Calvert-Lewin and Pickford start for England

Current FIFA world rankings: Belgium #1, England #4.

Am surprised Grealish has not been given the job at 10; he’s proving himself to be quite the mercurial talent, and has the sort of confidence and self-belief that could make him immune to the stage-fright that England’s other players often suffer on the international stage.

Bill, ESPN+ is carrying the game online in the US. It's also on TUDN (formerly Univision Deportes) in Spanish. If you have DirecTV, it's channel 464... on Spectrum it's 444 I believe.

He looked fantastic against the Shite last week

Anyone who nutmegs St Virgil in the manner he did last week is top banana for me

To play five defenders and two DM is basically holding up the white flag.

Grealish will be called to the rescue at half time, probably for Dier or Rice, and DCL will get subbed for Sancho or Kane because he won't have touched the ball.

I was a bit surprised to see Hazard listed initially, since he was injured again two weeks ago.

Bill G, I have mixed feelings too... it's hard to root against England (which I always have) when Dom is leading the line!

Not convinced by the defensive and midfield line-up.

The Live Forum is now Open!

Southgate ahs his favourites alright. The national set up is a cancerous cess pit. As a manager I honestly wouldn't want my players anywhere near it.

Those complaining about Pickford's kicking skills should be watching too. Either Sweden's manager has instructed Olsen to put every clearance into the stands, or he's a really poor kick. Three so far, and they've all gone 10 yards beyond the left touchline.

Grealish is better than anything he has out there right now and Dier is a disaster at the centre of the defence and is nothing more than an exagerrated holding midfielder. Southgate please quit!!!

*Checks TW notes 2015

We are all different, Graham talks about the one footed Lukaku bullying defenders. I didn’t mind Big Rom’s left foot, I used to love him when he started using his weight, but it never lasted long enough whenever he started putting it about, and that’s why I have always given Dominic loads of slack, because although he’s got his faults, a lack of effort is not one of them.

Never did him any harm, if Lewin can score 20 plus this season I couldn't give 2 toots on a rag mans trumpet if they all came off the back of his head and arse.

Comparisons with Kane? You're joking, Kane is a media-loved cart horse by comparison.

Nice to see the love between DCL and Lukaku.

Still loathe these international breaks

John@67: Yes, absolutely, and if DCL scored 25 goals per season, season after season, there would still be football masterminds on here informing us of their assessments of his limitations. I think there's a big element of some people 'anchoring' their initial opinions of DCL to a point of refusal to shift from them, pouncing (like those spiders that emerge from a hatch to catch their prey) at the first chance to highlight a negative. They need to know that the ability and willingness to admit they were wrong is a strength, not a weakness.

This was not a friendly where the manager can look at players and systems, it was a competitive game.

I felt sorry for Calvert-Lewin tonight. Hopefully the manager sticks with that system and keeps Kane in to play it.

Bring all our lads home injury-free.

Thank god for Netflix.

At the end of the days there all all different kinds of strikers.

Calvert-Lewin on the other hand visibly gives his all.

Lashing them in from outside the box is a skill very few goal-scorers had/have. Shearer 25 years ago was probably the best, but only occasionally did he do it.

Making defenders very nervous by your movement in the area is a much more oblique skill, creating that nano-second of space and time from which someone may score. Until this season most defenders could take a li-lo onto the pitch, and a book.

However, as with other aspects of his game that he has obviously worked on (heading, finishing and positional play) this will improve given his dedication. Then unfortunately we will get the offer we can't refuse.

Calvert-Lewin – get yer fuckin act together, lad!

The only Everton player I genuinely disliked. He wasn't getting a game at Chelsea and could easily have spent another season with West Brom if we hadnt stepped in. We gave him the platform to reboot his career and he repaid us with a stream of disrespectful comments. It would have cost him nothing to keep his mouth shut.

Somebody on the live forum told me he had not won a thing. That probably has more to do with the fact that he places his own interest above the team rather than the lack of scoring ability.

I would expect Calvert-Lewin to win stuff by the time he is 27.

A comparison with Lukaku in that respect is valid in my opinion. It's not a desire to criticise unduly, more a suggestion as to how he could improve even more. He has learnt the value of getting in the box more frequently and finishing with one touch (supreme example: Bob Latchford).

But can you learn to strike a ball more cleanly? I don't know. Why do some cricketers have the ability to score more sixes than others? Innate timing?

Frankly, I don't care how he plays well for England or whether he scores. I suppose it builds his confidence and his game to play against top opposition, but international friendlies are uncompetitive and the risk of injury is too high.

Otherwise I though he has started his international career reasonably well, certainly does not look out of place. A first goal helps too. Obviously it was harder against Belgium than Wales, they are a very good team and were unlucky to lose, but that also meant the service to him was pathetic. A midfield of Rice, Henderson is understaffed and uncreative. The wing backs were pushed back by Belgiums wider players. Playing 3 centre backs because you don't think any of them are good enough will end up like this.

One thing I did notice was that, starved of any kind of service in the glacially slow build up that went nowhere, Dom started showing for the ball and I though did pretty well with his back to goal holding up play. I think he's now seen as a useful back up to Kane, with the added benefit of more pace. The other missing trick is that Dom tends to win most battles in the air and I though a better set up with a team mate or two closer to him, would have benefitted from the numerous flick ons he served up. Dom does that way better than Kane.

Let's just hope our S Americans come through unscathed in what look to be quite challenging matches.