RE: Qatar World Cup 2022
claydavis > 10/11/2022, 20:27
Southgate pretty much picked the squad that I thought he would. The only slight surprises are that he didn't pick Tomori from AC Milan and Abraham from Roma. Leaving out Sancho makes complete sense, he's been underwhelming since joining Man Utd. The problem will be trying to get players that play in attacking 4-3-3 formations for their clubs like Arsenal, Liverpool and Man City, to play in a more defensive 3-4-3 formation like Chelsea and Spurs. But given that he got to the Euros final and the World Cup semis playing that way, then I'm sure Gareth knows what he's doing and it'll at least lead to getting to the quarter finals. Deschamps plays with a similarly safety first approach and it won him a World Cup, so with a bit of luck it might work for Southgate too.
I think he'll pick this team for his first game: (3-4-3) Pickford; Walker, Stones, Maguire; Trippier, Rice, Bellingham, Shaw; Saka, Kane, Sterling.
Personally, given the players in the squad, their previous performances for England and their current club form, I'd pick this team for the Iran match: (4-3-3) Ramsdale; Walker, White, Stones, Trippier; Rice, Bellingham, Maddison; Saka, Kane, Foden.
Mount, Grealish, Rashford and Sterling are good options from the bench if a goal is needed, but qualifying from the group stage shouldn't be that difficult regardless of what starting eleven he picks or what subs he makes.