[video=youtube;y1MEutGTlF8]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y1MEutGTlF8[/video] Just a fat Alan Shearer. DTLW
I like the way he laughs with the messages, not a bad word for any of them, it would be so easy to fly off the handle if you got the wrong end of the stick, some Prima Donnas would have been spitting feathers, this man is a class act in every sense.
The funny thing is is that, assuming Rooney and Sturridge are guaranteed to go, that leaves two places (possibly three, but let's say two). If you bring Lambert but not Rodriguez, it would seem odd to not take someone who's outscored Lambert. If Rodriguez went over Lambert, then it would seem odd not to take a big target man (assuming the other spot goes to Welbeck). Both should go, but Welbeck, despite not many starts this season, will be the 3rd choice striker. Rickie will be the fourth providing Carroll doesn't finish this season like he finished last season (fingers crossed).
We are assuming that everyone remains fit...Roy will be lucky if he has all his players to choose from. Mmmm....last game of the season is against ManU....a nice scissor movement on Rooney by JRod and Rickie and they are on the plane
The Jimmy Kimmel shows mean tweets are pretty funny when they're savage, but how can anyone be mean about Rickie?
None of those tweets were vile...no one could do that to our Rickie. He deflected everything by being his usual self. He has a huge advantage in his accent....the mildest comment sounds funny in scouse.
what we didn't see after the camera was turned off was him throw the iPad into the river shouting "twitter's a fookin bast ard like!"
Rooney's obviously going to go, but to be honest, I'm not sure he deserves to given his form this year.
I'm not sure why several people are taking shots at Rooney's form this season, maybe I'm going mad. From a purely stats perspective, 11 goals and 10 assists in 22 games is impressive, but I don't think his general play has dropped off either.
It's quite clear that all the stats suggest a great player. Yet, how can such a player be so relatively ineffective..? Rooney has always been great in a great team, yet he can be very poor in one that is not so clever. There are great players who stand head and shoulders above their other indifferent teammates, but Rooney isn't one of those. He appears to need great players around him, At 28, he ought to be at the peak of his profession, in terms of skill, performance and effectiveness. But he's a shadow of what he was a year ago, and that was less than what he has been in years gone by. And despite his very impressive stats for England he has never performed well in an international tournament. Perhaps this is why people have been making derogatory remarks about him and his guaranteed seat for the plane to Brazil.
Part of his role though, isn't it? Rooney's role, other than scoring goals and setting them up (both of which he undeniably has been doing), is to help the team link together. He's the prototypical midfield-to-attack-link player. If the players around him are playing badly, then surely he'll be starved of both the opportunity to perform quite as well, and he'll be perceived as being worse at that. There's only so much you can do to link two underperforming parts of a team. As for the issue of Brazil, I don't see how there's a question at all. Rooney and Sturridge are miles and miles ahead of other options - if someone can put forward a convincing argument as to why three players other than Rooney should accompany Sturridge to the World Cup then I'll change my mind, but at the moment it doesn't seem like anybody comes anywhere near. Whether it's a seat guaranteed because he's good enough (as I think) or because of a complete drought of other options (as lots of people seem to think), I see no reason other than injury that he won't be there.
To answer your first paragraph, there have been and are such players who have been effective in a poor team. I can think of several [Rodney March, Tony Curry, etc...] but the obvious one for both of us would be Matt Le Tissier. Players like him can make things happen, or if there is nothing on, they have the ability to make it happen for themselves. Rooney has touched that quality several times in his career, but it takes a very special player to be able to do that on a consistent basis. England doesn't breed the special player I mentioned above any more. Other countries have them, but England doesn't [Adam Lallana..?], perhaps because they have always been so often thoroughly under appreciated. The last one used was Gascoigne and he was the least mercurial of the lot, in my opinion. As it happens, I agree on the England front. In terms of player standard Rooney is out there, but I suspect he'll have another poor tournament, where a lesser, but more in-form player may be more effective. His past performances at tournaments weigh heavily against him, and I've no doubt he feels the pressure. He hasn't been helped in the past by being asked to lead the line, when he isn't a natural No.9. I've said it until I'm blue in the face - fundamentally, he's an attacking midfielder, a No.8 or 10, just as he was when he played for Everton. However, when he is on top form he can play almost anywhere. The problem is, he isn't on top form, and hasn't been for a long while, so for England play him alongside Adam. I suspect they could find a mutual understanding.
It's just amazing that there's a premiership footballer that you just can't say anything bad about. It's not the first time that he's brought a little tear to my eye! Gotta go to the WC to do it again!
