Off Topic International Break Thread

So, do we have a roll call for the international Spurs ??
Who is walking wounded (Kane must be a potential etc) ??

 

Perhaps you should enlarge on your view.

 

I don't think that the strikers are going to work.

 

That's enlarging someone else's view. Isn't it!

Smart Arse

 

Son is skipping the South Korea match in order to focus on kick-starting his season at Spurs.

Fair play to him, have a lot of respect for that. Hope it proves a good decision, it'll be really handy to have the Son from the start and the end of last season, the in-between one though will struggle for game time, possibly even a place on the bench due to the GK and Sissoko arrivals.

 

I can't really see the point. Play the other game and possibly miss the bench for Stoke?
He's already missed a load of football and is out of sync with the squad, so he may as well have played against Syria.
I appreciate the gesture, but it's a bit of an empty one, in my opinion.

One player who will be missing some international football is Victor Wanyama.
Kenya missed out on qualification for the African Nations, so he won't be off in January.
Hopefully he'll feel a bit happier about that when the time comes.

 

"Wayne played wherever he wanted to."
"He did play a little deeper than I thought he'd play, but I was pleased with his performance."
"It's not for me to say where he's going to play." - Sam Allardyce on Wayne Rooney.

It's not for you to say where he's going to play? Yes, it is. It's literally your job, you twat.

Rooney was dismissive of any criticism, rather unsurprisingly, basically telling everyone that he'll do what he wants.
"I played in that role and helped us win the game. Too much is getting made about it."
"I've done it my whole career and suddenly it's big news. It's not a big thing and I think there's a big overreaction to it."

The little **** wouldn't dare pull that crap with Ferguson or Mourinho or his feet wouldn't touch the ground.
Allardyce clearly doesn't have his respect, which is fairly understandable, as the manager thinks that the player knows more than him.
That's not a good position to be in.

Chris Sutton got his analysis spot on, in my opinion.
Rooney's indiscipline ruined the balance of the side and wrecked the system, resulting in slow, disjointed attacks with no penetration.
Everyone had to try to anticipate where he was going to wander and attempt to fill in the various holes that he left.
He cramped the midfield and left Kane isolated, forcing the game into a crawl and allowing Slovakia tons of time to get set up.

 

For anyone that missed Skrtel being a complete arsehole:

 

Proving to be worth the £3m a year The FA are paying him...

 

Ben Davies starts for Wales tonight

The real story is Los Ladrones let Bale play

 

@D.G.C. I appreciate the concern about the stikers - Kane looks short of confidence and Sturridge was wearing his traditional pair of blinkers, but the reality is that on paper England's current crop of strikers are the best in ages. Pace, power, aerial threat, multiple players comfortable shooting with either foot. In Kane, Sturridge, Vardy, Rashford etc. we have all the ingredients we need to succeed. The Slovakia game demonstrated that the biggest problem remains lack of service to those players. There's no point having a go at the strikers if they are starved of the ball by an inept midfield. Which brings me to my main point:

England's 2 most experienced players also play in 2 of the most influential positions on the pitch - positions where traditionally you look to your linchpin and maestro to conduct the entire orchestra. But both of them are utterly underwhelming at international level, and have been for years.

Messrs Henderson and Rooney, here's lookin' at you.

 

Liechtenstein's match against Spain is going about as well as we all expected...

 

Citizen Kane, I didn't post it on here but I said that England's midfield will have to score because these strikers, as you say on paper are the best but I just don't think that they're going to do the job.

 

I think for the reasons highlighted that's exactly why he's missing the game, he's had so much time away from the club despite being just three games in, is already behind Lamela/ Alli in the pecking order and with the arrivals of GK and Sissoko, he probably doesn't want to lose anymore ground than he already has. IF Sissoko (supposedly set to start as Lamela has a late game on Thursday for Argentina) and GK feature against Stoke and play well, it'll automatically make Sonny's life a lot harder in terms of getting game time if he was away with the national side. Chances are he won't start against Stoke anyway but if he's with the squad now he'll at least have a chance of making the bench and possibly getting minutes at some point to stake a claim.

 

Why do you say Sissoko is supposedly set to start? In the past, Pochettino didn't start players who weren't well integrated into the squad. Of course, he also didn't start players coming back from injury the year before last, then started to last year. If Sissoko does start, I would be concerned about the press working, as he can't have had enough time to learn it.

 

It's because Lamela is playing with Argentina on Thursday at something like 1am I think, so by the time he's arrived back in England, chances are he won't be 100% for Stoke and an article I read said that Sissoko has "supposedly been told he'll start", of course could well be bollocks.

Though Sissoko has the advantage of having a really good engine, so the pressing system should be something he can adapt too fairly easily. France play Belarus tonight in Belarus, so there's a chance he'll be back at Spurs at some point on Wednesday and will then have Thursday and Friday to train with us. He knows the league and some of our players, so in theory there shouldn't be much of a bedding-in period needed.

Son may well start to be fair but just going by what's been said.

 

Until Dembele returns, the Dier/Wanyama combo is not really bringing the ball fast enough
to the attacking players. On that basis, he may select Sissoko (depending on fitness) .

 

Somebody (I think it was the Standard) confidently predicted that Lamela would be rested against Stoke so he could start against Monaco, which in theory says that Son would be starting on Saturday. If that's the case, that explains his decision to come home early.

 

If the summer purge has the effect of getting Son back up to his pre-injury form again
(he seems to realise his place is in real danger now) , then that is at least one beneficial
side-effect.