Time to phase out Harry Kane too? The England inquest continues in the Mailbox…

The Mailbox remains split over England and their World Cup campaign. Some say Gareth Southgate woefully underachieved; others reckon we should be grateful.

Get your views in to theeditor@football365.com…

 

Time to phase out Kane
So F365 have done another one. Great article on players England should move on from (no mention of Jordan Henderson? Okay). Here’s one, that, given my sign off, will be howled down by the angry end of the Seven Sisters. You know where I’m going here, but hear me out. Love him or not, Harry Kane has been an absolute beast for England, you cannot argue with his goalscoring record. And his most direct replacement at this World Cup was never a permanent solution (that’s balanced the North East up now, I’ve upset both sides).

But whisper it quietly, the ‘one of our own’ isn’t getting any younger (or quicker) and let’s face it, hasn’t exactly been scoring hatfuls of goals for England recently. So could it be time for a quiet exit and a gentle replacement for a much younger Marcus Rashford, or Tammy Abraham, or Dominic Calvert-Lewin, or the next batch of English youngsters who start scoring goals around Europe? If Harry’s still there around the England camp passing on his knowledge and experience so much the better.

Alternatively, I can hear you say, what about Olivier Giroud? He’s older than HK and yet still (sobs) scoring goals for Les Bleus. Well, maybe. Maybe HK can reproduce the same goals that Giroud has done later in his career. Whilst it’s entirely possible of course, the difference between them is Giroud has been constantly challenging himself. He left Arsenal for Chelsea and proceeded to become indispensible and win things. Then he left Chelsea for Milan and… well pretty much the same thing. He’s never taken an easy route. Oh, and he’s won the World Cup, Champions League, Europa League, Ligue Un… and four FA Cups.

So maybe that’s what is needed. Maybe what would be good for England is taking the Spurs comfort blanket away from our Harry. He tried to walk last year and was talked down. Maybe now is the time for him to walk away from Spurs (who he will tick along with nicely picking up the odd golden boot over the years) and pick a club who will fill out the trophy cabinet a bit. The experience of actually winning at the sharp end of club tournaments (penalties in pressure situations say?) can’t hurt England.

Hand grenade well and truly thrown. Have at it Spurs fans.
Exiled Gooner (Kane scores the winner off the bench against France in the final in fours years time. I’m only hoping I was proved right and he’s playing for PSG at the time)

Two-tries Harry
February 2018: Liverpool 1-1 Spurs, 87 minutes played. Penalty given to Spurs. Harry Kane has his effort saved by the Liverpool keeper (Loris Karius [insert laughing emoji]). Mo Salah scores in injury time. Spurs given a second penalty on 95 minutes. Harry Kane scores and it’s more or less the last kick of the game. It ends 2-2. As he walks off the pitch, Kane stares down a Sky Sports camera and says “you can’t give me two tries!” I was reminded of this incident after seeing Kane miss his second attempt on Saturday. I wasn’t even aware of the Eintracht Frankfurt situation from a few months ago, which obviously has an even clearer similarity.

I don’t want to exaggerate the point too much but basically, Harry Kane isn’t the world’s worst penalty taker (points at Lionel Messi) but he also isn’t anywhere near the best. It would surprise me if there wasn’t a player on the pitch for England (or Tottenham) who couldn’t score them more consistently than Kane does (sometimes a penalty expert is an unlikely candidate, see James Milner for example). The problem is that Kane, like Ronaldo, is the type of player who’s obsession with goalscoring statistics comes at a cost to the team. It is implausible to imagine another player being given penalty responsibilities for England or Tottenham while Kane is on the pitch. And if it hypothetically ever did happen, said player would be under extra pressure and scrutiny simply by virtue of taking a goalscoring opportunity away from England’s Harry Kane.

