England

I think you could argue some players thrive in different scenarios. E.g. some seem to have more impact from the bench, some will relish any chance. It might make sense to give unknowns a shot. Like when Townsend made the squad he just went for it and was decent. Same with Sterling. So if the manager can work out that Livermore is the best player in the country to bring on to protect the last 7 mins, you never know it might be useful.

We’ve tried picking players in league form, we’ve tried sticking with the same kind of players and building a “club mentality” and everything goes to shit anyway so maybe scraping the barrel for hungry players could work a bit less badly.

Goalkeepers: Bernd Leno (Bayer Leverkusen), Manuel Neuer (Bayern Munich), Marc-Andre ter Stegen (Barcelona).

Defenders: Jonas Hector (Cologne), Benedikt Hoewedes (Schalke), Mats Hummels (Bayern Munich), Joshua Kimmich (Bayern Munich), Shkodran Mustafi (Arsenal), Sebastian Rudy (Hoffenheim), Antonio Rudiger (Roma), Niklas Sule (Hoffenheim)

Midfielders: Julian Brandt (Bayer Leverkusen), Emre Can (Liverpool), Julian Draxler (Paris Saint-Germain), Sami Khedira (Juventus), Toni Kroos (Real Madrid), Thomas Muller (Bayern Munich), Mesut Ozil (Arsenal), Leroy Sane (Manchester City), Julian Weigl (Borussia Dortmund)

Forwards: Timo Werner (Leipzig), Andre Schurrle (Borussia Dortmund), Mario Gomez (Wolfsburg), Lukas Podolski (Galatasaray)


We’re gunna get dicked by Germany U23s.

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What the hell does Southgate mean when he says we need to get rid of our island mentality? Isn’t that the opposite of Brexit?! He also said we need to change the way “we do things tactically, physical preparation, style of play and mentality.” So, er, everything then?

The rumoured team tonight looks so dull. I’m only watching the match for Captain Poldi. What a guy! :poldi:

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@CunningLinguist today :wink:

The reason Southgate got the England job was because the FA realised that very hardly any of our players would get into any other top national team and that, no matter who the manager is, we aren’t going to win anything.

I can’t remember such a poor England squad with such an average manager.

Tbh I think there’s just not really a lot of quality managers willing to manage a national team and so the options are quite limited. It probably wouldn’t even change if you had better players.

That’s true.
Although the England manager job is one of the best paid in football.

Ideally it would suit someone who has managed at the top level, who has been successful, who has managed English players in the PL, and who is working at a big club in the PL, and even better if he was at a club that was in London.

But I can’t think of anyone who fits that description that might be available.

I have really no idea and even if it’s paid well you’re going to have to find someone who is at the end of his career. Not many club managers will really want to switch to mainly scouting and the occasional training.

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Would like to see someone like Pochettino with England. I think he could get the best out of everyone.

Hart - Cahill, M. Keane , Smalling - Walker , Bertrand - Livermore , Dier - Lallana , Alli - Vardy

:mustafi: WTF is this shit?

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Even better would be Pochettino leaving spurs for the England job, with Southgate going the other way.

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We got Podolski on the #10, mate.:facepalm:
I initially wanted to complain about that in the “European Terrorism” thread, but I thought it might be a bit too soon.

It’s basically the Lukas Podolski testimonial - testimonials are even lower on the scale than midweek friendlies, so I’m willing to forget about the fact that we have Livermore “controlling” our midfield.

I seriously can’t watch this tacky shit. Can somebody please notify me when the football starts?

Yay Brandt.

Of course :poldi:

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Oh, FFS! They STILL haven’t started.

Sneaky german. Good banter :mustafi:

Guess who is supporting today @Persona :wenger2:

switch on now.

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:+1: