I remember last season and beginning of this, I was '' sticking up '' for Andros, as at QPR he was growing as a footballer and this year it was important young players had their chance amid all our new arrivals. Now, I like the lad still and he has some neat qualities when attacking but the downgrading of Lennon among the fans and the sudden over exaggerated views of Andros have made me probably be harsher on Townsend as like mentioned I still view Lennon as the better overall player. Townsend would do well to play on the left, just to remember he is a winger, all this cutting in malarkey is frustrating and counter productive, no harm in using an old fashioned system when we're struggling. Plus I'm sure Soldado would react better if he knew our wingers would first try and beat their fullback and whip a cross in!
how does Ross Barkley get near the England team?he's rubbish,he conceeded posession every time last night,and Wilshire was no better,kept passing to no one
So glad I decided to play football manager while listening to music on my iPhone during the two internationals, sounds like a pile of ****e. Though that's to be expected with our players and Hodgson as manager. World Cup will be comical seeing England against some of these teams. Prediction for the World Cup - Won't make it out the group stage.
Barkley is a quality young player in my opinion. Much better than Wilshere who the media and pundits tend to **** about. Him and Will Hughes are so far the two players I think can become England's next long term midfield pairing.
Mexico 4 New Zealand 2, going through 9-3 on aggregate. Just waiting to see if Jordan can overcome the 5-0 deficit in Montevideo and we'll have the full list of teams.
I guess Wilshere is still in the squad based on performances before his injuries. I would agree he shouldn't be in the squad until he gets a run of form going for Arsenal I can't think of a single England player that really deserves any credit from last night..
Two quality sides, well half in Germany's case, and the gulf in class is very apparent, two defeats and can't score a goal. Germany take us on at Wembley minus Lahm, Schweinsteiger, Ozil, Mueller, and Neur and still beat us (sidenote: all these players out and no room for Holtby still). Cleverley, Henderson and Smalling should be nowhere near the squad let alone the team. Smalling particularly and rightly slated for the goal, imo he was ballwatching expecting Rooney to make contact, he didn't, by which time Mertesacker had gambled, something that didn't cross Smallings mind. Even if you see a team-mate seemingly going to reach it you back up and go through the motion of your own header just in case. What Hodgson see's in him I do not know, but I can say that about a few players. For spells there I could have been watching Spurs, all huff, puff n bluster, and nothing in the final third, inverted wingers nullified being doubled up on. Joe Hart, no doubting his shot stopping, but one decision he has to make in the match and ****ed it up again, what was he doing coming off his line bumping into Smalling who was favourite anyway. Definetly trying too hard. Sturridge on another night could have had one from a couple of chances, at this level it might be all you get in a match so you have to take them. He was put through beautifully 2nd half, the obvious was to trap the incoming pass with his right, then swing the left boot almost in one swift movement, but no, he trys a Messi/Ronaldo style attempt at a delicate showboat touch with the outside of his left foot to bring it under control and it ran away from him. You don't really want to be doing that chasing a game at home, play your percentages and give yourself the best possible chance. Whilst on that one of needing a goal at home, why did Roy bring on Lambert and not Defoe? nothing to learn Roy I know, but the fans have just paid to watch 2,3/4hrs of football and no goal. Watching the tv programme about Defoe last week its amazing how he keeps dipping out in tournaments, the 16yr old Walcott fiasco under Sven notably, now this. If Roy goes with 4 strikers, it'll be Rooney Welbeck Sturridge and now Lambert seems to have popped out the woodwork. If you look at the two careers of RL and JD, who do you want a last chance to fall to? Poor manager with poor tactics (generally, not just this game) with a poor squad, and doesn't know his best 11 out of that!...lots to look forward to! Getting some money back for not needing the hotel in Brazil for a month is a positive though, as will be the saving on Ambre Solaire, can't see many others really.
