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Now there are Pickford, Shaw, Chilwell, Colwill, Foden, Saka, Palmer, and Bowen. Any more to add to the list?
Imagine at least three of the last four names in attack for the Euros.
Any old-timers recall the time in the early to mid 90s when the likes of Andy Sinton, Trevor Sinclair and Nick Barmby played inverted left-wingers, even before inverted wingers became a thing? Only Stuart Pearce was leftie.
Then in the late 90s to early 00s before Ashley Cole surfaced, there were Phil Neville at LB and Paul Scholes at LW.
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Matty etherington was unlucky not to get a game in that era, Downing was a superior footballer but maybe not as a winger.
Ethers was a pure winger, in England probably part of the last era of that type of player. Loved him at stoke
Reminds me of the “stat” that only three players have ever scored in a penalty shootout for England with their left foot.
Hat tip to anyone who can name them all.
Cole, Pearce, Pickford,
Wow I'm using that one at work.
Hat suitably tipped
I heard in on a podcast very recently
Football clichés? Think it came up in one of their recent quizzes.
Biased coz I'm a Boro fan. But we should of used Stewart downing more rather than shoe Horning joe Cole in. If your going to play joe Cole play him in his proper position. Downing gets a lot of hate and i think that comes down to brendan rodgers sticking him left back for Liverpool. All you need to do is watch the highlights of the uefa cup semi final vs steau Bucharest to see what his wand of a left foot could do.
Having had both of them play for my team (WHU) with Downing experiencing a purple patch comparable to any form previously in his career at that time, Joe Cole was an absolute level above. That said, I do fucking hate square pegs in round holes
I'm not against playing joe Cole. But play him where he can be effective. Having a right footer on the left just makes things imbalanced.
P.S the downing of 04-06 was the best downing of his career.
To be fair, Joe Cole had a decent left foot and scored a few long-range goals with that.
For sure. The one v Sweden (I think) was his left? But he would of done more damage centrally. Downing was prob the only out and out old fashioned left winger we had at one point around 06-08
I think he might have actually got a call up with us, I was very surprised with his quality at that point in his career. He might have got more if it wasn’t for Big Sam’s proclivity for pints of wine, his moving him to the centre of the pitch for us was a master stroke
West Ham era Downing and 1st Boro era Downing were very different players.
At Boro he was a genuinely left winger with a bit of pace. By the time he got to West Ham he'd lost the place and Allerdyce played him as a 10, funnily enough Coles best position.
The point here is England played a pretty standard 442 in that era. Downing was the best option we had to offer genuine width on the left. Cole, Scholes ... Trevor Sinclair just made us narrower and wondered in to the Lampard/Gerrard zone.
But this was always (and to an extent still is) the problem, imagine the frothing outrage of Downing starting a match while Joe Cole is on the bench?
We have the same thought process in play now, people refuse to see our weaknesses and any attempt to mitigate them is slated by people who know absolutely nothing about how to win games of football in tournaments.
More recently it's been about why Mount is on the field and Grealish is on the bench - or Henderson and Foden.
Selecting a balanced side than can win in 120 minutes is something we've always struggled with, especially with 30 million backseat England Managers.
Nice. I remember Downing. You recall Steve Guppy? He had Goal of the Month contenders with both feet in season 98/99.
Yeah the leicester player. I was born 88 so mid 90s to mid 00s is my fave era.
I think downing suffered from the big team bias we had at that time. Joe Cole played for Chelsea and Downing for Boro, that was all that mattered. Total bs ofc.
Good point that, that's one thing I think GS has pretty much done well to get rid of.
Downing was fantastic during his time at West Ham - when played in his proper position. Then Kevin Nolan came back from injury and Big Sam shunted him back out of position again.
Playing Joe Cole out of position was unforgivable…. Until the goal against Sweden
Cole played a lot from the left for Chelsea at the time?
The first-choice wingers under Mourinho were Arjen Robben and Damien Duff. Both lefties and they interchanged wings often.
