Ollie Watkins

[Mr Jinx]

The perennial bottlers who were a penalty shoot-out away from winning England's second ever major trophy. A couple of different kicks of a ball and you'd be singing Southgate's praises, presumably?

Phillips not selected for the most recent squad.

Not disagreeing that Southgate lack's a sense of ambition with his team selections though.

Yes, they bottled the shootout if you recall. Largely because of Southgate subbing on players in the 118th minute.

Southgate is now in a somewhat lose-lose situation.

With the players he has at his disposal, England should be winning the Euros this time round.

If England don't win it, then he's a failure. If they do win it, it's only to be expected and puts the spotlight on the last time which they should've won.

 

[grecIAN Harris]

All ifs and buts is right.

Southgate will inevitably select Pickford, Maguire, Henderson, Sterling, Trippier, Phillips, et al.

Ben White did the right thing yesterday. What's the point spending all that time warming the bench for perernnial bottlers? He'll leave that for Olly.

Phillips ain't in the squad.

Nor is Trippier, out injured, but he is worth his place in the squad as he is capable of filling both full back roles. I would agree, to those who want to beg to differ, that his current form hasn't been to clever but as the old saying goes, form is temporary but class is permanent. On the flip side, Henderson and Sterling are dog $hit, Philiips is good at what he does when he plays regularly (going to City has killed him) and for whatever you might want to think about Pickford as Everton's keeper he always turns in a performance for England.

 

[Rosencrantz]

But the role of striker, upon which you have fluently and frequently expounded, is not interchangeable with other roles.

A midfielder, for example, might fill a variety of roles across the middle and maybe elsewhere too -- think Milner. So versatility, amongst the defence and midfield, can reduce the need for great numbers in those areas.

You lose a striker, or two, there's no way of overcoming that deficiency.

It's a similar situation to that of keepers. In the old days when squads were 22 strong, you had two keepers. Then, they changed things, with squads of 23 and 3 keepers. They did this for a reason.

I would argue that strikers are a similar case. And not only that, but if you have a couple of "Milners" in the squad, this gives the opportunity to boost the strike force, not only with numbers, but also different types of striker, and even -- perish the thought -- you could play two at once if the need arises.

I think there were always three goalkeepers in 22 man squads that I can remember. Certainly in 1986 and 1990 you had Shilton and Woods with Gary Bailey in '86 and Dave Beasant in '90 also in the squad. I think for key area's where you generally only play one, three players in the squad is sufficient and the way we play up top, that is probably what will happen. Otherwise you are short of cover elsewhere.

I think the big thing is Rashford as he can cover both wide and centre forward positions. So it will probably come down to whether Southgate sees that as an opportunity to use Rashford as third choice centre forward and give himself an extra pick, as it were, in another position. This has happened before of course. The difference this time is Rashford isn't having a good season and there are more striking options than before (Ollie, Toney, Wilson for eg) as well as the other attacking positions being quite loaded.

 

[Mr Jinx]

Nor is Trippier, out injured, but he is worth his place in the squad as he is capable of filling both full back roles. I would agree, to those who want to beg to differ, that his current form hasn't been to clever but as the old saying goes, form is temporary but class is permanent. On the flip side, Henderson and Sterling are dog $hit, Philiips is good at what he does when he plays regularly (going to City has killed him) and for whatever you might want to think about Pickford as Everton's keeper he always turns in a performance for England.

Pickford's short arms gifted France their first goal in the WC qtrs last.

Maguire scored France's second.

 

[grecIAN Harris]

Pickford's short arms gifted France their first goal in the WC qtrs last.

Maguire scored France's second.

One game, that's what you're basing it on. Really????

 

[Sexton Blake]

Good news Ollie fit for today’s game away to West Ham live commentary on Flashscore app

 

[Sexton Blake]

Toney drew a blank yesterday for Brentford biggest threat to Ollie getting game time with England now looking like Rashford.

Hoping Liverpool will put a spoke in his wheel later this afternoon.

 

[Banksy]

Toney drew a blank yesterday for Brentford biggest threat to Ollie getting game time with England now looking like Rashford.

Hoping Liverpool will put a spoke in his wheel later this afternoon.

On that note Rashford has just missed a last minute sitter in the Cup against Liverpool.

 

[Rosencrantz]

On that note Rashford has just missed a last minute sitter in the Cup against Liverpool.

He would have been offside probably. He has now though equalised.

 

[Banksy]

And then scores to equalise at 3-3 in extra time.