Final point: I don’t think there is enough emphasis, in general, on the difference between missing the target with your penalty vs. having your penalty saved. It seems odd to me that players get praised or vilified for scoring or missing penalties which are basically identical besides ‘whether the goalkeeper dived the right way’. Missing the target is something else entirely. I’m not suggesting that players who miss the target like Harry Kane need to be crucified/demonized in the media, but by the way penalties are reported you’d often actually struggle to identify who missed vs. who had theirs saved.
Oliver Dziggel, Geneva Switzerland

 

History repeating
While the sight of snow settling across much of England might be an unusual backdrop to a world cup quarter final exit, the feelings of what could have been are all too familiar. Having had a day to mourn, digest, and deliberate, I wanted to share my following thoughts with the mailbox- for my own catharsis if nothing else:

1) England, surely more than any other nation, over the last 25 years, have gone out of tournaments in agonising, fine-margins fashion- particularly with players capable of even more. The 10 man England team that, without an unfairly disallowed Sol Campbell goal, would have dumped Argentina out of the 1998 world cup. Losing 2-1 to the 2002 champions Brazil. Exiting Euro 2004 on penalties after a nail-biting 2-2 having lost our young talisman to injury against an excellent Portugal side- and another unfairly disallowed Campbell winner in the 89th minute. Taking that 2006 Portugal side to penalties, playing with 10 men (and again no Rooney) for an hour. We never crashed out 3-0, but each time came within a millimetre of success.

2) A large proportion of these millimetres, as once again on Saturday, come in the form of dubious refereeing decisions. We cannot excuse our failings at the hands of officials- but we are allowed to feel a little hard done by. In a different, perfectly refereed universe, we beat Argentina 3-2 in ’98, Portugal 3-2 in 2004, and France didn’t score their first goal on Saturday.

3) Fans shouting for the head of Southgate need to be very careful what they wish for. Calamitous tournament exits under Roy Hodgson are not very far from any of our memories. This team play their hearts out for Southgate, for each other, and for all of us- there is no guarantee that harmony, passion and togetherness will continue under a new manager.

4) I wrote my first ever mailbox letter in 2004, bemoaning Sven introducing Phil Neville and Owen Hargreaves as substitutes as we lost to Portugal. Those complaining about Mason Mount and Raheem Sterling entering the foray need a little perspective on just how good we have it under Southgate.

5) Taking a penalty with such high stakes must be truly awful. Zidane was physically sick before despatching one against England at Euro 2004- and that was just to win a group game. Harry Kane deserves credit for standing up, even if he, for once, couldn’t be counted. He will soon be our record all time goal scorer. He deserves nothing but gratitude.

6) Ironically, we were probably even closer to victory in those Portugal games, against Argentina in 1998 and against Italy in 2021 at Wembley. While the Kane miss was lamentable, it is worth remembering that at no point did we lead on Saturday. France one goal up are a very different animal to a France side chasing a winner. While our possession stats were positive, there was always the feeling France could find a devastating extra gear when necessary- as they did for what turned out to be the winner.

7) That gear is what, I believe, still eludes England. While we now have the quality to attack and frighten even top sides like France and dominate large periods of a match, it will mean nothing if we lack the clinical edge to put them to the sword.

8) It’s disappointing, but many people predicted this outcome months ago. Our likely quarter final date with France was written the moment that draw was made- and while we all dreamed of success- losing to the world champions is not a humiliation, or even a shock. Not every defeat deserves an inquest or a change in manager.

9) It’s still just as bloody devastating though, isn’t it? I had images of England collecting that trophy in their One-Love armbands, while Infantino begrudgingly shook hands with Kane.

