England v Kosovo

[Premier ram]

Think England were guilty of switching off at half time , Kosovo were very good going forward as were England , Keane not international class for me and i dont think Henderson and Barkley are either , will qualify easy enough then the big test next summer , Pickford , Trippier, Rose , Maguire, Stones, Winks, Mount or Maddison, Rice, Sterling, Sancho,Kane would be my starting 11 for the Euros

[Van der MoodHoover]

7 hours ago, Premier ram said:

Think England were guilty of switching off at half time , Kosovo were very good going forward as were England , Keane not international class for me and i dont think Henderson and Barkley are either , will qualify easy enough then the big test next summer , Pickford , Trippier, Rose , Maguire, Stones, Winks, Mount or Maddison, Rice, Sterling, Sancho,Kane would be my starting 11 for the Euros

you've just guaranteed Keane, Barkley and Henderson squad places next summer........?

[cannable]

I’m not having this Maddison hype-train. His stats are padded by his absolute lethality at set-pieces, something that we’re already good at. 

On top of that, we don’t play with a #10 and if we were to, I think Grealish is better. Plus Grealish has shown that he can play as a #8. 

[Jourdan]

Pickford

TAA - Gomez - Maguire - Rose

Henderson - Rice

Alli

Sancho - Kane - Sterling

When everyone is fit, that’d be my team.

Southgate’s problem could end up being that he will have too many choices to make and not enough players claiming the shirt as their own.

We have an exciting side, a promising side, but not what you would call a settled side where everyone knows their roles and we function well from 1-11. In my mind, you can get away with that when the opposition is Kosovo, Bulgaria and Montenegro. It’s a bit harder when you up the ante.

I think Southgate has done a lot of good, but the one criticism I would make is that even accounting for injuries, caps and call ups are too easily handed out.

You could make a case for Trippier or Walker over Trent, for Stones or Mings over Gomez, for Shaw or Chilwell over Rose, for the whole midfield three to be changed up, and for Rashford over Sancho. And that’s just the starting XI.

It’s good to have options and competition for places, but sometimes it can make a manager’s job harder.

If only Pickford, Maguire, Kane, Sterling and let’s say Henderson (given his experience) are certainties for the XI at this stage, surely this shows the team is still very much in transition and we can’t expect too much.

June will come around very quickly and that leaves us with very few genuinely competitive games to figure everything out. These qualifiers are a world away from France, Portugal and the likes.

Do I think we are primed for a creditable showing at Euro 2020? Yes. Do I think we’ll win it? No.

For me, we need another two to three years for these young players to really bed in and for the team to develop a genuine sense of identity.

There are still question marks over half of this team.

[BathRam72]

On 10/09/2019 at 21:41, Van De Squid said:

Well Kosovo were better than I thought they were going to be. 

And there in lies the problem.

Everybody underestimated them, everybody thought they would be the fall guys.

Even those who have made the arrangements decided to not give them the respect they deserved and played the game at St Mary's.

All international sides should play at Wembley unless it is a friendly. Kosovo are second in the group and look like they should qualify in that position.

Was England's performance that bad? in parts yes but were we expecting much more against a so called POOR side, who actually turned out to be half decent? 

[BathRam72]

21 hours ago, Premier ram said:

Think England were guilty of switching off at half time , Kosovo were very good going forward as were England , Keane not international class for me and i dont think Henderson and Barkley are either , will qualify easy enough then the big test next summer , Pickford , Trippier, Rose , Maguire, Stones, Winks, Mount or Maddison, Rice, Sterling, Sancho,Kane would be my starting 11 for the Euros

I agree on Keane and to be honest I am not sure Rice is there yet, or ever will be.

We can argue that the only way they will improve is to play them and maybe with regard to my opinions above, Gareth thought Kosovo would be a no brainer and an easy game to blood the younger guys.

If he feels they are the future, maybe friendlies for a while.

[CWC1983]

2 minutes ago, BathRam72 said:

And there in lies the problem.

Everybody underestimated them, everybody thought they would be the fall guys.

Even those who have made the arrangements decided to not give them the respect they deserved and played the game at St Mary's.

All international sides should play at Wembley unless it is a friendly. Kosovo are second in the group and look like they should qualify in that position.

Was England's performance that bad? in parts yes but were we expecting much more against a so called POOR side, who actually turned out to be half decent? 

The move to St Mary's was a strange one. The Kosovan fans must of been dreaming of a trip to Wembley for the 1st time in their short history, and the FA move to Southampton. Id of been gutted. 

[Van der MoodHoover]

5 hours ago, CWC1983 said:

The move to St Mary's was a strange one. The Kosovan fans must of been dreaming of a trip to Wembley for the 1st time in their short history, and the FA move to Southampton. Id of been gutted. 

