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[Albion] Telegraph Football Writers top defenders



maltaseagull

Well-known member
Feb 25, 2009
13,361
Zabbar- Malta
Or course he would. I love Veltman but Kyle Walker would clearly take his RWB position. I can't quite believe that needs to be typed. When Lamptey is fit, I'd imagine KW would still get the odd game over the course of the season.



Assuming he can stay fit.
Yet to be seen.

I really hope he is properly cured now and can play a large part of our season.
 




casbom

Well-known member
Jul 24, 2007
2,598
Do people genuinely believe that Gareth Southgate doesn't pick Dunk because he played for Palace over 25 years ago? In a period where we only played each other 9 times in 7 years that he was there. After he went on to make more appearances for both Villa and Middlesbrough than he did for Palace. Do people really, genuinely believe that?

Football fans really are utter ****ing imbeciles sometimes. It never fails to astonish me how stupid people can be when it comes to this sport.

Yeah it's got nothing to do with Palace loyalties, otherwise he wouldn't have picked White last season and was on the verge of picking Webster as well before he got injured.
He obviously didn't rate him when he had him in training. Next England Manager could well have a different opinion.
 


el punal

Well-known member
Aug 29, 2012
12,547
The dull part of the south coast
Learn something new every day. I thought the reason why he was still in a job is because England have breezed through qualifying groups and reached two semi finals and a final.

Just about every other nation would be happy with that.

Probably the reason we’ve breezed through is that some ‘new’ countries have evolved over the last thirty years who, in a footballing sense, are not up to the quality that England and other established countries are at. So the likes of Moldova, Slovenia, all the old Yugoslavia states, the left overs from the USSR, chuck in Gibraltar, the Faroe Islands, San Marino, Scotland and other dross are all easy pickings. Get two or three of that lot in a qualifying group and you’re laughing. :cheers:
 




Iggle Piggle

Well-known member
Sep 3, 2010
5,953
Blinded by his own stupidity. We'll never win anything under Southgate

It's all conjecture but I'm convinced If Mancini was in charge of England and Southgate Italy, we'd have comfortably won the Euro final.

England are having success in spite of Southgate, not because of him. He did a great job to start with by bringing the spirit back after the Iceland debacle but I can't be backing a manager that had no response to the Italians pushing defenders 5 yards higher up the pitch and thinks the answer is Rice and Phillips but will never play Foden and Grealish together. The same Foden and Grealish that were good enough for Pep to play together and turn over Chelsea away this season.
 




Green Cross Code Man

Wunt be druv
Mar 30, 2006
20,745
Eastbourne
Probably the reason we’ve breezed through is that some ‘new’ countries have evolved over the last thirty years who, in a footballing sense, are not up to the quality that England and other established countries are at. So the likes of Moldova, Slovenia, all the old Yugoslavia states, the left overs from the USSR, chuck in Gibraltar, the Faroe Islands, San Marino, Scotland and other dross are all easy pickings. Get two or three of that lot in a qualifying group and you’re laughing. :cheers:
Yep. Qualifying is so rudimentary these days for a bigger country like England. It's become incredibly boring.

As an aside, I don't understand why we have to have an international break if we aren't in this new pointless international tournament at the weekend. I thought it was introduced to stop meaningless friendlies. Seems pointless even more as only 4 teams are in it.
 


Commander

Arrogant Prat
NSC Patron
Apr 28, 2004
13,560
London
It's all conjecture but I'm convinced If Mancini was in charge of England and Southgate Italy, we'd have comfortably won the Euro final.

England are having success in spite of Southgate, not because of him. He did a great job to start with by bringing the spirit back after the Iceland debacle but I can't be backing a manager that had no response to the Italians pushing defenders 5 yards higher up the pitch and thinks the answer is Rice and Phillips but will never play Foden and Grealish together. The same Foden and Grealish that were good enough for Pep to play together and turn over Chelsea away this season.

There have been many England teams before this one that were stronger on paper. None of them got to the final of a tournament. Under some absolutely world-class managers too. I can't really understand how people don't think Southgate has done a good job it's bizarre.
 


nickbrighton

Well-known member
Feb 19, 2016
2,131
Do people genuinely believe that Gareth Southgate doesn't pick Dunk because he played for Palace over 25 years ago? In a period where we only played each other 9 times in 7 years that he was there. After he went on to make more appearances for both Villa and Middlesbrough than he did for Palace. Do people really, genuinely believe that?

Football fans really are utter ****ing imbeciles sometimes. It never fails to astonish me how stupid people can be when it comes to this sport.

It would be quite ludicrous if that were indeed the reason Dunk isn't in the England set up.and personally I dont think it is. I think people say that, and some start to actually believe it because, on the face of it, there doesn't seem any reason why Dunk isn't a regular squad member, even if not a starter.

