Kalvin Phillips

Jedi boro said:
Who have all won in major tournaments relatively recently btw.

I get people like to slag off England on here but the fact is we do have a great squad filled with world class players.
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Och, I’m not slagging off England. I’m just don’t understand where you get the logic from. Yes, you’ve got some good players, but so do other countries.

In my opinion, this is the best XI in the world.

GK: Allison/Emerson/Courtois/Ter Stegen

RB: Hakimi/Cancelo/Alexander-Arnold

LB: Alphonso Davies/Theo & Lucas Hernandez/

CB: Ruben Dias/Van Dijk/Marquinhos/De Ligt

CDM: Rodri/Kimmich/Casemiro/Rice

CM: De Bruyne/Bernardo Silva/Bellingham/Musiala

RW: Salah/Saka/Dembele

LW: Vinicius Jr/Son/Foden/Kvaratskhelia

CF: Haaland/Mbappe/Kane

So yes, you have a good representation there. But at no point do you have a player who’s the best in the world, and the defence is weak which is why Southgate is cautious.

He’s done better than any other manager in your recent history, including Capello & Eriksson who had a far better side.

Yet you all want him gone. It baffles me.
 
The squad announcement will be very interesting, as Maguire, Phillips and Henderson have all made the previous squads based on their England form and not their club form (mainly because one was playing in Saudi and the others weren’t playing full stop).

I believe Maguire is now back a regular starter for Man U and seems to be doing ok, I’ve got no idea how Henderson is getting on at Ajax, but I assume he’s doing ok as I haven’t heard otherwise so he’ll be in. Phillips is in really strange position whereby playing has probably harmed his chances more than if he’d stayed at city and not played.

If I was Southgate I’d be tempted to leave Phillips out for his own good and tell him he’s got two months to get a place in the squad (not that I’d be taking him but Southgate obviously really rates the lad as I think he called him up whilst he was playing in the championship)
 
Pak_Doo_Ik said:
Maguire, Phillips and Henderson have all made the previous squads based on their England form and not their club form
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Southgate has shown many times that he will back certain players even if they aren't playing well, it will be his downfall as anything other than the final this time and I think he will have to go
 
The thing with England is all the fans want all the attacking players to play but ignore the team defensively, the defence is one of the weakest we've had in my lifetime, we need defensive midfielders in the team, sadly our options are very limited on that front. We had a better squad in the late 90s and early 2000's and never made a final, we never played as a team, we do now but that means compromise w. For example we always had to play Lampard and Gerrard to keep the fans happy even though it never worked.

Always the same, everyone else knows better than the manager, unless you win the tournament you get ripped to shreds, everyone is captain hindsight and forget the key decisions made in the wins.
 
Scrug said:
Och, I’m not slagging off England. I’m just don’t understand where you get the logic from. Yes, you’ve got some good players, but so do other countries.

In my opinion, this is the best XI in the world.

GK: Allison/Emerson/Courtois/Ter Stegen

RB: Hakimi/Cancelo/Alexander-Arnold

LB: Alphonso Davies/Theo & Lucas Hernandez/

CB: Ruben Dias/Van Dijk/Marquinhos/De Ligt

CDM: Rodri/Kimmich/Casemiro/Rice

CM: De Bruyne/Bernardo Silva/Bellingham/Musiala

RW: Salah/Saka/Dembele

LW: Vinicius Jr/Son/Foden/Kvaratskhelia

CF: Haaland/Mbappe/Kane

So yes, you have a good representation there. But at no point do you have a player who’s the best in the world, and the defence is weak which is why Southgate is cautious.

He’s done better than any other manager in your recent history, including Capello & Eriksson who had a far better side.

Yet you all want him gone. It baffles me.
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We don't all want him gone - especially not me - I think he has been brilliant for England and hope he continues for years to come - he is still a relatively young man.
 
I don't want him gone neither, I just hope he learns from some of his mistakes.

Phillips, Henderson and Maguire aren't good enough.

Phillips and Maguire never were good enough.

Tournament football comes down to a lot of luck too. The best side in the tournament doesn't always win. Tournament football is sometimes decided on the finest of margins. And that is where we need to be clever in those moments.

Take Champions League football for example, how many times does the team who wins it, not win their own league? Real Madrid, Liverpool & Chelsea are stand outs of that, of late.

I'd be interested to know of those fans who want him gone, then who they'd replace Southgate with...
 
BeanBeany said:
Southgate has shown many times that he will back certain players even if they aren't playing well, it will be his downfall as anything other than the final this time and I think he will have to go
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Yep I agree but in Southgate’s defence he picks players that have played well for him. I’m not saying he’s right and I certainly would not be picking Maguire, Henderson or Phillips but the alternative is you have an England team that is picked purely on club form which could mean the team changes a number of times.

I think part of the reason England have done relatively well in tournaments is because it is a settled team and players know that if you perform well for England then the manager will stick by you.
 
Despite the talk of grealish foden Bellingham etc

this was our starting 11 v Italy in 2020 for the final


IMG_1012.png
 
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Jedi boro said:
Despite the talk of grealish foden Bellingham etc this was our starting 11 v Italy


View attachment 73411
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Foden was injured.

