England Golden Generation myth.

Lebo

Full Member
Joined
Aug 6, 2016
Messages
411
I’ve heard a lot of news articles and some posters on this forum labelling the current England team or the one that played the last Euro as the golden generation.

Looking at the 24 man squad, that doesn’t even look like the best English team of the last 20yrs.
If any of the following players were available today in their 2006 state , they would be in the first 11. A Cole, Ferdinand, Terry , Carrick, Scholes, Lampard, Gerrard , Hargreaves, Beckham , Rooney(maybe not, because of injury). Hell I’ll even make a case for King, Campbell , Jamie Carragher
 
I think the first XI talent was better before but the overall squad talent available is better now (that's including players Southgate hasn't picked).
 
The squad is stronger now but that mid 00s team probably had a better 11 - despite a weakness at left wing (ironically a similar problem to this England team without Rashford) . A combined team would be something like:

Pickford

Walker
Ferdinand
Terry
Cole

Rice
Carrick

Beckham
Rooney
Foden

Kane
 
I think your main problem is balance. You have an abundance of attacking talent available, at central defense and central or defensive midfield the quality takes a steep dive. You also have way too many of your very best players all favoring playing on the right wing. And while Kane is certainly one of the top 3 strikers in the world you have absolutely no replacement who can even remotely reach his level.

All that being said I still think you will get very far in this tournament.
 
The mid 00s lot were better but were terribly managed and were totally unprofessional in how club bias was allowed to impact how they treated each other.
 
When did Bellingham piss on Redcafe's strawberries? He's starting in any era, and there's no question about that.
 
Said it a few days back, the midfield is unbalanced and our attacking talent is rather lopsided.
 
I don’t think the current midfield or defence contain the quality of previous generations. There’s a lot of ability in forward positions through, and I don’t think England have had a player of Eze or Palmers profile in quite a while. Interesting to see if either of them can cement positions in side. I’m not sure either will be first choice - Palmer might? But I think Eze would be the better option in a wider position.
 
Yeah, it could well be argued that way. Kane, Bellingham, Walker probably being the only ones who would be pushing for a start when compared against that previous generation. You could argue Rice (but I would have Carrick, even though the irony is Carrick was barely a starter) and possibly Foden/Saka as part of the squad.

It might be that the term "golden generation" is possibly slightly incorrectly applied to mean "one of the better squads in international football at present" - who should go on winning/competing for the top prizes.
 
Golden generation is maybe overdoing it, but England has an incredibly stacked, deep squad. And with a large number of the other big football nations experiencing a rather significant downturn in quality, there are no excuses to not be seriously challenging. Of course, no one is guaranteed winning anything, but you should consider anything but a final this summer a failure, in my opinion.
 
Lebo said:
I’ve heard a lot of news articles and some posters on this forum labelling the current England team or the one that played the last Euro as the golden generation.

Looking at the 24 man squad, that doesn’t even look like the best English team of the last 20yrs.
If any of the following players were available today in their 2006 state , they would be in the first 11. A Cole, Ferdinand, Terry , Carrick, Scholes, Lampard, Gerrard , Hargreaves, Beckham , Rooney(maybe not, because of injury). Hell I’ll even make a case for King, Campbell , Jamie Carragher
Click to expand...
The golden generation was the one in your 2nd paragraph. You're mixed up.

Thats not to says this isn't a class squad of players England have these last few seasons.
 
duffer said:
We're stacked at right back and attacking mids. That's about it.

No depth whatsoever at GK, CB, LB, DM or CF.
Click to expand...

Hmm..by depth what do you mean here, because there definitely is depth if you look further afield than what Southgate does?
 
Ole'sgunnarwin said:
He's unquestionably been in the top 3 players in the world this season. So England wouldn't be dropping a player with that quality. It's not rocket-science. Which team does he not get in?
Click to expand...
The team that Scholes couldn't even get in
 
England currently has a quite strong and exciting front six, but the rest isn't anything worthy of a "Golden generation" label. Goalkeeper, left-back, centre-backs are far too weak. The real quality is in the likes of Foden, Rice, Kane, Saka, Walker, Bellingham and Stones.
 
duffer said:
Who are the left backs, goalies, DMs and CFs that Southgate isn't picking that he could?

You could make a case for CBs maybe with the likes of Tomori and Branthwaite.
Click to expand...

Henry, Colwill, Mitchell can all play left back, also there is Doughty etc. Tomori, Branthwaite, Colwill can also be CB options, also there is Tarkowski, White, Mings etc. Jones, JWP, Miley, Rico Lewis, Garner etc. can all be squad options for DM. Wilson, Calvert-Lewin, Solanke, Nketiah etc. can all play as a CF.

There are a lot of interesting options and avenues for England to pick from now. If you look at some of the old squads and see what could have been on the bench compared to the 11 it's dire. There's enough talent around to compensate if you miss one or two players. Southgate being incompetent shouldn't shadow that.
 
duffer said:
We're stacked at right back and attacking mids. That's about it.

