[Football] Best ever England Squad, Mexico 70 or Euro 2021?

[Wardy's twin]

1966 surely the best team

 

[Pavilionaire]

That 1970 squad is chock full of club legends, no deadwood there whatsoever. It certainly takes some beating.

 

[Brovion]

1966 surely the best team

Well the question was 'squad' not 'team', and It's usually maintained, and I agree, that 1970 was in fact a stronger squad. Yes we won in 1966 but we were at an advantage as we were the host nation and we even played all our games at Wembley. 1970 was a 'foreign' world cup in the days when going to Spain was seen as wildly exotic. Mexico was almost another planet, indeed for a long time European teams never won the World Cup when it was in the Americas and vice-versa.

And yes, for me 1970 was THE best World Cup, despite the heartache. The Brazilian side that won it were by some distance the best team I have ever seen. And despite the result the 1-0 defeat to Brazil was THE best England match I have seen and contains two moments that even today are totally iconic.

 

[Wardy's twin]

Well the question was 'squad' not 'team', and It's usually maintained, and I agree, that 1970 was in fact a stronger squad. Yes we won in 1966 but we were at an advantage as we were the host nation and we even played all our games at Wembley. 1970 was a 'foreign' world cup in the days when going to Spain was seen as wildly exotic. Mexico was almost another planet, indeed for a long time European teams never won the World Cup when it was in the Americas and vice-versa.

And yes, for me 1970 was THE best World Cup, despite the heartache. The Brazilian side that won it were by some distance the best team I have ever seen. And despite the result the 1-0 defeat to Brazil was THE best England match I have seen and contains two moments that even today are totally iconic.

1966 team looked so well balanced and played like a team even though they weren't all brilliant technical players. There are a few iconic moments in the final.

 

[Weststander]

That 1970 squad is chock full of club legends, no deadwood there whatsoever. It certainly takes some beating.

An amazing WC also with brilliant Italian (Zoff, Facchetti, Rivera, Riva, Mazzola, Boninsegna), German and Brazilian squads.

 

[Bladders]

The 1982 team went home unbeaten

Very good team


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[darkwolf666]

Here’s a piece of chalk and here’s a piece of cheese - now compare!


Different times, different game - you can’t compare!

 

[Whitechapel]

They are? According to who?

I can only go by my lifetime.

1990
1996
1998
2006
2020

One of these for me.

There is absolutely chance you’re old enough to remember 1998, let alone 1990

 

[Eeyore]

Ironically, the team that failed to qualify in 1978 would probably have gone well at the finals. Same with 1974.

 

[Invicta]

1998 was our best squad in my lifetime of watching major tournaments. 1986 - present.


No. Name Age Pos Club Starts Subs Total Goals Capts
1. Seaman, David A. 34 G Arsenal FC 36 4 40 18ᵍᵃ 0 None
2. Campbell, Sulzeer J. 23 D Tottenham Hotspur FC 13 3 16 0 0 2
3. Le Saux, Graeme P. 29 D Chelsea FC 23 2 25 1 0 2
4. Ince, Paul E.C. 30 M Liverpool FC 37 2 39 2 7 2
5. Adams, Tony A. 31 D Arsenal FC 51 0 51 4 14 2
6. Southgate, Gareth 27 D Aston Villa FC 22 3 25 0 0 2
7. Beckham, David R.J. 23 M Manchester United FC 13 2 15 0 0 3
8. Batty, David 29 M Newcastle United FC 24 7 31 0 0 3
9. Shearer, Alan 27 F Newcastle United FC 35 4 39 18 10 1
10. Sheringham, Edward P. 32 F Manchester United FC 26 7 33 9
11. McManaman, Steven 26 M Liverpool FC 17 4 21 0 0 None
12. Neville, Gary A. 23 D Manchester United FC 25 2 27 0 0 None
13. Martyn, A. Nigel 31 G Leeds United AFC 6 1 7 _ᵍᵃ 0 None
14. Anderton, Darren R. 26 M Tottenham Hotspur FC 18 0 18 5
15. Merson, Paul C. 30 F Middlesbrough FC 8 10 18 2 0 None
16. Scholes, Paul 23 M Manchester United FC 6 1 7 3 0 3
17. Lee, Robert M. 32 M Newcastle United FC 12 5 17 2 0 1
18. Keown, Martin R. 31 D Arsenal FC 17 1 18 1 0 2
19. Ferdinand, Leslie 31 F Tottenham Hotspur FC 13 4 17 5
20. Owen, Michael J. 18 F Liverpool FC 2 3 5 1 0 None
21. Ferdinand, Rio G. 19 D West Ham United FC 1 2 3 0
22. Flowers, Timothy D. 31 G Blackburn Rovers FC 11 0 11 _ᵍᵃ 0 None
Averages Age 27.5

Ian Wright, Jamie Redknapp & Paul Gascoigne didn’t make the squad.

These were a great squad, 90 to 98 were great tournaments.

 

[rocker959]

1970

 

[Gwylan]

1970 for me too. That was a great team in a great World Cup (the best I've seen)

That Italian team was stuffed full of top class players and they were taken apart by Brazil. And yet that England team lost narrowly to them.

 

[Hugo Rune]

And how many World class players did each squad contain?

1970, Banks, Moore, Ball and Charlton.

2021 ?

What is classed as World Class in the 21st century?

2021 contains more World Class (or potentially World Class) players than 1970. Simples.

2021: Kane, Sterling, Foden, Sancho, Grealish & White.

 

[Robinjakarta]

1970 of course.

 

[nwgull]

The England team was blessed with talent throughout Sven's era, he just had this thing about trying to shoehorn the best 11 players into a team rather than pick the 11 players that would create the best team. Best example was playing Lampard, Gerrard and Scholes together, where Gerrard was a holding midfielder and Scholes a left winger! It'd be like Southgate picking a starting 11 to accommodate all 3 of Grealish, Foden and Sterling.

 

[Fignon's Ponytail]

I will have to say 1970...purely because I haven't even heard of most of the England players before

 

[Neville's Breakfast]

They are? According to who?

I can only go by my lifetime.

1990
1996
1998
2006
2020

One of these for me.

The span of your lifetime has no correlation with the strength of England teams…..

 

[strings]

I actually don't think, man for man, the current England squad is as good as it has been over the last 15 years even - let alone compared to 1970.

The difference is that whilst previous managers (in my lifetime - I wasn't around in 1970) have tied to shoehorn the best 11 players onto the pitch, Southgate is doing something different. He considers how the players will work together, he has taken the Eddie Jone's view from rugby that 'finishers' and squad members are just as key as the starting 11, and he has built a team ethic - a group that play for each other.

Best squad ever? In terms of talent I would say no - but this team is a proper 'team' and that is what makes the difference.

 

[nicko31]

First major comp i recall was 1980, but on the face of it 1970 seems even stronger than 1966. Hard to compare with today...

 

[Lenny Rider]

Ironically, the team that failed to qualify in 1978 would probably have gone well at the finals. Same with 1974.

And that was more to do with the qualification criteria, no seeding, one team from each group go through, had the 82 tournament not been extended to 24 teams, England would have failed to qualify for that as well, we didn't actually 'win' qualification for a WC between 1962 and 1982.