Time and time again he is (often literally) head and shoulders above the rest. He is the heart of the 3rd best defence in the Premier league this season, and has consistently put in world class displays over the past 5 seasons

Frequently mentioned by sports writers, pundits , managers etc as being world class, and demonstrably equal to and often better than the current England players

So why hasn't he featured? There MUST be a reason, even taking off the Blue and White specs its hard to see a footballing reason, so has something happened previously that has stopped Southgate seriously considering him? Is there an attitude problem (seems very unlikely)
, his work rate for Albion is second to none, his discipline was a bit of a problem but hasn't been for years, he seems a team player, and doesnt appear to fail anyone's dick head policies.

I dont think we will ever know, and sadly , I now think its too late for him. Southgate is starting to look to the next generation, so any new additions to the squad will be ones for post 2022 WC, the likes of White for example
 




Commander

Arrogant Prat
NSC Patron
Apr 28, 2004
13,560
London
It would be quite ludicrous if that were indeed the reason Dunk isn't in the England set up.and personally I dont think it is. I think people say that, and some start to actually believe it because, on the face of it, there doesn't seem any reason why Dunk isn't a regular squad member, even if not a starter.

Time and time again he is (often literally) head and shoulders above the rest. He is the heart of the 3rd best defence in the Premier league this season, and has consistently put in world class displays over the past 5 seasons

Frequently mentioned by sports writers, pundits , managers etc as being world class, and demonstrably equal to and often better than the current England players

So why hasn't he featured? There MUST be a reason, even taking off the Blue and White specs its hard to see a footballing reason, so has something happened previously that has stopped Southgate seriously considering him? Is there an attitude problem (seems very unlikely)
, his work rate for Albion is second to none, his discipline was a bit of a problem but hasn't been for years, he seems a team player, and doesnt appear to fail anyone's dick head policies.

I dont think we will ever know, and sadly , I now think its too late for him. Southgate is starting to look to the next generation, so any new additions to the squad will be ones for post 2022 WC, the likes of White for example

http://www.wearebrighton.com/newsop...left-feet-why-dunk-isnt-in-the-england-squad/

Makes sense to me.

Although I totally agree he should be in the squad.
 




nickbrighton

Well-known member
Feb 19, 2016
2,131
http://www.wearebrighton.com/newsop...left-feet-why-dunk-isnt-in-the-england-squad/

Makes sense to me.

Although I totally agree he should be in the squad.

Thanks for that link, it does indeed make sense, and as it alludes to, his age was then and so certainly is now, against him.

Its a shame for him because Dunk looks destined to be one of the best players never to be an England player (can't really count one friendly appearance)

Whatever the reason for Dunk, we have a very healthy supply of young players who we should see in the England set up for years to come.
 




Iggle Piggle

Well-known member
Sep 3, 2010
5,953
There have been many England teams before this one that were stronger on paper. None of them got to the final of a tournament. Under some absolutely world-class managers too. I can't really understand how people don't think Southgate has done a good job it's bizarre.

Some of them have their excuses. We were good enough to win Euro 2004 which was won by nothing more than a functional Greek team. Maybe if Rooney stayed fit and Beckham tucks a penalty away for us to top the group we would have done. One thing we didn't have much of in 2004 was luck or Shearer sat on the bench - who'd retired in a huff - instead of Vassell when Rooney got injured. After all, Sven managed to navigate an England team with Danny Mills and Trevor Sinclair to a last 8 in 2002 and only lost to a freak Brazilian goal. Not much went for him when it mattered.

In contrast, We had bags of luck in 2021 and 2018. The draw opened up in both but sticking to the Euros, we beat a less than vintage German team, a Ukraine team that me and my mates could give a game to and staggered past Denmark to face an Italian team that contained the Chelsea 3rd reserve left back in the final after their best player gets injured. What do we do? We go 1 up and then replay the Croatia semi final all over again, failing to create a chance in the penalty area for Harry Kane containing hundreds of millions of attacking talent - most of which are sat on their arses on the bench - and fail to counter the most basic tactic of the Italian who moved further up the pitch after they were initially scared of our pace which we didn't inexplicably use as we were too busy getting men behind the ball with the manager standing with his hands in his pockets wondering what to do next.

We had the better players and better squad to win it. What we didn't have was the better manager. I hope Southgate is tempted to Man United or the like as it will be win / win. They will surely end up in mid table and England might end up with a manager with enough tactical nous to win something. England have some absolute world class kids that have won U19 tournaments, we have a load of kids coming through and one of the strongest squads in World football playing in the strongest top league. We are miles in front of Carlton Palmers, Keith Curles and Geoff Thomas eras but give the manager a break because we have been historically crap. Southgate is very lucky that expectation now is so low.
 


