The Mailbox deliver 13 Conclusions on England’s 1-0 loss to Brazil at Wembley, while the FA are told to replace Gareth Southgate with Jose Mourinho…
Get your views in to theeditor@football365.com…
 
16 (minus three) Conclusions on England vs Brazil
Tried to get to 16 conclusions but only managed 13.* By no means a terrible performance but yet another game against a genuinely decent team in which England failed to create much from open play. We have some sort of passing chance to win Euro 2024, but only if Gareth Southgate finds a balance between protecting defensive weakness without relying on too many holding midfielders and runners/workers further forward.

* So Harry Maguire. Not a terrible player, just an old-fashioned English centre half. Big, brave, head the ball clear all day, set piece threat going forward, can actually ping a good pass once he’s got the ball under control. But slow, clumsy, lacks intelligence and the technique to receive and deal with the ball. Kyle Walker, for all his attributes, can also be a liability as he also isn’t the most intelligent/switched on defender.
* Therefore they need protecting, so in some ways I get two holding midfielders. Problem is, in that position these players receive the ball a lot so have a massive influence on how good England are going forward. Any two of Rice, Philips, Henderson and Gallagher do not have enough ability on the ball and make us stodgy. When playing a decent team we then struggle to have enough good, controlled possession to make the pattern of the game one where we are the likely winners.


* Rice is half the answer. He’s great defensively but for England laboured and limited in possession (however he plays for Arsenal, I don’t watch them) so needs more of a baller next to him. Maybe Bellingham? He was very good tonight but obviously the argument is playing him deep may blunt the goalscoring excellence he’s shown for Madrid.
* Mainoo may be another possibility. Looked very good in limited minutes tonight. Partially eased the worries about throwing an 18-year-old into the chaotic world of international football. The only worry is what looks like a lack of pace, but so intelligent and composed.
* Another with no more than a cameo tonight was Rashford. Genuine question for his fans, at anything approaching top level what does he offer other than the ability to run fast and smack the ball really hard? Especially Badwolf as his support of Rashford seems genuine rather than performative.

* For his club clearly Foden is excellent. For country not sure I’ve seen him do much other than float on the fringes of the game looking pretty – as was the case tonight – and scoring the odd icing on the cake goal. He seems to have particularly stepped up for City this season so maybe it’ll click for England too soon. Equally his skill set may just be too subtle to integrate in the limited time international sides get.
* No complaints over the winning goal – Vinicius Jn was onside initially. And while Endrick was not, he was again by the time Vinicius Junior shot so knocked in the rebound. All fine by current rules but his initial inactive offside certainly helped him be on the spot to knock in the rebound. One of the current anomalies of the offside rule.
* Luke Shaw really needs to get fit and stay fit – sadly not something that’s a given with his record.

* Interesting to see what Ivan Toney does if selected against Belgium. Ollie Watkins is certainly ahead of him to be Kane’s understudy. But he gave another lively if haphazard performance tonight. Hope Toney performs if chosen, as he seems to be a better all-round footballer.
* Wonder if injury has put paid to Alexander-Arnold’s Euro chances. Another whose subtle skill set needs time to bed in and with all the options England have at right back why work through the pain to get the gain? Even if he may be the best long term option.
* Loved seeing how much scoring and winning meant to Endrick – even if it was just a friendly.
* Don’t worry everyone, only a week till the proper marketing…..sorry I mean proper football resumes again.
Ronnie Buzzard, Manchester
England players react to a 1-0 defeat to Brazil at Wembley
© Provided by Football365
England players react to another defeat against Brazil
 
Get Jose in…
Having watched 60 mins of the England vs Brazil game yesterday, I nearly fell asleep. It was safe to say that the gap in the quality of football yesterday comparing to the late 90’s and early 2000’s is clearly there to see. It was such a boring game of football yesterday, maybe I am just finding football a bit boring to watch lately with age given I now realise there are better things to do, but I think yesterday really did lack quality and entertainment.

