France V England

[memory man]

Is Stones the worst defender we have ever produced

Lost his way since leaving Everton. I think he is better at full back but doubt if he is good enough to oust either of the Spurs's right backs. Oxlade-Chamberlain never going to be international class either - jettison now. Shows how poor the rest were wehn Phil Jones looks decent.

 

[Martyn]

Is Stones the worst defender we have ever produced

Lost his way since leaving Everton. I think he is better at full back but doubt if he is good enough to oust either of the Spurs's right backs. Oxlade-Chamberlain never going to be international class either - jettison now. Shows how poor the rest were wehn Phil Jones looks decent.

Seriously, he just gives the ball away, too much. Dives in too quickly, and his level of passing is dreadful, at such a high standard.

Everton must be rubbing their hands at getting 50 mill for him

 

[Adam R]

RE: Alli, I think for Spurs he has freedom of the pitch and finds himself more central. Last night he seemed to only get the ball played to him out wide when he was tight up against the touchline.

That said he has great feet and can beat his man, just not sure the England set-up suits him at the moment.

If we are playing 5-2-3 and our best "2" are Dier and Ox-Chamberlain we are in for a rough ride. Neither good enough in what needs to be a dominating midfield. At Spurs it works because you have Wanyama or Dembele in there as well, but not sure what attributes AOC has to be a CM - at Arsenal he was played there out of desperation - surely there are better players at Gareth Southgates disposal?

 

[Adam R]

Dele Ali is so overrated as well!

Not sure that's true, for Spurs he's absolutely brilliant, has a clear role in a clear system, for England he can be a rabbit in headlights, not sure whether that's down to him or management.

I'm just talking about his England performances as I don't watch Spurs. Your right it's probably down to bad management with an unclear system. I think he's a poor player though judging from what I've seen. But then again we probably don't have anybody better anyway.

Maybe you should watch spurs mate, they know how to play real football, a combination of sound management, players knowing their jobs and teamwork, not the clueless apology of a display from our national side that we have endured in the last couple of games. We are not a tippy tappy football nation.

Do you think that part of the issue is that our player pool for the National side is spread across so many clubs playing so many different styles that when it comes to internationals they are flexible enough, or don't have enough time to adapt to a common system.

Last night, apart from Alli and Kane, there were no obvious signs of players knowing what each other were doing. The back 5 and GK came from 6 different clubs so plenty of unfamiliarity there. Trippier and Cahill used to playing in a 5, but Jones (when selected), Stones and Bertrand have been deployed in a back 4 system.

Looking at some of the dominant teams of recent years, they have had a core nucleus of players from one club (Spain predominantly pick from Real and Barca; Germany from Bayern) so these players know each other and do not have to adapt so much.

Just a thought, sure there are counter arguments and examples - Belgium probably being an obvious one - although they have some exceptional individuals - whereas England have what I would describe as a mediocre bunch at best who when coming together do not create synergy.

 

[Biggs]

Dele Alli a 'poor player'?

I've heard it all now.

 

[The Pilgrim]

Is Stones the worst defender we have ever produced

Yes possibly, hard to think of anybody worse. He's too lightweight or small I think. But he is still young so he may still improve hopefully.

He's 23, not old but not exactly young either, in danger of falling into the Ross Barkley category of being a 'potential world class player' for his whole career!

I've always fancied Stones as more of a holding midfielder, a position that he can get on the ball but with less of a risk attached.

 

[r4h4al]

Is Stones the worst defender we have ever produced

Yes possibly, hard to think of anybody worse. He's too lightweight or small I think. But he is still young so he may still improve hopefully.

He's 23, not old but not exactly young either, in danger of falling into the Ross Barkley category of being a 'potential world class player' for his whole career!

I've always fancied Stones as more of a holding midfielder, a position that he can get on the ball but with less of a risk attached.

I remember people said the same about David Luiz but look at him now.

On alli he has a good club season, I notice he does dive a lot now, which he needs to cut out, in the right system he is a good player. In Englands mismanaged system he appears a poor player.

On the England formation I think we should played 451
Heaton
Stones Cahill Jones Cresswell
Trippier Livermore Dier Bertrand
Alli
Kane

Just an idea.