10) This team will only get better and better. Players as promising as Sancho or Tomori couldn’t even make a 26 man squad. We will arrive at Euro 2024 as a favourite. Let’s show them why.
Mike (watch us go and not qualify now I’ve written that) in Oxford

 

…Predictably large volumes of nonsense in the Mailbox following England’s departure from the World Cup. Most notably, there seems to be a perception that somehow this time it was different because we played rather well. I accept not all mailboxers are as old as I am, but surely they’ve seen YouTube footage of our games against Germany (1990), Germany again (1996) and Argentina (1998). All games where England played superbly but somehow conspired to lose. It’s what we do. Always have done. And Gareth hasn’t changed that one bit. In fact, I’d argue he’s put his own uniquely incompetent spin on it by achieving the same outcome with a vastly superior squad.
Matt Pitt
PS – when was the last time England beat someone you wouldn’t necessarily expect them to beat in a knock-out scenario? I’m 55 and I can’t think of a single instance.

 

Southgate’s legacy
While I don’t believe Gareth Southgate should be sacked by the FA after England’s exit from the men’s World Cup, I also don’t believe his continued employment should be solely his decision. If there was a clear candidate to replace him immediately, the FA would have terminated his contract, but at the same time, the lack of an obvious successor right now should not mean he remains in post indefinitely.

However, if that was his last game in charge of England, he leaves an important legacy. Specifically, he is the first England men’s team manager to treat his players as well-rounded adults, combining ability and dedication in football with lives and interests outside the game. There is a huge contrast between this approach and that of many of his predecessors. Southgate expects his players to acknowledge the honour and privilege of representing their country and the responsibility that someone in such a position has to recognise those less fortunate and to do something about it. Yet, for all he is criticised as an embodiment of “woke liberalism”, in a lot of areas he is very small-c conservative. He just correctly identifies that fairness and decency should not be exclusive to any one area of the political spectrum.

Ultimately, Southgate’s appointment was the moment when time was called on “I’ll stick to football”. That probably rules out Eddie Howe as a possible successor, so it was worth it for that at least.
Ed Quoththeraven

 

We should be satisfied
England did well at this tournament. Best team in the group stages, strolled past a decent and hardworking Senegal team and then came up ever so slightly short against France. And now we’ve got idiots yelling about how this is a shambles and Southgate must go as if France aren’t literally the best team in the world and the current reigning champions, led by probably the best player in the world who got barely a sniff all game because of Southgate’s tactical setup. Do they think that if we’d pushed Walker upfield Mbappe would have just politely waited for him to get back in position?

And now I’m seeing that England’s players are so good that they’d make up a majority of the team of the tournament? Yes, England have a very talented group, but they’re hardly the only ones. The standard of football across the world is rising dramatically, and England should be happy that we’re keeping up instead of still shouting about passion and blood and thunder.

This is an England squad that will continue to perform at the top end for at least another few rounds of tournaments, and there is no sign that the talent production line is slowing down.

We’ve waited a lifetime for a second international trophy. Surely we can wait a little longer?
Harry, unapologetic England fan (Matthew, how on earth did an Ipswich fan develop such a sense of entitlement?)

 

…The over the top criticism of Southgate misses some crucial backdrop. It is also unfair to criticise him for not being an elite manager when many elite managers have failed miserably with England whereas Gareth’s biggest sin is to have exceeded expectations and given us all some proper hope.

England, for decades, have under-performed. We have had club rivalries allowed to spill into the dressing room. We have had criticism of individual mistakes from media and fans at ridiculous levels. And we have had expectations at every tournament of “it’s coming home” for so many years despite no real evidence on the pitch that could even be a remote possibility. All of these have contributed to make the players afraid to put a foot wrong and to not play to their potential.

Gareth played under those conditions and that microscope and he has done a brilliant job of ridding England of all these shackles. So whether he stays or goes, he has done a massive amount for England. There is a chance that a so called elite manager may be able to take us to the next level. Any possible future success would owe a huge amount to Gareth for what he has done.

Any future manager also risks taking us back to the bad old days of Sven or Capello or any other of the under achievers so I would hope that whatever Southgate did to achieve what he has is not lost the minute he steps down.

