[Albion] England Squad announcement shortly

[Javeaseagull]

No-one will convince me that any of those CBs is better than Dunk. By picking Dier and McGuire Southgate loses all credibility imo

 

[Driver8]

I think we would beat Southgate’s England.

 

[Simster]

No-one will convince me that any of those CBs is better than Dunk. By picking Dier and McGuire Southgate loses all credibility imo

Maguire is a fair enough decision because you can make a case for him being included, but Dier is absolute dog shit and not fit to lace Dunk's boots.

 

[dejavuatbtn]

I think we would beat Southgate’s England.

1 - 0, March to score.

 

[Easy 10]

At least Solly buried his rabble last night.

Is that a euphemism ?

 

[Psychobilly freakout]

I think we would beat Southgate’s England.

There is no thunk about it....

If that England squad was in the Premier League they would around 6th-9th

 

[Nobby Cybergoat]

Random thoughts

Once under Graham Taylor I was so fed up with it that I wanted England to lose. That's out of character for me as I love supporting England. But against Ukraine, and partly because it's Ukraine, i'll be cheering for them.

White and Tomori are incredible ommissions

Phillips and Henderson are incredible inclusions.

I sort of agree with those making the point "although Solly is doing well, is he in front of Grealish, Rashford etc?"

I also agree with the point, which is that Brighton are doing well because of a very specific style. Is it going to be easy to transplant that player into the national team.

This is a damaging day for Brighton, after the high of yesterday. We want young English players to think they can play for England if they join us. At the moment, the way is barred.

Kyle Walker shouldn't be representing his nation until that matter is cleared up.

Toney shouldn't be playing for Brentford, but as he is I suppose there is no harm in picking him for England. He is good.

This is a qualifier, so we have to pick our best team, but really? We're persisting with Henderson? Surely Southgate is right. Our squad depth is not great

 

[Neville's Breakfast]

Random thoughts

Once under Graham Taylor I was so fed up with it that I wanted England to lose. That's out of character for me as I love supporting England. But against Ukraine, and partly because it's Ukraine, i'll be cheering for them.

White and Tomori are incredible ommissions

Phillips and Henderson are incredible inclusions.

I sort of agree with those making the point "although Solly is doing well, is he in front of Grealish, Rashford etc?"

I also agree with the point, which is that Brighton are doing well because of a very specific style. Is it going to be easy to transplant that player into the national team.

This is a damaging day for Brighton, after the high of yesterday. We want young English players to think they can play for England if they join us. At the moment, the way is barred.

Kyle Walker shouldn't be representing his nation until that matter is cleared up.

Toney shouldn't be playing for Brentford, but as he is I suppose there is no harm in picking him for England. He is good.

This is a qualifier, so we have to pick our best team, but really? We're persisting with Henderson? Surely Southgate is right. Our squad depth is not great

Although that can be countered by the argument that some of Southgate’s picks benefit from having world class players around them. I agree it was a bad day for Brighton because basically the ladder has finally been pulled up above us. Toney is a token pick because he won’t actually play. England is representative of a few ‘big’ teams rather than the nation. Probably time to move on from international football.

 

[Garry Nelson's Left Foot]

@The Wizard for some reason I can't quote your post so I'm @ing you in my reply instead.

There is no rational justification for Philips. None at all. It's not even like with Maguire who is also lucky to be included in the squad based off form and playing time but is one of Southgates tried and trusted senior players. That's why in my initial post I said that Southgate makes it difficult for himself.

As for the rest, I've had this discussion too many times over the last few years to want to go over it again but...

Southgate's international record stands up to any England manager bar Alf Ramsey's.

Yes he's lost to Croatia, Italy and France. We also beat Croatia in the following tournament ut they were shit then because that would ruin the we lose to the first half decent team we play. Same with when we beat Germany. And Denmark.

Which begs the question. What exactly is our level? Because if we always lose to the first half decent team we play we surely can't claim to be at their level. And if we're not at their level then surely a semi and a final in back to back tournaments is actually pretty good?

Southgate's worst tournament performance is a world cup quarter final. We've only done better than that three times. One of those was while Southgate was manager. Another time was when we beat Belgium in the last minute of extra time, needed two penalties in extra time to beat Cameroon and then guess what? We lost to the first half decent team we played in the semis. We then also lost to the second half decent team we played in the third place play offs.

