England squad
“The goal is to try and win the World Cup and not be shy about it”
Only a German could say that, not an Englishman. Let’s hope Thomas Tuchel is right after the squad was picked today.
There are always major tournament squad picks that are up for debate among your mates down the pub, but Tuchel’s 26 looks to have a few more than others.
My own jury is out on Tuchel, not that I spend a lot of time thinking about or watching our national team, at least in the so many dead rubbers they play.
My jury will be fully in though if he can take us to the promised land, although for someone who would sit and watch every game at a major tournament I am oddly apathetic to this summer’s tournament at the moment.
Could be a couple of things. The Addicks’ last season I found very draining and I need a football break plus I live in the United States and well, there’s a lot to dislike about a lot of stuff, including the exploitation of the beautiful game and it’s most pre-eminent global tournament.
Anyway to the squad.
No Nick Pope, disappointing but no surprise. Konsa our Charlton connection. Still only 28 he’s had a bloody good career so far after leaving us when he was 21.
I don’t get the inclusion of Djed Spence, over Hall or Shaw. Maguire going public yesterday doesn’t do him any favours and his Mum acting like your kid was dropped from the U10’s. Henderson and Stones can provide the senior leadership, with Stones I suspect providing the ‘Coady role’ in previous squads.
No TAA I suppose is no surprise. We look weak at left back, but assume he will play Reilly there. Livramento hasn’t had much game time, but can operate on both sides. Spence is definitely a strange choice but how either of them are better than Alexander-Arnold I’ll never know. This is obviously a personality clash.
I feel for Bowen, who appears to be the ultimate team player. Tuchel can’t call in West Ham’s problems, but ignore the same dynamics when taking Tottenham’s Spence.
I like Gibbs-White, but suffers from having so much competition in that position. He had to take Bellingham. I can live without Tuchel taking Wharton but Henderson over Gibbs-White makes no sense to me at all, but does to the man that matters.
Simply Foden and Palmer have not been good enough this season, the squad has been picked on collectivity and the ability to win, but you also have to had a good season. A pound though for every time one of us says “well if we had Palmer of Foden” during the tournament.
I think the most left field decision is taking Toney. Yes, he has scored 32 goals against pub teams in Saudi, and he can take a fine penalty, but his inclusion goes completely against the arguments Tuchel used for including other players.
Madueke is a fine athlete, Eze is a fine player that has been part of a very successful club season and Gordon is a Tuchel type of player.
Tuchel has I expect accounted for the heat and the length of the tournament too, so fitness over finesse. Southgate wasn’t much different in selecting collective chemistry over fine skills. Tuchel is less worried about eliminating character flaws and makes no bones about it. He was brought in with the one goal to win the World Cup. We’ll see how that goes.