Well done Gareth and the whole squad, there is no shame in not winning a world cup and there’s a few higher rated sides than us that also aren’t going to win it. If you want to win world cups or Euros you have to keep getting into the latter stages and we’ve now done that for 3 tournaments in a row. If we keep doing that then one day we’ll go all the way. Patience goes a long way.
Jon, Cape Town

 

…I do a difficult job. One that many would struggle to do effectively, let alone even badly without giving up. It is an emotional rollercoaster of a profession managing all types of people in high pressure and highly scrutinised environments. I’ve gotten pretty good at it after 20 years. 20 years, every day committing to my vocation, trying to get better.

I’m not going to suggest anyone in a similar profession should lose their job based upon my inept, poorly thought out, non-evidence based opinion. I frankly don’t understand those that do. Just because you feel bad, or feel clever because you’ve watched the match and now know what they should have done isn’t a good enough basis to demand someone lose their livelihood. I would love to see some of you try and explain it Southgate in person, and watch him deconstruct you politely with expertise as he does with most of the media.

The facts speak for themselves. We don’t even GET to play a team like France without taking care of business in the way that we did. We do have a talented bunch of players, some real stars but SO DO LOTS OF OTHER TEAMS and they lost to far poorer opposition than we did. We have had the most success in tournaments under Southgate than any other manager (1966 excepted of course). They are a likeable group of players whose confidence has sky rocketed from the low of losing to Iceland and, according to reports, players phoning their agents asking if they really had to carry on playing for England.

Also, this binary position of the only successful manager is one who wins things is completely illogical – only one international manager out of hundreds of countries can win it. Are you suggesting we sack the rest? Is everyone else a failiure? Or are England special because we have the bestest players because England is the best?

I’m as gutted as anyone else, had different ideas how I would have handled it (thrown Grealish on earlier and told him to just run at the defence over and over again to cause maximum chaos). I would have liked to have seen more urgency and blood and thunder in the last 5 minutes. But then I’m not the expert or anywhere near it and am not going suggest that my ideas are better than a real life successful international manager.

Really though, unlike against Italy and Croatia where we were defending for our lives throughout what felt like the whole game, we went toe to toe, didn’t panic and for the first time looked like we could compete with a top team. If you can’t see the basic progress made in this then…. perhaps you think Liz Truss did a good job too.

I always amazed at Southgate’s patience especially with non experts criticising him constantly. I know how much it winds me up when people do the same thing to me…..
Funstar Andy (Morocco ftw – now that is team spirit – but it’s pointless if they don’t win – amirite?)

 

Fine margins
So England lost. Again. Disappointing, but they matched the French in every way except the score, so that’s fine. All my frustration comes from the reaction afterwards where folk of all stripes suggest England could have won the World Cup if they’d done X or not done Y.

As if it’s that easy.

As if the other teams would have no answer to X or reacted the same without Y.

As if a knockout competition isn’t decided by fine margins and as if the definition of two evenly matched teams isn’t that they will beat each other 50% of the time.

Man City have been comfortably the best team in England over the past five seasons, yet they’ve only won the FA Cup once. Leicester City have won it more recently, yet who would say they have a better manager, better tactics, better players or a better winning mentality?

England will obviously win everything if we just sack Southgate, substitute Henderson earlier, play Maddison, drop Maguire, etc, etc. – it all comes across as a bunch of understandably despondent people clutching for a comfort blanket of certainty that doesn’t exist. If there was a manager, player, set of tactics, substitution or state of mind that guaranteed a win at a major international tournament, then it wouldn’t be football anymore. And it would probably be sold off to the most corrupt bidder by FIFA, just like the tournament itself.
Vincent

World-beaters?
Just keeping stating it doesn’t make it true, sorry to go all Rafa but the facts don’t back it up.

The starting 22 on Saturday 10 French players are at ECL clubs the highest standard there is, the one that wasn’t has won it 3 times I think. The England team 3 have never played in the ECL of which two will never unless they move clubs.two others have played but not this year.

