Southgate's England and the next England manager

Get to close the Allardyce thread in record time, now caretaker manager Southgate has a chance to stake his claim for the job, whilst we all discuss almost anyone else as the thought of Southgate worries many.

Glen Johnson & Jesse Lingard

Genuinely think that Wenger will take the job at the end of the season, all signs point towards it.

Apparently Drinkwater is injured?

He's not good enough, injured or not.

Hammersmith harrier wrote:He's not good enough, injured or not.

Unfortunately England is full of players not good enough at the moment so the national team will be filled drinkwater type players

Depressing stuff, looking at those two sides

Raheem Sterling has been replaced with Andros Townsend...

Glen Johnson has pulled out.

Replaced with Michael Keane.

Well deserved for Keane.

England side vs Malta

Hart, Walker, Bertrand, Cahill, Stones, Henderson, Rooney (c), Alli, Walcott, Lingard, Sturridge

It really is time that Rooney was jettisoned.

He's just shown in 2 minutes he can't play in midfield.

Rooney, Lingard and Walcott starting

How frickin depressing is that

Well Malta are really crap.

Can somebody tell Glenn Hoddle that Rooney isn't the only player on the pitch.

It is all about Rooney though.

If anyone else was playing the way he plays in midfield he wouldn't get a start for a championship side.

miss of the season?

Well that's an awful tackle.

Midfield general at work.

Referee bottled that - should've been off

Caught a bit of the ball, yellow I think. Who knows what current directive is though.

Should be a hammering now.

England poor, Malta arguably the worst side I've ever seen.

We're still and will continue to be Poopie.

Ent wrote:Malta arguably the worst side I've ever seen.

and.......England aren't too far behind

Didn't watch 2nd half, 2-0?

Scotland won 5-1 away from home...

That was painful to watch.

Still a wins a win.

Just awful

Rooney made Walcott look like Messi. Walker made Rooney look like Messi. Absolutely awful. Shoulda picked John Flanagan at RB

Ent wrote:Didn't watch 2nd half, 2-0?

Scotland won 5-1 away from home...

Italy beat Malta 1-0 home and away in Euro qualies. Croatia beat them 2-0 and 1-0. Scotland were struggling at 2-1 after 60 minutes until Malta had a player sent off giving away a dubious penalty. Malta are a well-organised ultra-defensive team. The idea that England were going to rack up a cricket score is the usual ill-informed press garbage.

I stopped watching. It was too dull. I think it was a game to try and play some different players but Southgate did the England job like managers of years gone by.

Born Slippy wrote:

Ent wrote:Didn't watch 2nd half, 2-0?

Scotland won 5-1 away from home...

Italy beat Malta 1-0 home and away in Euro qualies. Croatia beat them 2-0 and 1-0. Scotland were struggling at 2-1 after 60 minutes until Malta had a player sent off giving away a dubious penalty. Malta are a well-organised ultra-defensive team. The idea that England were going to rack up a cricket score is the usual ill-informed press garbage.

Irrespective of that, England lacked any guile or creativity for the longest parts of the game. Lallana was a big miss and Alli didn't really step up to the plate like I think he should have. I'm one of the Rooney bashers and again criticism of him was justified. Giving the ball away then getting praised for winning it back FFS, long sideways passes out to Walker who did f*ck all with them once he got them. (Clyne should be first choice RB over this guy). If Rooney was such a smart player, he'd realize that Walker wasn't going to do anything with the balls he was getting and chosen another outlet. Rooney isn't smart enough to adapt to the role he now needs to take up and even if he did, there are better players already in that position. Walcott was absolute gash...again. No more time needs to be wasted on this idiot, he could have been taken of for Townsend at literally any point in the game.

didnt watch the game and haven't seen anything since but just sounds like rooney was doing what he's done for the last few years. whats surprising is that people are shocked by it. he's only going to get worse sat on the bench for us (always has been a "rusty" player when not played)

perfect opportunity to get him out of the starting 11 with him not playing for club side, but highly doubt southgate has the balls to be he man to do it

Southgate being reported as saying he's not afraid to make the big decisions...so, Tetley tea rather than PG tips.

DAVE667 wrote:Southgate being reported as saying he's not afraid to make the big decisions...so, Tetley tea rather than PG tips.

sack him now then, has to be yorkshire tea. and thats from a Lancashirian

I can't see how Rooney starts tomorrow, unless Dier still isn't fit enough. I'd expect a midfield/attack of:

Dier Henderson
Lingard Alli Rashford
Sturridge

Not exactly inspiring but probably as good as we can currently manage.

Could any of the guys hacking in the WADA database hack into the Uruguayan census database and make an amendment to show Luis Suarez's grandma was born in England?

Mixed feelings after the Malta game.

I thought England looked sharp and positive for the first half. Similar flaws evident as under previous managers. We tried to be too clever and too often ended up playing passes behind team mates / into empty space / straight to the opposition, trying to run / pass through a crowded midfield.

Considering Malta played 5-4-1 in an obvious effort to negate our midfield play, I thought we looked reasonably good. Again though it was annoying that the flanks were left open most of the time, yet we chose not to use them...and when we did half our crosses and passes went out of play or straight to Maltese players.

Overall i thought a 2-0 half time lead was the least we deserved and we ought to have had a couple more. Fair play to their keeper though, he pulled off some good saves. Disappointing that for all our possession and chances, only two were converted.

