Off Topic International Break Thread

It's that time, again. The season's over, so now we get this stuff, instead.
England's U20s face Costa Rica in the last 16 of their age group's World Cup on Wednesday.
The senior side face Scotland in a World Cup qualifier on the 10th, followed by a friendly with France on the 13th.

Here's the squad:



Feel free to discuss the other international games on here, too.

 

Trippier/Walker/Alli/Dier/Kane have gone down with a stomach
bug, due to eating fresh fish in Hong Kong that was not kept in
a clean enough water tank.

Spurs medics are predicting an initial recovery date of June 14
for all of them.

 

Another excuse to post this worrying indictment of society...

 

Seeing every single thing is wrong with that, I suspect it was a joke.

 

Considering some of the factually devoid claptrap spouted online by people on all manner of subjects, I very much doubt it.

 

Strength, calmness, composure, good awareness of space, agility, forward runs, good passing and a willingness to defend... Nope, I'm not talking about Mousa Dembele:



Onomah bossing it for the England U20s. Telling you, despite the fact there's a good few doubters on here, this kid will go far. Get him in the centre and not on the wings and we have a real player on our hands.

 

He needs to play in that deeper role, for me. Winks has definitely pushed past him in the pecking order, though.
Could be a big pre-season, if he can grab his opportunities and make a claim for a place in the side, even temporarily.

His style really reminds me of Yaya Toure, though he's got a long way to go to reach that man's peak.
Seems to be stuck between youth and senior level right now, pissing the former and struggling to impose himself in the latter.

 

Nathaniel Clyne has pulled out of the England squad with an unspecified injury.
I suspect that he's come down with a bad case of playing for Liverpool.
The England squad now has two right backs: Walker and Trippier.

 

...or one more than usual, whichever way you look at it.

 

If Trippier is picked, Walker is going to explode.

 

We'll be reading a bunch of stories about him demanding he play for Germany...

 

Nice.

Amazing what a bit of confidence will do for a player.

I've not really seen anything of him this season, but purely based on the fact that he made several appearances as a teenager the season before, and never seemed to let anyone down, i've been surprised to see so much negativity written about him this season.

Then again, he's given a huge amount of time and space by the korens there more often than not, so i also wouldnt assume (not that you are), that the kind of dominance he appears to show there, could be replicated straight away innthe Prem.

That U20 team realllllly needs to get some forwards who know how to finish btw.

 

The best way for Walker to stop Trippier becoming first choice for England is to stay at Tottenham and try to keep him out of the team.

On the other hand, if he doesn't give two sh*ts about playing for England and just wants to increase his bank balance, he could sit on Citehs bench.

 

Yeah Winks has definitely gone ahead of him, although theoretically he should be ahead seeing as Winks is over a year older than Josh. Though I think Josh can play either CM or CAM, he has the build and skill-set to take on both roles, often played CAM for our U21s and was excellent there.

I really hope he can impose himself, in terms of natural ability he's arguably the best prospect we've had come through the academy (which sounds laughable considering we've got Kane but that's how highly I rate Josh), the way I've seen him run games for the youths has been incredible at times, I think nerves and confidence may be an issue in his first team chances although he has been stuck on the wings too many times which hasn't helped.

 

I've never understood why he's been used in wide roles. Makes no sense to me, at all.
Having said that, I didn't get why Dier was played as a holding midfielder, so what the **** do I know?

 

Yeah I've been disappointed in the criticism he's received, he really hasn't been as bad as some have made out. It's not been helped though that he's been played out wide a number of times, which just doesn't suit him.

Everything I've seen of him for the youths leads me to believe he's genuinely a special talent and we really need to help nurture that talent into the first team. As for the space he gets in that Korea game, I think part of it is down to the Korean's not being good enough but also Josh being a complete level above. I don't expect him to make that much space in Prem games but he can make enough space to make things happen once he matures and gains a better understanding of it all.

 

Dier's Superman mate, it's the only explanation as to how a guy can just be top class in any position he's given. He's so good I changed my username to him

 

Did you watch Pritchard at the same age ?

If so, how would they compare ?

 

I'd say Pritch had more flashes of individual brilliance but he couldn't control a game, he was a bit more versatile though as he could play as an inside left forward, CAM and right winger.
Josh would just control a game from midfield for 90 minutes, everything went through him, made it look far too easy at times. That video of Josh I posted is what he often done every single match.
If I were to compare them, I'd say they were like the Modric (Josh) and van der Vaart (Pritch) of our youths during their respective periods.

Onomah and his lot have been the last generation I watched with real scrutiny, which is why I'm so desperate for him to succeed because I know what he possesses. Bit disappointed in myself as I really enjoyed watching the youngsters but I just seem to be either too busy or just forgetful to watch them when I get the chance, everything I hear of the likes of Roles, Shashoa, Sterling and Edwards and others just sounds so promising, especially Edwards who looks like he could be a world star in the making. John McDermott and his team are working wonders. There's a kid in our u16s (think it's 16s anyway) called Noni Madueke, apparently he's meant to be another star in the making. IIRC there's a video floating about on YouTube of him where he does a Messi-esque goal, runs through about four players before slotting past the keeper.