Thats because most fans see a player like Andros Townsend sprinting along beating people whilst running to the corner flag stopping and.......nothing. People don't notice the players that actually produce assists and recycle the ball well. One is proclaimed the saviour of England purely because he scored a blinder and hit the woodwork twice, yet one of these at club level is ammassing stats on assists, key passes, pass completion and the other has scored 1 goal from a silly amount of speculative shots with no assists at all!!! The guy even gets in Crooks' team of the week when he does nothing of value in a game but gets injured by an advertising board and plays on. He will end up going the same way as Wright Philips and Aaron Lennon because whilst it looks good there isn't much end product. I'm sure when his 'purple patch' ends he will be back out on loan within 1 season. Read this on Townsend from a Spurs fan last night: 'Dross had a good spell on loan at QPR last year but his contribution to Spurs, despite what the papers say, has actually been relatively poor. In the league he has no assists, 40+ shots and one goal which came from a wayward cross against Villa. Generally his performances have been poor-average and seeing him highlighted as our 'dangerman' is akin to calling me a potential dangerman for the next Lions tour...'
The other thing about JWP is that he adds balance to the team. How often do Walker and Townsend go galloping up front like headless idiots, only to run into trouble and leave the righthand side totally unprotected as they are both deep in the opponents half? JWP let's Clyne do the fast wingwork but hangs back to cover for Clyne. Most of JWP crosses are from near the halfway line with Clyne more advanced. It allows him to spot the runs at the far post and are more accurate because he is not under pressure from the other team, which is exactly what Lambert, adam and JRod do not allow the other team to do with their pressing
So Roy today basically says he knows the players for Brazil having studied them for the last 19 months. No matter about form in the next 4-5 months. So the usual kack like Milner, Lampard.and basically any English Man U player will be on the plane. Any chance of us getting anything from this World Cup and forging a team for the Euros have gone out the window
Most international managers will know by now who will be in their squad bar a couple of places. That might change due to injuries in the summer but I would be a bit worried if Roy wasn't fairly certain of at least 19-20 of his squad now when there aren't many matches at all for him to see in person how any other players play before the world cup squad needs to be announced. If a couple of players do have blinders this season then they may get into that squad if they have played for England before but it would be incredibly risky and open for all to shoot him down as an idiot if a player has an awesome season and gets selected without ever playing international football. His next 2 or 3 friendlies (can't remember how many there are) should now be used for him to test out combinations of those who he knows will be in the squad and to make decisions on those who are on the in/out borderline.
I think Roy said that he had seen everyone and was not expecting any surprises that resulted in him calling someone up who had not featured in his squad so far. Therefore it is up to all those players to carry on doing well as Hodgson will select from those he has called up. He has given chances to people, so I expect the final squad to be a mixture of the usual suspects plus a few others. I think Lallana and Lambert have a good chance if they carry on as they are. JRod would need injuries to others and a terrific season, but probably should be hoping for the Euros rather than the World Cup.
Its more the euros that Iam looking at, the strongest possible squad that are in good form should be picked, but also with an open mind to a couple of places for players that could play a part in the next tournament. England are producing good young players, but sadly they like the glamour of signing with big clubs and are lacking game time. In the recent u21 games it was painfully obvious which players are not getting regular games.
The commentators said during the u21 game that too many good players aren't getting games...suggested they should be out on loan. The trouble is that they don't always play when they are on loan. PL youngsters think they will walk into a lower league team, but that isn't always the case. Sadly they can't all be at our Academy
Powell, Lingard and Chalobah are all out on loan and doing well, thankfully. Hopefully Liverpool will loan Hughes back out if it's true they've signed him.
