Italy v England / England v Germany

Quoted from Northbank Mariner

I'd rather Scott Parker in charge than the current buffoon!..

F**k me you must have started early. He won't have a parachute payment to get England back to the next level of the Nations League like he did at his last club job.

This has been building for years now. Southgate has picked up the best generation of footballers we’ve possibly ever had and slowly choked all of the excitement out of them over a sustained period of time.

Quoted from LH

Invalid answer. I want a name (preferably less hilarious than Scott Parker).

There isn't one. We've tried every kind of manager there is and we haven't won a Trophy for over 50 years.

Fans always think a change of manager will do the trick, but it never does, which sort of suggests the players aren't good enough, or good enough in sufficient numbers. Our defence is second rate on a world stage.

Quoted from TwoLeftFeet

Graham Potter would probably have been my pick but we missed the chance to get him..

I’d have to agree with this. Of all teams to move to Chelsea is probably the worst for his career if it doesn’t go to plan in the first 18 months or so. The point of my question was that there really isn’t anyone about. The FA shat the bed before WC2018 and sacked Hodgson for.. err… Gareth Southgate.

Quoted from LH

Go on then I’ll indulge you all: who comes in as England manager tomorrow and wins them the World Cup?

Up until the last month I'd have like to have seen Steve Cooper involved as he had 5 years in the set up prior to managing Swansea in 2019 and did a great job with Forest last year in terms of making player feel good and  getting the best out of them. He's about to face the biggest tests of his career now though of he can blend all the new faces at the City ground to keep them in the Premier League this season.

The qualification rollovers lull us into a false sense of security as we breeze through them in second gear. The Nations League pitted us against the best sides, who we invariably fail to beat, but now we play them more often it's more apparent that we are not world beaters. Now we've been relegated the opposition will get a bit easier again. We'll get through the group stages for the WC but won't last much longer unless we fluke an easy draw like last time.

You have to look for the positives. After relegation from the top league following a frankly pathetic set of performances, at least we'll have a different selection of pointless fixtures to play next time around.

Too many players either well out of form or simply just not good enough at the moment. We're utterly reliant on either scoring from a set piece or for Kane to do something with no obvious options for alternatives up front. If he gets injured, what are we going to do? I don't have a clue and I suspect that Southgate doesn't, either.

A bit worried that time seems to be catching up with Walker who has been pretty reliable defensively in recent years, but he was sloppy for their goal today. I don't think Pope is good enough for the top level and Pickford has his ups and downs as well. Eric Dier's 46th cap tonight, apparently. Crikey. Maguire did OK but he's nowhere near his best. James is just lazy, I'm afraid. Lots of ability but spends most of his time jogging around. I'm not quite sure why he sweats so much with such little effort. Saka looked lost at wing-back. I'd have started Shaw and then put Saka on later on. Bellingham looks a very capable young player and I thought he might have won a penalty after the clumsy challenge which knocked him onto his back. Rice doesn't seem to be at his best and Foden struggles to show his ability at international level, possibly because of the position where he's playing. Sterling is just not the threat he was last summer.

I think our best chance is to have another poor result on Monday and we can then find ourselves as seriously struggling underdogs at the World Cup, which might actually benefit us!

Quoted from HertsGTFC

F**k me you must have started early. He won't have a parachute payment to get England back to the next level of the Nations League like he did at his last club job.

Sarcasm my friend, it was sarcasm!

Forgot to say, Grealish is good at winning free-kicks, but is he ever going to do anything else? Winning free-kicks is all well and good if you're going to do something from them, but we're not at the moment and we're never going to build up a head of steam if he's on his backside to win a free-kick every time he gets the ball.

Don't get me wrong, he's a very skilful player, but he needs to achieve more than just making life slightly awkward for the opposition defenders. Make the pass that achieves something rather than win the free-kick that doesn't.

Quoted from Northbank Mariner

Sarcasm my friend, it was sarcasm!

Fair point, I get it now.