But I looked at the Brazil line up yesterday and honestly didn’t know who half the team were. The only World Class player in that team was Vini Jr, as for England its Bellingham & Kane, maybe Stones at a push as I do rate him, but injury prone. The very first football game I ever watched was England vs Brazil in the 2002 World Cup when I was 7 years old, and when you look at the players then vs now for England & Brazil, you can’t even compare with some of the calibre of players you see now. You had Lucio, Cafu & Roberto Carlos in defence, vs Beraldo, Wendell & Danilo. Ronaldo, Ronaldinho & Rivaldo too comparing to Vini Jr, Rodrygo & Raphinha. Who are these players and how are they Brazilian lol. You can’t even compare really, Brazil are so average compared to 20-30 years ago, but worryingly somehow still beat England yesterday at Wembley.
Same goes for England by the way, take Gallagher and Chilwell for example, in 2002 you had Ashley Cole and Paul Scholes instead. Ferdinand instead of Maguire. Some players now just really suck now compared to the previous era, and half these players are somehow playing regularly for some of the so called ‘best teams’ in the Premier League. Yes England were not at full strength yesterday with Kane and Saka out, Walker had to go off as well, but they need a new manager after the Euro’s because Southgate clearly can’t get the best out of them and should have walked after crashing out to France in the last World Cup.
Get Jose in after the Euro’s given he actually has decent record of winning trophies, I don’t see how bringing another English manager will change things and lets face it there aren’t many great ones out there.
Rami, Dubai
READ MORE: Maguire and Chilwell struggles raise familiar doubts… England player ratings v Brazil
 
Southgate in (due to a lack of options)
It’s the day after and England game so I’m expecting the inevitable set of Southgate out emails.
He’s certainly got limitations and I understand it in theory but my issue is that these people never seem to propose a realistic replacement that would be a clear upgrade.
I’m of the view that it should really be an Englishman, simply because it feels like international football is supposed to be a test of your country’s best and I’d say that includes managers. If that’s the the standouts are Potter and Howe (with a possible future nod to Gary O’Neil). I actually quite like both of those but is there really anything to suggest they’d be any better than Southgate? They may be and there does come a point where you need to take a chance on something new but this is a man who’s got England to semi-finals and finals, something inconceivable for most of my lifetime. I find the whole thing about him wasting the greatest set of attacking players the world has ever seen fairly laughable. Yes, we’ve got some excellent front players now but you can’t just chuck them all in a team and hope to blow the best away. International teams that succeed are generally fairly boring, look at Deschamps’ France team, he’s constantly been criticised for being boring and they’ve won the lot.
Performances at tournaments hav been on an upward curve and I fully expect us to get to the semis at least this summer. I appreciate we went out in the quarter finals at the world cup but that performance was different to previous tournament failures (in a good way), we went toe to toe with the best team in the world and could easily have won it.
I’m not totally against a replacement being foreign but again, who are the realistic better options? Anyone really elite works in club football. I know Guardiola’s talked about managing a national team but that’s probably not going to be this summer and even if it was, he needs more time on the training pitch with his team’s than he’d get internationally although of course it’s a chance you’d take.
So you’re basically left with Mourinho which would be both a disgrace and a disaster. No thanks.
So come on, you want him out, who do you replace him with? And please nobody say Klopp, it will not happen.
Sam, London
 
SoutHATE (I dont hate the man I just think hes a bit s**t and wanted a funny headline)
After a week of right wing ‘Don’t look at how f**ked the country is, get outraged at the back of a collar of a shirt worn by millionaires’, can we now get back to the far more unifying and nostalgic practise of talking about the supreme bottle jobs – The England men’s football team.
Another w*nk performance against a big nation. The England teams weakness is defence, its strength attack. So of course, they play defensively. Southgate has overseen a massively underperforming side (what England team hasn’t since 66′ tbh), underperforming in no small part due to his cautious tactics.
You can talk about him getting England to a final and semi finals, but he hasn’t won anything has he. And I’d argue his tactics on and off the pitch are the biggest reason for that.
Will
 
