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.
There is something about toney I really like I know he’s been in a poor league but he has scored a lot of goals
I’m not sure about this England team as we always seem to qualify against all the minows we have to play (unless you have a brolly )
We have a defender with a broken jaw and another couple of players with niggles but we been here before with Rooney and wilcot I’m beginning to wonder if the England team uses our player scouts 😀
I will watch all the games as usual but I still think we will fall short but you never know
Good luck to the women’s team this Saturday Karen hills is a really good manager we need to keep I know it hasn’t gone to plan but it’s Charlton and nothing goes to plan
Have a great summer everyone roll on august
COYR
As I have got older, international football has increasingly become less important to me. I can’t explain why, but it probably has something to do with the general attitude of the players and the ridiculous amounts of money involved. There is now no real connection between the players, the team and the nation. Or is it just that the connection is so much more intense at club level?
That’s a good question, Brian.
I think that club football has become more intense on a daily basis thanks to TV, Internet and Social Media. Every game appears to now have a vital significance, which it doesn’t really.
International football for the reasons you state plus it’s a lot more infrequent. I rarely watch England games, but come big tournaments I am like a kid again.
I’ve never been less interested in an England team. A German manager, players half of which I’ve never heard of, as I don’t follow the Premier league or foreign football. Both of which have been dragged down to the level of a circus. It’s no longer the beautiful game.
Too much money, too many prima-donnas, too much arguing with the Ref, VAR, too much rolling around as if shot and too much thumping the shirts badge, then transferring to a new team a month later. Oh and did I say too much money.
Most England players now choose England to further their career, not because the have England in their heart.
Having said all that. I expect England will get through the group stage. I expect then, they’ll fall at the first knock out game.
I take it “pub teams in Saudi” was irony!!!
🥁 Thank you Ian. Glad someone is on the same level.
🕌🍺
I would certainly have taken Toney, the fact that he has been playing in Saudi is irrelevant. He is a special player.
I’ve been sold more on Toney since yesterday.
Internationally male football is something of an outlier, for most other sports – athletics, rugby union/league, swimming, even the women’s football team etc the international sphere – i.e. Olympics, world championships, world cups etc – is what it’s all about. For men’s football it’s almost the opposite, most fans are more bothered about what a player does for their team than for his country. You could bang 50 goals in a season and be a star and barely make a ripple internationally and no-one is bothered.
I’ll watch the world cup but I’ve never really felt much of a connection to the teams we’ve sent – there’s been too much politics with players picked because they play for a specific club and how often have we seen players turn up half-arsed when playing for England because they aren’t going to upset their club sides?