Bellingham was 18 and had only started 1 friendly for England at the point in his career.
Could easily argue he should have been given more of a chance at that tournament, especially ahead of Mount, but it wasn't outrageous to not be starting him at that point.
He's started almost every match he's been available for in the last 2 years.

Grealish is just based on Southgate picking a very defensive team for the final though.

The bigger issue with that side is that he dropped the excellent Saka to go defensive.
 
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At the end of the day, to be successful you need somewhat of a settled team. Im sick of hearing this 'form' argument. If that was the case, the squad/starting XI would differ, every single time the squad get together. Whether we like it or not, Gareth has a system and he has players that know it, play it well and have rarely let him down. That said, it is very difficult for Kalvin to make this squad for me, same for Henderson if we are being frank but i think Henderson makes it due to his experience/leadership quality.

The other thing annoying me is people just putting Foden and Bellingham in a midfield three with Rice - probably the same people who moan that Sven played some of the Golden Generation out of position just to fit them in. This is exactly the same. Bellingham is a number 10, is playing as a 10 for Real. Foden is most affective on the left of a 3 which is Saka's position. Playing Foden on the left will waste him and see him not as effective. They cant play a 'free role' because England are not Man City and Gareth likes everyone to have their position and do their defensive duty as well.

That being said, you do have to get Foden starting to he probably does have to go on the left. For me this is the starting XI/Confirmed players:

Pickford

Walker Stones Maguire XXXXXX

Rice XXXXXXX

Saka Bellingham Foden

Kane

Left back and 2nd sitting midfielder still up for grabs.

To partner Rice its going to be out of - Henderson, Kalvin, TAA, Mainoo*
To play left back is likely Shaw or possibly Trippier due to us seemingly having left backs prone to injury.

Its not exactly a bad line up and you could get Bellingham and Foden to interchange to offer a degree of freedom

The option of having Foden, Rice and Bellingham as a midfield 3 is great.....for Fifa but at the international level and in a major competition will leave us very exposed and the defence has been the weak link of late.
 
Midnight to Six Man said:
With the players available we should have won a trophy by now , overly defensive and predictable.
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You do realise that Southgate has only managed us in 3 major tournaments and in the first one of those, there was no Bellingham, Foden, Saka or Rice. He had a midfield of Henderson, Dele Alli and Lingard and did exceptionally well to get to the SF, kind draw or not.

We've entered the last 2 tournaments as genuine contenders and lost on pens in the final and in a very tight QF against France. In the latter game we went toe to toe with the best team in Europe and certainly weren't overly defensive or predictable.

It took Pep Guardiola 7 attempts to win the Champions League with Man City when they narrowly defeated a massively inferior Inter Milan 1-0. Prior to that he absolutely overthought the final against Chelsea when he benched Rodri and lost 0-1. Clearly Pep is a top manager, but no manager can guarantee winning the top knockout competitions either for club or country.
 
Henderson, Maguire, Sterling and Phillips should be nowhere near a summer 2024 England squad.

Forget their highlights/lowlights and just focus on where they are now, how they have performed for the past year and compare them to their competition for places AND their international oppos.
Henderson would be perhaps the most ludicrous pick of all.

We have Stones, Walker, Rice, Bellingham, Foden, Saka and Kane.
Christ it is a fabulous nucleus.
For me the front 4 now picks itself. There would be fabulous fluidity across a 3 behind Kane of Foden, Bellingham, Saka.

We have players like Grealish, Madison, Watkins offering great support/competition.

Rice, Stones and Walker are outstanding too.
I don't think there is a team in the world that will not have problem positions - and I bet more than we have.
 
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Marvanelli said:
I don't want him gone neither, I just hope he learns from some of his mistakes.

Phillips, Henderson and Maguire aren't good enough.

Phillips and Maguire never were good enough.

Tournament football comes down to a lot of luck too. The best side in the tournament doesn't always win. Tournament football is sometimes decided on the finest of margins. And that is where we need to be clever in those moments.

Take Champions League football for example, how many times does the team who wins it, not win their own league? Real Madrid, Liverpool & Chelsea are stand outs of that, of late.

I'd be interested to know of those fans who want him gone, then who they'd replace Southgate with...
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"Hope he learns from his mistakes "
2018 , didn't make substitutions early enough, then made the wrong ones.
2020 , didn't make substitutions early enough, then made the wrong ones.
2022 ,didn't make substitutions early enough, then made the wrong ones.
Yawn
 
I didn’t know that Gareth missed the city Liverpool game either as he went to watch West Ham

Apparently to check on Phillips

He’s going to in the squad I think Henderson will be as well
 
Jedi boro said:
I didn’t know that Gareth missed the city Liverpool game either as he went to watch West Ham

Apparently to check on Phillips

He’s going to in the squad I think Henderson will be as well
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You are not applying any logic to your thinking Jedi. If Gareth has made his mind up on Henderson and Phillips, why would he want to go and watch them? The fact that he has watched both indicates he is assessing whether they are playing to a level that warrants inclusion. Based on 45 minutes at the weekend, I think the chances of Phillips being selected have receded.

It is also entirely plausible that Gareth wanted to have a look at Bowen and JWP as well.
 
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