Local motorway was closed due to an accident as well, so even thought the match sold out you could see empty seats on the tellybox.

And even though its our local ground i could not get junior hants interested.........☹️

[Andicis]

14 hours ago, cannable said:

I’m not having this Maddison hype-train. His stats are padded by his absolute lethality at set-pieces, something that we’re already good at. 

On top of that, we don’t play with a #10 and if we were to, I think Grealish is better. Plus Grealish has shown that he can play as a #8. 

He's created up there with the most chances in the Prem. He hasn't played 10 for ages and plays in a midfield 3 for Leicester, so his position wouldn't be difficult to put in. Grealish is not better. Grealish hasn't proven anything in the Prem, Maddison was brilliant last year and started this season well. 

[Ambitious]

1 hour ago, Andicis said:

He's created up there with the most chances in the Prem. He hasn't played 10 for ages and plays in a midfield 3 for Leicester, so his position wouldn't be difficult to put in. Grealish is not better. Grealish hasn't proven anything in the Prem, Maddison was brilliant last year and started this season well. 

Grealish, like Hughes, is a underwhelming number 10. They have moments of magic, they're so easy on the eye, but simply don't do the numbers to be a top player in that position. Both players are much more influential deeper in midfield. Mount and Maddison have that 10 role sorted anyway. Albeit, Mount could also play deeper. Foden coming through is potentially better than both of them. I'd imagine when push comes to shove that he will be in the Euro 2020 squad. I'd like to think that AWB can play LB too. He's an excellent defender. 

[cannable]

6 hours ago, Andicis said:

He's created up there with the most chances in the Prem. He hasn't played 10 for ages and plays in a midfield 3 for Leicester, so his position wouldn't be difficult to put in. Grealish is not better. Grealish hasn't proven anything in the Prem, Maddison was brilliant last year and started this season well. 

Again, his chances created stats are padded by his set-pieces. 

If Leicester play with a three in midfield then he typically plays wide left, granted he’s played as a #8 twice this season. 

Just because Grealish isn’t ‘proven’ doesn’t mean he isn’t better. Grealish carries the ball so much better than Maddison, goes past players for fun. 

 

[cannable]

4 hours ago, Ambitious said:

Grealish, like Hughes, is a underwhelming number 10. They have moments of magic, they're so easy on the eye, but simply don't do the numbers to be a top player in that position. Both players are much more influential deeper in midfield. Mount and Maddison have that 10 role sorted anyway. Albeit, Mount could also play deeper. Foden coming through is potentially better than both of them. I'd imagine when push comes to shove that he will be in the Euro 2020 squad. I'd like to think that AWB can play LB too. He's an excellent defender. 

I think Mount’s best getting the ball in midfield and facing the opposition midfield. He can play short, has a range of passing, can make runs from deep and score from range. Between him and Barkley on the left of a three fit me. Winks to play in games we need to keep the ball. 

[Andicis]

2 hours ago, cannable said:

Again, his chances created stats are padded by his set-pieces. 

If Leicester play with a three in midfield then he typically plays wide left, granted he’s played as a #8 twice this season. 

Just because Grealish isn’t ‘proven’ doesn’t mean he isn’t better. Grealish carries the ball so much better than Maddison, goes past players for fun. 

 

Well, Maddison is proven to be a top player in the prem, and Grealish isn't, so it seems premature to call for Grealish over Maddison. What's he done to deserve that? Maddison is a passer of the ball. Which is exactly what we need. Grealish isn't great at going past people in the Premier League. He's been costing Villa points because he tries it where he can't get away with it. See Villa vs Spurs.

[Comrade 86]

Seem to remember reading about a report commissioned to analyse and identify young English talent from the U16s and upwards. Would have been about 6 or 7 years back at a guess and it painted a very bleak 10 year outlook. Happily, it seems to have been well wide of the mark as the current squad seems pretty strong to me with any number of good youngsters waiting in the wings. With younger players we do seem to have lost that fear of losing, somewhat at least, which is also good to see.

As for 2020 I'd like to see the likes of Mount, Foden and Maddison given a chance and I'd also throw Grealish in the mix. The latter-named has had some early season woes but from the little I've seen, teams are setting up to neutralise him as he is Villa's heartbeat and in a better side I think we'd see how good he really is. As with our beloved Rams, if the current squad has a weakness it seems to me it's in our midfield and link up play so blooding some of the kids who have potential to change games seems worth a shot.

Lastly, I seen a few folk criticising Southgate across the match threads but for me he's done well and he can't play the best 11 every game anyway. Players need resting and he has a lot of players to look at not just for the starting 11 but those who will make the squad. Surely the fact that we can do that in competitive matches and still be winning games comfortably bodes well for the future.