For me would play 3-5-2

Guehi, stones, walker
Gordon, Rice, Foden, Bellingham, Saka
Palmer, Kane

Gordon is left footed and we lose a right footer trying to play left back. More balanced team

Looks good to me Harrogate but clueless Southgate

Ladies and gentlemen, England will be playing four four fuxking two!

Formation is irrelevant if everyone has heart the size of a pea.

The defenders should play higher up the pitch and the midfield play with a high energetic
Press. Working together as a unit to retain the ball when they lose possession. When and if we score we continue pressing and keep the pressure and gas on

Just let the players go out and play, And we will walk this contest.

Keep the reigns on them and we won,t.

They shouldn't need to be told, given their supposed quality.

Pick the best 11 available and tell them to keep it simple- defenders defend, midfielders disrupt/ create and strikers get in the box and put the ball in the net. Let the opposition worry about us.

Southgate is that obsessed with the opposition he forgets he should be making the opposition worry. He really must stop overdoing his preparation and giving credenc3 to teams that really shouldn’t be that much of a problem….if the hype about England are be believed.

Best 11 players in their best positions and play with no fear we'd be a side to be feared but that won't happen under Southgate.
He's got away with playing his dull unadventurous football in friendlies against mainly 3rd class opposition but found out at every major tournament.
Given that we don't have a left sided full back to get up and down we should go to 3 at the back. F*cking idiocy going to a major tournament with the injured Shaw our only recognised LB. Trippier isn't the answer on the wrong side.

Very true

He'll be celebrating his knighthood once he retires.

Exactly, we don’t need to have defensive midfielders with that team. Take the initiative . Let the lads express themselves. When a manager has a negative mindset it spreads too others. If it was me I would take all of the shackles off and just go for it. Momentum, boldness, energy and confidence is everything.

I. Think Southgate over thinks too much. Sometimes the problem with intelligent people. Keep it simple and always be pisitive

Gutted to miss the next game. Just love being English!.
But looking forward to the last 16 n 8 games.

Good theory but in practice the England players dont have the energy to play that way. Didn't Southgate admit as much in one of his post mach interviews?

Too many tactics we are supposed to have great players put them in their right positions and let them play. We look stifled slow and negative. Attack attack attack and if we lose so be it, because at the minute anyone half decent will beat us in the next round.

"Intelligent"? Really? What is intelligent about picking a squad with only on recognized left back who is injured, cant play and hasn't played a match since February? What is intelligent about experimenting with Trent in a tournament but not playing the type of players making the runs that Trent could pass to? With the players he's had at his disposal over the years, Southgate would have won something if he really was intelligent. Southgate should have gone after the last World Cup. Everyone except the FA and the mainstream media knew that.

If we play Slovenia the way we played against Denmark, Slovenia will beat us.

Most modern( ) coaches over think.

Ollie Watkins came on and made runs in behind the defenders, Bet hes not in the starting lineup.
Boring,Boring,England.

We have to be more balanced in our approach and that is down to the manager and his preferred tactics.
The balance consists of being able to defend when necessary and unleash speedy assaults on the opposition's goal.
Sounds simplistic and overstating the obvious but the fact of the matter is our team selection and tactics are negating our ability to do that.
The squad is bristling with talent. We have to set up to create the best use of that talent and if we are finding it all a bit of a struggle, we have to be brave with our changes.
It seems to me that Southgate does not favour either flair players or knows how to use them.
And as others, right across the country, are screaming for, play people in their right and most effective positions.

Many teams who go on to win these tournaments start poorly and come good in the knock out stages.
Thats why i am putting a bet on England to win it.
3rd favourite at 9/2 after the frogs and krauts.

Just look at all the positivity in the recent posts ..Yeah,we can rattle the lot of them on the day,bar Spain.....Engerlund!!Engerlund!!!

Is it true the England squad spent two weeks in the Scottish Highlands at the Invercockaleaky based ‘Hartley Academy and Finishing School’ for aspiring football managers and players under the tutelage of Wee Jock McCockup….?

It was three and a half weeks Snowy.
The diet consisted of Haggis, tatties and leeks, washed down with a delightful variation of single highland malt whiskies.
After a while the ball bent on its own as did their legs.
Gareth Mc Southgate insisted on wearing underpants beneath his kilt much to the amusement of the highland cattle next to their training camp.

This will make ya chuckle.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/ar ... 111ynrg2do

results wise they have made a far better start than many who have won things. its an england thing where apart from winning the team has to play well on top of that. fans who support a league or non league team are only interested in results and will watch any old shite as long as they are winning.

Fans of Scotland are only interested in the excuse for a fancy dress piss up on foreign soil. Their team can be relied on to do feck all even when 3 teams out of 4 in the group qualify for the next round.

I think they did well to actually get there considering their status and it might have been different if the ref had given the penalty shout, and it was a fair shout.
The fans are something else and they do enjoy themselves and generally behave. Mind you who in their right mind would pick on that lot.

It did seem a stonewall penalty. Anyone heard why it was not given or reviwed by VAR? I'm not that keen on the Scots footballers but I did feel a strong sense of injustice and puzzlement. Why wasnt it a penalty kick?

If you don't shoot you don't score.
Took them 75 mins to realise that.
Good drinking fans like.
Someone said that result makes it almost impossible for England not to qualify now as a best 3rd place winners.
So not a bad result then.

Southgate will probably go unchanged again because we're top of the group so it must be working.
If I was Foden I'd walk away and tell the FA I'd be back when a proper football coach is appointed.

Some pundits say it was a penalty others thought Armstrong ‘played’ for it, whilst it doesn’t make any difference why was the ref from Argentina, wasn’t there enough European refs available ?

That was as stonewall as they come. If that had been a german going down it would of been given or an argentinian who would of rolled into the goal.

Really.
Foden needs to put the same effort in as he does for Man City.
Not the only one like.
We still in the mix though saving ourselves for the later stages.

No chance Southgate will pick the same starting 11 again and there's a fair chance Foden won't start. He'll go with a real winger wide left. If Foden comes on around the 60 minute mark against a tiring defence he could have a field day.

As England have now qualified will Southgate loosen the reins and go all out for a win to top the group and get one of the lesser teams in the next round ?

Exactly.
Are you shocked someone finally agrees with you.

I’m expecting the same old boring crap…I’ll watch it in the ‘Meeja’ room upstairs so I don’t irritate the wife ……ok it’s the bedroom.

looked that way to me but feel the scots love injustice more than a positive result for them.

Ya really mean your lass is watching Eastenders n
The great British sewing bee on the big TV downstairs.

i,ll be looking for alternative viewing as good or bad the performance will be i just cannot take either the criticism or fawning we could be hearing. tried turning the sound off but it does not work for me.

better you watching that and sending her upstairs to put her in a mood or a headache.

I must admit, I was tempted to make a crack about people irritaing their wives in the bedroom but decided against it. I didnt want to spoil the harmonious atmosphere we have on the board these days.

How do you know Snowy doesn,t have a BIG 1 upstairs.

What a pile of shyte that was.

Agreed. Didnt watch Southgate post match but I bet he said he was pleased with the performance. Am I right in thinking the Slovenia keeper only hgad one save to make in the entire game (the one from Palmer)?

I think Gordon is right footed just plays a lot on the left.

lf I go upstairs to watch the match, then Ruby and Ratboy follow, my youngest son was there too so she simply puts her feet up, reads a book and keeps asking occasional question's as she has done since we first got married, but that’s life.
Footy on, she’s no bother.

She watches no soaps at all she hates them and actually watched that sewing bee thing on the advice of her mates and called them ‘freaks’ and put any murder mystery on……loves a post mortem on Silent Witness…..sometimes she worries me