4 English players have won a national championship were as 7 of the French have and a few have also previously won the World Cup.

England are a good likeable team but they are not World beating at the moment but as with all football support we live in hope.
Gary in Wiltshire

 

Southgate as Sven
Now the dust has maybe settled a little, I think my opinion of Southgate has improved after this tournament.

Sticking to four at the back was bold for him, and I think the side was better for it. I give him a lot of credit for that.

He has also shown that he really is a good manager of people that the team clearly likes and wants to do well for.

Changing a game to come back into the game, or to capitalise on advantages with subs is still obviously a major Achilles heel where he has shown no improvement.

England / Southgate did nothing to capitalise on the dominance and momentum swing after equalising, and nothing at all worthwhile after falling behind. Mount won a penalty yes, but if anything he was brought on too late. Henderson had to help Walker cover Mbappe, play his normal midfield role and be the first man in the press as Kane either can’t, or was in midfield. If he is doing two men’s running, then you can’t expect him to play much past 60 minutes.

That being said. Southgate has done a good job of making players want to play for England, and has made pretty sensible decisions the majority of the time.

However the “most successful manager since Alf Ramsay” blindly being thrown out without any real investigation really does grind my gears.
A dream draw in 2018. And practically a home tournament for Euro 20.
Both times England lost to the first team they met of a similar level. BTW, I live in Germany and they know Die Mannschaft are poor right now.
Morocco have got past Spain and Portugal to make the semi finals. Croatia last time around made the final after beating England, and have already got past Brazil this time around.
All of that outstrips anything Southgate has achieved.

Southgate’s England have essentially performed about the same as Sven’s England – Sven just seemed to come across those teams earlier in the tournament, that’s all. It really does show how much difference a draw makes for assessing the success of a team in international tournament (unless they win of course).
So, Southgate is just Sven with more favourable settings (and less girlfriends).
Dixon (from the comments) Hunt.

 

Gareth and Belgium Bob
Taken a few days to absorb England’s defeat to France. Did we deserve to lose, no we did not. Games of this magnitude are decided by moments, France took theirs and England didn’t. On one hand I am glad we stood toe-to-toe with the reigning World Champions, and the team that will most likely win it again. On the other hand there is a sense of what if.

Have to agree with most of the comments about Southgate should be doing better. We have our best squad that we have had for a long time. On the face of it, a World cup semi final and now quarter final, and a Euro’s final are on paper great results for us considering what came before under various managers. However, it still feels like we should have done better, and this comes down to Gareth and his negative tactics. If he stays he could waste this “Golden Generation” in the very same way Roberto Martinez did with Belguim.

Thank you Gareth for stabilising the National team and giving the nation hope. Now is the time to step down, and let a more technical and tactical manager come up and hopefully take this team onto the next level before it’s too late like Belguim.

Regards
Kevin

 

Two points to consider
I’m pretty neutral, I have a British passport but live in France (thanks Brexit! Haha). This England side is much better than the French one and they probably should have won, but one thing that no one is saying is that (while they are the defending champs) this French team is not as good as four years ago.

Yes, the referee sucked, but he did give England 2 penalties, if he was THAT biased he probably wouldn’t do that.

I know everyone wants to cling to anything and I know it’s annoying, but I haven’t seen many people mentioning either of those points.

Cheers
M
Ps they may well have mentioned them, I live up a mountain

 

Subs standard
The sudden consensus that Gareth Southgate did nothing to change the game against France – or that his ‘in-game management was abysmal’ – seems a little odd to me: after all, we were certainly the worse team in the first half, but (after a chat with Gareth and his staff) comfortably won the tactical battle in the second. Sure, Southgate could’ve made substitutions earlier, but hindsight makes that a far easier option than it was at the time: I for one would certainly have wanted to keep the same side out for as long as possible, given that we were so on top, and that the momentum was very much with us. Yes, bringing on Sterling before Grealish or Rashford was odd, but to imagine a manager’s response to a game as it unfolds entirely in terms of the timing of substitutions is fairly limited, and if that’s the worst accusation that can be levelled against Southgate then we should be very grateful indeed.
Tiger, Cambridge (MUFC)

 

…England went out in the quarter finals. They played exactly the same way that led to the defeat in the final of the Euros. With no ambition other than to get to penalties, which, being England, is odd.