No depth whatsoever at GK, CB, LB, DM or CF.
Click to expand...
I think CF is a position where this is a bit of depth. I think Kane is just so good that even a good back up is quite a big drop off. You have Watkins, Toney and Solanke. Then there's the likes of DCL and Abraham who have had promising spells in their career. Even Wilson is a good CF too, just suffers from injuries.

I would also argue that GK and CB, there is depth there, just the starting level isn't super high. Pickford Ramsdale and Henderson is a good group of keepers imo, just none of them are top class. Stones aside, I think the CBs are largely decent, just not at at the required level. LB and DM are the two problem big problem areas and given injuries, CB is growing into one for this tournament.
 
SilentWitness said:
Henry, Colwill, Mitchell can all play left back, also there is Doughty etc. Tomori, Branthwaite, Colwill can also be CB options, also there is Tarkowski, White, Mings etc. Jones, JWP, Miley, Rico Lewis, Garner etc. can all be squad options for DM. Wilson, Calvert-Lewin, Solanke, Nketiah etc. can all play as a CF.

There are a lot of interesting options and avenues for England to pick from now. If you look at some of the old squads and see what could have been on the bench compared to the 11 it's dire. There's enough talent around to compensate if you miss one or two players. Southgate being incompetent shouldn't shadow that.
Click to expand...

You've listed some pretty shite players (and some good ones) there but it's all opinions I suppose.
 
Yes, the 2006 version was more balanced, but crucially lacked depth in the most important role - striker

Doing the combined XI game mine would be something like

Pickford
TAA-Rio-Terry-Cole
Carrick-Rice-Gerrard-Bellingham/Saka/Beckham
Kane-Rooney/Foden/Saka/Bellingham

Box midfield, left wing still weak but you just overload the right, which is exceptional, and Cole has the pace, stamina and aptitude to push up and stretch play and you can always have one of Gerrard/Jude/Foden/Rooney/Beckham moving wider to exploit the weak side once you've forced the defence to overcommit on the right side
 
Doracle said:
The squad is stronger now but that mid 00s team probably had a better 11 - despite a weakness at left wing (ironically a similar problem to this England team without Rashford) . A combined team would be something like:

Pickford

Walker
Ferdinand
Terry
Cole

Rice
Carrick

Beckham
Rooney
Foden

Kane
Click to expand...
Wayne Rooney was a better footballer than Harry Kane.
 
Wumminator said:
When you look at the “golden generation” it’s often people putting players from different years together.
Click to expand...
True but many of those players primes overlapped at times during the 2004-2010 stretch, and were generally all great players. Lampard and Gerrard and Rooney for example weren't in their primes in 2004, but they were great players already, by 2008(and 2010) Rooney, Lampard and Gerrard were at their peaks but you'd lost Beckham, in exchange you had Carrick. Cole was great throughout and so were the CB options

Really, the downfall of those england sides was lack of depth at forward, bad luck, poor fitness, and in 2004 you just came up against a great Portugal side at home
 
Current England squad is massively over rated.
Lacking quality at centre back and left back, with a massive hole to be filled in midfield beside Rice.

There's a big drop off from guaranteed starters to backups in most positions.
 
Oranges038 said:
Current England squad is massively over rated.
Lacking quality at centre back and left back, with a massive hole to be filled in midfield beside Rice.

There's a big drop off from guaranteed starters to backups in most positions.
Click to expand...
This is the case for literally every single national team in football history.
 
duffer said:
You've listed some pretty shite players (and some good ones) there but it's all opinions I suppose.
Click to expand...

I just think that nowadays you could have a squad of 40-50 where the quality of the players outside of the 11 isn't too shabby whereas previously you'd struggle to get a squad of 25 before you're scrambling.
 
Current England team has a pretty average defensive unit, golden generation lacked pace in the wide attacking areas.
 
Relative to other International teams at the moment, the England First XI IS a golden generation. Brazil, Italy, Germany, Holland and even Spain are not what they used to be.. Southgate should have been sacked after the Euro Final against Italy. That was a massive bottle-job along the lines of our Europa League Final loss under Ole.
 
Defensively the individuals we have are pretty pants let’s be honest. So it’s up to Southgate to set us up to protect them.

I don’t think our attacking options are particularly strong enough to make us favourites to win the tournament either.
 
England are definitely light quality in defence and GK. The squad overall is similar to the best squads of the last 25 years.

Always had problem positions, GK probably the biggest still now.
 
Mb194dc said:
England are definitely light quality in defence and GK. The squad overall is similar to the best squads of the last 25 years.

Always had problem positions, GK probably the biggest still now.
Click to expand...
I'm worried about our midfield as well, not a single midfielder who is stand out for passing.
 
Always amazes me how mismanaged the national team were back in the day. 10 Englishmen started the 2008 champions league final - and yet the national team didn’t even qualify for the Euros tournament held just after it!
 
This current England team (of the last five years or so) is the best England team that there has ever been.

There's two England players who are in the running for the B'allon Dor and the top players in La Liga, Bundesliga and Prem are English players.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.