Pearce would drop Rooney for Townsend, it's no wonder he's not in the running for many management jobs, he might as well be black... please log in to view this image
To be fair to him, what's the point in playing Rooney in a friendly? We know what he does. I'd try new things too, otherwise when else do you get chance to experiment?
But I dont watch Italy. Does some kid watching the Premier League in Nigeria suddenly want England to win?
I could suggest a few experiments we could try with Townsend, but none of them would involve football.
More important to give Kane and Rooney game time together. How Kane plays with Walcott and Townsend will be irrelevant when Euro 2016 rolls around.
So it's not irrelevant then. The same amount of time between now and the next Euros is the same time it took Townsend to go from "the future of English football" to being "useless". I'm not saying Kane will do that, but there's no guarantee he'll still be flavour of the month.
I'm not saying Kane will be the flavour of the month. I'm saying Woy has consistently gone with three out of Rooney, Sturridge, Sterling and Welbeck, and Kane is the man he needs to have a look at right now - preferably with players he'd likely be on the pitch with if he does get picked at the Euros. If Kane does play in the Euros, Walcott may be on the pitch with him, but it's more likely that Rooney and Sterling will. It's less likely that Townsend will.
Ok, let's prepare for the approximate 1/200 possibility of Kane, Walcott and Townsend starting together in the Euros. Great.
Something from the Guardian - just to annoy Suited, Castro and any other leftie-haters out there: http://www.theguardian.com/football/picture/2015/mar/31/david-squires-on-harry-kane
Think I need to get my eyes tested. Edit: Scratch that, it's just noscript. Which Sheffield club are the fans of big red club and big blue club familiar with?
It irritates me that we experiment too much with England. They only get to play together a few times a year, surely the best XI players need to gel together more than the fringe players do. We don't beat the other top teams enough, so let's take the opportunity in this friendly. Hart Clyne Jones Cahill Bertrand Henderson Carrick Delph Walcott Kane Rooney
England @england Team: 1 Hart 2 Clyne 3 Gibbs 4 Henderson 5 Smalling 6 Jagielka 7 Walcott 8 Jones 9 Kane 10 Rooney (c) 11 Delph
Doesn't matter who we take we are destined to fail under Woy. Smalling and Jagielka christ we might as well give up.