We have to have something to take our minds off endless Argyle transfer rumours and it begins today with Gareth Southgate announcing his provisional squad of 33 which he will have to whittle down to 26 for the competitive games which for England, start on June 16th v Serbia. The long list is: Goalkeepers: Dean Henderson (Crystal Palace), Jordan Pickford (Everton), Aaron Ramsdale (Arsenal), James Trafford (Burnley). Defenders: Jarrad Branthwaite (Everton), Lewis Dunk (Brighton), Joe Gomez (Liverpool), Marc Guehi (Crystal Palace), Ezri Konsa (Aston Villa), Harry Maguire (Manchester United), Jarell Quansah (Liverpool), Luke Shaw (Manchester United), John Stones (Manchester City), Kieran Trippier (Newcastle), Kyle Walker (Manchester City) Midfielders: Trent Alexander-Arnold (Liverpool), Conor Gallagher (Chelsea), Curtis Jones (Liverpool), Kobbie Mainoo (Manchester United), Declan Rice (Arsenal), Adam Wharton (Crystal Palace). Forwards: Jude Bellingham (Real Madrid), Jarrod Bowen (West Ham), Eberechi Eze (Crystal Palace), Phil Foden (Manchester City), Jack Grealish (Manchester City), Anthony Gordon (Newcastle), Harry Kane (Bayern Munich), James Maddison (Tottenham), Cole Palmer (Chelsea), Bukayo Saka (Arsenal), Ivan Toney (Brentford), Ollie Watkins (Aston Villa). There are 5 uncapped players in the squad: Jarrad Branthwaite, Curtis Jones, Jarell Quansah, Adam Wharton and James Trafford while there are no places for Marcus Rashford or Jordan Henderson. England have two warm-up games, against Bosnia-Herzegovina on 3rd June and Iceland on the 7th. England are in Group C, comprising England, Denmark, Serbia and Slovenia. What could possibly go wrong?
i will be looking forward to this and hopefully we attack not defend for a one nil.. lets get at them frpom the start the talent is there and amazing we have not got a better chance.. defence is a worry
Not a good performance from England against Bosnia. Two late goals flattered them after a poor first half. Having said that, apart from Pickford in goal, there was no-one in the starting 11 who you’d expect to be sure of starting a competitive game. Naturally, so many changes limited the cohesion of the team. Eze shone in the LH attacking role and Alexander-Arnold demonstrated his passing ability from midfield in the first and at right back in the second, finishing with one of the late goals. Southgate has to reduce the size of the squad for the tournament so I’m sure he got more out of it than the spectators.
Kane with No 63.....England looked good after breaking the deadlock......Southgate has a job selecting the final squad with two recognized choices recovering from injury.....Luke Shaw and Harry Maguire.
And Luke Shaw's potential absence exacerbates an existing shortage of English full backs: a species already at risk due to the number of club sides playing 3 at the back. Kieran Trippier is just back from injury, Trent Alexander-Arnold is great going forward but not the best defending as we've seen at Liverpool, Konsa like Gomez is as much a CB as FB and so may lack speed and mobility up against the very best. That leaves us with just Kyle Walker who does play at CB at times but definitely has the great advantage of terrific pace. We've got good attacking players, perhaps good enough to win it, but can we defend against top sides? Southgate would probably prefer 4 at the back for extra security given our relative lack of class in the back line but who are the full backs going to be? That's the biggest weakness we have.
It intrigues' me how fast Kyle Walker still is....born in May 1990 he is now 34 yrs old yet it isn't obvious that his quickness has deteriorated as yet.. O the other hand Harry Maguire has no speed at all but he can still do a job for England.....and to ignore him at set pieces can be fatal with his heading ability.
It's interesting to note that Kyle Walker would in fact get a speeding ticket if he was to run along Old Laira Road. That's a fact.
With some of the 20MPH speed restriction area's around here....some grannies (those with the go faster stripes) using their mobility scooters around here would have them confiscated because there going too fast.
A very poor performance from what should have been a strong England team last night. What is it with England and Scandinavian teams? There were two significant absentees: Jude Bellingham, who is fit but rested after playing in the Champions League Final, and Bukayo Saka. That made space for newcomers Palmer and Gordon to get a game, with Phil Foden moving from the wing to Bellingham’s central AM position. Although young, Bellingham is an indispensable part of the coming campaign and will almost certainly start in the centre of the attacking 3 behind Kane. Who will play alongside Bellingham? Both Palmer and Gordon did pretty well but Sako has that electrifying pace and Foden has the experience, so you’d imagine they start the first competitive game. Foden didn’t do himself any favours last night with an anonymous performance though and Gordon might just get the nod. This experimentation up front is OK but what isn’t is conceding a poor goal and quite a few other chances to a modest, although obviously patriotic, Icelandic side. We can only hope we’re good enough up front to paper over the cracks in defence.
Awkward game really....injury last night would not be desired.....so maybe not everything was played a 100%. Even when Sako came on late on he wasn't that noticeable. I understand why you said Scandinavian....but that's a hell of border stretch to call Iceland geographically Scandinavian.
I've got a few large dictionaries (before the internet expolsion)....and I can't find that word in any of them ???.
Or not..... Iceland (Icelandic: Ísland, pronounced [ˈistlant] ⓘ)[d] is a Nordic island country….. According to the ancient manuscript Landnámabók, the settlement of Iceland began in 874 AD when the Norwegian chieftain Ingólfr Arnarson became the first permanent settler on the island.[15] In the following centuries, Norwegians, and to a lesser extent other Scandinavians, immigrated to Iceland, bringing with them thralls (i.e., slaves or serfs) of Gaelic origin……. The island was governed as an independent commonwealth under the native parliament, the Althing, one of the world's oldest functioning legislative assemblies. Following a period of civil strife, Iceland acceded to Norwegian rule in the 13th century. In 1397, Iceland followed Norway's integration into the Kalmar Union along with the kingdoms of Denmark and Sweden, coming under de facto Danish rule following its dissolution in 1523. The Danish kingdom introduced Lutheranism by force in 1550,[16] and Iceland was formally ceded to Denmark in 1814 by the Treaty of Kiel. Influenced by ideals of nationalism after the French Revolution, Iceland's struggle for independence took form and culminated in the Danish–Icelandic Act of Union in 1918, with the establishment of the Kingdom of Iceland, sharing through a personal union the incumbent monarch of Denmark…. It maintains a Nordic social welfare system that provides universal health care and tertiary education for its citizens….
I've back France to win it overall Other bet so far is Hungary to win their Group at 7-1 (Germany stuffing Scotland has not helped that!)