Second half was just an exercise in frustration as England huffed and puffed, dominating possession, but with no end product.

Thought Dele Alli was our best player. Stones and Walker also had decent games - albeit not against the most dangerous opposition. Didn't think Rooney was terrible, but certainly didn't have a notable performance. Walcott kept running into dead ends.

Sturridge, despite scoring is far too selfish and would rather run through an entire team by himself or try shots from impossible angles, than pass to a team mate. Would start with Vardy or any of our other options instead.

Somebody needs to have a word with Southgate and tell him that maybe playing down the wings might be a better idea when the opposition clearly sets out to stifle the midfield. Then again, perhaps they knew what they were doing all along...

England interim manager Gareth Southgate: "I thought first half we played well, we could and should have scored more goals. Their goalkeeper made some good saves and subconsciously I think some of our players looked after themselves physically in the second half.

dyrewolfe wrote:Sturridge, despite scoring is far too selfish and would rather run through an entire team by himself or try shots from impossible angles, than pass to a team mate. Would start with Vardy or any of our other options instead.

Can't play Vardy against any team that sits deep. Thought Sturridge tried to inject a bit of life into the attack and do something different, his cross for Lingard was lovely and should have been converted.

Sturridge must be frustrated playing for England when, week in week out at Liverpool, he has players whizzing around hither and thither trying to create chances for him and there's inventiveness and creativity wherever he looks. No wonder he's not content to sit and wait in the box for a ball that never looks like coming.

Just reported in the Daily Fail that Rooney has been dropped for tomorrow's game (take that with a pinch of salt until you get official confirmation)

Makes sense, he wants to put Dier back in the side, Rooney is the person that you drop from that midfield.

DAVE667 wrote:

dyrewolfe wrote:Sturridge, despite scoring is far too selfish and would rather run through an entire team by himself or try shots from impossible angles, than pass to a team mate. Would start with Vardy or any of our other options instead.

Can't play Vardy against any team that sits deep. Thought Sturridge tried to inject a bit of life into the attack and do something different, his cross for Lingard was lovely and should have been converted.

Sturridge must be frustrated playing for England when, week in week out at Liverpool, he has players whizzing around hither and thither trying to create chances for him and there's inventiveness and creativity wherever he looks. No wonder he's not content to sit and wait in the box for a ball that never looks like coming.

Meh - you're picking out one of just 2 or 3 good moments he had. Most of the game he was anonymous. And the fact he went hunting for the ball meant that the few times we DID get crosses into the box, there was no-one to get on the end. He was just as guilty as most of our other players of trying to bulldoze a path though the middle, when a bit of old-fashioned goal-hanging might have yielded better results, even if it meant waiting a while.

Carrick has about 1 cap. Henderson will captain England tomorrow

Don't ever let anyone tell you life is fair

It's well deserved. Been in fantastic form this season and is the best suited person to captain in that squad. 

Michael Carrick has always been overrated, there has never been a time where he should have been in the first eleven for England.

Rooney has two very high profiles supporters on social media, sadly, when the people spearheading your campaign are your wife and John Terry, you know you're f*cked.

Colleen spouting off that her kids had to listen to people berating her husband, which isn't nice, then mentions that it was on the radio in the car! Turn the f*cking thing off then, ya dippy tart.

dyrewolfe wrote:

DAVE667 wrote:

dyrewolfe wrote:Sturridge, despite scoring is far too selfish and would rather run through an entire team by himself or try shots from impossible angles, than pass to a team mate. Would start with Vardy or any of our other options instead.

Can't play Vardy against any team that sits deep. Thought Sturridge tried to inject a bit of life into the attack and do something different, his cross for Lingard was lovely and should have been converted.

Sturridge must be frustrated playing for England when, week in week out at Liverpool, he has players whizzing around hither and thither trying to create chances for him and there's inventiveness and creativity wherever he looks. No wonder he's not content to sit and wait in the box for a ball that never looks like coming.

Meh - you're picking out one of just 2 or 3 good moments he had. Most of the game he was anonymous. And the fact he went hunting for the ball meant that the few times we DID get crosses into the box, there was no-one to get on the end. He was just as guilty as most of our other players of trying to bulldoze a path though the middle, when a bit of old-fashioned goal-hanging might have yielded better results, even if it meant waiting a while.

With the crosses that Walker was putting in? He'd still be stood waiting now!

Michael Carrick has been one of the best passer of the ball for the last 5 years, rarely loses posession, yes he isnt flashy, and doesnt do a lot to light the world up, but he does the simple things that go un-noticed, he is in no way overated!

As for Sturridge, he was mainly anonymous the weekend, and he missed a complete sitter, but my question is, has he done enough to even earn a call-up? Players like Vardy, Rashford, Deeney etc, should all be starting ahead of him in my opinion.

Henderson hasn't earned that captaincy. Jesus Crimey, don't be such a stereotype

Who else is worthy of the armband? Hart? Cahill? Walcott? Tell you what, let's give it to Rashford, the kid can do no wrong at the minute. Henderson was rightly MOTM at the weekend and did as much as anyone to deserve the armband in lieu of Rooney being dropped. Does Hendo deserve the captaincy full time, probably not, but for a one-off match, I don't see the issue.