Best crop of English midfielder's ever?

Frankel said:
Good players but still a bit short of the early / mid 00’s crop.

Beckham
Butt
Carrick
Joe Cole
Gerrard
Hargreaves
Lampard
Scholes
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Who struggled to play together, let alone reprise their club form. What sets this side apart is it seems fairly devoid of primadonnas and actually seems to work for each other. Half of them had a max of 3 or 4 top drawer matches in an England shirt. I still think Southgate deserves some credit for that, especially as he has been there or there abouts in successive tournaments. We'll miss him when he's gone.
 


Owen Hargreaves was a sensational player also, the problem is the fact it's likely he was born in the National Glass Centre he was injured that much so people never really saw he good he was
 
coyneeee said:
Probably why Michael Carrick is probably the most underrated midfielder of all time. Too many people talking about Gerrard Lampard and Scholes, meanwhile Gerrard Lampard and Scholes are talking about Carrick.

Proper deep lying playmaker, not the best tackler in the world but quietly did his job.
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Exactly, obviously a bit tongue in cheek about DN but if he got a move to a decent Prem team in the summer and had a good season, I could see him having the right attributes to plug the gap alongside Rice and Bellingham. That 3rd spot is up for grabs over the next couple of year in my eyes
 
Rambo Pumpkins said:
Who struggled to play together, let alone reprise their club form. What sets this side apart is it seems fairly devoid of primadonnas and actually seems to work for each other. Half of them had a max of 3 or 4 top drawer matches in an England shirt. I still think Southgate deserves some credit for that, especially as he has been there or there abouts in successive tournaments. We'll miss him when he's gone.
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To be fair the thread wasn’t about the players working together?

It was about how many individual players of quality there were in the squad.

I’d argue the lads I quoted are better and there’s more of them.
 
Comeback_Kenwyne said:
Have to disagree with the Henderson comment, even as I agree in the main.

Players like Foden and Bellingham are generational talents and it says something that a player of Maddison’s creativity has to settle for being an understudy.

But they are all attacking midfielders. Rice is an outstanding player as well, but after him the squad gets very thin, very quickly.

Now - the Man United kid looks to be some player. But having to rely on an 18 year old who has played less than 30 games of football as your first choice central midfielder tells its own story. He’s good enough, but he’s there through weakness as well: a young striker of that ability wouldn’t be starting because we have quality and experience there.

Henderson will still go and he should imo. Phillips is out the squad, but it’s only recently that this has become the right call. He was very good for England last Euros. People have short memories.

The squad isn’t deep in this position. The four will probably be: Rice, Mainoo, Henderson and Alexander-Arnold.

A kid, a veteran, a right back and Rice. Says it all. This is the best team we’ve had for a while, but it’s still massively overhyped and overrated by England fans.
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This ⤴️
We have some fantastic attacking midfielders but no one to partner Rice. The Chelsea lad that played against Brazil (Gallagher) looks miles off international quality, Mainoo however looks the real deal & I'd definitely take him but as you say it's a big ask to rely on an 18yr old, he'll probably be a starter come WC 26.
Jude Bellingham is imo a total footballer & could easily be played deeper alongside Rice but I'd be tempted to go with Stones in cm like he plays for Man City these days. Him & Rice would give great protection to our weak defence & should give the attacking mids a bit more freedom to do their thing. Walker could move inside & take his place at cb & we've some decent choices at rb, unlike Lb which looks weak to me.
 
mickonline said:
Bellingham, yes but we must remember he’s only 20. Foden I’m still not sure about. If he was truly world class he would have buried that second half chance.
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Well for a start, Bellingham missed 3 massive chances before scoring. Even if that wasn’t the case, the best players to ever walk the planet don’t bury every single change they get 😂

What a mental argument, Haaland missed an open goal from about 2 yards against Man United couple of weeks back, may have to consider if he’s truly world class 😂
 
Frankel said:
To be fair the thread wasn’t about the players working together?

It was about how many individual players of quality there were in the squad.

I’d argue the lads I quoted are better and there’s more of them.
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I maybe put the point wrong. Few of them were much more than a shadow of what they were capable of for England. Gerrard for example could have been a player of almost Viera stature on the world scene of he was able to reproduce his club form, instead we got someone more of a shadow of that player for England, and that was often the case generally, with perhaps Beckham the exception.
 
Wearside2Wrwkshire said:
This ⤴️
We have some fantastic attacking midfielders but no one to partner Rice. The Chelsea lad that played against Brazil (Gallagher) looks miles off international quality, Mainoo however looks the real deal & I'd definitely take him but as you say it's a big ask to rely on an 18yr old, he'll probably be a starter come WC 26.
Jude Bellingham is imo a total footballer & could easily be played deeper alongside Rice but I'd be tempted to go with Stones in cm like he plays for Man City these days. Him & Rice would give great protection to our weak defence & should give the attacking mids a bit more freedom to do their thing. Walker could move inside & take his place at cb & we've some decent choices at rb, unlike Lb which looks weak to me.
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I wouldn’t be against considering Stones there in terms of his quality in that position. But then we are completely fucked at the back, because he’s our only centre half of any quality whatsoever.

I think it’s going to be Mainoo.

No way would I push Bellingham back. Of course he could place there, but the whole team needs to be built around him at 10. You don’t fuck around with that.
 
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dangermows said:
I was being sarcastic mate. Southgate wasnt managing that crop of (better) players.

I've always laughed at that saying, take the hand brake off ffs :lol:
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Me too.

I always find it fascinating how there is a particular bullshit phrase which seemingly loads of people alight on collectively.

With Southgate it’s this. Absolute garbage.
 

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