Why Harry Maguire keeps getting picked…
It’s a friendly so there aren’t huge amounts of conclusions to be drawn. However, if it wasn’t clear before, the reason Harry Maguire keeps getting picked for England is because the alternative is that Lewis Dunk gets picked for England.
Also, early on in the broadcast there was a lingering shot of the amended St George cross on the back of an England shirt. Is this what getting the badge in is?
Ed Quoththeraven
 
After last night, I won’t be surprised if Phil Neville moves a few rungs up the ladder…
Ben
READ MORE: Brazil defeat at Wembley strengthens their status as Engand’s worst international opponents
 
An addiction to disingenuousness
This week’s commentary fuelled by the Nike Flag alterations is the very peak of disingenuous reporting in all sides, and sits at the pinnacle of footballs constant bullshit trail.
I’ll try to reconcile the perspectives. No, it doesn’t link you to racism/homophobia if you find this flag alteration wrong. Yes, you should apply your effort to more pressing matters if you’re moved to the point of absolute outrage. Yes, Nike and the FA should’ve left the flag well alone. No, it isn’t a sign Wokeness has taken over. Yes, the charge of anger is led by vocal muppets who work for The Mail etc. No, it isn’t only these people who are irked. Yes, there are definitely greater ills worthy of our attention. No, you don’t get to stand on a pedestal on this subject if you run a website dedicated to reporting on football because it’s football, relatively meaningless and that pedestal is reserved for those who actively dedicate their lives to doing something about such ills.
Let’s stop being dicks about such things.
Alex
 
Hating Sky
I will entitle this piece… I HATE F**KING SKY (caution – nerd alert)1 – ‘deciding’ to play the NLD on Sunday the 28th at 2pm OR Saturday the 27th at 12.30pm (depending on Arsenal’s CL run) is the most ridiculous piece of nonsense I have seen in a long time.
The obvious solution would be to play it on the Saturday. That way Arsenal’s CL run would be irrelevant.
But Sky won’t do that because Saturday at 12.30 is a TNT slot, and Sky obviously want the game for themselves. So in order to possibly satisfy their own desires, match day going fans are being screwed.
AGAIN.
But you know what – it’s not even the worst decision they made today.
The worst one was the decision to play Arsenal vs Chelsea on April 23 and NOT announce the Spurs vs Man City game for the same midweek (they announced Brighton vs Manchester City instead).
Meaning that Spurs’ games vs Chelsea and Manchester City are yet to be announced.
Two huge games for Spurs, against two of the rich six, in games Sky will definitely want to show, but there’s now only one free midweek left in the season to play them (between Spurs’ final two games of the season, against Burnley and Sheffield United).
I’d love to know what Sky’s plan is, but if I were to guess, it’s this.
Spurs’ final 4 games will be on Friday May 10, Monday May 13, Thursday May 16 and Sunday May 19. Four games in nine days.
If it does end up being 4 games in 9 days, Sky will likely say they had no choice to do this, but they absolutely did have a choice. They could have planned this instead.
Apr 23 – Chelsea vs Tottenham
Apr 25 – Brighton vs Man City
May 15 – Tottenham vs Man City
May 16 – Arsenal vs Chelsea
Sky almost certainly won’t be challenged on this, but if I end up being right and Spurs are asked to play 4 games in 9 days when it was absolutely unnecessary, they absolutely should be.
Making life tough for all matchday fans is Sky’s bread and butter – we’ve known that for a long time, but unnecessarily making things tougher for certain clubs would be much worse.
And I’d feel just as strongly if it was another team affected in this way. This should never happen.
So yeah, let’s just hope I am wrong.
Harlow Globetrotter, THFC, Vienna
 
