International Matches - March 2025

[honky cat]

Bulgaria v Ireland 
Ferguson on the bench
Will report back if he makes an appearance, if i make it that far

 

[Sydney_Iron]

Your right Manuel, but it is a shame they have almost watered down qualifying and made it so much easer to get to the finals that it really is a waste of time watching or following the games unless we somehow manage to fuck things up with a shock loss, but even then it probably won't affect our qualification, things really would need to go pear shaped, this first game was maybe a bit different being Tuchels first but in general it really has detracted from these tournaments IMO.

First real tournament for me was Argentina 1978, but back then EVERY qualification game was important, 4 teams in the group and only the winner was off to Argentina, England got a tough draw and Italy in the same group but we still won all our games as did Italy, except the away fixture against each other! The Italians beat us 2-0 at theirs, but we did likewise, 2-0 at Wembley, in the end we went out on goal difference and i was gutted but at least every game back then mattered, none of this play off rubbish for teams who either fucked up or not quite good enough. 

 

[Manuel]

Think Kane like Rooney before him have been pretty average when playing for England? Rooney may have over 50 goals at international level but plenty came in friendlies against some pretty shit opposition, remember reading that he only had 5 or 6 against what would be considered the top international teams! Kane would be similar i guess if you take away the pens.

Remember as a kid an England game mid-week was something you really looked forward to, would be a game that had meaning as well, WC qualifiers etc and generally if it was a friendly it was against top opposition, not some tin pot nation that had no league apart from Pub standard, even the home championship had games with interest especially the Sweatys, should never have binned that, not sure why they did but seems they replaced it with pointless friendlies often against some shit side

Maybe its FIFA/UEFA trying to be inclusive as i honestly can't remember so many stupid international breaks, granted this one was for WC qualifiers but even those seem a bit meh! Again, sure the group stages for qualifying back when i was a kid had decent sides and you really had to win the group to get to the finals? These days its winner, runner up and 3rd place goes into a play off! 


 

You're right, England games were really special as a kid, but live league games, PL, money etc took that feeling away decades back. I still love the major tournaments though, not asked with the rest of it. It surprises me there are full houses at Wembley against this type of oppo.

England under Tuchel is going to be very different, but for it to be better he has to win the world cup or the euro's. Bottom line.

[Sydney_Iron]

Think Kane like Rooney before him have been pretty average when playing for England? Rooney may have over 50 goals at international level but plenty came in friendlies against some pretty shit opposition, remember reading that he only had 5 or 6 against what would be considered the top international teams! Kane would be similar i guess if you take away the pens.

Remember as a kid an England game mid-week was something you really looked forward to, would be a game that had meaning as well, WC qualifiers etc and generally if it was a friendly it was against top opposition, not some tin pot nation that had no league apart from Pub standard, even the home championship had games with interest especially the Sweatys, should never have binned that, not sure why they did but seems they replaced it with pointless friendlies often against some shit side

Maybe its FIFA/UEFA trying to be inclusive as i honestly can't remember so many stupid international breaks, granted this one was for WC qualifiers but even those seem a bit meh! Again, sure the group stages for qualifying back when i was a kid had decent sides and you really had to win the group to get to the finals? These days its winner, runner up and 3rd place goes into a play off! 

 

[zico]

Sir Alf.  Interesting point.  I checked it out.  Both his goals against France were pens.  Two of his four v Germany pens.  Two of his three v Italy pens.  

[BRANDED]

Wales are shit

[Sir Alf]

Zico do we know how many of the goals you listed (  4 v Germany, 2 v France, 3 v Italy, 1 v Holland & 1 v Croatia ) were penalties?  

Kane can finish if he has time and the room but at international level he wont get that when we play the best nations in the latter stages of knock out tournaments.  England do not cut these teams open and dominate so you need an exceptional striker who is razor sharp and makes space running in behind.  Kane has never delivered in latter stages of tournaments other than penalties. 

He now has to drop deep just to get involved and plays as a no 10 otherwise anonymous up top. Too slow and old.  Last tournament the fans could see it and even the sychophantoc pundits like Lineker were asking if Kane justified his selection. Watkins although not young gave us a cuttimg edge. That said, England need a younger striker who can finish and lead the line. 

As for Henderson. It can only be temporary? Bit like Cresswell to help with continuity and leadership. 

Walker like a few others is yesterday’s answer to today’s question and should only be back up at best.  

[zico]

He is a good player Kane, not doubting that, but interesting to note 23 of his 70 International goals came from penalties, and out of the "top" nations he has scored 4 v Germany, 2 v France, 3 v Italy, 1 v Holland & 1 v Croatia.  Rest have been against lower rep countries like Albania or Lithuania etc.

[El Scorchio]

Henderson is just bizarre. Worryingly he had the number 8 shirt as well. I hope Tuchel is just experimenting, looking at depth and eliminating options like Rashford and maybe Foden and seeing what he’s got in Jones and Burn etc before seriously nailing down his starting team and first choice subs. 