Cole played 34 PL games in 05/06 interchanging wings - Robben was injured a lot.
but was it more unforgivable than leaving out one of Gerrard, Lampard, Scholes or Beckham to accommodate him?
Oh yes, I suddenly recall Tommy Johnson of Notts County and David Hirst of Sheff Wed being the rare breed (at that time) of left-footed strikers. But they didn't play much for England.
A highlight of England's left-sided problem era was Sven playing Wayne Bridge and Ashley Cole together on the left wing.
Think a bigger problem than lacking a natural left footer was often the absence of decent ball-carrying wide players in the mould of Saka or Sterling who could get in behind.
We'd have been unstoppable in 2002 if only we could have moved the opposition goal to the left hand touchline at the start of each half.
Back then, though, left footers usually played on the left. Now they play on the right and cut inside rather than overlap
We could actually do with one of those guys you mentioned being right-footed to play LW.
We wont get the best out of Foden or Palmer at LW as it forces them into overlapping role, rather than cutting inside, which is what modern tactics prefers and where they are best.
That's why i reckon one of them will be in the middle (prob Foden) and the other on the bench (prob Palmer), with right-footed Grealish or Gordon starting ahead of them, despite not being as good or in form.
No I don't. I wasn't alive before the mid 90s 😂
Show off
Left sided midfielders were always England's achillies heel for about 20 years after John Barnes and Chris Waddle. And in that time, Wales had two generational talents at that position in Giggs and Bale
Not forgetting Lee Sharpe.
By the way, you know if Bryan Robson was leftie or rightie? He was like an 80s English Dembele for his two-footedness.
I think Robson was left footed actually. Similar in a way to Bobby Charlton. I remember Jack saying that when they were kids, Bobby was a natural lefty but as he grew up he practiced so much with both feet, that you'd never know by watching him play
There was also Graeme Le Saux, but he was injured for Euro 96 and Euro 2000. Played at the World Cup in '98, however. He suited the wing back role which England used at the time although the formation probably didn't play to Beckham's strengths as right WB. Around this time you also had McManaman and Anderton as wide men - neither were left footed but were versatile enough to swap flanks during games.
In the 2018 world cup I’m pretty sure Pickford was the only left footed regular starter. Ashley Young left wing back🥴
I still feel like the left side of the pitch is still an issue though. Shaw and Chilwell perma injured, Colwill injured and not playing Centre Half at a level people are saying makes him the perfect partner to Stones. Is Foden a LW, Saka, Bowen & Palmer aren't Left sided players.
Didn't we stick Emile Heskey out on the left wing for a spell, or am I imagining this?
Down to the Gay Frogs if you ask me ? !
It’s weird how we have so few players in the middle of the pitch (CB, DM/CM/AM, ST) who are left footed, we have Mings when fit and Colwill and Branthwaite are coming up at CB. Maguire who can pass on his right like a left footer but the rest of the left footers are fullbacks and wingers.
Left footed players tend to be more creative. England used to undervalue creativity so the creative kids don't make it.
In any case, what do you folks think about starting all 3 generational left-footed attacking midfield talents in Saka, Foden and Palmer?
Heard a lot of talk about this after Pamer's 4 goals but for me it's just going back to the days of Sven shoehorning everyone in.
Saka has been superb on the right hand side for a number of years now, he has that position sewn up.
Bellingham has almost played as a striker for Real Madrid, certainly as the most advanced 10, scoring goals for fun and renowned as one of the best players in the world. Why would we want to play him anywhere but there?
Foden is tricky to accommodate as he's been excellent for City in a similar position to Bellingham, but played much of his early City career tucking in from the left. Before City signed Haaland they played without a striker, opening up space for Foden to make those runs to the far post. With Kane dropping deep now that could certainly work for Foden and Bellingham.
So then where do you fit Palmer in? It would mean dropping either Bellingham or Foden deeper into a position they don't play and don't really have the ability to play (as a 6 alongside Rice) just to shoehorn another attacking player in when we already have a ropey defence. Someone has to miss out unfortunately and it's Palmer.