England v Belguim predictions and match thread

[cambridgeshire canary 6,711]

Should be a fun one to watch, given how up to the last time they played Belgium always seemed to be somewhat of a bogey team for us/England.

 

[Jools 584]

2-2 @ 12/1

 

Much rather we played them off the park mind.

Edited November 15, 2020 by Jools
Please edit and correct spelling of 'Belgium' -- Don't want non-city fans tuning in thinking we're a bunch of illiterates..

[Branston Pickle 3,656]

Belgium are the better side but England can cause problems for anyone, so it might be a decent game.

[cambridgeshire canary 6,711]

40 minutes ago, Jools said:

2-2 @ 12/1

 

Much rather we played them off the park mind.

We thinking Southgate will go with a negative 5 at the back?

[Don’t be Krul 399]

3-1 Belgium

[TheGunnShow 5,940]

Belgium should rape this England side with extra gravel in the lube, but with squads being in some degree of flux, I suspect it will be a 1-1 draw where Belgium have the better of it.

There's a lot of youthful promise in the England ranks, but some media quarters are typically getting ahead of themselves.

[Alex Moss 2,165]

2-1 Belgium

[keelansgrandad 6,679]

Seven at the back for England and 2-0 down.

[cambridgeshire canary 6,711]

3 minutes ago, keelansgrandad said:

Seven at the back for England and 2-0 down.

Pretty much zero pace in Englands lineup, only player with any speed is walker and even then hes not as quck as he used to be and it's clearly letting us down

Edited November 15, 2020 by cambridgeshire canary

[Fuzzar 1,702]

England unlucky there, double deflection for the first and not a foul for the free kick for the second. 

Buy why are Rice and Henderson both playing? 

Edited November 15, 2020 by Fuzzar

[Pockthorpe 531]

7 minutes ago, Fuzzar said:

Buy why are Rice and Henderson both playing? 

Completely agree . Hopefully he’ll change it up at half time . 

[Pockthorpe 531]

And don’t get me going about playing Dier and Mings . 

[cambridgeshire canary 6,711]

4 minutes ago, Pockthorpe said:

And don’t get me going about playing Dier and Mings . 

The fact that Mings is even an England player is a joke.

 

Then again, lack of options right now is an issue, and doesnt help that so many top teams in the Prem only have one or two English players in their average starting 11's either

[Wacky Waving Inflatable Arm Flailing Tube Man 3,819]

Grealish has received a lot of stick on this forum for being overrated and/or a diver, but he's been comfortably England's best player tonight and maybe the reason he goes down so much is because kicking him is often the only way to stop him.

[Alex Moss 2,165]

Like watching paint dry. Gareth Southgate had a great World Cup with us, but I think he’s taken the national side as far as he can. We are not progressing despite a wealth of talent at our disposal. Time to go.

[Fuzzar 1,702]

4 minutes ago, Wacky Waving Inflatable Arm Flailing Tube Man said:

Grealish has received a lot of stick on this forum for being overrated and/or a diver, but he's been comfortably England's best player tonight and maybe the reason he goes down so much is because kicking him is often the only way to stop him.

Our best player by a country mile. 

[NFN FC 1,123]

Like watching us. Lots of possession, passing, no imagination and lacking in the final 3rd 😴🥱

[cambridgeshire canary 6,711]

7 minutes ago, Wacky Waving Inflatable Arm Flailing Tube Man said:

Grealish has received a lot of stick on this forum for being overrated and/or a diver, but he's been comfortably England's best player tonight and maybe the reason he goes down so much is because kicking him is often the only way to stop him.

He's one of only a few players in todays starting 11 that fully deserve to wear the England shirt

Edited November 15, 2020 by cambridgeshire canary

[Wacky Waving Inflatable Arm Flailing Tube Man 3,819]

1 minute ago, Alex Moss said:

Like watching paint dry. Gareth Southgate had a great World Cup with us, but I think he’s taken the national side as far as he can. We are not progressing despite a wealth of talent at our disposal. Time to go.

There isn't exactly a wealth of talent available to replace him. Sean Dyche is favourite to be the next permanent England manager, with Graham Potter and Eddie Howe second and third favourites.

None of those three would fill me with great confidence. My choice would probably be Steven Gerrard; I wasn't expecting him to be a fantastic manager but he's done very well at Rangers, plays with a good style and knows the England system.

[NFN FC 1,123]

1 hour ago, keelansgrandad said:

Seven at the back for England and 2-0 down.

🤣

[NFN FC 1,123]

4 minutes ago, Wacky Waving Inflatable Arm Flailing Tube Man said:

There isn't exactly a wealth of talent available to replace him. Sean Dyche is favourite to be the next permanent England manager, with Graham Potter and Eddie Howe second and third favourites.

None of those three would fill me with great confidence. My choice would probably be Steven Gerrard; I wasn't expecting him to be a fantastic manager but he's done very well at Rangers, plays with a good style and knows the England system.