For me, Burn, HENDO, Foden and Rashford need to be riding the bench or not on the plane. Harsh on Burn but he will get torched by world class strikers. The big headed little Arsenal cսnt played well so he’s got to be an option. Walker is still good but at some point we have to move on. 

The line up for Monday will tell a lot about how he’s going about this. It’s a luxury to have two very winnable games at home to start. Can do a lot of sorting the wheat from the chaff which I hope is what’s going on. 

[honky cat]

Disappointed in more of the same. I thought kane, walker, henderson had played their last world cup, and tuchel would go bold with new faces. Is the england manager even a proper job, or just a frontman to talk to the press, while FA bods do the same old things in the background.

Dont like friday games, clashes with top of the pops on four.

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[,]

England are not due to meet any top ten ranked team before next year’s WC. This means that we will mostly play games against very defensively set up teams. Entertainment goes out of the window.

[Sir Alf]

Agree Fauxstralian. Kane, Burn and the usual rich club bias will result in failure. Play in form players preferably ones not over hyped as superstars because of who they play for.  A team that works for each other and do the obvious by bringing Gibbs White into the senior set up again asap. And as Manuel says, these games mean nothing until later on in tournaments when we meet decent teams who Kane has proven consistently that he’s too slow to score against and our defence consisyently shows its too slow ( esp cbs) and lacking the technicians to not concede.  

[Fauxstralian]

Qualifying is never a problem for England & this group is exceptionally weak
Obviously it’s then about beating decent teams in tournaments 
I see Tuchel criticised Rashford & Foden for not making an impact 
Maybe he will not be like Southgate & pick the ‘favourites’ no matter how they perform
That should mean form players like Bowen & Rogers should start on Monday
Has the same problem as Southgate (which was never addressed) … find an alternative to Kane & settle on a defence.
Dan Burn seems a lovely bloke but he isn’t an international footballer… plus Walker & Henderson are done 
And of course we know that Ollie Scarles will USURP Lewis-Skelly & his hype machine soon enough

[Manuel]

Discussing is all well and good but as we see every single time these matches don't really mean anything. Give me a shout at the QF of the WC next year. Hopefully they are practicing penalties.

[Fauxstralian]

Rashford has hardly started a game
Foden hasn’t been a Man City regular , or has Jones at Liverpool

Should be playing the likes of Bowen & Rogers
And Gibbs White … if he hadn’t belatedly called him up then cut him from the 26

Callum Marshall sat an watched NI’s 1-1 draw with Switzerland 
Kudus played 90 mins in Ghanas 5-0 win over Chad, didn’t score

[Sydney_Iron]

Zee German must have been on WHO, saw me post we needed changes  3 mins after the changes we get the second.

Was pretty drab for the most part but Bowen, Rogers and Gordon coming on did seem to breath some life into us.

Early days but maybe take few games to blow out the cobwebs left by Southgate, not sure what it is with the England set up but for my money players who are great at cub level seem to back off a bit and go all conservative, maybe fear taking that chance will backfire or see them criticized so sticking to the defensive, hang on to a lead and pass to someone else mindset, maybe just me but we need to be prepared to take a chance, have go, rather than sit back and be happy to keep possession. 

[Iron Duke]

Foden isn’t a bad player. He’s just not that great either.

He isn’t a right sided forward. There are several players better than him in that position.

He also isn’t the best option as the advanced midfielder.

Squad player in my opinion.

[onsideman]

Foden and Rashford busted flushes.  Bowen did enough in 20 minutes to start ahead of Foden for me

[Helmut Shown]

Chuckle brothers football

[Sydney_Iron]

It is a bit Southgate England isn't it? sitting on the 1-0......Loads of possession but not doing a lot with it!

I have it on mute and doing other stuff as its that dull!

Still 20 mins to go, get some changes, Bowen for starters.

[zico]

God this is dull. Don't watch City bar highlights so am I harsh by saying Foden is over rated? Few years back some declared him as the next Gazza but he is a million miles off how good Gazza was.

[fraser]

Tuchel picking Foden on rep as opposed to Bowen on 24/25 stats. How predictable 

Maybe he was better in training or fits his system better... Hopefully Bowen gets some decent time on the pitch. 

I think we both know Foden over Bowen was set in Tuchel's mind before they even rocked up at St George's Park

Maybe, but to be fair he's more used to playing in a team that has all that possession against a low block.. Not been too involved so hopefully Bowen gets on. 

[onsideman]

Tuchel picking Foden on rep as opposed to Bowen on 24/25 stats. How predictable 

Maybe he was better in training or fits his system better... Hopefully Bowen gets some decent time on the pitch. 

I think we both know Foden over Bowen was set in Tuchel's mind before they even rocked up at St George's Park

[Fauxstralian]

Albania & Andorra currently top of the group

[fraser]

Tuchel picking Foden on rep as opposed to Bowen on 24/25 stats. How predictable 

Maybe he was better in training or fits his system better... Hopefully Bowen gets some decent time on the pitch. 

[onsideman]

Tuchel picking Foden on rep as opposed to Bowen on 24/25 stats. How predictable