Jude Bellingham

Not noticed anything obnoxious about him, seems very mature in his interviews.

 

Sorry just seen another post discussing pretty much this!

 

Sven never had a left winger or a balanced midfield.

He had 11 world class players but there’s no way of fitting Beckham, Gerrard, Scholes, Lampard, Rooney & Owen in a front 6 without at least two of them been uncomfortable.

Beckham had to play in a midfield 4. Couldn’t play in a front 3. His biggest asset was his crossing. He couldn’t cut in like Saka can & stretch sides.

Lampard had to play in a midfield 3, he couldn’t play in a 2. Always baffled me that Mourinho never played him centrally in a midfield 2 but Sven used to think he could do it & tried it over & over again without success.

Owen couldn’t play as a lone striker, he had to play in a 2.

Gerrard & Scholes weren’t left wingers but both got played there by Sven so that he could play his 4-4-2 & get Beckham & Owen in the side.

It needed someone with some bravery to drop one or two of them.

 

If we dropped on France again in the knockout stages & lost narrowly / on pens then we’ve lost to the one side that’s better than us right now which I suppose is where the luck comes into it. Got to hope they have an off day against us or someone else.

 

Ramsdale frightens me to death every time he’s got the ball at his feet and for me Pickford is by far the best English keeper when it comes to passing out from the back.

 

Genuinely thought we outplayed them lat year. By quite a margin. But I guess very good teams win even when they don't play well.

 

Pickford plays for a team constantly fighting relegation for a reason just as Ramsdale plays with one challenging for titles for a reason.

I like Pickford. Again great professional. Great attitude. Really talented. His development seems to have stopped. Ramsdale looks like he is continuing to develop. His passing tonight and calmness under pressure played a big part in the dominance we had.

 

He's an old head on young shoulders as well, a proper leader. Look at this from the last World Cup - when Kane misses his penalty he's straight over in his ear to pick him back up. Absolutely class.

 

Never seen that before. That's proper class. And he was 19.

 

I kinda agree with you especially about Ramsdale’s performance tonight but i still personally feel more comfortable with Pickford at passing the ball out from the back and thankfully doesn’t seem to bring any Everton issues with him to England games. I think Ramsdale will probably take over the gloves eventually but not yet for me.

 

I always remember thinking at the time that surely playing 4-2-2-2 would have been much more suitable.

Beckham and Gerrard sitting and playing quarterback passes with Scholes and Lamps bombing into the box to support Rooney and Owen.

Could even have made a case for 4-2-3-1 if the 3 played narrow and the full backs giving the width, but it would have meant Beckham was employed in a deep lying midfield role.

 

I don't think that works, no defensive midfielder and still no width. I think a 3-5-2 would have been the best option with Hargreaves and 2 of Beckham, Gerrard and Lampard in the middle.

 

That would have been better balanced, I was just giving what I thought was the best formation to squeeze the 4 in.
Beckham was the problem for me in any formation.
If you went 4-3-3 your 3 in the middle could be Gerrard Lampard Scholes no problem, but no one wanted to leave out Becks.

 

And when you think for years we struggled to get players in teams outside Europe he's literally waltzed into Bayern and Madrid's team at a ridiculously young age. Brave lad.

 

Just watched highlights of the Jude Bellingham show, wow. Never saw it when he played at Oakwell. Some judge of a footballer I am.

 

To be fair the 17 year old Gareth Bale looked pretty poor when he turned up at Oakwell with Southampton!

 

And don’t forget Heskey…

 

We were by far the we best team at the last World Cup.

If Kane scores that penalty, we win the entire thing. France were hanging on and I think we’d have won in ET.

Argentina wouldn’t have beaten us in the final either.

 

Completely agree. A massive missed opportunity, and one that we have to put right at the Euros next year. The current England side should be dominating international football for the next ten years, as France did from 98.

 

Bale was beyond rubbish in that game. I’m sure he got subbed early (half time maybe) after being roasted by Martin Devaney if I remember right.