Alli in the England Squad

Hahahaha, he DOES look like an owl!

 

Well presumably Jones is in there for his versatility being able to play at righ back, centre back and defensive midfield. Dier can play all those positions and has been far more impressive in all those positions since joining us. Also the lack of a defensive midfielder other than Carrick is worrying. We've got an awful lot of midfielders that aren't particularly good at the defensive side of the game who are always picked. Wilshere does alright there but is perma-crocked, whilst Delph and Henderson are good all-rounders but we're simply not good enough to go to an International finals without real options for a defensive midfielder. Had Noble, or Barry, or someone like that been picked I'd have no problems with Dier not being picked but when you look at the squad that has been selected there is clearly room for him.

Yes Rooney and Owen had their best periods at very young ages but look what happened in the long run. Were they burnt out by the extra work load? It's hard to say but when you look at the career path of most talented young players they burst on the scene and then become inconsistent and usually end up dropped both at their club and internationally before either fading away or improving again. I just don't see why these players need the pressure of playing for the seniors at such an early stage in their career, especially when that stage is often very difficult.

Case in point for the above paragraph: Cleverley, Townsend, Henderson, Stones, Shaw, Zaha, Sterling, Chambers, Flanagan, Caulker, Livermore, Rodriguez, Shelvey, Kelly, Frazier Campbell, Welbeck, Bertrand, Chamberlain, Bothroyd. That's just debutants in the past 5 years. Some disappeared into oblivion, some several years on still don't look quite good enough for England and some struggled for awhile and then found form. I just don't see the point in picking them when they've only just broken into the first team, or they've just made a big move at a young age.

As for some saying MP was an idiot for selecting Dier after the first couple of games, well he wasn't offering anything going forward or in defence at the time. Furthermore, I wouldn't suggest just picking him for his recent form at defensive midfielder, I'd pick him because he's shown himself to be very capable in every position he's played for us in the past season and a quarter.

It's nothing to do with Hodgson, it's just that he seems to be making all the same mistakes we've made in the past and some of us don't like that. We've just come off the back of a terrible World Cup where we had the typical England squad selected. Some of us don't want to see unbalanced sides filled with players at the biggest clubs that have a track record of not producing when it matters for England, along with a few overhyped talents who have only played a handful of games. Some of us want to see us take lessons from USA, Greece, Holland, Algeria and others who upset the odds by fielding functioning teams not just the perceived best 11 players eligible for them.

 

He somehow manages to look more like a sad old owl than any sad old owl ever did.

 

As already injured centre back Stones withdraws from the England squad (he missed the Merseyside derby so fair to say it is a proper injury..... so why pick him Woy?) two replacements are called up. Kyle Walker (right back) and Andros "shoot on sight" Townsend (winger).

These could mean one of three things:

a. Jones will now be a centre back so basically Woy is saying to Walker "I rate the ****e defender from Man Utd who isn't even a fullback ahead of you at fullback because... well.... he plays for Man United so must be good."

2. Woy is going for the Brenda Rodgers method of team selection and will play all players out of position. So expect to see Townsend in goal so that Hart can take up a position at centre back.

iii. He's been nobbled by the Portugese FA who have told him that Eric Dier is not eligible because he is Portugese and too good for England.

I mean WTF?!!??! (Feel sorry for Eric but glad for us he is being overlooked. England team is such a poisoned chalice these days).

 

Nice to hear something positive about one of our players from a Gooner...

 

Δ. Dier is needed to lead Southgate's defence for the U21s, despite being left out this summer.
He's now a far better defender, despite playing in the midfield all season.

 

It will be a real kick in the teeth if Jones plays at right back ahead of Walker. Has he played right back this season?

 

Won't Clyne be at RB or am I missing something?

 

England Team: 1 Hart 2 Clyne 3 Bertrand 4 Milner 5 Cahill (c) 6 Smalling 7 Walcott 8 Barkley 9 Sterling 10 Harry Kane 11 Lallan

 

Alli comes on for his first cap!...

 

Clyne is obviously 1st choice at the moment but Woy felt that Jones was a better back up option at RB than Walker. It is a safe but ultimately flawed option as Jones can play at CB and as a DM as well. It is a tournament selection rather than a good one as Jones is **** in all positions. Jack of all trades, master of none. Except gurning.

 

Did he get a touch of the ball? I don't think he did....

 

Doesn't matter, he won't be playing for Nigeria

...which sums up the idiocy behind the England team rather well.

 

He got a few touches and made a decent run into the box that two defenders had to deal with.
He'll probably be more involved tonight.

 

Delli Alli continues his mission to nutmeg every player in the world:

 

What's his position then? Will he play deep like he does for Spurs for England? Same with Dier really. Is this a long term partnership in the middle?

 

It could be, but their versatility might scupper that. Alli looks comfortable further forward, while Dier seems to be able to play anywhere, so far.
They've both had very good starts to their Spurs careers, but that's probably about as far as we can judge things, in my opinion.
Too few games to make a real call.

On the subject of Dier, he got an assist and a clean sheet as England U21s beat their Kazakh counterparts 3-0 last night in Coventry:

To underline the earlier point, he was playing at centre-half with Chambers.

Excellent distribution by Sunderland's Jordan Pickford for the second goal.
Might be one to keep an eye on, as he's played a decent number of games for a goalkeeper of his age.
Us, Man Utd and Chelsea are keeping tabs on him, according to the media, so it's probably balls.