Quote Originally Posted by City123 View Post
Ahead of who? One of the players of the tournament in Chiesa? Insigne who's had a wonderful season with Napoli? Serie A winner Barella?

English teams and players are hugely overhyped. Foden's a good player but he doesn't "walk into" the best team at the tournament. Had England been on the other side of the draw they'd have been knocked out well before the final
I watched the start of one of those Match of the Day programmes where Alan Shearer and Micah Richards rank ten candidates with Gary Lineker having a casting vote if needed this morning. It was made before the tournament started and the subject was candidates to be Player of the competition. Foden was on the shortlist and maybe he might have lived up to such a billing if his shot had not rebounded back into play off the inside of a post after just five minutes of the opening match with Croatia, but it didn't and that seemed to sum up the next few weeks for him - with the comparisons with 1966 that the media are so fond off, I suppose it could be said that Foden was a little bit like Jimmy Greaves in 1966.

Despite all of the plaudits and the hype, I'm not wholly convinced by the much of the spine of the England team - Pickford doesn't seem as error prone playing for England as he is with Everton mind and Kane has added a new dimension to his game this season which I believe now makes him one of the best in the world in his position, but central defence and central midfield? I'm not sure.