LAURA WOODS ON ENGLAND SNUBS, POCHETTINO TO MAN UTD & LITTLER VS GREAVES

ENGLAND BETTER WITH PALMER AND FODEN

I do think the squads Thomas Tuchel keeps picking have the chance to challenge the likes of Spain and France because even though there have been a couple of new inclusions of young players – Jobe Bellingham being one of them – there is still a lot of quality in this team.

We did beat France and did it quite well, even if it was a third-place play-off game.

Under other circumstances, like if it was in the knockouts, it might have been a little bit different but I really enjoyed the way that we played that game. And I do think we have enough quality to beat Spain as well, actually.

So yeah, I think the frustration is because you’re still seeing the likes of Cole Palmer and Phil Foden scoring goals and getting involved in their last few games. They’re often in good form and they’re not being picked or pulling out.

I know that Tuchel has come out and said how important those camps are but it does feel like a punishment. It does feel like because you missed that camp, you’re not going to be brought back in, so in this case form isn’t important. I still think it really should be.

And I get that it would be at the expense of somebody that stepped up in the last camp. It almost feels like he’s saying ‘you didn’t think England was good enough at the time and you wanted to focus on getting better for your club’... but I don’t know if it’s that black and white.

I think England would be a better team with one or both of those players back in it, which is why it feels strange when you’re then bringing other newbies into the squad.

You’re asking yourself: are we embarking on the next generation? Now they’re in and will probably do a really good job, does that mean there’s not going to be space for the others?

I would be really disappointed if I were Palmer or Foden. I think England have much more quality and a better chance of beating Spain or France with them in the squad.

England to win the Nations League is 9/2 with BetMGM

GLASNER & FOREST GETTING BEST OUT OF DELAP

The goals Liam Delap scored against Manchester City were obviously brilliant – excellent finishes – and he was just a threat all round.

I enjoy seeing that for him and it will definitely be huge for him in terms of stepping it up.

I watched him a few times at Chelsea and spoke to a few pundits, and not a lot of people were having him.

They were saying he’s not there yet, he’s not at that top level and they weren’t sure if he ever would be.

But it’s obviously working at Nottingham Forest and Oliver Glasner is probably really good with him as well.

I’m not sure if he’s the successor to Harry Kane but those are huge boots to fill anyway. Kane’s just won a Ballon d’Or so it doesn’t get much bigger than that.

I read something about Glenn Hoddle saying Liam needs to work a bit more on his finishing. But he’s obviously moving in the right direction coming off the City game, for sure.

And if you look at the England squad there’s such a lack of proper, out-and-out goalscorers, so you can definitely make a case for him. It would be interesting to see how he performs in the shirt.

IS FRANK THE ANSWER FOR PALACE?

I do have sympathy for Pierre Sage because I think it’s quite difficult to build something at a club where your best players have been sold, recruitment hasn’t been great and you’re kind of left with the bare minimum, especially when you’ve got huge centre-backs, in terms of character and ability, leaving the club.

But you also have to look at the fact that Crystal Palace are bottom of the league. We’re not past Christmas yet but it’s getting to the point now where they probably need to make a change before they get in some real trouble.

They can still get themselves out of it, of course, and probably have enough quality in that team to get out of it under the right guidance and leadership.

I do love Thomas Frank. He was given the right tools when he was at Brentford and was part of that culture that they’ve got there where they’re just so good at buying and selling and they managed to do brilliant things.

But the stuff he produced at Tottenham was not good, so you have to scrutinise what happened at Spurs and what he’s going to do with a team where their confidence is low – even though they did perform well in that last game against Liverpool.

He needs to get something out of them and it’s a bit of a gamble whichever way you go.

But I’ve always really liked Frank as a manager and we’ll just have to see.

The problem is the Palace fans now have a degree of expectation, now that they’ve won silverware recently and they’re in Europe, which has its own problems with having to rotate the team better.

Crystal Palace to be relegated is 11/8 with BetMGM

A DRAW NOTHING TO CELEBRATE AT OLD TRAFFORD

I found Manchester United really frustrating to watch at the weekend, especially the way they and the ownership were celebrating like they’d won the game…

It’s like ‘yeah, but you still went 2-0 down at home – again – and had to dig yourself out of this mess’.

It must be so frustrating to be a United fan at the moment.

So what’s success for them this season? Just not being relegated, for a start, which is the bare minimum.

I never really thought they would go down but they need to get themselves out of this very precarious position and also give their fanbase something to actually respect.

But when was the last time they genuinely looked like Manchester United? And I mean the United that crowds used to identify with.

It’s probably been about 15 years, realistically.

They need to get themselves out of the bottom three, start performing in a much more respectable way and give the fans something to cheer for.

I said this from the start, and probably said it as gently as I could: I never really thought Michael Carrick was the right man for that job. That’s such a tough job for anyone to go into and you need someone with proper experience to deal with it.

I don’t think Mauricio Pochettino will be overawed by everything that comes with it.

Pochettino’s gone through some really tough times in football and he’s still getting good jobs, so I think he’s definitely the right man for it.

HOWE WORTH BIGGER JOB THAN WHAT’S AVAILABLE

For Eddie Howe, I was wondering if he would be interested in the Palace job but he might be sitting there and waiting for something bigger.

I wasn’t sure about him for the United job either; I just couldn’t see him there.

So what’s next for him? I don’t know. Maybe he hangs on and waits for the England job in a couple of years or something like that.

It must be so difficult being a manager. What do you do? Do you sit there and hedge your bets? The England job isn’t going to be available for a little while and he probably needs a bit of a rest after everything that happened at Newcastle.

Plus, his stock definitely rose so much from his time on Tyneside. Even after everything that happened near the end, a lot of people don’t blame Eddie; they look more at the recruitment and PSR so it was still a bit of a shock for him to go.

It’s bizarre when you look at the Premier League table because all your usual mid-table teams are so high up the league at the moment. It really kind of confuses the situation.

Until there’s a job opening I don’t know where I can see him. I couldn’t see him going abroad but that might actually be the best thing for him – to go somewhere in Italy or similar.

But currently there’s not a Premier League job that’s coming up at the level that I think he deserves.

GREAVES GRAND SLAM LUCK

Beau Greaves’ Grand Slam of Darts draws have been exceptionally difficult. She’s had the likes of Nathan Aspinall, Danny Noppert, Michael van Gerwen and Gary Anderson every year… and this time she’s gone and drawn the world number one.

She has beaten both Luke Littler and Niels Zonneveld before, though, so she can have confidence.

But, in saying that, what a disappointing draw anyway.

I would just be gutted if I were her. And I hate it when people say ‘you can only beat what’s in front of you and if you want to win it you have to beat the best anyway’.

Sorry, I just don’t believe that for a second.

It’s like when the World Cup draw comes out and you’re watching England and they end up going up against Spain and France, for example. You’re thinking ‘arghhh, this is an absolute nightmare’.

She must be feeling a little bit like that with these Grand Slam draws.

But you never know what could happen. It’s just that Luke’s brilliant here and he’s my favourite for the tournament as well. So even though he is beatable I don’t think she will beat him and he will go on to win the whole thing.

I think he’s comfortable in this format and at this venue. And with these last few majors as well, in the run-up to the World Championship, people just click into gear.

The Grand Slam is that springboard where a player takes big confidence into the worlds and I think Luke will be in a different headspace for it.

Ross Smith is my one to watch in Wolverhampton, too. He’s won the European Championship and the World Series Finals, as well as two European Tour events and two Players Championships.

Ross Smith to win the Grand Slam of Darts is 20/1 with BetMGM