Craig was a big success in the midfield role in 23-24 and, while we needed him elsewhere last season, I think we really missed his presence and grit in the middle at times.
The starting midfield last season was often very lightweight.

Carrick You're funny :lol: The tempo setter of a team that made 3 CL Final appearances in 4 years The English midfielders in the 2008 final were Carrick, Scholes, and Hargreaves (& Lampard). It always baffles me that in the Elite Club Cup tournament final England was represented by Brown, Rio, ...

strikers are going to be the fun bit, right?

Fair, while I think its clear from the post I meant 'historically', i.e. before this recent run of success, happy to edit.

The other, related, bit to bear in mind is how poor England had been in these tournaments for a long time. U-21s - pair of wins in the mid80s, followed by two losing semi-finals. Lita-inspired in 07 to a semi (ARF!), losing finalists to a very good Germany in 09. 2017, which I should remember more o...

Sutekh So what happens to the players between playing for the u21s and then migrating to senior level?

When is the next u21 World Cup?

It alternates, iirc.

World cups are U-20 and U-17
Euros are U-21, U-19 and U-17
olympics are nominally U-23 but don't happen every cycle.

Yeah there's a fair amountnof flexibility obviously. But it really highlights where the holes are CB and forwards. Dorsett is a CB though, no? I remembered him more as a LB but that may simply be as a result of not having any so him having to play there. Originally a CB but we had no-one else in 20...

Mbengue feels like a big loss - a key part of the squad both on and off pitch. We tried to keep and he decided to take a different challenge.

Wareham never felt like he was quite good enough, bet he scores against us next season.

6ft Kerplunk U21s through the final.

I really enjoyed that game - the winning goal a pretty solid way to decide a game.

Silver Fox I assume there's 9 european prem teams this year, so o11 come in for round 2, making 46 and then the 9 come in for round 3

If there was only 8 euro lads a 72 team first round would work

makes sense, cheers

Royal_jimmy Plymouth away on a Boxing Day is pretty disgusting. Long trip to do

howling at that

I did Peterborough away a few years ago, with 6+ hrs on a bus via Luton

League Cup Round 1 draw now set at 4.20pm on SSN today. Draw comprises 70 teams from Tiers 2, 3 & 4 Preliminary Round already decided: Accrington Stanley v Oldham Athletic Barnet v Newport County Ball numbers... Northern Section 1 Barnsley 2 Barrow 3 Birmingham City 4 Blackburn Rovers 5 Blackpo...

Urawa Reds is a mean name.

Good move, imo - stops people buying STs to just sell them on the re-sale market. Try telling that to the pregnant woman who wants to keep her seat but is unlikely to be able to attend that many games. Or the cancer patient who will be receiving six months of intensive chemo etc. I get what you are...

BRO_BOT

stealthpapes Ex-Leeds, now plays in France.

any good? Just noticed his name in both squads, that's all I know of him

The little I've seen, I'd go with "solid but not spectacular". Son of Richard Cresswell, as pointed out above.

Scored in last night's game.

Mings proving he's just not that type of player again.

Ex-Leeds, now plays in France.

given the thread, any thoughts on the U-21s today?

Our ranking is possibly somewhat inflated; beating relatively good teams (i.e. top 15) in tournaments adds points. Not really, the effect of a match depends quite heavily on two things. *(perceived) importance of game *gap between teams using the example of England being 4th and playing a team in 5...

Our ranking is possibly somewhat inflated; beating relatively good teams (i.e. top 15) in tournaments adds points. Not really, the effect of a match depends quite heavily on two things. *(perceived) importance of game *gap between teams using the example of England being 4th and playing a team in 5...