England’s ‘defence’

Well done. Lots of reds down here tonight as frankies photos will testify. Believe it or not
many of us still believe. Left town about 9am arrived Southampton 3ish back tomorrow 5ish. England and Barnsley not a choice but a birth right.

 

England is definitely a choice.

 

They play every game 3-4 hours down south so whilst they are called England it's hard to see them as anything other than a southern club the same way as other teams based in the capital. I don't have the urge to travel down to watch them play, so feel the same as the armchair Man United fans who have never set foot in Old Trafford.

A few meaningful games every two years until we underachieve yet again isn't enough after around 10 pointless qualification games against countries in some cases so bad that there should be an argument for a pre qualifying competition for them.

 

Ok your choice but our home is Wembley so if you want to watch that is where we play. It’s all a matter of choice I watch the reds love oakwell same with Wembley and tonight st Mary’s we all love football but we are all English and reds.

 

Each to their own.

They played games in Leeds and Leicester only last year though.

London is just over 90 minutes away on a train from Donny too, especially if you catch the grand central ones.

I proudly follow England. Barnsley first, yes, but I don’t have the downer on the national side which some seem to revel in.

 

With the departures of Rooney, Terry, Cole, Gerrard etc there's nothing really to dislike about the England team anymore so why not get behind them?
They have no divine right to win tournaments either so why criticise them for not doing so?
The team should play more games around the country though.

 

I think the problem for me is that I don't follow top flight football, I couldn't tell you which clubs England players play for, some of them I have honestly never heard of. Maybe if Barnsley ever made it back to the Premier League it would be different?

At the moment though, it's just something completely alien to me.

 

Yep. I fully agree there. I think I've watched about one top flight game on tv in 10 years. The Premiership holds no interest at all.
The England game was on Irish tv last night but I have to admit I couldn't be bothered to watch it.
When it gets to the finals though I'll be glued to every game.

 

23 goals in 47 games over last 3 years at International level not too bad though.
It’s strange how he seems to struggle to get into club teams though.

 

We go to all the home competitive games and would much rather go to Wembley than around the country.
Nothing against other grounds just personal choice.

 

I’m the same don’t do friendlies but attend all qualifiers. Enjoyed Southampton but prefer Wembley it’s our home.

 

Englands first half attacking play was great, however i think second half too many players wanted to have a steady second half and took easy options often going backwards when it was actually easier to go forwards.
It is a concern we had 2 defensive midfielders, in Rice and Henderson and yet conceed 3 goals.
Southgate is blooding young lads at least but we are desperate to find a "real" midfielder who can dictate play like a pirlo type, to make ourselves consistently good at major tournements.
Our defence is a worry and im not convinced, we have that right either.
Was it last year we played a 3 of stones mcguire and gomez against decent sides and looked good?
This may be our best formation for the tournos.

 

I thought England were wasteful second half and it should have been a cricket score. The referee didn't help delaying Kane's penalty. If that goes in I think England would have scored 10.

 

As international footballers, i am yet to be convinced of,
Keane
Chilwell
Rice
Henderson
Barkley
Hoping Mount and Fodden will eventually come through and Gomez and Stones the same.
Left back mr rose from spurs all day but id be tempted to go 3 centre backs and use arnold and rose as wing backs.

 

I don’t get England fans me, we play about 10 games a year which makes it tough to build a team & for the players to get many games playing together yet all I constantly hear is we should cap him & him. Basically any young player that’s had a few good games.

All I’m hearing last night is Maddison should start over Barkley, why? Only a few months ago Barkley put in a superb performance away at Spain for us & he’s improved loads over the past 12 months. He deserves his place.

We’re lacking a quality keeper & I don’t think any of the left backs are at the standard we need but when everyone’s fit the teams looking pretty good now.

Pickford, Henderson, Kane & Sterling are probably the only four guaranteed starters & there’s competition for every other position.

Pickford, Heaton & Pope for goalie.

Trippier, A-Arnold & Walker for RB.

Stones, Gomez, Maguire & Keane for CB.

Rose, Chilwell & Shaw for LB.

Winks to compete with Rice for the holding midfield role.

Henderson with Barkley for the time being but plenty of competition coming through with Mount & Maddison. Also, if Oxlade-Chamberlain gets back to anything like the form he was showing for Liverpool before his injury then he’s a far better option than any of Barkley, Mount or Maddison.

Sterling to the right of Kane with Sancho & Rashford battling over the left side.

 

The playing out from the back is obviously the way lots of clubs want to go.

Germany made it look easy against a game Northern Ireland team that tried to press them, so maybe we thought we would be able to do it against another supposed inferior team?

Our best footballing centre half is John Stones, and he's made a few gaffs in possession, so you can hardly expect his lesser talented colleagues to to any better.

Some defenders need to settle in a game, and the opening stages can be a bit frantic. It's not the time to be walking the ball out of defence.

 

James Maddison is the nearest thing.

 

I blame John Stones.

 

I thought we played like a team who had been told by management, pundits and newspapers that we playing the form side of Europe, unbeaten in 15 or whatever, and believed it. The truth last night for me was, we saw a team in England who sometimes forgot this and made the match look embarrassingly (for Kosovo) like a practice match, totally outplaying them to the point where it was boring,,, then they seemed to remember what they'd been told and play scared. Funny old game.

 

If Barkley is the best we can do, we really do have a problem. I'm seeing someone who constantly gives the ball away and has little end product. The midfield as a whole must be the weakest in my lifetime. There's no-one influential in there.