The skilled players were either or, not together, either Foden or Grealish, but not both, either Rashford or Sterling, either or…

Gareth Southgate is a nice guy, but you know what they say about nice guys. And being nice means you lack the desire to win at all costs. The players England have could beat the French, not every time, but it would be fifty fifty. Not the fifty fifty that the press seem to think happened on Saturday, when England did not score from open play.

Brining Rashford on with five minutes to go? Grealish with a minute or two? What was the point? It was over.
Tim

 

Loyal Southgate
I was delighted to see Southgate bring Sterling on for Saka.

Sterling has proven himself in the past, and Southgate obviously wants to reward him for past performances.

Also I really wanted France to win and Saka looked like scoring, or getting a penalty, every time he touched the ball, whereas Sterling hasn’t done anything much for ages and hasn’t trained for a week.
Kevin, Belfast

 

Anything but a failure
Matthew (ITFC), what planet are you on??

“He’s failed at three successive tournaments”!! Have you been in a cave since 1998? Before Southgate, between 1999 and 2017, we managed a handful of quarter-final appearances, despite having squads littered with the best players in the world. In 2008 we failed to even qualify for the Euros despite having FIVE players from that year’s Champions League final (plus Gerrard who dominated in two UCL finals in 05 and 07). In 2014 and 2016 we exited in hugely embarrassing circumstances.

Then Southgate turns up, completely changes the team spirit in the squad, and promptly gets us to a World Cup semi-final despite mostly having EPL fringe players in the team. Two years later, we get to our first major final since 1966! This year is the only year you can possibly entertain the idea of the word “failure” – but as many have pointed out, we played well in the big game. You cannot control things such as terrible refereeing, and how your strikers finish off chances on the day.

The fact that we have a team capable of getting to major finals is a huge testament to how South has fostered a club-like spirit in the England camp, something that has been entirely absent since 1996.
Steve, London

 

…Another day, another email from Matthew (ITFC) bemoaning Southgate. If you are wanting him out when winning 6-2 no one is listening to you pal. Let’s just accept we all know that you don’t like him and save the carbon footprint of the internet hosting your missives.

Zak LFC asks what would happen if Conte, Klopp or Pep got hold of England. That’s a fun thought…

Conte (zero international tournament wins as a manager) would spend the whole time threatening to leave, he’d piss off every player and the FA. He’d play 5 at the back, 3 in the middle and people would vilify him for not playing 5 players upfront with a combined 5 sub appearances for club and country because one of them did a nice cross once.

Klopp wouldn’t get a squad together for friendlies or nations league games because he’s run the players into the ground for a pressing game. Somehow all the centre backs would be injured all the time and he would not pick any centre midfielders. In a tournament everyone would be knackered by the end of group stage as they would have sprinted 15km each in the climate of whatever petrol rich country gets the next tournament. Trent would get a game. People would vilify him for not playing 5 players upfront with a combined 5 sub appearances for club and country because one of them did a nice cross once.

Pep (zero international tournament wins as a manager without Lionel Messi) would pick 57 5 foot 2 midfielders and run them through his dirty foul school. He wouldn’t be able to pick any goal keepers because they’d all retire from international football aged 15 due to the press vilification following the latest sweeper keeper malfunction. People would vilify him for not playing 5 players upfront with a combined 5 sub appearances for club and country because one of them did a nice cross once.

