
Originally Posted by
Carpe_diem
Whilst I don't like Southgate, and think he's an inoffensive yes-man who'll do whatever the FA tell him no matter how detrimental to the national game, and that he's uninspiring even for an England manager, you have to look at the facts here.
Butland plays for Stoke, Pickford plays for Everton, Foster plays for Southampton, as does Bertrand. Maguire's at Leicester, Keane's at Everton, Defoe's at Bournemouth.
I get the general gist, but players from outside the seven teams FKB mentioned do get picked, whether through necessity or form. The problem in my eyes is that there simply aren't very many outstanding players available at the moment. If we look at yesterday's starting XI:
Hart: Laughably inconsistent
Walker: Neglects his defensive duties. Think he'd be much better suited to being a right winger than a full back
Stones: Got a lot to live up to, and hasn't yet displayed any evidence that he's worth his £50m price tag
Cahill: Steady. Good solid man to have at the heart of defence
Bertrand: Presumably there because we have a complete lack of anything resembling decency at left-back
Henderson: nothing spectacular, but gets the job done
Dier: Needs to prove himself; not as good as he likes to think he is
Oxlade-Chamberlain: Not sure what went wrong but what happened to all that potential?
Sterling: Too inconsistent
Rashford: Showed perhaps too much promise too young and now can't live up to the hype
Kane: Don't like the man and hated it when he wanted to do everything on the pitch but his scoring record speaks for itself. Probably the only world-class player we have on the pitch
Given that we invented the game, our current crop of players is laughable.