Commander

Arrogant Prat
NSC Patron
Apr 28, 2004
13,560
London
We were good enough to win Euro 2004 which was won by nothing more than a functional Greek team. Maybe if Rooney stayed fit and Beckham tucks a penalty away for us to top the group we would have done.

That single sentence says it all. We only got to the quarter-finals in Euro 2004. In Euro 2021 we got to the final only conceding one goal. Italy miss 2 out of 5 penalties in the shoot-out- all we needed to do was score 4 out of 5 penalties (remember we got 5 out of 5 in Euro 96) and we'd have won the trophy. And what would you have been saying then? "Southgate got lucky to win the Euros conceding two goals all tournament and winning every game?"

I'm sure after every other tournament elimination you were saying the managers were just unlucky, and were actually very good managers, yes?
 


Thunder Bolt

Silly old bat
http://www.wearebrighton.com/newsop...left-feet-why-dunk-isnt-in-the-england-squad/

Makes sense to me.

Although I totally agree he should be in the squad.

I hadn't read that before, but it does make sense.
Unfortunately for Dunk, about the time he would've been eligible for the U21s, he was embroiled in a court case, for which he was cleared of all charges.


As for England breezing through qualification and beating 'easy' teams to the final, remember Italy didn't beat us in full time, we have beaten Germany & Belgium in the last 12 months etc etc.
We are 3 in the world rankings.
 




lawros left foot

Glory hunting since 1969
NSC Patron
Jun 11, 2011
14,072
Worthing
There have been many England teams before this one that were stronger on paper. None of them got to the final of a tournament. Under some absolutely world-class managers too. I can't really understand how people don't think Southgate has done a good job it's bizarre.

There is not one stand out International team in the World at the moment, except, perhaps Italy.

Even Italy are beatable, and we should have beaten them, the second half of the final exposed every failing of Southgate.
I didn’t rate him at Middlesbrough and I don’t rate him now.
 


Commander

Arrogant Prat
NSC Patron
Apr 28, 2004
13,560
London
There is not one stand out International team in the World at the moment, except, perhaps Italy.

Even Italy are beatable, and we should have beaten them, the second half of the final exposed every failing of Southgate.
I didn’t rate him at Middlesbrough and I don’t rate him now.

So apart from the second half of the the first final we've qualified for in 55 years, which he steered us to conceding only one goal in the entire tournament, he clearly did a lot else right, and more than almost any other England manager in living memory. Should we tear all that up and throw someone else in and allow them to make all their own mistakes over a few years, or should we let him learn from his experiences, improve that bit more, and give him a real shot at winning the World Cup next year?

We don't like the idea of people learning things or improving in this country anymore, do we? We'd much rather just sack someone and start again with somebody else, throwing all that learned experience away, and starting from the bottom again. It's such a strange outlook.
 


rippleman

Well-known member
Oct 18, 2011
4,988
Do people genuinely believe that Gareth Southgate doesn't pick Dunk because he played for Palace over 25 years ago? In a period where we only played each other 9 times in 7 years that he was there. After he went on to make more appearances for both Villa and Middlesbrough than he did for Palace. Do people really, genuinely believe that?

Football fans really are utter ****ing imbeciles sometimes. It never fails to astonish me how stupid people can be when it comes to this sport.

So as I'm one of your "utter ****ing imbeciles", please explain your alternative theory on why Southgate has consistently refused to select our captain. I'm all ears.
 






Nobby Cybergoat

Well-known member
Jul 19, 2021
8,624
Since football started there's always been a situation where a manager doesn't fancy a particular player for reasons best known to himself. Similarly a player who gets picked without anyone really understanding why.

Dunky has just been unlucky. I don't even think it's a Brighton thing
 


Commander

Arrogant Prat
NSC Patron
Apr 28, 2004
13,560
London
So as I'm one of your "utter ****ing imbeciles", please explain your alternative theory on why Southgate has consistently refused to select our captain. I'm all ears.

Well here is one explanation:

http://www.wearebrighton.com/newsop...left-feet-why-dunk-isnt-in-the-england-squad/

Makes sense to me.

Although I totally agree he should be in the squad.

Do you honestly, genuinely believe that the England manager wouldn't select a player because he plays for the rival of a club he played for 25 years ago (a club who he made the least amount of appearances for out of all his clubs)? But yet also picked another player who plays for that club, and other players when he was in charge of the under 21s? And is also happy to select players from the rivals of the other two clubs he played for?

If you genuinely do believe that, then I really don't know what to say. I just cannot believe any fully grown adult could actually think like that.
 


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