Roy Hodgson has announced that Adam Lallana will start for England against Germany on Tuesday stating that "I'm looking forward to seeing Adam playing again and I was happy with his performance on Friday. It's important that he gets another chance." He also suggested that Rickie Lambert will feature, although with Daniel Sturridge starting it is only likely to be a cameo role. Saints' players seem to have entered the England international fray at the right time with Scotland and Germany two of the most prestigious friendlies that have been played in recent times. I bet they are both excited by the prospect of Tuesday. England's announced starting line up: Hart, Walker, Smalling, Jagielka, Cole, Gerrard (capt), Cleverley, Townsend, Rooney, Lallana and Sturridge.
I just saw this on Twitter. Really excellent news. I was worried he might drop into the abyss of the one cap wonders.
Frankly, I thought Adam was England's stand out player against Chile, so I would have been hugely surprised if he hadn't featured, even for an England manager's selection process.
Lallana to score another individual goal and Lambert to show his England teammates how to take a penalty against Germany.
Would have been ridiculous not to play Adam. Having played well in the first game, Hodgson needed another game to see if it was a one off. England will look better against Germany....they may lose by the same margin but I expect the team to perform better against a European side. Pretty sure Lambert will come on as sub...they won't want Sturridge to play a full 90 min. I am very confident that, barring disaster, Rickie is off to Rio...a great impact sub.
Lambert will play if he is fit. I still think Welbeck and Sturridge are exciting players yet they are definitely less clinical than Lambert. Great to have all three and Rooney. A bit of pace is also useful as you would rather have someone like Townsend one side when you have Lallana the other, good balance if not a bit narrow.
Lol. Thats what I was thinking r.e. Sturridge. Selfish get. Not sure I like the 3 behind the strikers though. Lallana, Cleverley and Townsend?? Townsend is like Sturridge and doesn't pass and Cleverley will be stepping on Lallana's toes as they are similar players (although Lallana much better of course.) Will be interesting to see if it works but I can only see that as a setup for counter attacking with a lot of defending. England will have about 20% possession in that game. lol
Townsend is one of our best players right now. Germany are not as good as people think they are; the feeling over there right now is that the defence is poor and the midfield doesn't play as well as it should. They'll also be missing Lahm, Ozil, Khedira, Schweinsteiger, Gundogan and Neuer for this game. It may well turn out that Chile were the tougher of the two.
Any chance J-Rod might get another chance as a sub? He might appear more effective alongside Lambert...
I've seen a lot of people say Lallana and Cleverly are similar players, but I really don't think they are. Cleverly to me seems like an efficient possession recycler, while Lallana is an attacking midfielder who looks to get in and around the box and take players on. Also I don't expect that Cleverly is being played behind the strikers, I'd assume he's playing with Gerrard as a CM, playing one CM against anyone, let alone Germany, would be absolute suicide.
I think it is likely as Hodgson is no fool and will want him to keep his confidence even is it is just a brief appearance.
