Season › 2024-25 › News Pickford beaten in goal as England lose to Greece Michael Kenrick 10/10/2024 26comments | Jump to last England 1 - 2 Greece Pickford is in goal as England as they fall to an embarrassing home defeat to Greece in the Uefa Nations League Group B2 game. England interim head coach, Lee Carsley, named a really attacking team with John Stones named captain. Carsley says John Stones "deserves" to be picked as captain with regular skipper Harry Kane not fit to start. "It's a brilliant achievement for John, something he deserves," said Carsley. Article continues below video content He hinted when he announced the squad that the height and width of the team would come from the wide players and not the full-backs meaning that he would have the chance to play the trio of Jude Bellingham, Cole Palmer and Phil Foden in one team. But in the first half, it hadn't clicked for England. The fluidity and the understanding aren't there. Saying that, they've had chances. Defensively it's slightly worrying. If we were playing against one of the superpowers of football, then we'd be going in behind. And within a few minutes of the restart, Pickford was beaten far too easily by Vangelis Pavlidis and the England All-Stars were behind to Greece at Wembley for the first time ever. And a second goal a few minutes later was embarrassing but ruled out for offside. England huffed and puffed but the attacking lineup just couldn't do what was needed, while Greece got the ball past Pickford four times in all — three goals disallowed. But a late strike by Jude Bellingham spared Everton blushes before the end. But in added time, more embarrassing defending saw Pickford beaten again and this time it was not going to be ruled out, giving Greece a famous win. England: Pickford, Alexander-Arnold, Stones, Colwill, Lewis, Rice, Bellingham, Saka (51' Madueke), Palmer, Foden (72' Solanke), Gordon (60' Watkins). Subs: Pope, Henderson, Walker, Livramento, Guehi, Jones. Gallagher, Gomes. Reader Comments (26) Note: the following content is not moderated or vetted by the site owners at the time of submission. Comments are the responsibility of the poster. Disclaimer () Neil Tyrrell 1 Posted 10/10/2024 at 20:02:16 Not a great first 10 minutes or so for Pickford v Greece, hope he gets all the mistakes out of his system on the international break! Brendan McLaughlin 2 Posted 10/10/2024 at 20:05:46 Neil,How fecking long is this international break then? Neil Tyrrell 3 Posted 10/10/2024 at 20:10:24 Good one Brendan, made me laugh Is that Andy Warhol managing Greece? Luke Welch 4 Posted 10/10/2024 at 20:14:53 Honestly I have no idea how Gordon gets in the England team. Brian Williams 5 Posted 10/10/2024 at 20:17:50 Carsley's experiment not working at the moment, unless he's told Gordon to play shit. Luke Welch 6 Posted 10/10/2024 at 20:21:26 Doesn't McNeil assist and score more than Gordon? Neil Tyrrell 7 Posted 10/10/2024 at 20:24:04 Yeah but Gordon is Neymar level when it comes to rolling around after any contact Luke Welch 8 Posted 10/10/2024 at 20:26:18 This true! Carsley will realise that Gordon does score at some point. Nigel Scowen 9 Posted 10/10/2024 at 20:56:09 Stones was poor there. Luke Welch 10 Posted 10/10/2024 at 21:05:34 Terrible perfomance this! Carsley won't stay in the job if it carries on like this. Robert Tressell 11 Posted 10/10/2024 at 21:13:51 This is pitta-ful from England. Luke Welch 12 Posted 10/10/2024 at 21:16:33 Defence looks worse than ours! And that's saying something. John Keating 14 Posted 10/10/2024 at 21:34:38 England have been direGod only knows what’s up with Pickford tonight? Brian Williams 15 Posted 10/10/2024 at 21:40:01 What a comedy off errors. Greece have had the ball in the net five times.Absolutely shocking. Barry Rathbone 16 Posted 10/10/2024 at 21:49:07 "Where have all the good men goneAnd where are all the gods?Where's the streetwise HerculesTo fight the rising odds?Isn't there a white knight upon a fiery steed?"No Bonnie there isn't. And the sooner people understand how ordinary English players are, the sooner the delusion will stop. Robert Tressell 17 Posted 10/10/2024 at 21:53:06 I do wonder sometimes why coaches over complicate things.Also - Greek puns much harder than I expected. Luke Welch 18 Posted 10/10/2024 at 21:53:07 I doubt Carsely will get many more games… Brent Stephens 19 Posted 10/10/2024 at 22:02:04 Hellas - other people. Tony Abrahams 20 Posted 10/10/2024 at 22:05:04 We are all born equal, Barry, which makes me question how the English kids have always been taught how to play the game. Neil Tyrrell 21 Posted 10/10/2024 at 22:05:19 Someone on here (maybe Barry R?) suggested during the Euros that it wasn't all Southgate's fault, that English players just aren't that good when removed from their club-level international teammates. Based on today's evidence, I tend to agree. Experimental lineup or not, there was a lot of England's prime attacking talent on the pitch there and they basically created the square root of fuck all. And the defence was even worse! Absolutely woeful performance. John Graham 22 Posted 10/10/2024 at 22:22:06 A bunch of individuals who all wanted to win the game on their own.Pickford was awful. Too casual and panicking at every cross.Hopefully Carsley will learn it's not about just putting your better players on the pitch. Anthony Jones 23 Posted 10/10/2024 at 22:28:08 That side was so imbalanced. All these attackers trying to do a Rambo. No orchestration. No cohesion.England need a Rodri. Or even a half-Rodri. Tom Bowers 24 Posted 10/10/2024 at 22:31:16 Carsley has as much idea as Southgate which isn't much.He has a bunch of players running around like headless chickens.Sure a few have some real talent but without a Rooney or Shearer it's all a waste of time.He continues to play a right back as a utility player all over the pitch but achieving nothing of note like he did under Southgate who was heavily criticized for it.No starting place for Walker, Madison or Eze which baffles me but average players like Gordon get to start.Sorry Lee but your tenure will be brief.Bring back Big Sam (chuckle) Derek Thomas 25 Posted 10/10/2024 at 22:40:47 We 'all know'...Pickford is having a 'Gordon West post Championship / Keflavik lack of confidence season'. Stones always has a mistake in him.Alexander Arnold can't defend properlyFoden only looks good with City's stars around him.Bellingham is over ratedAnd both seem to be England's Lampard & Gerrard Mk IISolanke only got picked because he's at a sky 6 cluband Gordon is a diving rs no mark.Thus England come A-cropper-lis Mike Price 26 Posted 11/10/2024 at 00:27:34 Roy Keane sees the same Pickford I do. George Stuart 28 Posted 11/10/2024 at 02:08:11 I only watched the highlights(Highlights?)because, you know.That was fucking hilarious.I liked Carsley. I like Pickford.I never hated Gordon but seriously.On Gordon, he's over rated. He scores some reasonable goals but not many and wastes loads of good chances. 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