Stevie G or Fatty Lamps 🤞

[Alex Moss 2,165]

7 minutes ago, Wacky Waving Inflatable Arm Flailing Tube Man said:

There isn't exactly a wealth of talent available to replace him. Sean Dyche is favourite to be the next permanent England manager, with Graham Potter and Eddie Howe second and third favourites.

None of those three would fill me with great confidence. My choice would probably be Steven Gerrard; I wasn't expecting him to be a fantastic manager but he's done very well at Rangers, plays with a good style and knows the England system.

He’s a good bloke, Southgate, but it just feels a bit stale to me now. Maybe I’m being a bit harsh but we’ve got a lot of young talent around at this moment in time and I think we could possibly utilise that talent more effectively. I’m not sure who the best option would be, maybe someone like Brendan Rogers?, he plays good attacking football and doesn’t get much wrong in the transfer market so he seems a good judge of character when picking players, but of course, there’s managers out there that aren’t just English as well.

Edited November 15, 2020 by Alex Moss

[cambridgeshire canary 6,711]

13 minutes ago, Wacky Waving Inflatable Arm Flailing Tube Man said:

There isn't exactly a wealth of talent available to replace him. Sean Dyche is favourite to be the next permanent England manager, with Graham Potter and Eddie Howe second and third favourites.

None of those three would fill me with great confidence. My choice would probably be Steven Gerrard; I wasn't expecting him to be a fantastic manager but he's done very well at Rangers, plays with a good style and knows the England system.

Bring back Big Sam

[Wacky Waving Inflatable Arm Flailing Tube Man 3,819]

22 minutes ago, Alex Moss said:

He’s a good bloke, Southgate, but it just feels a bit stale to me now. Maybe I’m being a bit harsh but we’ve got a lot of young talent around at this moment in time and I think we could possibly utilise that talent more effectively. I’m not sure who the best option would be, maybe someone like Brendan Rogers?, he plays good attacking football and doesn’t get much wrong in the transfer market so he seems a good judge of character when picking players, but of course, there’s managers out there that aren’t just English as well.

Indeed, as well as Rodgers there's Pochettino.

[TheGunnShow 5,940]

41 minutes ago, cambridgeshire canary said:

Bring back Big Sam

I would. Allardyce would definitely get that team playing. The media like painting him as a long-ball merchant, but they just don't like how he got Bolton into the top-half of the Premiership shocking the big teams, particularly Arsenal, as often as not, with a lot of well-chosen free transfers.

Allardyce is all long-ball. Right. Yeah. Because players like Fernando Hierro, Jay-Jay Okocha, Nicolas Anelka, Youri Djorkaeff, Stylianos Giannakopoulos, Ivan Campo, etc. would be playing in a purely long-ball side.... I'm calling window-licking bovine excrement on that one. He's a pragmatist, but given time his teams do play decent football.

[Alex Moss 2,165]

54 minutes ago, Wacky Waving Inflatable Arm Flailing Tube Man said:

Indeed, as well as Rodgers there's Pochettino.

Good point Wacky, crazy that Pochettino hasn’t been picked up yet!

[GJP 79]

What doesn't really sit well with me is how long Grealish has had to wait, when it's been clear for some time that he has a lot to offer England, while some of the plodders who regularly turn in mediocre performances for England (Dier, Trippier etc) get cap after cap.

There's a lot of exciting talent available to England so hopefully Southgate will do a bit more with it.

[Jools 584]

Too much athleticism and not enough intelligence --- That about sums up English football these days.

At both club and national level.

[Jim Smith 2,317]

I thought we did ok last night and am not too worried about the defeat. It was a flattering scoreline for Belgium who didn;t really threaten us much and the goals came out of nowhere (or in the case of the second a joke of a free kick).

However, thats subject to the caveat that Southgate simply has to learn from thatr game now and out together a settleld side over the next few months to take us to the Euros. In terms of that side well Grealish should be in it and the prospect pf him feeding Sterling/Rashford as well as Kane is quite exciting. He gives us a different dimension because like a Wes or a Madders he will put his foot on the ball and receive it and hold it whilst under pressure. he also wins lots of free kicks which with our set peice ability could be very useful.

The key areas he needs to address are the central midfield where Henderson and Rice simple does not work. It needs to be one of them alongside a ball player in there. We improved a lot once Winks came on althoigh also not convinced he is the answer.

We also need to sort out the back line where Dier should be nowhere near the team. Ideally we need to go backt o a back 4 to get the best out of our other players but as the pundits have said it seems Southgate doesn;t trust any centre back pairing enough and we are certainly short in that area.

Personally i think that the players we have at our disposal in attacking terms suit the Norwich 4-2-3-1 formation. You could then Rashford, Grealish and Sterling in the same line up as the three behind Kane although it would mean Southgate having to drop Mount which is something he seems massively unwilling to ever do. 

 

[wcorkcanary 4,334]

11 hours ago, NFN FC said:

Stevie G or Fatty Lamps 🤞

Porky Frank would be useless unless he took Jody Morris  with him. Hes the one with the real nous. Like Lambert without Culverhouse.