UEFA Euro 2020 Qualifiers Thread

[Chris O'Connor]

As long as he's playing alongside Van Dijk it will be hard to determine how good he is. Lovren looks competent next to him too. And no Maguire is not to the same level to cover for him so nobody suggest that nonsense.

Tbh I don't think Lovren looks particularly competent when playing alongside Van Dijk, he may have his errors rescued but the errors are still usually apparent.

It's a perhaps mute point anyway as Gomez rarely figures at the centre of Liverpool's defence with Mario the established partner and has mostly impressed in the centre for England in his more recent appearances there.

 

[TheBigIguana]

Tbh I don't think Lovren looks particularly competent when playing alongside Van Dijk, he may have his errors rescued but the errors are still usually apparent.

It's a perhaps mute point anyway as Gomez rarely figures at the centre of Liverpool's defence with Mario the established partner and has mostly impressed in the centre for England in his more recent appearances there.

Honestly the far bigger issue for England imo is the center of the pitch. Any midfield that includes Declan Rice simply won't be good enough to beat the likes of France, Portugal, Spain or the Netherlands. More than anything they need to end the Rice experiment until he's improved and play Henderson behind two of Maddison, Barkley, Alli or whoever else fits that role. Fix that and there isn't much difference in Maguire/Keane/Gomez/Stones.

 

[Chris O'Connor]

Honestly the far bigger issue for England imo is the center of the pitch. Any midfield that includes Declan Rice simply won't be good enough to beat the likes of France, Portugal, Spain or the Netherlands. More than anything they need to end the Rice experiment until he's improved and play Henderson behind two of Maddison, Barkley, Alli or whoever else fits that role. Fix that and there isn't much difference in Maguire/Keane/Gomez/Stones.

(Matip strangely came out as Mario in my last post lol)

Although I agree with the obvious concerns with playing Henderson and Rice together, especially the latter, it could well have been a horses for courses line up that didnt quite come off. Kosovo were never a team to sit in but would press high up, the intention may have been to be solid and move it on to more skilled front men.

Southgate has shown as a manager he can be flexible with formations and react, he seems to always be prepared to try things and blood young promising players.

He can't magic up an English Pirlo or KdB, he can't go in the transfer market and buy one either, so he has to find a style that maximises our obvious strong suit, the massive attacking potential while cutting out careless stupid and reckless defending.

Liverpool can compete with City at times despite not having their midfield because they have a system to utilise their front three effectively - maximising their threat on the break. They may lose the media driven all important possession stats and still win games comfortably - proving it's how you utilise your strengths effectively that matters.

England came out top in their Nations League table against Spain and Croatia by playing to their strengths, beating the likes of Spain on their own patch showed we have strengths.

The unfortunate timing of the semi straight after so many of the English team had played in the Champions league final not long before and were deemed unavailable, was disappointing and seriously hampered our efforts, although but for a late VAR decision they might have won anyway despite this.

 

[Billy Dean]

If Delph can put a run of games together then he could well be back in the reckoning. A midfield 2 of Delph and Winks is a massive upgrade on Henderson and Rice.

 

[Nymzee]

Luxembourg don't really deserve to be in that category either

Their last 3 losses were 0-1 to Ukraine and Northern Ireland and 1-3 to Serbia, so they're hardly getting wellied like a San Marino or a Gibraltar would (They beat San Marino 3-0 the last time they played in fact and have taken 4 points of Lithuania in their Euro 2020 Group)

They’re getting a lot better. More players playing around Europe and some kids in big academies. Think one their teams got into Europe too this/last year. Dudelange or something?

 

[TheBigIguana]

(Matip strangely came out as Mario in my last post lol)

Although I agree with the obvious concerns with playing Henderson and Rice together, especially the latter, it could well have been a horses for courses line up that didnt quite come off. Kosovo were never a team to sit in but would press high up, the intention may have been to be solid and move it on to more skilled front men.

Southgate has shown as a manager he can be flexible with formations and react, he seems to always be prepared to try things and blood young promising players.

He can't magic up an English Pirlo or KdB, he can't go in the transfer market and buy one either, so he has to find a style that maximises our obvious strong suit, the massive attacking potential while cutting out careless stupid and reckless defending.

Liverpool can compete with City at times despite not having their midfield because they have a system to utilise their front three effectively - maximising their threat on the break. They may lose the media driven all important possession stats and still win games comfortably - proving it's how you utilise your strengths effectively that matters.

England came out top in their Nations League table against Spain and Croatia by playing to their strengths, beating the likes of Spain on their own patch showed we have strengths.

The unfortunate timing of the semi straight after so many of the English team had played in the Champions league final not long before and were deemed unavailable, was disappointing and seriously hampered our efforts, although but for a late VAR decision they might have won anyway despite this.

I don't think there's a course where Rice should be the horse for England. The kid just isn't ready for the top level yet and his inability to ever pass forward makes me question if he ever will.

They don't need a Pirlo or KDB. Sterling Sancho and Kane is plenty in attack if supported properly. Get Rice out, let Hendo do the stuff he does for the RS reasonably well and figure out which other midfielders will work hard and bring a little quality.