• The Fighting Cock is a forum for fans of Tottenham Hotspur Football Club. Here you can discuss Spurs latest matches, our squad, tactics and any transfer news surrounding the club. Registration gives you access to all our forums (including 'Off Topic' discussion) and removes most of the adverts (you can remove them all via an account upgrade). You're here now, you might as well...

    Get involved!

England squad

Latest Spurs videos from Sky Sports

I think Rashford, at his best, is good enough. He already has a decent record for England, and has shown he can score goals in the Premier League. He just got stale at United and should have moved a couple of years ago for his own sake.

Even if he proves to be a bust moving fwd; can't blame Tuchel for wanting to try to resurrect his (until recently) productive England career.

We need(ed) pace and goals either side of Kane

Sadly clueless Gary failed to recognise what he himself did best and turned a potent counterattacking team into a blunt dull possession one.
 
Yeah if your playing Declan Rice as your 8 then you automatically become a defensive pragmatic team. Its like having a second CDM in your team basically and for some reason no manager trusts Rice to play as a lone CDM

Wrong take..... Rice playing as a 6 IS the problem. He can't recycle possession and start counterattacks.

Scum had to start playing both him and Partet cos DR couldn't get the job done.
 

Cherki is ridiculous.

Last player who just took the piss technically like that was Jay Jay Okocha.

I used to pretend I could understand and accept why we aren't trying to sign him. I cbf anymore. If the Premier League isn't a league where players like that can thrive then it's the Premier League that has a problem. We have to watch too many athletic robots, this always used to be a league with the odd genius mixed in.
 
Wrong take..... Rice playing as a 6 IS the problem. He can't recycle possession and start counterattacks.

Scum had to start playing both him and Partet cos DR couldn't get the job done.
yeah i agree thats why Rice is not effective as a 6 because his build up play is non-existent. The problem with playing Rice as the 8 is he lacks creativity and directness. His main strenghts are winning the ball back and covering ground.

For example, 99% of football fans would prefer Rice in their team over Xhaka. But Woolwich were a much more fluid team with Xhaka as their 8 next to Partey instead of Rice. Rice is a strange one as an 8 because your team just loses its fluidity and becomes pragmatic
 
German coach refusing to select a player because they play in Germany?

Sancho made tournament squads when he was still at Dortmund iirc?

Sancho was ripping it up though and was far more consistent for Dortmund than what Gittens is right now. I don't think he's all that close to making the senior squad at the moment. But I also don't expect him to be at Dortmund beyond this or next season either.
 
yeah i agree thats why Rice is not effective as a 6 because his build up play is non-existent. The problem with playing Rice as the 8 is he lacks creativity and directness. His main strenghts are winning the ball back and covering ground.

For example, 99% of football fans would prefer Rice in their team over Xhaka. But Woolwich were a much more fluid team with Xhaka as their 8 next to Partey instead of Rice. Rice is a strange one as an 8 because your team just loses its fluidity and becomes pragmatic

I get you... Rice as #8 depends on how the rest of the team was set up......

You could chuck him into Klopp's Liverpool in place of Henderson and he'd be just fine.
 
I get you... Rice as #8 depends on how the rest of the team was set up......

You could chuck him into Klopp's Liverpool in place of Henderson and he'd be just fine.

The issue with Rice as an 8 is that Jude isn't overly creative. He will get assists, as he did last night, but he's not a playmaker. He's just a really good, effective footballer. So you're relying an awful lot on your wide men and wing-backs. If you wanted to be more creative you could play Wharton as the 6, Jude as the 8 and then Palmer as the 10, who everything goes through.
 
He [Rice] had an equivalent impact on England during the Euros too.

By no means our worst player but our most problematic.

Jesus Christ what an absolute load of shit. The crap spoken about this bloke is mental. I know he plays for a rival club but Jesus.

