By Three Lions
November 19 2020

England 4 – 0 Iceland

Pickford                       6

Walker                          7

Dier                              7

Maguire                        7

Trippier                         7

Saka                             8

Rice                              8

Mount                           8

Foden                           8

Grealish                        8

Kane                             7

I’m finding it difficult to give any of the outfield players below 7 with how well we played and dominated the ball and restricted their chances.

At times we were just Dier at the back with Rice just in front of him as Walker and Maguire bombed forward to support the attack.

If you ask any pundit to select their right back/right wing back for the Euro’s then you will see every one say either TAA, James or Walker.

I am yet to see any pick Trippier. A steady performance from the Athletico man last night and I am not usually one for stats but I am going to use them in the case of two players now.

Since Grealish made his debut in September only Trippier has created more chances than him. Trippier with ten and Grealish with nine.

That is why Trippier is my pick to start at right back/right wing back for England. TAA hasn’t reproduced his club form when selected for England so far. Something most pundits seem to overlook.

Despite everyone full of praise for Grealish the other day, Foden’s two goals and one assist last night made a lot of fans and some pundits question whether Grealish is just easy on the eye with no end product.

Nine chances created in the few games he has played is the stat to look at. Not the goals and assists. If he’s constantly creating chances then the other numbers will come together. You can’t blame him if the person on the end of the chance created doesn’t put it away.

Will it be Grealish or Foden, both or neither? Both will surely make the squad now and but whether they start or not is another question and a nice problem for Gareth Southgate.

Mount looks more at home in central midfield with licence to get forward and for me Rice is a much better player than Henderson. I don’t even think I would have Henderson in the squad let alone the team.

Saka again looked good going forward. I still do feel that he is playing within himself though and there is a lot more to come from this lad. Defensively will he be trusted against the better teams? And if England revert to four at the back then where would that leave him?

Kane’s link up play was good as usual but he is struggling in front of goal in an England shirt at the minute. On another night you would have expected him to score two or three with the chances he had. In the second half he just seemed to get crowded out by the many Iceland defenders surrounding him.

I criticised the decision to start Pickford in this one when I first saw the line-up. With nothing to play for I felt it was a good opportunity to give Pope a game. However it wouldn’t have really achieved anything given how little Pickford had to do.

England v Iceland Player Ratings

Discussion started by Lions of England (IP Logged), 19/11/2020 11:39

Lions of England
19/11/2020 11:39

What do you think? You can have your say by posting below.
If you do not already have an account Click here to Register.

Reply Quote Report

Forum List Message List Search Log In

Your Name:
Subject:

We record all IP addresses on the Sportnetwork message boards which may be required by the authorities in case of defamatory or abusive comment. We seek to monitor the Message Boards at regular intervals. We do not associate Sportnetwork with any of the comments and do not take responsibility for any statements or opinions expressed on the Message Boards. If you have any cause for concern over any material posted here please let us know as soon as possible by e-mailing abuse@sportnetwork.net