Susanna Sealy returns to present this week's WSL show as we deep dive into the Lionesses' debut UEFA Nation's League campaign. Will we see a return for Beth Mead - or has the games against Scotland and Netherlands come to soon?
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00:00 Welcome back to this Women's Youth League show where we are now discussing England's
00:08 chances in the Nations League.
00:10 So their first picture they've got in the tournament is on the 22nd of September where
00:15 they are taking on Scotland, which is actually quite a nice mirroring given that the men's
00:20 team are playing each other tomorrow.
00:23 Anyway, that's enough of the men for now.
00:26 So obviously the squad hasn't been announced yet.
00:29 We are expecting that to come next week.
00:32 We know that Beth England is injured and we've seen Beth Mead on the bench for Arsenal.
00:41 Obviously she has yet to actually come on to the pitch.
00:44 But Graham, who are you expecting to be named in that squad next week?
00:50 I think we might see it this week potentially, but you might be right in saying that.
00:56 I mean, what are we on today?
00:57 It's the 11th of September at the time of speaking, so potentially, hopefully this week
01:00 I would imagine.
01:01 I think it's a really interesting one because we touched on the first part of the show about
01:05 the fact that the World Cup only ended like three weeks ago and the England team are already
01:11 kind of back within, it'll be five weeks, I think, five or six weeks by the time the
01:15 game comes along.
01:16 And there's a lot of players again that won't have a rest.
01:18 I think you've got Alessio has obviously started a season.
01:23 You've got the likes of Georgia Stanway, I think, played yesterday for Bayern Munich
01:28 in a competitive game.
01:29 I believe it was, I could be wrong with this.
01:32 I don't really give up with the Bundesliga as much as I should compare to England, but
01:35 I believe it was like their charity shield or community shield is now called.
01:40 You've got other players that are kind of still maybe not completely fresh coming off
01:46 the back of the World Cup because they haven't had too long off.
01:49 So it'll be interesting to see who comes in, but I think we'll see the bulk of players
01:53 that were at the World Cup come into the squad.
01:55 I think it'll be interesting to see how England line up because we pretty much went with that
01:59 back three, didn't we, during the World Cup after, I think it was the second or third
02:04 game, a third game against China.
02:06 We went at that back three and you know what, once we went at that back three, it kind of
02:10 stuck up until the second half of the final when we opted back to a four.
02:15 So it'll be quite interesting to see what happens in terms of what the formation is
02:18 going to be like.
02:19 I think the squad itself, I think a lot of the team picks itself.
02:23 Mary Earps, she's going to play.
02:26 She's going to be your goalkeeper.
02:27 You've got the likes of Lucy Bronze will play.
02:30 She's still our best right back.
02:31 Millie Bright's obviously fully fit.
02:35 Alex Greenwood had a tremendous tournament.
02:37 Jess Carter was incredible during the tournament.
02:40 Kiera Walsh, thankfully, is completely fit.
02:43 Stanway's obviously going to play every game.
02:46 So I think if you see additions to the squad, you're going to be getting additions that
02:49 are maybe squad additions that wouldn't get in at the start of the XI originally.
02:55 But it's interesting you touched on Beth Mead because I think, and I don't really know fully
03:01 100% because I wasn't part of the press conference, but I read some quotes from Jonas saying that
03:07 she was in that squad to kind of maybe get a bit of a feel back for being part of the
03:11 squad and stuff like that.
03:12 But look, if you're on the bench, that means you've got an ability to be fit.
03:15 Whether you think she's going to come off 10 minutes, 20 minutes, or she's not going
03:19 to come on at all, there's a potential that she is fit enough to be on the bench at the
03:23 end of the day, which means she's a lot closer to a return.
03:26 And I think there'll be people who disagree, but if you're going to be picking England's
03:29 top three players over the past two, three years, Beth Mead's in there.
03:34 Massive part of why England won the Euros, huge part, probably the most important part,
03:39 hence why she won't play with the tournament.
03:41 And she's a big miss when she's not there, whether we like it or not.
03:44 Have we found ways to adapt without her?
03:46 Yeah, we got a World Cup final without Beth Mead, but could we have won that World Cup
03:49 final with Beth Mead?
03:51 You never really know, but I think...
03:52 I think it's best not to go into that.
03:54 No, it's not, is it?
03:55 I'm going to start crying again.