He’s easily our most ‘complete’ midfielder, got a great assist and is a huge physical and energetic presence which is what Tuchel wants. Problematic? Give it a rest.
 
yeah i agree thats why Rice is not effective as a 6 because his build up play is non-existent. The problem with playing Rice as the 8 is he lacks creativity and directness. His main strenghts are winning the ball back and covering ground.

For example, 99% of football fans would prefer Rice in their team over Xhaka. But Woolwich were a much more fluid team with Xhaka as their 8 next to Partey instead of Rice. Rice is a strange one as an 8 because your team just loses its fluidity and becomes pragmatic
I think you're very wrong. Rice is really creative player indeed...even though he's a gooner, he's one of the best mid fs around.
I don't think you watch much football..
 
The issue with Rice as an 8 is that Jude isn't overly creative. He will get assists, as he did last night, but he's not a playmaker. He's just a really good, effective footballer. So you're relying an awful lot on your wide men and wing-backs. If you wanted to be more creative you could play Wharton as the 6, Jude as the 8 and then Palmer as the 10, who everything goes through.

Nor are many #8's... MF is all about blend of skillset between the 3 MFers vs tactics.... Always will be.
 
Cherki is ridiculous.

Last player who just took the piss technically like that was Jay Jay Okocha.

I used to pretend I could understand and accept why we aren't trying to sign him. I cbf anymore. If the Premier League isn't a league where players like that can thrive then it's the Premier League that has a problem. We have to watch too many athletic robots, this always used to be a league with the odd genius mixed in.

It’s partly why the league is so boring. It’s been heading this way for years but it’s got to the point where it is all functionality and not skill.
 
It’s partly why the league is so boring. It’s been heading this way for years but it’s got to the point where it is all functionality and not skill.

1000%

It’s very formulaic and bereft of individuals. There are “right” decisions for every situations and higher value shots to take, passes to make, dribbles to attempt.

The need for a Cherki who does something to break the mould is so strong.
 
Yeah if your playing Declan Rice as your 8 then you automatically become a defensive pragmatic team. Its like having a second CDM in your team basically and for some reason no manager trusts Rice to play as a lone CDM

Rice isn’t always great at taking the ball under pressure on the half turn or in a clever way progressive it from deep which is essential for a modern DM. Wharton is the only real DM we have ability wise. Rice is elite off the ball so I get why we use him though, makes it very hard for the opposition to play through us.
 
Jesus Christ what an absolute load of shit. The crap spoken about this bloke is mental. I know he plays for a rival club but Jesus.

He’s easily our most ‘complete’ midfielder, got a great assist and is a huge physical and energetic presence which is what Tuchel wants. Problematic? Give it a rest.

He can’t be our most complete midfielder when he can’t receive the ball and play in tight spaces and can’t play on the half turn. His left foot isn’t anything out of the ordinary either.

Rice is an elite out of possession ball winner and can take elite level set pieces from corners and wide areas. If anything he’s a specialist to what he does instead of being complete.

Bellingham is Englands most complete midfielder. I think MGW is more complete than Rice tbh. It’s still not out if the question that Rice follows the Dier career trajectory later in his career and moves back to CB.
 
The discussion about Rice on here is always so fucking stupid, to be expected 'cos he plays for that lot. He's England's only top centre mid who does actual centre mid stuff. Woolwich's issues this season are down to no Saka and Odegaard being terrible, they scored 91 goals last season (of which Rice contributed 15) not because of the guy who is once again easily in their top 3 players of the season.

I don't really care if he's world class or elite (subjective) but he's one of the first names on the team sheet for both club and country, and pretending otherwise because he isn't fucking Rodri is unbelievably dumb. I like Wharton (a lot) but he plays alongside Rice, not instead of, otherwise our midfield is bloody porous. Blaming one of the most consistent footballers in the premier league for England's age old issues .... have a fucking day off.
 
Rice doesn’t play centre midfield for Arse. It’s Partey.
Rice is a converted centre back who can run around a bit. Yes he’s a good prem lge player but that’s it. We will need proper midfield players in the USA . You cannot run around all day in 85 degrees.
 
Back
Top