Now I'm not saying that Rickie should be in the England squad, but looking at Carroll last night I can't believe that Rickie is not good enough. We've obviously seen his ability to hold the ball up and bring other players into the game, neither of which Carroll was able to do. And the final straw was that our left back was ahead of him in the penalty taking stakes.. Once Carrol came on, we seemed to loose any semblance of retaining the ball, as his touch and link up play just was not there. It seems that so much money has been invested in Carroll and so many peoples reputations that they have to persevere regardless. What do you guys think - if Rickie gets enough goals this season could he get a call up, or will he suffer like Grant Holt and a host of others, that despite being clearly a better player, there's no way someone who once played for Rochdale will get a cap... BTW - I was an advocate of Holt going in place of Carrol - after all, he had 17 in 37 this season against Carroll's 9 in 47
Rickie and Carroll are different types of strikers. Rickie would probably not have scored either yesterday because he would have been doing the ball hunting. Carroll never got the service that his style of play needs. Rickie's only chance of a call up would be a one off game where the main strikers were unavailable. He's too old to be considered as anything other than a stop-gap. Sad but true.
This is the ultimate condemnation of a highly over-rated player. I agree with Fran (oh God, again!) on the Rickie question, but I am sure he must know he is a late developer who has left it too late for England glory, but can still see us make a great start in the Prem.
let's see how he does in the Premier League. He answered the question of the standard of being in the championship quite well.
Rickie will be facing defences better than Sweden and Ukraine week in, week out, so we'll be able to tell.
I didn't think Carroll was that bad. Its not his fault that England just lumped it up to him. And his link up play was no worse than anybody elses, and was markedly better than Young's or Rooney's. Personally I would have put carroll on, but in place of Rooney not welbeck. As For Ashley Cole taking the penalty before Carroll, I don't see whats wrong with that. For instance, Gary Alexander was one of the best penalty takers. Ashley Cole is normally quite solid from 12 yards, adn i've never seen Carroll take a penalty.
Carroll wasn't so bad. He did manage to control the ball quite well on his chest from some 'hooves' from the back. The problem was, he had no support and like everyone else as soon as we had any possession he would put his head down and try to beat half the Italian team. RL does normally have the ability to look up and find a supporting player. Rooney was the one who should have been replaced. As for RL, as said above, probably too old now. Also, to be fair, he is unproven against the top defenders. Next season is going to be fascinating in so many ways.
Another international tournament where Rooney has been ****, I'm not even surprised. I dont buy into the whole match sharpness thing. He only missed 2 games. For a player who is meant to be one of the best in the world, he was awful!
I didn't think Carroll was that bad tbh, he seemed pretty capable of controlling the ball. Now Milner on the other hand.....
Personally i don't think Rooney fits into this England team. We are not as good as United, so cannot utilise his undoubted talent. Personally think the most dangerous we looked was against Sweden when we had Welbeck and Carroll up front. Perhaps we should go that way and have Rooney as an impact player (although I fear that were we to do that, given his temperment, his 'impact' would be on an opposition players groin/shin rather than the match).
If you're looking for future International caps in our squad, it's not gonna be Rickie. Cork and Rodriguez are your men.
Lots of pressure on the lad, but isn't Luke Shaw meant to be a 'Future England International' (although whether that is a compliment or not is up for debate)
Dennis Irwin would probably be in my top five best penalty takers since I got into football, and he was a LB.
England were disappointing last night. When Italy didn't have the ball they'd swarm us and leave us no-one to pass to. Whereas we sat back too deep and didn't bother putting any pressure on the Italians til the final third. Sure, we tried to hit them on the break and occasionally got a run on, just to screw up the final pass. Hart's distribution was questionable. Every time, a long ball but without support for the front men, we were always going nowhere. Couldn't we pass it around a little more and make the Italians work to get it? I'm not a massive fan of Rooney, but neither he, Wellbeck and Caroll got enough support from midfield. Where was our gusto, vim and vigour? It's always disappointing to go out on penalties (again!), but, from an objective perspective, Italy deserved the win more than England.
I like the idea of "What would Ricky do" as some sort of soundbite for the future, it could be a Saints verion of those WWJD nutters