03:56 Yeah, I know.
03:58 But you know, Beth Mead's a tremendous player, a world-class player.
04:02 Second in the Ballon d'Or last year, UEFA Player of the Year, runner-up to Alexia Ptahies,
04:08 which is not a bad accolade to have.
04:10 She's had that unfortunate injury.
04:11 It's going to take her time to come back and get fit.
04:14 Is it too soon for her to be back in the England squad?
04:17 Maybe.
04:18 But it might not be a problem to put her within the squad and get the feel back for being
04:22 part of the squad again and just say, look, you're probably not going to play, but come
04:25 back with the squad because you're obviously a huge part of this squad.
04:29 When you're fully fit, you're probably in the starting XI.
04:32 Come back in and get a feel of it again because you've been away for the best part of a year.
04:35 So I actually think we will see Beth Mead in that squad.
04:39 I think it'll be good.
04:40 I don't know if we'll see her get any minutes because I think Scotland is a really competitive
04:43 game and it's a rivalry.
04:47 We both live in Scotland.
04:48 We know what the rivalry is like.
04:49 England fan, I've been getting pellets for the men and the women for the last few weeks.
04:53 So hopefully I don't have any text messages from any of my male football supporters tomorrow
04:59 or the following week.
05:02 I think it's great that there's been over 40,000 tickets sold and there's no way in
05:05 for Scotland fans.
05:06 I think that's really exciting.
05:09 With Beth England being out, does it give an opportunity to another striker?
05:13 Because I think as much as you could bring Beth Mead in, do I class her as...
05:18 For me, she's a striker, but she's that right-hand side wing position, that number seven position
05:22 that we've seen Lauren James occupy and Chloe Kelly occupy.
05:25 So maybe adding an additional body in there, but then you've got Alessia Russo as your
05:29 forward and then we pretended for a little bit that Rachel Daly was a forward.
05:33 She's very much still a forward, but apparently she's a left wing back now or left back.
05:37 So for me, I think Rachel Daly...
05:39 No, it's a shame that didn't last long enough.
05:41 She's just destined to be there, isn't she?
05:43 I think whether we like it or not, she's destined to be there.
05:46 So you look outside of that, I think one that's really interesting is that Ebony Salmond obviously
05:52 has moved to Aston Villa two, three days ago.
05:55 I think the time is speaking at the weekend.
05:56 So that kind of came out of nowhere.
05:58 So there's a chance now for Ebony Salmond to potentially stake a claim for getting part
06:02 of the squad.
06:03 She's narrowly missed out on getting in the squad for the last couple of tournaments.
06:08 She's now back in England after being over in the States.
06:12 She's obviously only still 22.
06:14 There's tons of room for her to grow.
06:17 And I think when you look elsewhere at the other strikers within the squad, people that
06:20 can play up front, you've got your Katie Robinson's and your Nikita Paris.
06:23 They're more of that kind of right wing position.
06:25 You just park it like your left wing, your right wing.
06:28 So I think out and out centre forwards, you're looking at maybe Ebony Salmond could maybe
06:32 come in and stake a claim.
06:34 It's Nations League, so it's competitive.
06:36 It's Scotland, so it's definitely competitive.
06:38 And Holland is a tough game as well.
06:39 I know we beat them 5-1 prior to the Euros, but Holland are a very good team.
06:43 Really, really good team full of really good players, some world class players.
06:46 I think they're both really competitive games and it gives these players like maybe Ebony
06:49 Salmond the chance to come in and say, "Hey, look, I can be part of the squad moving forward."
06:54 Beth England I think has got a hip injury.
06:56 She's having a hip operation.
06:57 So that doesn't sound to me like it's a short term knock.
07:00 I hope it is because I love Beth England, big fan, but it offers an opportunity for
07:04 her.
07:05 But one player that I really, really want to see get a chance and someone that I think
07:08 I've spoke about till, you know, Kingdom Come.
07:12 I wonder who it is.
07:14 I wonder.
07:15 May Letizia I would like to see.
07:19 I was kind of hoping I was going to shock you there, but then I realised I'm not.
07:21 But for me, May has been tremendous for the past year.
07:25 For me, she's the future of England's defence.
07:27 I think it's difficult to place her ahead of Jess Carter, Millie Bright or Alex Greenwood
07:33 at the moment.
07:34 If we're playing that back three, if we're playing a back four, it's even more difficult
07:37 for her to get in.
