Top 3 England players this tournament

tentan

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Oct 5, 2013
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Hard to pick a standout player but for me

1. Palmer
2. Guehi
3. Bellingham (I actually thought he was terrible all tournament but his goals were important enough to just include him)
 
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I would put Palmer in there, even though he was mostly a sub.

Mainoo was best overall, and when Palmer wasnt on he was the only one really pushing positive for the team. As a side note, they did not play together enough. They worked off of each other so well when we got to see it.

I thought Guehi was just a little better overall for the full tournament

it would be:

Mainoo
Palmer
Guehi

Fir me.
 
Top 3:
Saka
Mainoo
Palmer

Biggest dissapointments:
Kane
Bellingham
Foden

Unlikely hero:
Pickford
 
Out of the starters (these are not in order, just the best 3)

Mainoo
Guehi
Saka

Overall

Mainoo
Guehi
Palmer
 
Saka
Guehi
Bellingham (poor play overall, but the clutch goal to take us to ET against Slovakia was too important)

I thought Saka was easily our best player overall. He was our main attacking threat in multiple games.
 
Guehi
Saka
Bellingham

In that order.

Tbh I think Bellingham was mostly rubbish, but you can't ignore scoring an injury time overhead kick to keep your team in the tournament, and I struggle to think of anyone else who was consistently good or even decent. Guehi I thought was our best player by a large distance and one of the best defenders in the tournament. Saka even when he has a quiet game is still effective and also did well despite having to adapt the position he was playing mid tournament.

Mainoo and Palmer would have been there if Southgate didn't spend half the tournament not playing one and nearly the whole tournament not playing the other.

Would also give Pickford a special mention. Probably should be in the top 3 but its hard t include the keeper unless you're getting hammered every game and he's repeatedly keeping you in it.
 
I was impressed with Mainoo, Palmer and Watkins.
Pickford, Guehi, Stones, Saka, Walker, Trippier and Shaw did ok.
Foden was awful, but was key alongside Mainoo and Saka in the only decent 45 minutes of football England played.
Bellingham was awful apart from a bicycle and that layoff for Palmers goal in the final.
Kane and Rice were horrendous full stop.
 
For me? There weren't that many to pick, but I'd say mine were:

  1. Stones
  2. Guehi
  3. Bellingham
Palmer was great but barely played. Rice was meh, awful in the final. Bellingham was good in spurts but kind of disappointing overall. Pickford had a great final, but otherwise I suppose didn't have that much to do, but I guess I'd have him in 4th. I'd have had Mainoo as the best minute-by-minute player, weirdly, - I thought he was REALLY good in the earlier stages - probably England's best player when they were struggling badly against the so called lesser teams - but ultimately didn't assist, score, and gave the ball away quite a lot in the final against Spain. Still think that in Spains system he'd look so much more comfortable, England's "get the ball to Pickford at all times" tactic didn't really suit him, or indeed anyone.
 
Pickford, Stones, Guehi. Mainoo was good until the final, as was Palmer in his brief cameos.

The worst - Kane, Walker, Foden
 
Not all hope is lost!

There's still the football Olympics coming up next month. Don't forget England won the U20 World Cup in 2017!
 
Bellingham was moments FC. Great powerful header which actually turned out to be really important in topping the group due to the borefest of group games that followed, and then the incredible overhead to save the whole team from a complete embarrassment. Without those two moments the whole rhetoric around Southgate right now would be a whole lot different.

But the only players to perform consistently okay were:
Pickford
Stones
Guehi
Mainoo - except the final, but I'm not going to be too harsh on him for that when he was in a midfield duo (Bellingham didn't count) against a silky Spanish trio
Palmer

Surprisingly felt a bit sorry for Foden, he clearly tried hard all tournament and then finally started to show his quality in the semi final but had no luck that day. On another day he could've had a brace and then gone into the final with an outside chance of the golden boot! (It really was a shite tournament for goalscorers...)
 
Palmer did well
Pickford just

Struggling to pick anymore. I get why people are picking Guehi, he looked solid early on as a new player and partnership but was at fault for some of the goals when tested. Most of team hadn't played together and did ok to scrape through each game.
 
Pickford was the standout player for me from the starters, always feel he plays well for England.
Marc Guehi was very impressive, coming in with little experience I thought he handled himself very well.
Saka was good, he came in and out of games but looked like our best attacking threat, one of only a handful of players who actually tried to take on a man!
 
Palmer was comfortably the best player when Southgate afforded him the opportunity to be on the park.

I thought Stones was their best defender. Mainoo was good in the middle of the tournament. Saka the most consistent of the attackers, with the others more hamstrung by the tactical mess in attack.
 
Saka, Bellingham, Rice - top three, then Mainoo, Guehi, Stones, Pickford, Palmer

Kane, Foden, Walker, Trippier, TTA, Gallagher - trash

Southgate - mediocre
 
Bellingham was dreadful, surprised to see people mention him. As a neutral, Mainoo, Guehi and Saka were probably the best 3, but overall there was a lot of underperforming - rice, bellingham and foden in particular, and of course Kane looked miles off it.
 
Pickford
Mainoo
Saka

Palmer also did well but got so few minutes that it’s hard to include him.
 
Guehi, I think, was their best defender, although Stones wasn’t that far behind.
Saka was their most consistent attacking threat (and even he wasn’t that consistent).
Pickford is my unlikely pick for the #3 — I dislike his outdated playing style but he did come up with a fair share of great saves in key moments.

Honourable mentions:
Palmer performed at the highest level out of all England’s players but probably played less than 90 minutes overall? I can’t be bothered to check.
Mainoo unexpectedly was England’s best midfielder… but not quite imposing enough to break into my top 3 (also thanks to Southgate who wasted first half of the tournament on experimenting with inferior alternatives).
Bellingham was overall disappointing but still managed to produce some big moments.
And Stones, who I’ve mentioned earlier. England was pretty decent defensively even though it was mostly because of their cowardly tactics.
 
Pickford for me, in the final, those three saves he made just before Spain got the winner, kept the score respectable, otherwise it would have been something like 4-1.
 
- Mainoo
- Guehi
- Palmer, when he was afforded a couple of minutes.
 
I’m surprised people are saying Guehi. He did ok in a fairly defensive team but made a couple of fairly major errors. I also thought his lack of passing through the lines was a real issue for England (although, to be fair, Stones who is known for his passing, didn’t do much either).

If I was a top club, I think I’d have been put off purchasing Guehi, rather than seeing him as a key signing.
 
People picking Bellingham because of that one goal is madness. Sure he score a good head too but in all 7 games he looked decent for around an hour, hugely disappointing!

Saka
Guehi
Stones

All impressive but if Palmer had more minutes, he'd be up there too. Special mention for Mainoo as he shown flashes of the player that he could become.
 
Bluelion7 said:
I would put Palmer in there, even though he was mostly a sub.

Mainoo was best overall, and when Palmer wasnt on he was the only one really pushing positive for the team. As a side note, they did not play together enough. They worked off of each other so well when we got to see it.

I thought Guehi was just a little better overall for the full tournament

it would be:

Mainoo
Palmer
Guehi

Fir me.
Click to expand...
Agreed.
 
Sake, Pickford and Guehi probably
 
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