Belgium v England

[Adem Poric 14,896]

We actually played ok in the second half when he changed formation. We have so many players who are comfortable on the ball now that persisting with Rice makes Southgate look stupid. Decide who is your best holding midfielder and pick one. Picking two is nonsense. Rice hasn't shown anything in the last year to say he is the best option there. If it's not Henderson just let Winks sit in and be a fulcrum, at least he plays with his head up.

 

Personally i dont mind the three at the back but the one in the middle has to be able to step into midfield, start attacks and organise the players around him. Eric Dier is not able to do any of that, he's gone consistently backwards in the last four years. Coady was unable to play in this game but he has to be first choice in this formation going forward. 

 

Mason Mount is a strange one in that he isn't as good at carrying the ball or taking on players as Grealish, isn't a ball winner, doesn't seem great at spraying passes around, doesn't make late runs into the box enough but can do a little bit of everything. He's perfect for squad depth but we have better players in all the roles in this formation. He certainly should be playing in a front three.

 

Ultimately Southgate has to get out of the negative mindset when playing the better teams. We have pacey, technically gifted forward players and we need to take the attack to teams no matter who they are.

[Bouncing Owl 5,093]

13 minutes ago, Adem Poric said:

We actually played ok in the second half when he changed formation. We have so many players who are comfortable on the ball now that persisting with Rice makes Southgate look stupid. Decide who is your best holding midfielder and pick one. Picking two is nonsense. Rice hasn't shown anything in the last year to say he is the best option there. If it's not Henderson just let Winks sit in and be a fulcrum, at least he plays with his head up.

 

Personally i dont mind the three at the back but the one in the middle has to be able to step into midfield, start attacks and organise the players around him. Eric Dier is not able to do any of that, he's gone consistently backwards in the last four years. Coady was unable to play in this game but he has to be first choice in this formation going forward. 

 

Mason Mount is a strange one in that he isn't as good at carrying the ball or taking on players as Grealish, isn't a ball winner, doesn't seem great at spraying passes around, doesn't make late runs into the box enough but can do a little bit of everything. He's perfect for squad depth but we have better players in all the roles in this formation. He certainly should be playing in a front three.

 

Ultimately Southgate has to get out of the negative mindset when playing the better teams. We have pacey, technically gifted forward players and we need to take the attack to teams no matter who they are.

There is a lot that I agree with there but still unsure on 3 centre halves. I don’t think we have enough ball playing centre halves to make it work. Stones has too many mistakes in him and whilst Coady has done ok, I think we need to be utilising more of our attacking players. 
 

One thing for sure, we need to be utilising our attacking players more. We have a raft of good quality options. Grealish looked great last night. Southgate’s conundrum will be where to play him once Sterling comes back into the side as a left attacker. We need pace in that front 3 for sure. But we can’t leave Grealish out now, he’s a player that is so comfortable on the ball, he draws fouls and he creates chances. He really looks the part on the international scene. 

[FreshOwl 12,109]

Stop playing 5 at the back 

 

It should be banned across football 

[markg 3,100]

Rice is too slow at moving the ball for this level. He delayed and then played an awful pass to Grealish which he had to retrieve, it slowed down a potentially good move

[fudge27 2,306]

If persisting with this dog poo formation, I'd have the following XI and the XI below as direct replacements pretty much 

 

Pope

 

Walker

Coady

Mings

 

TAA

Henderson

Foden

Chilwell

 

Rashford 

Kane

Sterling

 

2nd XI

 

Pickford

 

Rice

Maguire

Gomes

 

Trippier 

Winks

Mount

Saka

 

Sancho

Clavert - Lewin

Grealish 

 

 

Obviously some variation due to form and injuries but that's the bulk of it. I'd go 4-2-3-1 though and get Kane, Grealish, Sterling and Rashford into the team with 2 holders behind, and Sancho and Calvert Lewin in support

 

[ShaunO1 141]

A Ngolo Kante would solve all our problems. 

Don't think Rice is the answer. Maybe he will be after the world cup but not ready yet. 

[markg 3,100]

13 minutes ago, ShaunO1 said:

A Ngolo Kante would solve all our problems. 

Don't think Rice is the answer. Maybe he will be after the world cup but not ready yet. 

For me, if we are talking about playing someone as purely a defensive midfielder, I would give Isaac Hayden at Newcastle a go in one of the friendlies.

 

[thesouthowl 325]

20 hours ago, EighteenSixty7 said:

What does Rice even do?

Goes well with Curry!

[ShaunO1 141]

1 hour ago, markg said:

For me, if we are talking about playing someone as purely a defensive midfielder, I would give Isaac Hayden at Newcastle a go in one of the friendlies.

 

 

It would be good to have a specialist in that position to protect the defence

[oldishowl 5,191]

We just didn’t get enough players into the box last night.

It didn’t help that Kane kept dropping deeper and deeper.

He does with Spurs now but has the pace of Son, Moura and now Bale running ahead of him.

We didn’t have any of that .

 

Presumably our front 3 would be Sterling Kane Rashford when available which has got goals and pace in it.