No, I know, I'm not Eng-er-land's biggest fan either, but with no meaningful football to concern ourselves with this week, I thought it may be worth a thread, especially as we may well have Fer, Olsson, Martin, 'Daddy' Snodgrass, Pilks and Wes all involved. The BBCs Dan Roan has recently said this : Good luck to all canaries involved and please - come home in one piece I'm quite looking forward to Croatia v Belgium @5 p.m., even though there's not much riding on it. But two excellent teams head to head.
I usually watch and support England but it has been tough to do that lately. Some of their recent performances have been below par, hopefully tonight there will be an improvement over the Ukraine game. It would be great if we have exciting players like Fer in our national squad, most of the England squad make me want to
Don't forget Tettey! He was called up by Norway wasn't he? CH must have sung his praises to the national coach.
I really enjoy watching the U21s at the moment. Well not over the summer, but they tend to play quite an exciting brand of football.
There's still a school of thought that thinks loaning Lukaku from Chelsea to Everton for the season is a sound idea? As if he's not already proved himself in the prem, he's now scored twice for Belgium v Croatia. Not perhaps the most "special" decision to loan him out - especially to a potential top 6 rival?
Anyone know if Fer, elmander or olsson are starting? Edit, both Sweden boys start. Fer on the bench; holland are 3 up already so hopefully he might get a sub appearance
Fer came in for Strootman on the 81st minute, he is the first Norwich City player in history to play for the national team. FT score Netherlands - Hungary 8-1
Could be a mistake which costs them the title. I think fair play to Lukaku as well, he's thriving and really showing his worth in these loan spells. I think he could have quite easily been unmotivated, he's clearly had a better season last season than Torres and Ba so must be quite disheartening for a young player to get shipped out yet again. Showing good character to be honest, and I think he is going to fulfil his huge potential which was identified at a very young age at Anderlecht. His goalscoring record for Anderlecht was absolutely incredible for a 18 year old.
We should give Hodgson a bit of credit btw. Giving Townsend his debut was the boldest selection in years (the England manager's textbook says that a player must make his debut in a meaningless friendly) and it paid off.
Bit disappointed to hear that Elmander faked being headbutted to get an opponent sent off last night. Especially in the dying seconds of the match - what's to gain, exactly? http://www.101greatgoals.com/blog/d...t-to-get-austrias-marko-arnautovic-sent-off/?
Andros Townsend is a special little player indeed and fully deserved his chance. He tore us a new one last season while at QPR, and again at Spurs this season. Just fortunate on both counts his shooting was a bit on the wild side. I hope he keeps his place as it's good to see some new blood coming through
Playing Townsend was a pretty brave nove by Hodgson, fair play to him for that but at the end of the day I cannot see England getting anywhere near the business end of the World Cup, we are second rate these days I am afraid and the Golden Generation have now entered the final stages of their careers. If we weren't playing in an oven, the Qatar event might have been a reasonable prospect, outside possibility of say the quarters in Russia, Brazil - if we get there lose in the group stages.
Oh no, please not. Personally I hate these effing internationals. My only interest is whether our players come back without injury. And for the second season running, it has meant that the beginning of the season has been stop-start, stop-start.
he did have a pretty decent game on friday but i'm not one to believe the andros townsend hype myself. i think he's ok, nothing special that's for sure. if you take 10 pot-shots from 25 yards eventually you'll get one right. he has ability but it is a bit laughable how much he is being raved about. he is quite similar to our very own nathan redmond, although i think redmond has more technical ability, pace, skill and potential. both are incredibly direct but lack the final decision making in decisive areas. i suspect this will come with redmond - he is only 19 - townsend is 22 and is still a million miles off the finished article so it just goes to show we have to be ***patience alert*** patient with our youngsters when they bugger things up.
Snodgrass likely to feature tonight, as according to Strachan, his wife has popped and he's very happy. Congrats to the pair of them, and hopefully it'll help him back to his best in a city shirt.
