Most England fans won't be! A few people on the internet joked: Jack Wheelchair in the squad but no Drinkwater? Wilshire will be injured in the first game, and Sturridge to be injured climbing the stairs to the plane. Joking aside, lots of people including me asked why was Jordan Henderson preferred to Danny Drinkwater?
It's so-so, there's a good bunch of players in the squad but Drinkwater's exclusion does baffle me. Wilshere has not earned his spot, England selection should be based on form not reputation and I can't understand how a guy who hasn't played 90 minutes all season and only featured in about 3 games gets picked over a Premier League winner who featured in about 95% of Leicester's campaign. Henderson also hasn't earned his place but has at least played half a season and isn't as injury prone as Wilshere whereas Barkley too has had a poor second half of the season although there is a very talented player in there somewhere. I get that Wilshere is a good player when fully fit but he's too much of a risk to be taking. It's been abotu 3 years now since he's been injury-free, why risk taking that sort of player to a major tournament?! Plus, we keep mentioning Drinkwater's exclusion and rightly so but how on earth did Mark Noble miss out? He was great for West Ham. I've also said for most of the season that the central defenders don't fill me with much confidence, Cahill was in and out of the Chelsea side while Stones was poor, Smalling also has a mistake in him too. I'm a fan of Dann and Shawcross and don't understand why they constantly get overlooked. Keepers, full backs and strikers are solid, as is attacking midfield, we could/ should have taken an extra wide player like Townsend though. Overall it's a good, talented bunch of players who could definitely cause problems and go far, however the biggest problem of them all is the dinosaur we have in charge of them, under him we just won't prosper, nice guy and all but average (at best!) manager. How he's managing our country's best is beyond me.
There are three people I know for sure are happy with Hodgson's squad selection: Carwyn Jones, Vladimir Putin and Andrej Kiska. Yes I had to Google the last one...
Not really. As everyone has said, Woy has contradicted himself badly with his selection. Rashford as a true wildcard I am happy with. Whatever good England do this summer will be due to the players and probably in spite of and not because of Woy tactics. The exit will probably come due to back four comedy (CBs in particular) .
Hodgson will be the main reason that we will come up short, as for the squad I think that 18 pretty much picked themselves (Stones just due to a serious lack of viable alternatives). The other 5 are Rashford who is an excellent 'wildcard' choice, Wilshire who despite having many things against him I am actually in favour of him being picked, we have very few better passers than Wilshere and though I don't think he is ready to start matches he could play a vital role as a substitute particularly in the knock out stages (and he will be fresh!). Next is Sturridge who's injury record worries me, he is a quality player but his fitness is constantly questionable and having taken Rashford I would have left Sturridge behind and taken Andy Carroll for his Peter Crouchness, as an option I still like a proper targetman and Carroll finished the season in good form. My 4 th questionable is Barkley, who I expected Roy to leave out, he looked so frightened and out of form against Australia it appeared logical that Townshend would steal his place as he looked ready for the challenge when he came on, and finally the choice between Henderson and Drinkwater, this one is too close to call, Drinkwater deserves to go on the basis of the season has has just had , but I also think that Henderson has rarely let England down, and in the recent Germany match he and Dier were excellent together. But its Roy who really holds the key I dislike the diamond in midfield very few teams play this system and the players we have really lend themselves to 4- 2 - 3 - 1 and most of the players he will be selecting have been playing that system all season, will Roy? I doubt it
Wilshire over Drinkwater says it all. Go try to find a rational human being anywhere who knows a bit about football who would take a player who hasn’t played a full game all year over a regular on the title winner. Other than Hodgson, of course. But the critical mistake was making Rooney captain. Apologies to Luke, but at his best, Rooney was a very valuable flat track bully. He had enough talent, strength and energy to win a lot of games against weaker teams when helped by stronger teammates. But he never had the quality to shine more than sporadically against the best. Now we have a player with quality to burn, who nutmegged Modric and Kroos in his first game at the top level. So Hodgson shunts him back to let Rooney, now embarrassingly chubby, show for the ump̱teenth time he can’t cut it at the top level. Hodgson quoted his goal scoring stats for England: 53 in 111. Funny he didn’t mention 1 goal in 11 at the world cup, and 1 goal since he was 18 in major tournaments. Why on earth would he think that would change? Why would he think that "shoehorning" in players, as he himself described it, will work? How about a system designed to let the best players play where they’re comfortable? The best plan might be based not on Spurs of this year, but Spurs of a few years ago: Forster Rose Jagielka Cahill Walker Lennon Dier Alli Townsend Kane Vardy Jagielka and Cahill start because they’re the only CB partnership with experience who were good for England (though Smalling is the best CB individually, I think). The team would play on the counter partly to deal with their lack of pace, partly because it would make the most of the pace of Vardy, Lennon, Townsend, Walker and Rose. All the wide threats and pace would leave Kane and Alli with lots of space. Alli would switch between a number 10 and deep lying role as appropriate. It may make sense to play Drinkwater deep and alternate Alli, Kane and Vardy, so each plays 2/3 games. There’s something to be said for Sterling and Walcott in wide roles as well.
Wait till you see my crazy idea for set pieces. I’d have one of the smaller fellows take them, and the big fellow who scored all the goals try to knock them into the net. In any case, they laughed at Fulton, too, with his steamboat. What would you recommend? If you wanted something relatively conventional, you could go for Walker Smalling Cahill Rose Drinkwater Dier Sterling Alli Townsend Kane Or Walker Smalling Shawcross Rose Drinkwater Dier Henderson Vardy Kane Alli Either one would be a lot better than picking Wilshire over Drinkwater, or letting Rooney doom one more England team. Try not to make the same mistake more than twice, my father used to say. I think my first idea makes the most of England’s strengths, which are pace, Vardy, Kane and Alli, and stands the best chance of beating France, Germany, Belgium and Spain. It would get a lot of stick for being old-fashioned, and might well crash and burn, I grant you. But it would be entertaining, which is a lot more than can be said for Hodgson’s England.
RWAEB, I agree that Rooney has performed poorly at major tournaments. England have performed poorly. England are not all they're cracked up to be. Rooney has played better with better players around him - true also of Messi and Ronaldo who are also international duds, by and large despite scoring plenty of goals for their countries. What I cling to with Rooney is that if he performs at his very best, he has a level of ability which makes him a potential match winner and/or capable of assisting match winning performances from others. This may be his last chance to show his talents.
You could be right, but what I’ve seen from Rooney is that he can be a valuable asset for a stronger team against a weaker one, and struggles both when the team isn’t built around him and when he’s facing top class opposition. Compare him to someone like Defoe, for example. Nobody calls Defoe world class, but he’s a solid pacy striker, and can get goals against the best teams. Quite aside from the question of whether it’s Rooney or the England team that’s been to blame for their poor performances, I don’t think the diamond suits Rooney, Kane, Alli or Vardy. If Rooney does play, the team might be better off sitting Vardy and playing Rooney, Alli and Kane in a 4-2-3-1. That would let Rooney play on the left, where I understand he’s more comfortable, and leave Alli in the center, where he prefers to be. The last good England team was in 2002. It not only had at least two world class players in Scholes and Owen, it had everyone playing in their preferred position. Hodgson could at least manage the latter.
