The Three Lions

sportsczy wrote:

He relies so much on instinct and anticipation along with his speed that he doesn't know quite what to do when the game is going to fast for him due to rustiness.

If that's the case he'll never reach the level some had hoped for him even without injury.

No truly great defender relies so much on physical attributes, what seperates the great from everyone else is intelligence and mental attributes.

Most great defenders don't become great until their late 20s because they can then combine their natural physical ability with experience.  Varane just turned 24.  That's why I'm pretty sure he's going to get there as he gets a critical mass of knowledge.

I mean look at Pepe and Ramos.  They weren't half the defender Varane is now at the same age.  In fact, they didn't become any good until their late 20s.  

It's true for a lot of top defenders.

The fact that Lemar isn't mentioned in the same sentence as Dembele and Mbappe is a shame.... he was truly excellent this game and has been all season. If you want to talk about an underrated kid, he's the one.

He is an 'industrious' player. Will do everything and is crucial to the teams he plays for but won't be mentioned or rated as high as he should be.

England have won the U19 European Championships.

So this summer:

U17 Euros - Runners-up
U19 Euros - Winners
U20 World Cup - Winners
Toulon Tournament - Winners
U21 Euros - Semi-finals

A shame a lot of the better talents play for Chelsea and City, though.

yea heard mason mount is a great talent but plays for Chelsea.

Shame.

Mason Mount is fantastic, one of the best to come through our academy.

Likely heading to Vitesse this season, on loan.

aka death sentence

To be fair, Baker seems to be the first very successful loan there. He is probably a Bundesliga loan away from being a competitive option for us.

Bertrand Traore is another example of a good loan there.

The problem isn't them doing well on loan. It's them going on loan, doing well and then never playing for Chelsea before going on loan again or being sold.

I'm definitely all for a talent like Mount going and getting European experience in another league. It's just what comes after it that concerns me about a lot of Chelsea and City boys.

Because they don't make it at Chelsea?

Our academy gives them the best possible education and we try to give them optimal clubs for their current progress, it's not our fault if they fail because of it. A lot of players fail to. Players like Ake, Chalobah, Traore, and Bertrand have been through this system and are now looking to be or are established players a top clubs.

Whereas Andreas Christensen looks to be a first team option after joining at age 15. So it's not entirely impossible to make the jump, as long as they are good enough.

I don't expect every talent to make it for Chelsea but if you've got a high failure rate then maybe you aren't offering them the best possible education?

All well and good sending players out on loan and then selling them on, but the fact is that either a) they're not good enough for Chelsea or b) they're never given the opportunity to prove they're good enough for Chelsea by actually playing for Chelsea, neither of which is anything to be proud of.

You've won six of the last eight FA Youth Cup and you've won UEFA Youth Leagues, but very few of those players play for Chelsea. Are they all not good enough for Chelsea?

Which club, golden generations aside, has a high success rate when it comes to producing youth talents?

a lot of the best youngsters a still up and coming. So I think the amount of youth players in our team will increase in the coming years.

Yea but we have been hearing that for a long time. It's not that every club have half their team full of academy graduates. But most teams have at least 2-3 players who are good enough for the club and get constant game time. This hasn't been the case with Chelsea since John Terry. It's good that you are providing education for them and they do great elsewhere but it really doesn't look like that any of them will ever have a regular place at Chelsea.

It's the same with Man City btw.

Rooney retires from international football.

119 caps, 53 goals. Pretty decent record to end with.

Some new faces in the England squad:

Keepers: Joe Hart, Jack Butland, Tom Heaton, Jordan Pickford

Defenders: Gary Cahill, Michael Keane, Harry Maguire, Phil Jones, John Stones, Chris Smalling, Kyle Walker, Kieran Trippier, Ryan Bertrand, Aaron Cresswell

Midfielders: Eric Dier, Jake Livermore, Nathaniel Chalobah, Jordan Henderson, Dele Alli, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain

Forwards: Harry Kane, Jamie Vardy, Jermain Defoe, Marcus Rashford, Daniel Sturridge, Danny Welbeck, Raheem Sterling

This team has like 0 talent. Can't believe we wanted the golden generation to be over when the replacement was going to be this lot

RealGunner wrote:

How are they going to lineup??? 442?

Something like that


what a terrible midfield display.

Henderson Dier midfield?!

OMG

to think that England didn't even win things with Barry-Carrick- Lampard-Scholes-Gerrard

and now THAT?

It's truly awful

we are terrible

bit tired of Rashford always going for the spectacular finishes..square it u pleb

I remember there was at least the illusion that we would do alright going into tournaments with Lamps, Gerrard, prime Rooney etc

bit shite going into something thinking we wont even progress from the groups now.

depressing looking at our best lineup

get Defoe on ffs

Has to be one of the worst england squads we have ever had.