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

[jakarta]

1970 of course, a wonderful side that JUST lost 1-0 to the finest International Team there has ever been.

 

[Lenny Rider]

1970 of course, a wonderful side that JUST lost 1-0 to the finest International Team there has ever been.

Jeff Astle finishes his chance and its 1-1, and England don't play WG in the Q-F's.

 

[Deportivo Seagull]

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

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

Calling @DrNo.


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[Official Old Man]

MotD were talking about this pre Italy v Spain. Their opinion is that this team is nowhere near the best ever, but as a group it is playing the best football.
And don't forget, Sir Alf would drop Kane (Greaves) for the final and bring in someone to score a hatrick.

 

[Eeyore]

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.

I'm pretty sure the 1970s UEFA pools were seeded. England, as you know, failing in 73 and 75 so missing out on the previous two championships.

Taking a look at the various groupings there does look to be some separation.

You're right about 82 though. They were very fortunate with the run of other results towards the end of that campaign.

'Maggie Thatcher, can you hear me, Maggie Thatcher'

 

[SULLY COULDNT SHOOT]

If Banks had played we'd have at least played Brazil in the final so 1970 wins. It was perhaps a stronger team than '66 but if you watch the game Bonetti just didn't inspire the confidence that Banks did and it upset everything. Not his fault but that's what it is.

 

[SULLY COULDNT SHOOT]

As to whether there are more world class players.... by what definition. Today it is easy to compare players across nations. In those days it wasn't... the only time we saw them was in international competitions which were just a glance.

At the time England was considered the equal of Germany. It all changed with Poland...

 

[Swansman]

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.

Southgate however is blessed with a team of players who doesnt have to either play in a 4-4-2 or face some deep existential crisis. It was the last couple of squads where the players were basically only capable of playing one formation.

Sven most likely didnt do everything perfect but the Scholes thing I've always found a bit silly, of course those three needed to be on the pitch. If he had left Scholes, Gerrard or Lampard on the bench while playing Trevor Sinclair or Kieron Dyer to the left, history wouldnt have been any kinder to him.

 

[Lethargic]

An almost impossible question but taking each team in comparison to the teams around them and the way football was played at the times 1970 for me, 2 truly world class players in Banks and Moore the current team although very good does not have anyone truly world class (by that I mean the best player in their position).

The problem being that team had to take on the Brazilians, possible the best team ever almost in their own backyard.