The College Dropout

England have never beaten a top international side in the KO rounds outside of Wembley. Im Not going to give Southgate credit until he does that. He should’ve won the Euros. We lost at home to a generationally weak Italian team. The difference was they had one of the best managers in the competition and that winners mentality thing of getting the job done. Beat Belgium, Spain and England away to win the tournament. Southgate’s beaten Germany at home, Colombia and a few Scandi teams. I can’t rate his achievements that highly.

Another German manager I think. They’ll want someone that has managed a decent league and European campaign. Like a Nagelsmann.

Potter plays boring football. Wouldn’t want him at all. He left and his team went up another level.

I agree that is his intention. I would like to see someone else sitting and Rice everywhere. But we don’t have the personnel. England doesn’t typically produce passers in deep midfield positions. If you can play a bit you get moved further up.

Did Foden get any minutes on the left? From what I saw he played mostly through the right. As he did on Saturday. I don’t understand that at all. That’s Saka’s position.

Ability alone? Pope TAA Campbell Ferdinand Cole Gerrard Scholes Wilshere Barnes Kane Rooney

Pique said recently most GKs and Defenders couldn't play in this era and I think it's true. David Seaman wouldn't get into the current England team based on his feet like Nick Pope.

My Huddlestone shout is coming from how well Jorginho works with Rice. Rice's biggest limitation is his passing through the lines and general deeper progression. Huddlestone could do that brilliantly and Rice would cover for his lack of legs. Conor Gallagher running around like a headless chicken doesn't cut it.

Spurs Scott Parker just sitting in front of the defence and letting the rest play - I think he could do a better job than what Conor offers as an 8 or whatever he was doing on Saturday.

That's my point. I think Huddlestone would start in this squad. At least make the squad. Peak Huddlestone was better than this version of Henderson or Philips. And he's better suited to international football than Conor Gallagher in this role. Conor Gallagher isn't good at that deeper role man.

Which tournament was he great at? Sol & Ferdinand were better in 2002 than Terry ever was at a major tournament for England. I remember thinking Terry was at fault for Portugal's goals in 2004. 2006 England for some reason I struggle to remember any goals except Joe Cole's against Sweden.

We wouldn't have qualfiied for the CL for finishing 4th either.

Carrick would be perfect. That Jorginho & Rice balance works really well. You get all of Rice's athleticism all over the pitch and someone sitting deeper focussing on distribution.

Peak Tom Huddlestone would get into this team. Scott Parker would get into this team.

U21's do count towards HG. It's just typically no point including them because they don't need to be registered anyway.

Again Scholes - even at CM, never really did it for England. I think he said himself he struggled physically with summer tournaments and could only play 60-70 minutes if the weather was too hot for him. As good as he is - has Foden ever truly shone for England?

Terry was never excellent for England imo. Rio was the better player at international tournaments. Sol too. At club level I might have Terry at #1. But international? Nope.

There can't be more than a dozen players that we could sign that would immediately play and score at the level Isak does for us.

I'd start Foden LW.

Thats not really the case. His 3 best seasons he has 30+ G/A. He's shown he can perform at a very high level. The season before last and this season - he's largely been awful. You don't find many players who have such massive swings in performance and output. At his best he's not one-dimensional, he's pretty unstoppable.

He's low on confidence. When he's low on confidence he's absolutely useless. When he's in the zone he can look an elite talent. Can beat players in tight spaces, excellent finishing etc. As he is.... he just walks around doing nowt.

I don't think higher scoring = more exciting fundamentally. High scoring games can be more exciting because it's rare. It speaks to a certain attitude. If it happened every game it wouldn't be exciting. It changes the game fundamentally. In all likelihood it makes tactics more defensive. There's potential of the opposite happening and the game descending into basketball type.

Agreed. No football club should be allowed to monopolise a division through limiting the competitiveness of other clubs through Insane spendig.

Foden Kane Saka for me.

Liked the look of him. Poor finish at the death though.