07:38 But I think she's excellent.
07:40 I think she's superb.
07:41 I think she deserves a chance.
07:42 I think she should have went to the World Cup.
07:43 I still believe that.
07:46 And please put her back in the squad, Serena.
07:48 However, if you are listening, Serena, I never, never, ever distrust anything you do.
07:53 You potentially may walk on water.
07:55 So just you back yourself.
07:59 Don't listen to me.
08:00 Well, I'm sure we're going to be talking about it a lot more close to the time.
08:03 But for fans who are more WSL focused rather than the Scottish Women's Premier League focus,
08:10 who would you be saying to look out for in that Scotland squad?
08:14 Who are you expecting to turn up for Scotland?
08:18 I think when you look at Scotland, they've got a lot stronger over the years.
08:22 Their midfield is arguably world class.
08:26 Caroline Weah, how she's not been on the Ballon d'Or nomination, we discussed on last week's
08:30 show, that baffles me.
08:33 Caroline Weah is affectionately known by her teammates as 'Caca'.
08:37 I did an interview with her, I want to say two years ago now.
08:43 And one of her former teammates said, asked her about the nickname.
08:46 I asked her about it.
08:47 She had laughed.
08:48 And it's because she now A plays for Real Madrid, which is weird.
08:51 But she used to play in a similar vein to Caca.
08:53 And anyone who's old enough to have seen Caca, which unfortunately I am one, as I said, it
08:57 was my birthday, I'm 37 last week.
09:01 He's pretty good.
09:03 And by pretty good, I mean, like, outstandingly good.
09:05 And Caroline Weah being named after him or nicknamed after him is not a great surprise
09:09 because really, really good player and a very, very similar style.
09:12 And it's had an amazing season for Real Madrid and just keeps kind of like going up and up
09:16 and up.
09:17 But then you've got Aaron Cosbert, of course, Aaron Cosbert.
09:20 If you don't know who Aaron Cosbert is and you don't watch WSL and you're not watching
09:24 close enough because Aaron Cosbert's amazing.
09:26 But outside of that, you've got Sam Kerr in the middle as well.
09:28 Now Sam Kerr is, she'll be well known to Glasgow City fans, we've done an awful lot with Glasgow
09:33 City.
09:34 And most importantly, we're really well known to Rangers fans where she's been for the past
09:37 couple of years and was part of their Invincible team that won their first Scottish Premier
09:40 League title.
09:41 She's gradually became that sort of number six role over the past few years for Scotland.
09:47 I've got to be honest, Glasgow City played Rangers last season, a game when we unfortunately
09:52 lost 2-1.
09:53 But Sam Kerr looked, she looked miles ahead of the best player on the pitch that night
09:58 without standing.
09:59 And she's obviously got her move to Bayern Munich this summer.
10:03 And to go from the Scottish Premier League to a team with Stanway, a team with Peniela
10:09 Harder, Magdalena Eriksen, that's in there.
10:11 And there's many other names I could mention, shows her quality as well.
10:14 And that's your midfield for Scotland.
10:16 But there's also some really good young talents like Jenna Clark, who was at Glasgow City
10:20 beforehand.
10:21 I think I've talked her up an awful lot.
10:22 I love Jenna Clark, both on a personal level and as a player.
10:25 But she's now at Liverpool.
10:27 She's a fantastic defender and you've got a lot of experience alongside in terms of
10:31 like Rachel Corsi, Sophie Howard, who's been at Leicester for the past few years, has been
10:34 excellent as well.
10:35 Scotland's a really tough test.
10:38 It's a really tough test.
10:39 But one, if England play to the level they can, we should get beyond that.
10:45 Scotland have a lot of good young talent like Sam Kerr, Lauren Davidson, Erin Cuspin, still
10:50 very young, world-class talent like Caroline Weir.
10:52 Anyone who thinks that's going to be an easy game is absolutely out of their minds.
10:58 Well, yeah, as I say, we've still got a couple of weeks, so I'm sure we'll be discussing
11:02 that in detail once the squads are announced.
11:08 That's it for today.
11:09 Thank you once again for joining.
11:11 If you want any more of our women's football content, please head to the QR code, which
11:16 will send you to Graham's newsletter.
11:20 And for any more of our content, please head to shotstv.com.
11:23 And this show is produced by Mark Wilson.
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