Glen Johnson Steven Gerrard Martin Kelly Jordan Henderson Andy Carroll Stewart Downing 6 Liverpool players in the 23 man squad now. Out of that 6, I'd say only 3 should automatically get in (Gerrard, Carroll and Johnson, but as a back up to Richards/Walker if fit). It's craziness that people like Aaron Lennon, Micah Richards and Rio Ferdinand can't get into this squad.
Hodgsons lost the plot, this is the worst England squad going into a major tournament in my living memory. The likes of Horrenderson, Downing and Kelly have done nothing last season to justify selection and are simply not good enough, and Gerrard is only in there on reputation not recent form. I think you can get 20/1 on England not to score a goal at the finals, worth a cheeky punt me thinks.
micah richards must have done something extreme to warrant being ignored in this way as it cant be for footballing reasons.
Roy has been a manager since 1976 and has managed two big clubs (for a total period of 2 and half years), inter and liverpool and both jobs took him out of his comfort zone, he is best at managing clubs with no expectations at all and while people may say "oh we don't expect england to do well" even when we have crap players there is still massive expectation, he has no chance in this job!
And the weird thing is that they've probably got as much chance as any other squad we could have sent because top players, particularly our top players, simply don't perform at tournaments. Almost any random squad would probably do as well (certainly would have in South Africa). I really think you've got more chance with a squad full of Parkers than a squad full of Rooneys (if you see what I mean). Let's not forget it wasn't too long ago that Greece won the Euros (and of course Chelski winning the CL proves anything can happen!)
Thats the trouble with the back up list, you can only use those players, we've only got Sturridge left of the 5 standby's now, but I've no idea what happens if we run out of them, I think its unprecedented. I've also no idea how Richards didn't make standby, Johnson is bad enough, but Kelly ahead of him too is shocking imo. Picking Richards would have saved picking Kelly 'and' Jagielka as he can do both their jobs, could have took another MFer...missed a trick their Woy.
So, the Dutch are racially abused with primate noises at their last training session... http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/18363736 Interesting points in the link... "Netherlands head coach Bert van Marwijk did not hear any racist abuse, his FA added." Then... "When the players heard this they said they would do another lap and if they heard monkey noises again they would stop. "The Dutch coach moved all the cones and started training on the pitch as far away from these people as possible. ...why? he heard no noises apparently, and the Dutch FA have decided 'no action'.
This ref's gash. Two ridiculous bookings resulting in a red and then not giving the penalty for handball. Poland are good value for the lead but the Greeks were seeing a bit of the ball and could've come back into it.
Really entertaining game. Hosts go up, Greece robbed of a man by a crap referee. Sub scores to even the game on his first touch. Arsenal keeper red carded deservedly and sent off on another sub's first touch. Sub keeper saves a penalty. Great game for the subs.
Just seen that Dutch training session, its all over bbc news, how their manager can give a quote saying he heard nothing is unbelievable, as is the Dutch FA's decision to not lodge a complaint....Mr. Platini got on the phone a bit sharpish I think "please don't do this before the opening match!" or " "it would not be in your interest to complain before the tournament starts". I wonder what odds you'd get that the tournament doesn't finish.
There weren't any black players in the opener anyway, were there? Could get embarrassing if one of the host teams ends up having to play behind closed doors.
