England need John Stones in midfield for Declan Rice's ego

Declan Rice is not a defensive marauder; Arsenal have learned that and so must England. Is John Stones that man?

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Pick the players in their positions. And that’s it.
I don’t know why people are surprised when the England team doesn’t gel. It’s not the quality of the players – only a fool would say they aren’t top drawer.

The manager clearly has a role to play, but assuming they’re not ridiculously timid and defence minded relying on attackers making it up for themselves, then relatively normal tactics should work.

The issue, as I see it, is the players selected. There seems to be some expectation or pressure to pick all the favourites all of the time at the expense of balance.

When Rice went to Arsenal, he was expected to slot in a defensive marauder, but it quickly became clear that’s not what he is. He wants to play box to box and gets frustrated if he’s asked to be disciplined. Lad has an ego, shown in interviews during the last England campaign. That’s why West Ham and then Arsenal had to accommodate him differently.

England don’t have a superstar defensive midfield player. Phillips was probably the closest. Now the closest is maybe Wharton. Maybe paired with Mainoo as both are willing to cover. If you pick Rice with someone outright creative, all the defence side sits with him, and that doesn’t work (for him).

I forget the match, but where Rice and Mainoo were paired, first half was great, but half time you could see Mainoo was told to stay back to Rice could get forward, and our quality link-ups died. Rice is a damn good player, but he’s not a DM. He’s not a link man.

Similarly, playing multiple of the same player doesn’t work. You need balance. Foden, Bellingham and Palmer doesn’t work. Certainly not if you have Saka as well. Then throw in Madueke into the mix.

You always, literally always, get the best from these players if they can play as they do at club level (the reasons they were selected).

Just pick the formation/player roles you want to fill, and pick the best player for each of them, accounting for balance (e.g. cover for a RB who doesn’t have a defensive IQ, and an option for his long cross pitch passes).

Pick your left winger, your right winger, your centre forward, your creative players, your defensive players. No square pegs in round holes. No oval pegs in round holes, either.

Other than DM and LB, we are exceedingly blessed in options. So for those, just pick the best specialist there is. The players that refuse to do the job asked can maybe learn how to adapt next time, and that they won’t be selected on name alone. When you play for your country, it isn’t about you, it’s about doing the job asked. F*** your ego.
Badwolf

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Do we need Stones with Rice?
Carsley has been justifiably criticised for his Greece selection. However, the most part of the response to this Greek Tragedy has ignored the fact that we had a very similar line up for the most important twelve minutes of England’s recent history. Saka, Foden, Bellingham, Palmer and Watkins were all allegedly present for Oyarzabal’s winner, though none managed to touch the ball is Spain’s half in the preceding period.

Foden was left defending on the left side of our penalty area as Southgate froze. You never really can completely trust adults with shaved eyebrows. Mainoo, who was rarely still on the pitch when England did actually manage to score, had gone, possibly to re-read his crazy level of hype on the social media platforms, and an exhausted Rice was left to man the midfield. Alone. Bellingham was alongside him in body for the goal to be fair, I suppose. In fact, Stones, the over-praised Guehi, Rice and Bellingham were all with in about 15 square metres of each other as Olmo dropped off to devastating effect.

Obviously, we had to go all out attack while trailing versus Spain. But, I still haven’t got over the fact that Southgate didn’t address this imbalance immediately after our equaliser. Or for twelve minutes until it was too late. At least Carsley did it in a game we didn’t care about and silenced the ‘attacking football’ brigade. Southgate cost us dearly in that moment and his blind faith in Kyle ‘recovery pace’ Walker iced the cake as the right back left Cucurella completely unchecked.

On another note, I really hope Pep turns Stones into a Rodri re-gen. Konsa is very good and can play alongside Colwill at the back, so Stones playing as our 6 could potentially resolve a lot of issues. I am just being hopeful with this idea, but we certainly need something better in front of the back four. And he did win the Champions League playing there.
AC in Milan

Bukayo on the left?
Simple question – why doesn’t Saka ever play on the left wing anymore? I’m far less (read: not) concerned about the English national team as I am Arsenal but even in that context, wouldn’t Saka probably be the best natural left-winger England has?

I know he hasn’t played regularly there in years but it’s not like he forgot how to play the position and I think a team like England, a nation replete with natural 9s more than most others (Kane remains one despite his evolution, Watkins, Toney, Callum Wilson…Nketiah if it got that far…) would benefit from the combination of his quick burst and extremely accurate left foot from those areas. To me, he should be used there at least sometimes.

Let alone Arsenal, I get that Mikel has turned him into a world(ish, I think he can definitely go another level offensively to truly get there)-class right forward but a lot of good play in 22-23, when we were at our most fluid in attack in the last few seasons, came from him and Martinelli switching wings. For whatever reason, Arteta seems to rarely instruct that now and I don’t know why.

Also, United fans can’t complain about the negative press. You lap it up how you’re the biggest club from England / the world (though surely not the latter), which is only true in the sense that the narrative of your club history is more known throughout the world than say, Liverpool – and then complain when that dynamic comes crashing down on you in the form of 21st century clickbait.

Lastly, Aman Sheth, congrats on feeling like a bigger and better club than Arsenal cause you won the Carabao and FA Cup. I hope to never feel that way because then I’d be a Spurs fan.
MAW, LA Gooner (Lads, it’s Man United.)

Unai Emery for England: A succinct response
Brian can f*** right off if he thinks Villa fans would be happy swapping Emery for Southgate! Come on, be serious!

Thanks.
Oli

Give it to Pep
The FA should offer Pep the England job now. I’m not sure he’s going to fancy managing City 115 in the championship or league one anyway.
Neil, LFC, US

Spanish archer?
Underwhelming, almost non-existent club managerial record.

Quiet persona, lacking any obvious charisma and clearly uncomfortable in front of the media.

Fast tracked to the big job for winning youth level competition.

Lost one of the first games in shambolic style, against massively inferior opponents on paper and in the FiFA world rankings.

Yeah that Luis De La Fuente is crap isn’t he. No chance he’s gonna make it. Bring in Pep now are we don’t stand a chance. #VivaEspana.
Anon
PS. That game in question was a terrible 2-0 Euro qualification loss to Scotland. Spanish press went mental and were convinced he was going to be a disaster. Just goes to show nobody has any patience anymore. Society is comprised of a bunch of adults with microphones and pens, running around with minuscule attention spans, demanding immediate gratification like 5 year olds who’ve just had their iPads taken off them. Embarrassing.

Kelleher killer
If he didn’t play for Liverpool, eye shadow Ken would get a hammering for what he did for Greece second goal.

If he played for United it would be on Sky Sports video package for years without them even having the rights.

At least there has been improvement but get Randolph back in goal.
Anthony Fox