As for England only beating teams that they expect to beat, what a joke! I haven’t expected England to win a knock-out game since I was in primary school. Even the last three knock out games we won were Senegal, Denmark and Germany. Are we expecting to win those games are we? Based on what track record?

Southgate has been a wonderful England manager. Yes he is risk averse but can you blame him when taking even the slightest bit of risk can result in such flak? He has rebuilt the whole England process so that players want to play, club managers want to work with him and maybe the FA can even find a manager after him. Don’t forget Southgate turned the job down but the FA couldn’t find anyone, in the world, who wanted the job.

We could have beaten France and we didn’t. But we didn’t lose to France because they played five upfront and swapped out all their midfielders for forwards because despite what some mailboxers think, that’s not a tactic that wins games. We lost to France because of the fine margins that sometimes go your way, because the ref didn’t know the rules, and even when he did give us a penalty Kane missed it. It happens. Ref blows for the Saka foul, sees that the Kane foul continues into the box and books Griesman a foul on Rice earlier and the second half is totally different. Trouble is this time there isn’t an inquest so people are trying to create a need for one. You can’t win every football game even when you do everything right.
Alex, South London

 

Conte’s England
If Conte managed this England side, Zak, the mailbox would be full of people highlighting how eye bleedingly dull it is and how he doesn’t use all of our attacking players…so basically the same as the mailbox is right now.
Jon (Spurs), Lincoln

 

Know your place
Lads, England only ever won one world cup. At home with the aid if a dubious linesman. The notion ye go into every tournament thinking ye are gonna win is laughable.

Ye just aren’t that good, learn to love the victories ye do get not the ones that got away. Lifes too short…
Steve Limerick Ireland

 

Atlas Lions > Three Lions
I said I probably would never get another chance to write in about Morocco. I was wrong. A historic victory to go with our other firsts (first African team to beat a European team 86 , first African team to get out of the group stage 86 ,okay it was all 86) and now first African team to reach the semis.

Instead of focusing on my joy I’ll just point out how utterly unlikely this is. Our manager took over just two months before the world cup. His first job was convincing two of our best players to return from international exile. He then had to convince a Wolves and a Southampton reject that they were good enough to not just be on the world stage but to excel.

I said before the last game I was already happy with our performances and now I am simply overwhelmed by what they have achieved. Sadly, with the mounting injury crisis and the prospect of that French attack I can’t see us progressing. I said to my friends before the Portugal game I would just be happy if we weren’t embarrassed by them. They had just destroyed the Swiss very convincingly. I think we should be able to give the French a game but more importantly I am just very proud of the team.
Kal isle of Skye (Amrabat is a one-man wrecking crew but that’s not even the role he plays for his club side!)

 

Women have more credibility than Keane and co
I’ve seen recently on twitter (not a great barometer I know) a lot of people complaining about the women in the commentary team for the world cup.

Comments like “they don’t know what they’re talking about” are really irritating to me.

Cards on the table,.I don’t watch women’s football. I’ve tried, I just don’t find it very exciting, maybe one day it will be but right now it’s sporting zopiclone.

However, anyone saying the women who HAVE won a major international tournament shouldn’t be commenting or talking about performance and tactics at a national tournament are just plain wrong. They genuinely have more right to talk about it than Alan shearer, Gary lineker, Roy Keane et al because the women actually win, unlike literally every single English male commentator.

Sorry for all the sexists who think women don’t belong there but they do. They’re more qualified than anyone else and the reason you don’t want them there is 100% sexism.
Lee

 

Forever 23
One of your articles says that Alexis MacAllister is currently 23.

I refuse to believe that. I went to University four years ago and he was 23. I graduated this summer and he was 23. He came out of his mothers womb at 23, in a Brighton jersey and Potter as the midwife, ready to take him to a 0-1 loss against someone they out-xged.

I refuse to believe this man has existed at any other age than 23.
DaraghJohn

Read more: Predicting the next ten England debutants as squad evolves again for Euro 2024