being taken to extra time by David Cameroon - the papers at the time were saying we should be winning easily

It was only after getting knocked out by Germany the press decided to get on England's side

That is absolutely right. It's funny how Italia 90 is remembered now and not unlike Euro 96.
The Irish game was horrific, as all games were against that Irish side. Any manager that could drop Liam Brady...
We played really well against the Dutch but were woeful against Egypt. God knows how Belgium didn't beat us - Enzo Scifo was fantastic. We were fortunate to beat Cameroon but played very well against Germany.
Euro 96 was similar and Spain should have knocked us out after lacklustre displays against the Scots and Switzerland and a trouncing of a typically divided and chaotic Dutch side.
Italia 90 had Gazza and we were at home in 96 so maybe that makes a difference but perhaps the biggest differences are the unlucky semi final defeats against the Germans compared to being outplayed by Croatia. Maybe if that 2nd goal had gone in before half time last week..
But if you look at the performances across the tournament 2018 is similar to both of those tournaments in many ways and hopefully in time will be remembered as such without all the negativity.

Angel Gomes will almost definitely be in the next World Cup squad. Captain of England at U16, U17 and U18 level but is still a few weeks off his 18th birthday. Attack-minded central midfielder.

People who are involved or interested in the Manchester United academy claim he is the best ever player at his age to come through their ranks.

England have a great generation now and always have talent coming through but this time it feels different due to the amount of players that look like future stars and are at top clubs.

Yeah heard a lot of good things about Angel Gomes. Seen him player in an under 18's game the season before last playing as a number 10 and he was by far the best player on the pitch.

The problem is though we seem to have a lot of good players coming through that play in similar positions. Anyone know of any decent holding midfielders coming through, or a deep-lying playmaker who can open up the game, Phil Foden, Gomez, Sancho etc all seem to play in the attacking roles.

We had some very ropey performances in Italia 90.
I wouldn’t say we were absolutely brilliant in this tournament but , given our limited talent, the composure and execution of a game plan was far superior to anything we have shown for a long time.
Croatia were the better team against us in the end, but we weren’t that far away from beating them, they were on the ropes at one point in the first half.
A player called Angel Gomes is bound to be good.

One big plus is that Southgate seemed to have done away with all the clichés that have been around for years and not one instance of immature or unprofessional conduct, totally incident free.

You work with the players at your disposal and he found a formation that whilst not perfect worked really quite well for the players he took..He seems quite a thinker and future squads could very possibly look quite different with a different formation and playing style to suit..

Did anybody see Phil Foden's perfomance for Man City last week, in the Carabao cup, I think. It was absolutely fantastic. First time I'd seen him play and he was superb. Looked like that creative, attacking midfielder we yearn for but only seem to see playing for other sides.

The checkatrade is paying dividends already.

I see Trippier didn’t make the squad for this nations league. Walker and Alexander-Arnold the 2 right backs.

I’ve watched a lot of Trippier this last season because having so many in this thread disagree with my opinion of Walker being better than Trippier, I thought I must have been missing something. What I’ve seen has only made me even more sure I’m right, it’s not even as close as I thought in my opinion. Walker is not just better than Trippier, he’s way way better.

I guess most will still disagree, but I’m sensing Southgate also thinks Walker is the better of the two, at least for now anyway.

Walker is having an absolute stinker tnight however

3 of the back 4 are to be fair, causing themselves all sorts of problems.

I think Trippier will end up being this generation's Paul Parker.

Selected for a World Cup, in their mid-late 20's, after only a handful of caps, ending up being one of the best performers in a run to the semis.
Moments in a World Cup semi that will forever define their career but then never really pushing on afterwards, especially internationally, as better and younger players come through instead.