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Robinson

 

Neville  Terry   Ferdinand   A.Cole

 

Beckham  Lampard  Gerrard  J.Cole

 

Owen  Rooney

 

That's the kind of first XI we had circa 2006 (injury permitting). You've got Premier League legends all owa the shop there, arguably the best two fullbacks the league has seen, titles galore, Gerrard carrying his club team on his back, a generational talent in Rooney and a captain with quality pissing out of every pore in Beckham. Question mark on the goalkeeper but otherwise 7 or 8 of these players in your side and getting to R16/QF and looking lacklustre the whole way through is insane mismanagement.

 

Tell me how many current England players would get in that side if you plonked them as they are now back 16 years, honestly? I think you can make arguments for Pickford being in, Kane over Owen and maybe Sterling for J.Cole but otherwise, I'm not having it.

 

Southgate's done a fantastic job with a far inferior group of players and we've come close twice, I just don't understand how the 2020-2022 crop are suddenly all world beaters and the names listed above all rehashed as duds.

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Baring in mind the only reason some of our current players have a reputation is because they've built them with England, not their club, this is the combined '04 and '21 squad Sven is picking imo (yes, I'm 12 years old)

 

Robinson

Pickford
James

 

Walker
Alexander-Arnold

Ferdinand

Terry

Campbell

King

Carragher

Cole

Bridge

Trippier

 

Gerrard

Scholes
Lampard
Beckham

Butt/Henderson

Mount

Dyer

 

Rooney
Kane
Owen

Sterling

Foden

Rashford


 

 

 

Edited by Kid Icarus

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19 minutes ago, Kid Icarus said:

Baring in mind the only reason some of our current players have a reputation is because they've built them with England, not their club, this is the combined '04 and '21 squad Sven is picking imo (yes, I'm 12 years old)

 

Robinson

Pickford
James

 

Walker
Alexander-Arnold

Ferdinand

Terry

Campbell

King

Carragher

Cole

Bridge

Trippier

 

Gerrard

Scholes
Lampard
Beckham

Butt/Henderson

Mount

Dyer

 

Rooney
Kane
Owen

Sterling

Foden

Rashford

 

The thing that's particularly notable about a few of the players who are genuinely proven top class are that they are the ones who've been in England teams before that were a total disaster. Walker, Kane and Sterling all started against Iceland ffs (Henderson and Rashford on the bench), and now I'm suddenly meant to believe that it's basically impossible to fail with these players. 

 

Raheem Sterling spent years as a running joke with England that he couldn't hit a barn door - his 3rd England goal came in his 46th cap. Gareth Southgate gets the best out of him and now "well anyone could do that with the likes of Sterling" - it's grossly unfair.

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I’ve already said this but the likes of Joe Cole and Gary Neville don’t make this squad. I can’t think of a Michael Owen contemporary in this era. David Beckham is never a winger in this era, it’s fullback or central midfield. Ben Chilwell is a much better player than Wayne Bridge ever was.  Someone like Mason Mount is way better than he’s given credit for. Some of the stuff J. Cole was rightly lauded for in his day, Mason Mount does and it’s just standard. 

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2 hours ago, McCormick said:

Disagree completely. It may be lacking in some areas but this is definitely the strongest crop of talent England have ever produced. 

 

Just totally insane :lol: 

 

Making it an all time thing when we won the World Cup with a squad including 3 or 4 of the best players of all time in their positions (Banks, Moore, Charlton, Greaves) is just crackers. It would be bad enough thinking this is the best group of players in my lifetime ('84 onwards) tbh.

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Chilwell's played just over 100 games. Wayne Bridge was a consistently very good left back over a number of years and who came with the 'it's just a shame for him that Ashley Cole's ahead of him' tagline. Just absolute and total revisionism. 

 

 

Edited by Kid Icarus

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22 minutes ago, The College Dropout said:

Someone like Mason Mount is way better than he’s given credit for. Some of the stuff J. Cole was rightly lauded for in his day, Mason Mount does and it’s just standard. 

 

This is absolute rubbish like. Mount's been utterly anonymous for England in every serious competitive fixture he's played.

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10 minutes ago, Kid Icarus said:

 

Is winning the world cup not a metric like? :lol:

 

Sorry, I ignored the 66 comparison (I mean, you kinda need to look at the standard of football at the time to really compare, we're nearly 60 years ahead now). But in terms of them not being the best crop of England players in your lifetime, it really is just opinion. 

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5 minutes ago, Pilko said:

 

This is absolute rubbish like. Mount's been utterly anonymous for England in every serious competitive fixture he's played.

 

 

It's cherry picking again. I rate Mount highly, but his best stuff is played at Chelsea not England, whereas Joe Cole (along with Beckham and Ashley Cole) was a regular performer for England, or at the very least didn't get the same criticism them others got.  

 

 

Edited by Kid Icarus

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1 minute ago, Shearergol said:

 

Sorry, I ignored the 66 comparison (I mean, you kinda need to look at the standard of football at the time to really compare, we're nearly 60 years ahead now). But in terms of them not being the best crop of England players in your lifetime, it really is just opinion. 

 

I know it's just an opinion like, it's fine for me to think it's an insane one. 

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I find the whole "compare this player from 30 years ago to this player today" a really strange argument when trying to argue how good a manager someone is btw. FWIW I think Southgate's a good fit for England, but I do find some of his decisions over squad selections a little weird. But I'm not the England manager.

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2 minutes ago, Pilko said:

 

This is absolute rubbish like. Mount's been utterly anonymous for England in every serious competitive fixture he's played.

My point is about his general ability. I agree when he’s played for England he’s been disappointing. Legitimately Lingard has been better for England. 
 

But Mounts ability is often under rated.   

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Just now, Kid Icarus said:

 

I know it's just an opinion like, it's fine for me to think it's an insane one. 

 

I guess your definition of insane is just different. It's not like he's saying that St Mirren would beat Liverpool. As I say, there's very little metric to judge either way, and personally I think it would be fairly even in a match between the two sides. Again, hardly insane.

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1 minute ago, Shearergol said:

I find the whole "compare this player from 30 years ago to this player today" a really strange argument when trying to argue how good a manager someone is btw. FWIW I think Southgate's a good fit for England, but I do find some of his decisions over squad selections a little weird. But I'm not the England manager.

 

It got onto that area of dicussion mainly because people are now trying to claim this generation of players is the best we've ever had, rather than giving the credit to Southgate. As has been said, Southgate's a victim of his own success on that front because before him these players weren't producing for England, don't play as well for for their clubs, and we're widely seen as post-golden generation no hopers. 

 

The way it's shifted from one to the other in such a short space of time has given me whiplash basically. :lol:

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4 minutes ago, Shearergol said:

 

I guess your definition of insane is just different. It's not like he's saying that St Mirren would beat Liverpool. As I say, there's very little metric to judge either way, and personally I think it would be fairly even in a match between the two sides. Again, hardly insane.

 

Depends who's managing who. 

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