Every time I see neuer he throws one in, tonight hes thrown two in, I'm not having him as world class.
3 goals in 6 games (Scot v Germany and Poland v three men and a dog aside) tonight. 49 goals for one player looks good in that context. Few freebies these days.
Make that 4 - Kyle Lafferty in the nick of time for Norn Iron No, 5 - Portugal have nicked one in injury time to beat the mighty Albania 1-0 in injury time.
Good and honest post match interview from Gordon Strachan. I like Strachan, he's a good footballing man.
Though not currently being picked for England Peter Crouch is still playing and he scored 22 in 42 giving him the best goals per game ratio of any England player since Lineker. (for players who have more than 20 caps). Whilst looking at the figures I thought it was interesting that if I look at England goalscorers that I can actually recall seeing score for England which takes me back to the early 70s, three players have a better than 1 in 2 ratio - Chivers, Lineker and Crouch - I wonder what else they have in common
Crouch did very well for England. He's 34 now so I don't think he's much chance of adding to his tally He's something of an enigma. I wouldn't want to decry his record, but he got 3 v Jamaica and 2 v Egypt, Albania, Belarius, Andorra and Greece. In games v France, Brazil, Germany, Spain, Argentina, Russia, Portugal, Colombia, USA and Sweden, he scored 1 in 16 But you can prove what you want with stats!!
Very true - I could counter with Rooneys 1 in 18 in matches v Italy, Germany, Belgium, Chile, Holland, USA, France, Wales, Portugal and Spain!, and claim he was no better against the bigger nations! But I won't ! I should also point out the when Peter scored his 2 v Greece they were reigning European Champions and his brace V Egypt was against a team had won the African Cup of Nations just a couple of months earlier. I am not saying the Peter Crouch is a better player than Rooney (he's not), but he was a very effective international player and I do accept he was better against smaller nations, but who isn't ? If you break it down to goals scored for time actually on the field (Crouch won over half of his caps as a sub) he actually scored a goal every 100 mins in international football not quite in Gerd Mullers league (68 goals in 62 matches), but still very good - Rooney has scored a goal every 163 mins
To make his stats more impressive, he scored those 22 goals in only 19 starts and only ever completed one full game for England. He averages a goal every 99 minutes at international level.
Add it to him being the only player to score the goal we needed to get into the CL, and the goal at the San Siro, and it’s fair to say he’s at his best on the biggest stages. No doubt it results from his being nearly two meters tall.
You don't think he could have scored a penalty against San Marino? He got far fewer caps than he should have considering his scoring record when he did play - but he was constantly giving way to more "fashionable" strikers. As far as stats go, it's a common belief of course that stats don't count because you can prove anything with stats etc. However, that is often used an excuse to allow people not to think about things. The point is to think whether the stat is meaningless rather than assume it is. I would suggest there is some merit in the earlier comparison of major sporting nations that *both* Rooney and Crouch haven't scored many goals against, particularly as Crouch's (astounding) record has often been maligned by the throw-away line that he didn't score against anyone important, whilst the same argument hasn't been made against Rooney (who has now scored four against San Marino). As perhaps it should be with the current ridiculous comparison of Rooney against Charlton.
Roy continues to give Spurs players the middle finger. Delph, who's had 20 minutes of football this season starts ahead of Mason, who's been playing well this season and Kane, the best English goalscorer this year, is left out because of the continued use of a bore-3-3 formation. Cahill also starts for some unknown reason. ****ing Hodgson!
Fabian Delph off at the 2 minute mark with a bad hamstring. Bullet dodged. On comes Ross Barkley. Another bullet dodged. The perfect international break for me would have been Kane coming on late and scoring a quick, quality goal, and those being the only minutes for him or Mason. So far, so good.
Good....I don't want any of our players injured playing for England when we need them for real footy with Spurs.
