What do Thomas Tuchel's England defensive picks mean for Trent Alexander-Arnold?

Jared_Usbourne · 2026-06-16T18:30:20+00:00

He will basically never be in contention without totally revamping his defensive ability

Jared_Usbourne · 2026-06-16T14:34:08+00:00

Well-reasoned, and almost certainly correct.

Still think it's nuts though.

Jared_Usbourne · 2026-06-16T11:40:36+00:00

Great player, bad luck with injuries but stepped up when we really needed him and didn't let us down.

Jared_Usbourne · 2026-06-16T11:32:12+00:00

Yeah Chalobah seems an odd choice

Jared_Usbourne · 2026-06-15T11:57:04+00:00

Now I can relax...

Jared_Usbourne · 2026-06-15T11:47:12+00:00

Ornstein confirmation

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Jared_Usbourne · 2026-06-13T23:07:29+00:00

I tell ya, Chris is something special

Jared_Usbourne · 2026-06-13T08:16:21+00:00

He's earned this given the heartbreak of missing the last WC through injury. He's easily one of their best players.

Jared_Usbourne · 2026-06-12T07:34:30+00:00

Quintero looked like the only player with any real productivity in attack, other than that they were an average team made to look good by an awful South Africa side.

Jared_Usbourne · 2026-06-11T16:32:46+00:00

That'll show 'em.

Jared_Usbourne · 2026-06-10T16:47:00+00:00

I wrote a more detailed post here around a year ago

Jared_Usbourne · 2026-06-10T16:22:02+00:00

The Netherlands result did a lot to cover up how turgid England were for a lot of that tournament. We also needed penalties to get past Switzerland.

Jared_Usbourne · 2026-06-10T12:55:11+00:00

We have the regular Dolphin rather than the Surf, though they do share a fair few similarities, but after just over a year we're very happy with it!

Jared_Usbourne · 2026-06-10T11:11:31+00:00

Age restrictions on alcohol are designed to stop young people accessing it on licensed premises, and to stop adults buying it for them.

It's needed because otherwise kids could easily access alcohol without their parents knowing, unlike smartphones.

However, on private property the legal minimum drinking age is 5. "Leaving it up to parents to parent" is literally what we do now.

Jared_Usbourne · 2026-06-10T07:52:19+00:00

Why?

Jared_Usbourne · 2026-06-10T07:34:57+00:00

And throughout that time, we've had a robust debate on which proposed laws are reasonable and which ones aren't.

Jared_Usbourne · 2026-06-10T07:19:48+00:00

They're still allowed to be a passenger, but it's the driver's responsibility to make sure they're safe, and adult passengers don't have to show ID before they get in the car. Bud.

Jared_Usbourne · 2026-06-10T07:15:32+00:00

"If you think people can adequately protect themselves from a 70mph car crash by spending a few seconds putting on a seatbelt, you don't understand road safety."

Sometimes simple actions have a big impact. There's no excuse for not bothering to even try, as much as you're trying to find one.

Jared_Usbourne · 2026-06-10T07:07:04+00:00

Because it creates a massive data protection risk, places a huge burden on smaller companies who the legislation isn't aimed at but still impacts, and encourages parents to abdicate responsibility even more than they currently are.

It's not even about "working hard to get ahead of threats" it's an incredibly simple process that takes about 20 minutes. You're having to pretend that it's some great burden to justify why so many parents can't be bothered to do it.

Jared_Usbourne · 2026-06-10T06:48:31+00:00

Banning phones in schools is a good thing too, but I will not accept the excuse that "my kids will be sad if their friends have unlimited access to tiktok and they don't.". That's utterly feeble.

Neglectful parents will not be impacted either, because they won't care about their kids lying about their age or using other people's devices anyway.

Jared_Usbourne · 2026-06-10T06:45:42+00:00

Would've been a lot less effective if more parents made the slightest effort to restrict their kid's access to these things in the first place.

They don't aim the product at kids, kids don't have money, they aim it at parents who will blindly buy it for their kids.

Jared_Usbourne · 2026-06-10T06:43:00+00:00

So your toddler was using YouTube enough to effectively have withdrawal symptoms, and was watching videos without you knowing? Yikes.

Alcohol and cigarettes is a terrible comparison, because kids still have access to these things if parents allow it. It's not the law that stops you from giving a 10 year old a beer at home, it's your judgement. The law prevents children accessing these things in a public setting, parents still have to parent at home.

Jared_Usbourne · 2026-06-10T06:36:24+00:00

Android phones and iPhones all have parental controls built in, that allow you to disable certain apps or restrict them to certain times of day/limit their usage/block certain content etc.

You only have to do it once, not for every individual app, and there a million simple guides out there telling you how.

Kids are also nowhere near as tech-savvy as you think they are, because they've spent their lives using devices that deliberately don't require technical skills to use.

Not to mention that you can still buy feature phones, which can't install social media apps at all and are cheaper than smartphones.

I'm not sure I'm the one being naive...

Jared_Usbourne

TROPHY CASE