This post, like the one that was titled 'Danny Drinkwater' and actually had more comments about Kante than Drinkwater, has gone a little(!) off topic and has become another c*ck measuring contest between Leicester and Hull. FFS give it a rest! It's become boring, meaningless and pointless. Opinions will not be changed, so just leave it. Back on topic, the comment about the same old players getting picked even though they might not be on form or even playing for their club reminded me of a comment made by one England player under Alf Ramsey - that it was easier to get picked for the squad than dropped from it. I think the whole selection thing for the national side is something of a lottery. Because the end goal is about winning tournaments the manager has to pick a group of players 2 years before a major tournament starts, decide on a way of playing that suits those players and stick with the majority of them. If we accept that class is permanent and form is temporary then that shouldn't be too much of a problem, assuming the manager is any good in the first place. Because the squad only meets up and trains together for a few days a year, you can't have too many newcomers being introduced, and certainly none who don't fit the adopted style of play and upset the balance. This often means that some players who are performing well for their clubs will not be invited into the squad, because there is an assumption (or, more often than not, hope) that the old guard will still come good on the day. And that is one reason that Albrighton will not become an England squad member before the European championships. Maybe he will get the odd cap in some meaningless friendly - which might appear to devalue the honour of playing for your country, but how else does the manager get to see new talent? But don't expect more than that.
Spot on Bucks. The thing is that Albrighton would be a better fit into the England style of play than JV is. The thing about being a good manager is that you look at the resources you have and adapt to them. The England managers job must be the only management job in the country (football and business world), where managing change is not one of the requirements in the job description. The FA and the England manager need to remember that football is part of the entertainment industry and that on this front they have failed miserably. We have no world class players (at the moment), and are trying to compete against countries who have far better players by using the same style - it simply doesnt work. The style and the attitude of the squad needs to change.
Bucks and Barwell - spot on. There seems to be an obsession with attempting to outplay the continental sides at their own game - which defies logic - because our domestic game is not really like that. The foreign players in the Prem can revert to a European / South American style far more easily than English players can because they have a real basis in it - having develped their formative skills that way. That's why I'm often amazed at the performances of some foreign Prem players at major tournaments - players that have hardly set the world alight in the Prem all of a suddenly look exceptional - Brian Ruiz, Karol Poborsky, Diego Forlan, Jerome Boateng, to mention just a few ... Our only chance of success is to play a style that the continentals can't cope with comfortably - either a target man that is very good (if not exceptional) in the air, provided we can ensure that we can get good crosses in to - or the speed merchants like Vardy and Walcott who can run in behind and once free can't be caught legally ... Personally I wouldn't mind seeing a combination of the two ... Kane and Vardy together might not be a bad shout IMHO, provided the creativity behind them is there ... can't see it happening because Woy is not brave enough to be the one to recognise that Rooney is not the target man to trouble the best defenders in the world and act on it - I do think that Rooney could play behind the main striker(s) because he is one of the few English players technically able to spot a crucial pass and execute it ...
Jamie Vardy should have been joined by two more Leicester City stars, according to statistics http://www.leicestermercury.co.uk/J...rs-according/story-28162289-detail/story.html According to EA Sports, Albrighton and Drinkwater should also have made the England squad...
Ryan Mason has now also been called up to the England squad http://talksport.com/football/engla...lieve-ryan-mason-has-been-called-151116174502
The sooner Woy goes the better I will feel, we will just be an embarrassment again! the man his clueless! and how can England have a manager who was sacked by Liverpool because he was f*****g useless! it beggars belief.
That team would be pretty entertaining, though I'd switch the formation to 4-4-2 and play Sterling out wide, he's not a striker, and Albrighton sure as hell isn't a central midfielder!
