With my England hat on – I don’t blame Lee Carsley one bit | OneFootball

I am wearing my England hat here, with this news on Lee Carsley.

It is for me of course, Newcastle United first, second, third, fourth, fifth…

However, I do like England and look forward to the finals in the summer.

Put it this way, I think most of us agree that the summers without a World Cup or European Championships are pretty rubbish.

As you will be aware, Lee Carsley started off with two very good performances and 2-0 wins over Republic of Ireland and Finland.

Then they lost 2-1 to Greece and suddenly it is the end of the world.

These rubbish Nations League games are just glorified friendlies and if you can’t experiment, try something a bit different in a game like this, when can you???

With Harry Kane carrying a knock, Lee Carsley played a different system with a false number nine in Bellingham, rather than Watkins or Solanke as a centre forward.

It wasn’t the fault of Lee Carsley that Pickford and the defence were woeful,, conceding five goals and lucky to see three of them disallowed. John Stones let the forward walk past him inside the box on the first goal (that stood).

Whilst I thought Southgate was shocking as England manager, carrying more luck than even Steve Bruce, I do think for some reason we very rarely now see England players performing as well as for their clubs. By the way, I am talking here decades, back to the 90s.

So surely whatever formation Lee Carsley had used, surely we could have expected more from the likes of PL player of the season Foden, stellar star Bellingham, Arsenal’s best creative player Saka and so on.

The media totally ignoring the fact as well that Greece are no mugs these days.

Their last eight matches before beating England, had seen only one defeat (not counting one that finished goalless and then losing on penalties) and that was to an 89th minute goal away to Germany, Greece actually having led 1-0 before losing 2-1. This run of matches had also included a draw against France. Yet, the way journalists and other ‘experts’ were going on, you’d think it was San Marino that England lost to, in this glorified friendly.

The way they have all gone after Lee Carsley has been shocking.

Even Henry Winter, who I really like, must be desperate for attention, coming out with this nonsense on his Twitter/X account:

‘Carsley says he wanted to be “courageous” and “try something different” v Greece as #ENG not won a trophy since 66. It wasn’t being courageous omitting a No 9 in Watkins/Solanke. It was foolhardy. Fortunately a No 9 (Kane) returns v 🇫🇮. It’s about having an outlet and a balance.’

Why is it ‘foolhardy’ to try something a bit different?

So often, England look a lesser sum of the individual parts that make up the team. Why not see if a different set-up might bring about a positive change?

After all, the likes of Arsenal and Man City (pre-Haaland), the two most successful PL teams in recent years, have often played without a real out and out centre forward.

Also…. Lee Carsley won the Under 21s Euros only last year, playing with a… false nine. Anthony Gordon the nominal forward but Carsley having a very fluid approach, with the Newcastle player not going through the middle all the time and interchanging with others. Cole Palmer in a more central role, as he was the other night, Anthony Gordon named player of the tournament due to how well he played that false nine role!

Now I have just seen this media exclusive below, came out late Saturday night.

Who could blame Lee Carsley if he doesn’t want this England job permanently?

All the stupidity you have to put up with from pundits and journalists all desperate to be noticed and doing so by being so over the top in a negative/hysterical way.

Exclusive: Members of national team set-up are convinced interim manager does not want to be Gareth Southgate’s long-term successor

Lee Carsley does not want to be the next long-term England manager, Telegraph Sport has been told.

The Football Association has refused to comment and it is unclear whether Carsley, whose spell as interim head coach is scheduled to end next month has directly informed it that he does not want the full-time job.

Telegraph Sport can reveal that Carsley has left members of the England set-up convinced that he does not want to succeed Gareth Southgate on a full-time basis.

It is believed Carsley has not reacted to Thursday night’s defeat by Greece at Wembley and that major doubts over his desire to be considered for the full-time job set in before that game.