Funnily enough while watching the Brazil game the other night I thought they were crying out for a Firmino type to knit it all together up front.
easy. If theres a window in the changing room real fags if there's not vapes.
Neither Sterling or Saka are short of pace. The problem v USA were that Rice and Bellingham were outnumbered and overrun so we couldn’t get any decent service out to the wingers or get our full backs up in support as a result. Three in central midfield is what is needed not Mount playing in a completely ineffective number 10/second striker role.
I realise it won't be a popular opinion on here but Bellingham was the worst of a bad bunch on Friday night.
He put Rice under immense pressure by trying to be overly progressive and abandoning his central position far too often. He showed his lack of maturity there somewhat. It allowed USA to gain control of the midfield and it's why he had to be replaced by Henderson eventually.
He'll learn though, not least because he seems to be always learning.
Jude Bellingham should be the box to box midfield player in a three. Constraining him to a purely defensive midfield role to allow an inferior quality player (Mount) to be in an advanced attacking role doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to me. Neither player’s fault - down to the manager and set up of the team and again not being able to adapt during a game.
Kane was never quick but has visibly slowed the last 2 years and Southgate knows he needs a runner either side of him. So that's a front three. That means you're either short in mdifield or short at the back. Pick your poison. He's the best we've got.
Against a weaker/less energetic team it works because Mount is superb at linking the play between the deeper midfield and attack, and his defensive/pressing play is also excellent.
Ironically I think it'd work better against Wales than it did against the USA, but I think he'll change it....maybe for Foden.
I don’t doubt Mount’s ability but he has rarely done (if ever) what you describe for England. It is virtually impossible for a two to dominate a midfield against a three especially, as you correctly say, a very energetic, athletic and physical three as the USA employed, There was a very obvious need to change the shape of the team and at least match them up in numbers in that game to get some control but once again from a tactical point of view Southgate froze.
Everbluesince92GonzaloFloresA 4231 setup doesn't suit his style of play. Mount is in the space he wants to drop into. If we want the best out of Kane then we need to play a 433. It leaves that space for Kane to drop into and the 3 in midfield give the wide players the freedom to provide the threat in behind that Kane won't do.
Southgate is making the same mistake almost every other manager has done, trying to put the best 11 players on the pitch but not thinking about whether they actually work together. Other nations seem to do this better. It's why Spain don't pick players like De Gea or Thiago or why Brazil haven't taken Firmino. Clearly very good players but if they don't fit into the managers system then they don't get picked.
We have taken Mount, Foden and Maddison even though Southgate has shown previously he doesn't really like playing a no.10 and a no.10 doesn't suit playing with Kane either. Some would argue all of these could play wide as well but if Kane is the striker then the wide players need to bring speed and run in behind. None of those 3 are really known for speed or breaking the defensive line.
I'm pretty sure spurs have played 4231 for large parts of his club career.
I don't think he only picks the best players as he has shown at times with not picking Alexander-Arnold and the length of time it took for grealish to get picked. The dropping of sancho and rashford at times from various squads.
I agree with the need for pacier wingers and on Friday both saka and sterling really struggled. We might be better off going with the 5 at the back and trying to get width that way because the wingers didn't work vs USA.
They played 4231 a lot under Pochettino with Dele Alli in that no.10 position but that was when Kane was younger and looked to get in behind more. His drop in form when Kane started to drop deeper wouldn't be a complete coincidence. I'm sure there are other factors but this would have also contributed to it.
Not what we(fans or media) decide are the best players but what Southgate himself thinks are the best players. He clearly isn't a fan of Trent so he isn't making the team. He clearly is a fan of Mount/Sterling/Trippier so they make the team regardless of whether they fit the system. Or the system will change in order to fit them in regardless of whether it is beneficial to the rest of the team.
Yeah I agree. Jude’s natural game isn’t to sit in front of the defence for 90 minutes. He’ll look to get forward and make things happen. It was fine against Iran because they aren’t very good but against decent international team, it was never going to work. Unfortunately Southgate didn’t recognise that.
In Southgate’s mind, things went well against Iran so be sent them out to do the same thing again. I’m not sure he could explain exactly why England were so good against Iran and why they were poor against USA despite the same players and the same instructions. It’s a bit like Lee Clark and his bingo machine - pick some players, pick a tactic, see what happens and then move on to the next game.
This logic makes me laugh. What does the amount he is paid (which btw is nothing for England) have to do with him being fatigued? If I paid you £1m an hour to win us the World Cup, could you do it?
Let’s try it for a day please. PM for my bank details
Yes we should rest him to maximize squad rotation, we must not lose by 4 so wholesale changes can be made.