Muzzy_Larsson

The reasons are academic, he's not getting near the England squad while he's not playing regularly for Leicester.

This would be my England side with everyone fit and available: Pope TAA Gomez Dier Chilwell Henderson Rice Sancho Grealish Sterling Kane

He's not regualrly starting games for Leicester at the minute, he doesn't deserve to be in the squad until he is palying regularly and returns to the form on 12-18 months ago.

Maddison doesn't get near the England squad at the minute. Also you'd get absoluely murdered playing essentially 5 attacking midfielders/strikers, particularly with that defence. England need to play two holding players to protect the weakest area of the side, the defence.

I don't think everyone is saying he's world class tbh.

Which is a tremendus return at international level, most of those goals, playing alongside Sterling, who is contributing to a potent attack, which gets missed looking at static statistics. You've still not suggested who replaces Sterling.

Your turning statistics to suit your narrative here. How many goals has Harry Kane scored in the same time and what about the role Sterling has played in a lot of those? Sterling is the best wide player England have got, quite comfortably.

You can say that about most english players and every England side for the last three decades though. That tells me it's not the players but something more systemic.

That just doesn't make sense.

Who is Sterling getting dropped for then? The guy is posting tremendous numbers season after season in the EPL, one of the best players in the champions league consistently also but you want him bombed out the squad. Get real.

I think England actually have a very good generation of players at the moment, middle to front anyway, defense is poor and needs sorted mind you. The biggest issue for me is the manager, a guy that got the bullet at Middlesborough is not good enough to manage England, fluking his way to a world cup semi-final doesn't change that.

Come on now that's just silly, look at the guys stats the last couple of years.

Not defending it but its the same with most nations, the core of the players come from the bigger clubs. I'm not sure singling out Sancho though as I don't see too many credible options as opposed to him on the right at the moment. Furthermore some young players tend to need a bit of time to grow into the England shirt, Sterling being an example of this after a good start when he first broke through. The calls for Maddison are way off imo, he's went back the way the last year or so and has it all to prove again imo. I'm not the biggest fan of Mount but he's done far more than Maddison of late to warrant a place in the squad.

x2

Agree with this, the guy is absolute class, a joy to watch.

It's not realistic, the comparison with Fofana is like comparing apples and oranges when you look at both of their respective career trajectories and also where they are just now in their careers. It's a comparison that's akin to comparing someone like Francis Jeffers with Jamie Vardy when Jeffers was playing with England and Vardy was working in a factory. The dates etc may be out a bit there but you get my drift. Benkovic aside, who may or may not make it with Leicester, the point is a footballer's development and career progrssion is very seldomly linear.

Rashica is the only realistic one there, for a January signing anyway. Plea and Thuram ain't going to walk out half-way through a CL campaign as they look like they could have a chance of qualifying from that group. Malen you've missed the boat with already imo, too many of the bigger sides already sniffing around him.

Whatever becomes of Benkovic that is far too simplistic logic. You more than most should realise this given the unorthodox trajectory a certain Jamie Vardy took to the top.

This is a good point and I think people need to remember this and have a bit of perspective and not overreact at the next defeat. One of the main factors that makes the EPL the best league in the world is it's competitiveness, any side can beat any other side on their day and it happens quite regularly.

A huge thing that jumped out at me in Rodgers post match interview was this quote, "you can control the game without the ball". This is at absolute odds with everything he has said and believed previously. He has always been vocal in a belief in that the only way to control and dominate the game is via posession and winning the ball back as quickly as you can. This is pretty significant for me in a promising sense. It's always been his main weak spot that he stuck to rigidly to his posession based philosophy but I think the signs are there this season he is evolving in this sense and becoming more flexible in his outlook.

It runs deeper than just Brendan

Getting there

Great first-half, polished, intelligent performance and Leeds have played right into our hands. Fofana - Really is a cut above, frightening how good this boy could be. Vardy - Not that we didn't already know but he really can do it all. Mendy - Might not get a lot of plaudits but this season is the first I've seen enough of him to form an opinion and he's a terrific little player, great player to have in the squad. Fancy us for another on the break in the second-half, Vardy and Barnes have the Leeds back line petrified.

It's been a multitude of things, he had been taking injections to play apparently the first six weeks of the season then he's been out for a few weeks lately having covid. His form amongst all of that has been poor but class is permanent, have no fears in a few weeks he'll be flying again. He looked a lot sharper today.

The latter has been dog meat for Lille thus far.