I don’t think rice is disciplined enough to play 6. That’s going to be a team that leaves itself exposed.
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This is weird revisionism. We had the best defence at the last Euros with Rice as a disciplined 6. He was so good in that exact role that the Italian bench were shocked and delighted when he went off.
He’s capable of it. It’ll just be limiting the other stuff he’s good at. There are other issues to Rice being 6 but discipline shouldn’t be one, he did that at West Ham for years.
It’s only relatively recently he’s been used as an 8. He’s better at it but international football is a slower pace and in that realm he’s very capable of being a 6/defensive midfielder.
My issue with rice at 6 is he isn’t an elite passer rather a decent conservative passer and also he has good running which is wasted at 6. Rodri is the definition of an elite 6. That being said if we have Bellingham as a box to box with Foden at 10 and say Palmer on the wing I’d more than take Rice in a deeper role like he was at West Ham.
You played at home in every game except against Ukraine (easy 4-0 win).
Germany (terrible) -> ukraine -> Denmark is one of the easiest routes imaginable. Compare that with Italy who had Austria, Belgium, Spain. Like our run to the 2022 final - very poor. Only difference is we beat one top team (you).
You have to contextualise the tournament as well. It was a Covid mess.
I’ll be delighted if you play a midfield of Rice, Bellingham and Foden. Foden has always looked ordinary for England. Bellingham is a superstar though.
Uh ok. Germany put 4 past Portugal in the groups before us and you beat them by a single goal. They became ‘terrible’ when we beat them 2-0. Italy were excellent all tournament destroying sides and they only scored a header from a corner. We were defensively great all tournament, lacking elsewhere. We didn’t concede a single open play goal FFS.
Foden is a shout for PL player of the year. He is world class. What he’s done for England in the past (shunted on to wing and asked to play like a normal winger) doesn’t say anything about what he can do as a 10. He has 21 g/a in the league from 10 this season and 7 g/a in the CL .. he’s fucking unreal. Walks in to the France side blindfolded.
Give Foden creative licence, let Bellingham get up and down and allow Rice to do the basics. It’s not perfect but it’s a shit-load better than other midfields in Europe.
He is what he is. How many nations have a Rodri? He’s completely unique in that role. Most countries are going to have players in roles they aren’t directly suited to.
I think Foden has to be allowed to play 10. He’s been too good this season not to. Let him play there and do his thing.
Griezmann is significantly better than Foden.
Your patriotism is adoring. I will remember it when England gets knocked out the moment they meet a decent side in the summer.
I on the other hand won't remember you at all.
Griezmann: 15 non penalty goals and assists in La Liga, 2083 mins played.
Foden: 21 non penalty goals and assists in Premier League, 2468 mins played.
CL:
Griezmann: 6 goals 0 assists in CL 23/24
Foden: 4 goals 3 assists in CL 23/24 (7 total).
One stars for Manchester City (treble winners, their POTS so far) and the other plays for Atletico Madrid.
"Significantly better" - significantly more established maybe, but better? Nope. Not by any of the numbers this season, not by the eye test, and not by the level of team they play at. Maybe last season but maybe it's time to accept your boy is 33 and has declined a little.
One plays for a defensive Simeone side and has become Atletico Madrid’s highest ever goal scorer. The other plays for the best team in a one team league.
Tell me you don’t watch Griezmann without telling me you don’t watch Griezmann. You’re an EPL fanboy and that’s cool.
A one team league with uhhhh .. a three way league title race this season? Makes sense I guess. Up against the league where Madrid have an 8 point lead and are the only La Liga side to compete in the CL for years now.
I’m reliably informed Atletico aren’t that defensive anymore. They’ve scored 9 less than City which suggests the difference ain’t that stark, particularly against some of that goood La liga fodder.
Foden is having a better season. It’s okay to admit that champ.
Yeah, there's a huge difference having a disciplined Rice next to you and not an unmotivated Casemiro who's legs have gone, in fairness. Just don't want to see Gallagher in there. He's alright and everything, just think we have 3 or 4 better options.
When England played France last year at the World Cup I was far more worried about Griezmann than I was Mbappe. And I thought on the night he was France's best player.
You shouldn’t have been. There’s a reason we put two players on Mbappe including our best defender who is perfectly suited to stop him.
Griezmann is very good, but our issue was France allowed him to play a floaty, free role and we gave him lots of time because that side was dedicated to Mbappe.
Mbappe can and will destroy you if you don’t prepare for him tactically and even then he rinsed Walker at least once. He’s undefendable.
Number of distinct PL winners in the past 3 years: 1
Number of distinct La Liga winners in the past 3 years: 3
It’s ok to admit you don’t know about anything outside the PL.
I wouldn't pick him either, but he has a lot of similar attributes to Henderson and we all know how Gareth feels about him. Knowing Southgate, he will be spending every evening keeping his fingers and toes crossed that Mason Mount can put a solid run of games together at the back end of the season. We all know he loves a worker or two in midfield.
I'm not sure why Angel Gomes has never been given serious though over than he plays in France. He keeps things ticking over nicely in midfield and is kind of what we could do with alongside Rice.
It’s ok to admit you got a few things wrong and you’re now grasping about again looking at the last few years instead of this season which is directly what I’m referring to. In which La liga is a one horse race and the premier league is a three horse race.
Trying to be patronising and insulting when you were wrong (again) doesn’t really work or irritate me. Next time look at the tables and you’ll see too, champ.
Mbappe is always a big threat but I knew Walker would largely do a job on him. Greizmann with his movement and intelligence was always going to be the one I was more worried about going into that game. As great as Mbappe is, he's played a few times against England now and not had a huge impact in any of the games.