Tricky Trevor wrote: ↑Thu Mar 05, 2020 12:48 pm
When England got to the semis of the last World Cup. Most were raving about how young they were and what a future they had.
On the Eric Dier thread someone mentioned how much he’s gone off and it got me thinking about the whole side. None of them have massively improved and many have let their careers grind to a halt.
The team was:
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Pickford. He was never that great but his Everton coach was the England coach.
Walker. Only getting occasional games at City and not the player he was.
Stones. Gets worse with every appearance.
Maguire. Never, ever an @£80m player. Leicester pulled Utds pants down.
Young. Run off for a final payday.
Trippier. Awful last season has been improving in Spain until his injury.
Henderson. The shining light. PotY for me.
Lingard. Who?
Alli. Not the player he was.
Kane. Same old Harry, banging them in for fun.
Sterling. Not improved but no worse either.
Just a surprise for me that so many should go backwards.
Thankfully a new generation of super talent are coming through. Southgate could have landed on his feet getting this coming group.
It's worth putting England's semi-final appearance in context,it was a decent achievement,but that WC was a once in a generation event when most of the favoured sides went out early,Holland and Italy didn't even qualify,Germany exited in the group stages,and England got on the right side of the draw.
If you actually analyse England's results they're not that impressive,a last minute set-piece goal to scramble past Tunisia,thumping of the whipping boys Panama,and then defeat to Belgium's second-string,in the KO rounds again a close call against Colombia squeezing through on a shoot-out,England's best display was reserved for the quarter-final against Sweden,but the Swedes aren't the force they once were,and in the semi-final Croatia were by far the better team,although it took them until extra time to exert their superiority,and the 3rd/4th place play-off was a cruise for Belgium.
So in summary England played a couple of mediocre teams in the group stage,eased through that,struggled past a Colombian team lacking their main goalscorer,and comfortably beat an average Swedish side,all of those teams ranked well below England,when it came to the crunch matches against Belgium and Croatia,England's lack of technical ability was plain for all to see.
Of that SF line-up on current form only Henderson,Sterling and probably Kane can be confident of being first choice come the Euro's,although i suspect Gareth will include Pickford,Maguire,and Alli in his eleven fitness permitting,it does show that the door is open if players impress in the closing weeks of the club season.
