06-06-2024, 05:17 PM in response to #51503
Bullsgold Wrote: I'm quite surprised that Grealish missed out.
I wonder if the fact that, with Maguire gone, it would now be very risky to play Stones as a holding midfielder (if depleted in midfield) so he needed an extra central player... and Grealish missed out.
To be honest, I would've taken Grealish as he'sa bit different. I'm not a massive fan and he hasn't had a good season, but he's still different enough to make him a decent, game-changing option.
Grealish, like Rashford, had a crap season. He hardly started any games for Man City and we have an embarressment of riches in attaking midfield positions.
Also, Foden is likely to start on the left. Grealish is someone who tends to slow down play, retain possesion, come in side a lot which is also what Foden does. So, I don't see him as much different. It's why Gordon is in on the left. He's much more direct and offers an alternartive to Foden in that he'll run in behind defences much more.
Eze is an interesting one...for Palace he plays behind Mateta with Olise. So, two roaming attacking mids rather than a wide role. I can't see how Eze gets in at 10 ahead of Bellingham, Foden or Palmer. So, I suspect he's been picked as a change of pace option to bring if the bench late in games if things aren't working. I think that's a better option than Grealish, based on this seasons form, as well.
Stones was never gonna play central midfield. He doesn't really for Man City...not in the traditional sense. Man City have this weird system where centre backs step into midfield positions but that's completely different to how any midfielder for England would play as Southgate plays a completely different system to Pep. And, given the lack of options as centre back, there's no way you'd remove his experience from that area. He's likely to partber Guehi or Dunk or have no real International experience and no top level European experience.