Ben White
My own thoughts on the Benjamin White situation.It seems to stem from a public dressing down which could have been done in private. I obviously dont know not whether Gareth has tried to get Steve Holland and him to chat through (or even to get Steve Holland to apologise) but it seems like Gareth wants to move on, which is fair enough.
However, if this happened to anyone else in their workplace they’d be annoyed as well as you’d want a bit of respect and a private meeting if there were concerns in respect of your performance, behaviour or attitude. I imagine that until Benjamin White gets an apology for what happened he probably won’t join up and doesn’t need to in any case.
If Gareth really wants him to join up he will have to smooth it out. Given how many right backs and defenders we have I suspect he won’t bother any more.
Tom
READ MORE: Ben White saga has exposed Southgate and England staff failures after pathetic six-word insult
 
Gareth to Man Utd?
Up to now, Ratcliffe is doing most things correctly regarding the restructure at United. All organisations have to start at the top. It’s the Glazers and the people on the board who are responsible for the mess we have found ourselves in. We have some new members and are looking to appoint others.
Regarding the manager, ten hag has made some bad mistakes with some bad buys but the worst mistakes are to have played such boring negative football. Passing the ball out to the back four even when the opposition has 3 forwards on the penalty box. Never varying the play.
We have to play attractive football, whoever is the manager. The match against Liverpool was totally different from the way we have performed all season. We need to see how we perform during the remainder of the season. The jury from United fans is out on ten hag.
Whatever happens do NOT give Southgate the job. He is not good enough and has absolutely not record at managing at club level.
I repeat do not give Southgate the job, ever.
Baz

Why Brazil are banned from wearing yellow shirt at Wembley despite no kit clash with England

Brazil will not be donning their iconic yellow shirt when they take on England at Wembley Stadium on Saturday night.
The move may cause some confusion among fans, given it certainly doesn't clash with the Three Lions traditional colours of white and blue. However, in a week that has been blighted by backlash over Nike's influence on England's own home strip, the Selecao's decision to not wear yellow is because the US kit manufacturer and sporting giant wants to market 'Brazil in Blue'.
In turn, the five-time World Cup winners will instead take to the pitch in their blue away kit. Those in attendance hoping to see the samba stars line up in their legendary yellow strip will be left disappointed.
Some of the game's greatest ever players have worn that yellow shirt proudly, including the likes of Pele, Ronaldo and Ronaldinho. However, Real Madrid duo Vinicius Jr and Rodrygo will be in all blue when they face off against Gareth Southgate's side.
It has been seven years since these two great footballing nations met. Their last clash ended in 0-0 draw, while their last meeting at a major tournament came all the way back in the 2002 World Cup, when Brazil beat England 2-1; while wearing blue.
However, England have got the better of Brazil in blue before. In 1990, a Gary Lineker goal sealed a 1-0 win for the Three Lions, who were then under the reign of the late Sir Bobby Robson. Much is made of what kit Brazil choose to wear and that is for good reason.
Related video: Brazil's Danilo on facing England in the friendly [Portuguese and English] (English Football Channel)

The £317million, 10-year deal signed between Brazil and Nike is in fact the biggest sponsorship deal a national team has signed in football history. It actually sparked backlash back in the South American nation, with fans feeling their national side had sold their soul and become a brand instead.
HAVE YOUR SAY! Should Brazil have worn yellow against England? Comment below
Vinicius Juniorin Brazil's all blue away kit
© (Photo by Jairo Cassiani/Vizzor Image/Getty Images)
With that being said, from Nike's perspective, the temptation to have Brazil contest against England in their blue kit was a marketing opportunity simply too good to turn down.
Just three Premier League stars have been named in Brazil's starting line-up in the capital. West Ham's Lucas Paqueta, Newcastle's Bruno Guimaraes and Wolves ace Joao Gomes will all operate in midfield against Southgate's side.

In contrast, 10 of England's 11 ply their tradein the English top flight. Jude Bellingham, a team-mate of Vinicius Jr and Rodrygo at Real Madrid, is the only exception.
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