Went to the Atlanta United match yesterday and me and my buddy were discussing the group - he likes our chances and almost thinks we should win the group. I told him, I think we got a decent draw but the idea that we would be favorites over England is absurd. He agrees with many in the FFA and says England is overrate, their players are overrated, etc. I pointed out they were 4th at the last WC and runner's up in the Euro's with basically the same side. My opinion is we are heavy underdogs to them but I admit I'm a tad biased for the English as I have some English roots and they are my 2nd favorite national side.
Anyway, that's not entirely the point of my post. We then started talking about a combined XI between the two sides and that was part of my argument as to why we are heavy underdogs. I think we only have 1-2 guys that are even a consideration for a combined XI (CP and Snacks). In fact, off the cuff I said I could see me picking the entire England XI over any of our guys. I think the debate comes down to:
CP or Steling/Foden
Snacks or Grealish
three others I considered
Adams or Rice/Phillips
Jedi or Chilwell
Zimmerman or Maguire (I would have considered this fairly absurd 1-2 years ago but these two guys have gone in exact opposite directions since then)
I think my XI would be
Kane
CP Sterling
Mount Bellingham
Rice
Chilwell Zimmerman Stones Walker/TAA/James
Pickford
Thoughts:
- Can't leave CP out but with Snacks recovering I couldn't put him above those guys
- As much as I like Adams I think you have to take Rice (or even Phillips)
- I really wanted to pick Jedi but he's a little inconsistent and gets out of position at times, also not a strong crosser. Chilwell is super solid and consistent
- I took Zimmerman just as a big FU to Maguire - @B Maverick > hey
- Damn is England deep at RB
- In most other WCs I would take the US keeper over Pickford but nobody has stepped up.