On paper this may not be the best English generation of the modern era. There are certainly still people that would take David Beckham, and Steven Gerrard’s teams over the current 3 Lions squad any day. What can’t be denied is that under Gareth Southgate the English team has picked up their best results at both the World Cup and the European Championships in recent memory. Unfortunately for England they are coming off a loss in the European Championship final at home. Can they bounce back from that to turn into real contenders in Qatar?
Can They Convert Individual Talent Into A Functional Squad?
There’s an argument to be made that the English national team, and the Premier League clubs have always over valued English talent. We continue to see this with signings like that of Jack Grealish to Man City for €117.50m. Is Grealish a key player even for Pep Guardiola at Man City a year and change removed from the transfer? The answer is clearly no, he’s not a permanent figure on the England squad either. He’s the perfect example of some of the collection of talent that England features. Of course, there are players on the squad like Sterling, or Phil Foden, and of course Harry Kane who are important players to both club and country.
One of Gareth Southgate’s biggest challenges is to craft a formation in which he’s able to use most of his talented players in his starting 11. That has led him to use a back 3 line that features Harry Maguire which is very concerning. The Manchester United man will be coming into the World Cup after having an abysmal season. That’s why it’s fair to ask this next question.
Who’s In & Who’s Out Of The English Squad Heading Into Qatar?
Marcus Rashford, and Jadon Sancho were the last two controversial snubs from the England national team in their final Nations League games before the World Cup. What’s perhaps even more concerning is that England performed so poorly that they got relegated to the B division of the Nations League. The snubs seem fair in spite of the bad results. Neither of the two players are regular starters at Manchester United. To snub them, and give Maguire a starting spot doesn’t make a lot of sense though. We have to go back to our original point about creating an actual team with the talent pool that you have available.
There’s an argument to be made that some England players are bigger names than they are realities at this point. When it’s all set and done the team still relies heavily on Harry Kane to carry them. He’s proven that he’s more than capable of doing that, but to have a team that supposedly features a ton of talent rely so heavily on one man is ironic at the least.
Projected Group Finish
A lot of the criticisms that we’ve made of the English team are rooted on the idea that this team is supposed to be a title contender. Coming into the tournament though they’ve shown that they have more questions than answers. Still, we believe, like most people do, that they should be able to win the group. To put it simply, their collection of talent on the squad, overhyped or not, is greater than what any of their opponents can put together.
Expect Wales to play them close though, they are a team that’s forged an identity over the last few years. If England groups more people in the midfield against the USA to counter their 4-3-3 formation they could very well destroy the American team who seem to think that they are a lot better than they actually are. If they come out of the group in the 1st position they could have a favorable round of 16 matchup, from there anything can happen!
