.. post season apathy upon us - just got to musing who I'd pick for my first team in the Euros if I was Roy ... weighed it up ... focused on picking a 'team' rather than the 11 best individuals ... tried to base it on current form and the ability to play together, given all the shenanigans going on in the game currently with court cases etc - so this is mine:
Joe Hart - really no alternative for first choice.
Leighton Baines - partly for set piece ability
Phil Jones - got a touch of class for a CB
Joleon Lescott - Saturday's mistake aside, has been a real factor in Man City's success - plus Hart will be familiar with him
Kyle Walker - had a superb season and will get forward as he does for Spurs
Adam Johnson - we need genuine pace and threat from the left for this team, tactically.
Scott Parker - we need effective cover in fron of CBs and, for me, he is the best Englishman in that role currently
Steven Gerrard (Captain) - should still be relatively fresh given the number of games he has played and is just regaining top form
Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain - same reasons as for Adam Johnson - plus the boy ltracks back and seems to have a touch of something special
Wayne Rooney - best player in England currently
Andy Carroll - has looked a real handful in recent weeks and we are not going to progress with silky football because we are not technically good enough (just being honest) - therefore we need to play in a way that the silkier teams will find difficult to deal with.
Obviously this will not be everybody's cup of tea - and I look forward to the alternatives that people will come up -but my thinking is that Roy can afford to be off the wall - nbody in their right mind can expect us to win this on our recent tournament history.
The taem I picked would focus on getting in wide positions as often as posiible and putting it where Carroll can disrupt things (hence a preference for Leighton Baines rather than Ashley Cole) - no doubt some peple will cite Peter Crouch's goal record - but Crouch tends to get his goals against relative minnows on the world stage and, for me, is cannon fodder for genuinely good defenders because they out battle him and he just ends up trying to foul them - Carroll (rather like our own Emile Heskey has a physical presence that means he doesn't have to foul to win more challenges than he loses)
Anyway - that's my lot - look forward to what others think
Joe Hart - really no alternative for first choice.
Leighton Baines - partly for set piece ability
Phil Jones - got a touch of class for a CB
Joleon Lescott - Saturday's mistake aside, has been a real factor in Man City's success - plus Hart will be familiar with him
Kyle Walker - had a superb season and will get forward as he does for Spurs
Adam Johnson - we need genuine pace and threat from the left for this team, tactically.
Scott Parker - we need effective cover in fron of CBs and, for me, he is the best Englishman in that role currently
Steven Gerrard (Captain) - should still be relatively fresh given the number of games he has played and is just regaining top form
Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain - same reasons as for Adam Johnson - plus the boy ltracks back and seems to have a touch of something special
Wayne Rooney - best player in England currently
Andy Carroll - has looked a real handful in recent weeks and we are not going to progress with silky football because we are not technically good enough (just being honest) - therefore we need to play in a way that the silkier teams will find difficult to deal with.
Obviously this will not be everybody's cup of tea - and I look forward to the alternatives that people will come up -but my thinking is that Roy can afford to be off the wall - nbody in their right mind can expect us to win this on our recent tournament history.
The taem I picked would focus on getting in wide positions as often as posiible and putting it where Carroll can disrupt things (hence a preference for Leighton Baines rather than Ashley Cole) - no doubt some peple will cite Peter Crouch's goal record - but Crouch tends to get his goals against relative minnows on the world stage and, for me, is cannon fodder for genuinely good defenders because they out battle him and he just ends up trying to foul them - Carroll (rather like our own Emile Heskey has a physical presence that means he doesn't have to foul to win more challenges than he loses)
Anyway - that's my lot - look forward to what others think
Brilliant, yet true.
