bet he wishes that he had a player that plays on the wings, attacks defenders and causes chaos, brings others into the game with defense splitting passes and a player that cuts inside to score important goals and has 5 years experience playing 1st team football. Oh wait he does, but he left Lallana behind and picked an Arsenal reserve. DONUT
Totally disappointed by our lack of attacking nous. For me we don't deserve to qualify, and won't unless we learn how to make quick short passes to players by Saturday.
was impressed by lansbury though, if chamberlain were to go to arsenal would ask for him on an at least season long loan as well as lots of money. apart from that and the 2 centre backs england were shocking lallana would have been different much better then sinclair or rose were!
im not too bothered. i used to want southampton players to be involved with the england set up as much as possible, but having seen some of the talent that we have wasted by both junior and senior england coaches, i'd rather let people like lallana have a nice holiday and come back fresh for us for pre season. they dont deserve him
England's loss is most certainly our gain. If Adam were to play I'd be very worried about him picking up an injury. So if Stuart wants to talk a good game, pick a team of prem reserves & play badly, thats his look out. I'm happy in the knowledge our lads are all relaxing & recharging their batteries.
Oh so predictable....it is more to do with mentality of English players in International tournament Football than individual ability. For some inexplicable reason they simply don't perform as well as they do for their clubs and my theory is that it is a fear of failure at the highest level. I loved Stuart Pearce as a player that always put all of his heart and soul into the cause, but he was never regarded as a technical, passing type of player and was more of an old school battling 'English' player, although he was managed by the best manager England never had, Brian Clough.
After his 2 injury spells this year, when we really struggled to create, I hope he has a lovely, relaxing hold and comes back fresh as a daisy.
I can see your point but think that playing with a load of reserves and part-time players is not conducive towards getting a team that works at the highest level. Adam has done it for us when the team has struggled and his input makes us a much better team.
Pearce has done well with U21s in the past..finalist last time. If he (and his predecessors) could actually pick the best U21s in the country we would have a chance. Any stars go into the main squad, never to be seen again. The FA (and teams) need to give this age group more priority if they want to win a trophy.
The flair players, the ones that are comgortable on the ball and can have influence on the game seem to be overlooked by the England setup. I guess it's because most of them don't play in the Premier League. I'd be interested to watch an all-English football league dream team play against the current England team. Obviously it would never happen, but the concept is intriguing nonetheless. Most of the countries we play seem to play football that is much easier on the eye than our.
I watched Pearce do a demonstration training session with Northampton under 18s, and he was an excellent coach. It was only one session, but very well constructed and focused on heads up and looking for a forward pass.
Too many individuals not enough team players, too many didn't raise their game to produce what we know they are capable of, once Stuart had sent the team out it was out of his hands. Lala would have excelled I am sure, but he plays for us and that always has been a major handicap, however good you are.
None of those U21 players have played a full quota of league, cup and European football so the usual "tired" excuse doesn't hold water. On paper, our team looks really good, but on the pitch there always seems to be something missing.
