Can’t see him starting Mainoo as he can’t have him with Bellingham too.
Bellingham can’t expect to have the freedom he has had under Ancelotti either, can’t expect Rice to hold it all on his own.
You can’t win though without Foden & Kane.
Saka & Trent give you a defensive help but real pace & attacking capabilities going forward.
I think he has made a mistake here leaving Grealish and Maddison. Grealish will mind the ball for you and Maddison will find the pass. Looks like Wharton will start with Rice and Palmer will be first sub.
I don’t think the type of games will suit Watkins as teams will sit back. Southgate is clearly a big fan of Gordon. He won’t start Foden. Wharton is clearly very good and the type of controlling midfielder they don’t produce.
Main big day team will be I’d say.
Pickford
Walker
Stones
Guehi
Shaw
Rice
Wharton
Gordon
Bellingham
Saka
Kane
He is going with the ‘in form’ lads and team ethic.
Gordon looks a certainty to start wide left as they will need his pace. I saw him champions league away in Paris and he was so fucked he was walking, Eze possibly might snag his spot but I’d have gone Rashford or Jack.
Foden is going better than Saka and should start wide right. From the players he has picked, I’d probably start Foden wide left. Bellingham isn’t going great but you probably can’t be without him. Palmer is a phenomenal alternative to Saka and Bellingham, probably the best sub in the tournament.
Jacker isn’t bland enough for Gareth
I wonder did going out on the piss recently count against him.
I’d say Trent and Mainoo won’t see five minutes
Probably.
Mainoo will. He’s animal. He thrived last time for England. I reckon he starts.
No issue with the ball, I’d say he won’t trust him without it.
Rice will help but I’d say he will go Wharton for that Kalvin Phillips spot.
There could be a serious Bellingham and Mainoo rivalry for the ten in the next few years. I’d say that Wharton kid will go well.
Who’s Ward and who’s Campbell?
Bellingham is Campbell, Mainoo is Ward I’d say.
Bellingham was shite against Dortmund I thought.
I’d have thought the reverse.
Don Diego Torres laid into Bellingham there the other day.
He’s young but I haven’t been impressed with him in the Champions League.
He was probably at fault for the Tchouameni goal in the World Cup quarter final against France.
Who are the penalty takers 
Thought Bellingham was the man in possession. Anyway, with formations and the way English people are these two will cut the snot off each other for one spot while the two steady English lads behind them rack up 100 caps each.
Grealish and Maddison are equivalent to Gazza and Merson and are fucked/they should retire from it/form their own country/try and declare for Ireland.
If Cole Palmer were better looking, there’d be an outcry for him to start.
I’d say Southgate will be there for the World Cup.
France will sicken England in the semi. That’s all my hot takes
I think frnace and england cant meet till the final if they win their groups
Bellingham is a beautiful player, some of the stuff he does is Zidane-esque but I slightly fear he might have that Gerard/Bruno thing of not understanding the importance of position in football.
Oh that’s good. That’s the final we want really.
I did out a Euro 2024 wallchart there last night on a word file and I have England finishing second in the group and going out to Germany in the Round of 16.
Grealish was warned.
Fuh me, Geoff, this tournament has World Cup '98 vibes for England with Grealish in the Gazza role.
England never seem to go well in Germany in major tournaments. 1974 they weren’t there. 1988 they may as well not have been there. 2006 is mainly remembered for the WAGs in Baden Baden and Dunphy’s “God is in his heaven” and “That’s the first time I’ve seen live sex between two men on the BBC” comments.
France will win it.
The deal l’d love to see is Grealish back to Villa to play number ten. They’ve bags of pace and runners, he could do his thing.
Ultimately when it comes down to it at major tournaments top English players always seem to display a lack of nous and they retreat into inferiority. The last team that didn’t was 1990, maaaybe 1996 and 1998 to an extent. 1996 was because they had Sheringham who was one of the few English players who had a continental type brain. Good opposition (and sometimes bad opposition) always end up figuring them out.
Bellingham is a Gerrard lurking off Torres type player. That’s where he should be.
Top English players in the modern era need to be instructed to within an inch of their lives exactly what to do. That can work at club level in highly rehearsed systems - ie. Foden at Abu Dhabi - but at international level you need more of a brain.
I think Mainoo will be a big player for England in this tournament because he has not yet discovered fear, and I like the cut of his jib in terms of how he stands up in big matches in a team that is essentially a shambles.