Lots of sense in there Notso. I expect Defoe will go as Welbeck gets used on the left and Rooney often is played deeper than the main striker. All Hodgson's could've possibly learnt from these friendlies is that Lallana's a good player, Gibbs is good, Rodriguez is okay and the likes of Cleverley, Smalling, Henderson and Barkley still aren't good enough. Well I could've told him that to begin with. At the moment we're in a situation where Hodgson has wasted an awful lot of games getting us to play cautious football to a competant standard and now that he's trying to change that he doesn't have enough time to find out who can play in a more attacking and more technically reliant set up we don't have the time. I expect us to go back to tried and tested defensive football for the World Cup with the same old faces and a couple of new "exciting" players that won't play thrown in to keep us all interested. Can't wait for the World Cup
Top read! Agree re. Defoe. He should have played (started) a lot more games for England. Lots of his appearances have been from 70mins onwards with the team showing no ambition at that point in the match, yet his goal tally for England is still impressive. If he played for Utd or Liverpool he'd probably have 70-80 caps by now and people would say things like "England's most natural finisher"
Wrong manager. No point trying to coach this lot, they need better motivation. If you want to go down the technical ability route then start younger and actually invest in that programme instead of paying 3x as much for a national stadium as it should have cost. Regarding motivation, if Roy can't do it I wonder if we can think of someone better? [LIGHT BULB COMES ON] I know, how about Harry? Surely has to be better than we are getting. Not saying he'd win us the world cup, but he'd make the most of what we've got, which Roy is not doing. Yet again the FA get the appointment wrong (and killed our season while waiting to tell Roy).
One thing I found staggering last night was that three or four times the Germans broke out of defence and found themselves in a 2 vs 2 with the England defence. Pretty much the exact same scenario that occured in the last World Cup against Germany and led to their 3rd and 4th goals. As none of them ended in a goal yesterday the media and pundits completely overlook it, but England will get punished for it sooner or later. Something that has bugged me for a while regarding England, more so the media, is their insistence on ignoring/making excuses for when the likes of Rooney, Gerrard and more recently Hart have poor games. Hart was reasonably good yesterday, but after the match you wouldn't have thought he had made exactly the same mistake that he did against Chelsea and come racing out of goal when the defender has it under control. Instead you have, without naming names (the BBC chief football writer) who has recently slated him saying he's almost back to his best. Within the space of 3 weeks he has gone from crisis confidence to nearly back to his best in his eyes. Overall I think these games have been good for England in terms of managing expectations more so than anything. If we had won both matches, it is likely that pundits would start suggesting that we could be 'in the mix' in Brazil. Additionally, I think the only way that Hodgson is going to do well with the current England team at the World Cup is to play how he did in the Euros. Keep it tight, don't give anything silly away and hit on the counter and hope for goals from set pieces.
Ukraine just missed out on qualification, a job Redknapp nearly took and I'm pretty sure one of the reasons Redknapp considered the job, Was wanting to teach the FA a lesson, as England and the people who run the association are capable of driving people to think such thoughts , even if it means knocking your native country out!!
Seriously, I can't understand what goes through recent England managers' minds. All they ever seem to think of is who to give a runout too, never to what their best team and tactics are. God forbid they should pick that team and give them one second to practice what it is they're trying to do. It's amazing they're able to string two passes together... This really is the perfect team for Harry. No reasonable expectations, hoping for some fun and some better football. A manager good at dispelling gloom is also liable to come in handy. Also, good post Notso, I agree.
Without exception, the players selected for England look better when playing for their club sides because they have better players around them. When they come together and have to rely more heavily on their own skills, they are found wanting. They are a long way short of the best international sides and don't have a Ronaldo, Suarez or Ibrahimovic to lift them above the mediocre. The best you can say for them is that in Rooney and Gerrard they have two hard working players, occasionally capable of being top class. Whoever else Hodgson picks and in whatever formation, England are a long way short. Is this break nearly over?
You speak in 3rd person as if you're not English yourself, 'they', 'them', not 'we', or 'us'. ? If so, why are you going to sit up and watch the build up to the first ball in the Ashes later tonight, well, less than a couple of hours now. or are you English when it suits you, an international schizophrenic?