Go through the history of England at major tournaments and it's a litany of failure, often stinking the place out. From the time I've been watching England' 88, 92, 94(although that was qualifying only seeing as we didnt make it to the finals), 2000, 08(again qualifying only),10,12,14,16.

That's 9 out of the last 18 tournaments that we've either failed to qualify for or stunk out. Which leaves the other nine tournaments as tournaments we've done well/been respectable in. And guess what again? Two of those nine are Southgate's. none of the stinkers are.

So no, his international c.v isn't shit, certainly not in comparison with other England managers.

But yes, he makes some strange squad selections and is a bit cautious in his approach so lets all lose our shit every few months.

 

[Swansman]

No Balogun either. Silly stuff.

 

[WhingForPresident]

Just to throw it out there, if you wanted to actually pick based on form from this season, the England squad, according to Whoscored, should be:

Pickford
Pope
Ramsdale

Trippier
Mee
Alexander-Arnold
Tarkowski
Smalling
Tomori
Shaw
Burn
White

Saka
March
Ward-Prowse
Rice
Bellingham
Maddison
Grealish
Foden

Kane
Toney
Rashford
Watkins
Abraham

 

[Austrian Gull]

It's a good job I'm not Tony Bloom/Paul Barber as I would ban from Southgate from the directors' box and make him pay for his own ticket!

The failure to pick any of Dunk, March or Colwill and yet pick any number of players who are out of form/not playing is ridiculous.

 

[Crouch End Seagull]

it’s just weird now. You’re either one of Gareth’s “guys” or you’re not. It’s no fairer than the House of Lords. Sad. International football squads should all be about merit.

 

[Driver8]

It's a good job I'm not Tony Bloom/Paul Barber as I would ban from Southgate from the directors' box and make him pay for his own ticket!

The failure to pick any of Dunk, March or Colwill and yet pick any number of players who are out of form/not playing is ridiculous.

Probably not a problem as he never comes to the Amex.

 

[Javeaseagull]

Maguire is a fair enough decision because you can make a case for him being included, but Dier is absolute dog shit and not fit to lace Dunk's boots.

I don't think someone that is not playing for his club when he is fit should be picked for England, it really is as simple as that for me.

 

[Whoislloydy]

Southgate is a f***ing joke

 

[Jackthelad]

Eric Dier and Mason Mount ffs. I wouldn't put Mason Mount in our team let alone England.

 

[Stato]

In his press conference from 2:30, in response to a question that asks particularly about Dunk, he pretty much says that he has made a decision about who his best players are, and that he won't ever be changing his mind. Its almost as if he thinks that footballers never get better or worse.



You wonder why he isn't picking Bobby Moore. "Okay, since he died, he's not been playing regularly for his club, but I need my best players." Now, there was a time when he was flying for Leicester, that Maguire was a better centre back than Dunk. Since that time, Maguire has gone backwards and Dunk has improved, developing and learning more and more under, first Potter, and now De Zerbi. Dunk's only call ups came when he was required to head and block under Chris Hughton. He has never been given a chance since. Dunk is now obviously a better footballer than Maguire, but apparently its too late, Gareth made his decision six years ago and it would be impossible to revisit it.

Although he says he isn't talking specifics, he is obviously referencing Dunk v Maguire when he goes on to talk about picking 'a certain level of player who is not playing regularly, or a certain level of player who is physically fit.' He is then asked about the message that this sends to players like Dunk and March and goes on to insinuate that, although they're playing well, their form is down to De Zerbi and won't be replicated when playing for him. Although the question is about the two players, he answers specifically, only in reference to Solly, using big name players, most of whom don't play in Solly's position to excuse his selection. He doesn't mention Dunk, because it would mean him having to say that Maguire, Guehi, Dier and Stones currently are, not at some point were all better centre backs than Dunk.

I remember when Dunky got his second call up, he said after he didn't make the next squad, that Southgate had called him and told him to keep working and that the door wasn't closed. I've recently read of him saying the same thing to Tomori. Southgate's press conference today indicates to me that he was lying. The door was closed and will remain closed to certain players because he* has made a judgement that someone else is and always will be better.

* - Not 'We'. Why does he always speak like the decisions are collective and not own his decisions?

 

[rebel51]

Jordon fkin Henderson and kalvin Phillips , what a complete bellend , clueless boring twat.

 

[portslade seagull]

Southgate rule of thumb
Pick players out of form and not playing regularly - tick
Ignore players who are having a great season form wise to stick with hasbeens - tick