So what was the "excuse" with Kevin Phillips? Or 2and a half years ago when Johnson was in the best form of his career and Townsend was playing awful? It's bullshit - Rooney, Townsend, Cahill have all been rubbish this season (would you put any of our defence in there? Chelsea's defence has conceded only one goal less) Kane has also been poor - I rate Harry Kane as a player but he is woefully off form and Roy keeps picking him for the national side. How are the youngsters ever supposed to get themselves pushing for an england call up when they see the players picked regardless of form?
Means nothing though - Players are playing due to who they play for and the gaffer having a favouritism thing going on. Not playing on deserving to play. By youngsters I mean those who are looking in thinking "I want to play for England" not the youngsters that played - I;'m talking the 18/19/20 year olds on the outside looking into the squad - what's the point in them busting a gut when Harry Kane is constantly going to be picked ahead of them? Or Rooney? Or Townsend? There will be no drive to succeed if roy persists with picking his favourites in the hope they might re-discover form If Walker, Jones, Townsend or Kane were at Sunderland they wouldn't be picked regardless. Even Shelvey, if he didn;t have the Liverpool connection I don;t reckon he'd get a game (also think he's massively over-rated!) Players should be picked on deserving to play - and those 4 mentioned certainly don't deserve their places on current form. If that team starts the euro's we'll be laughed out of the tournament! Clyne and Walker have looked no better than Billy Jones this season - none of the three have been any good at all - yet the first two get into the England setup? (that's not me saying that Billy Jones should play for England - just that they are all rubbish!)
As i dont watch to many internationals due to the time difference. Did they play well? What or who should be the england team?
That was belting. You lot looked class. Especially Cahill and that young left back from Swindon who's moved up the leagues now. Watched the Semi in Kings Cross, Sydney then the Final in Melbourne. Good fans.
I understand what you are saying but.... Rooney recently became England's all time leading goal scorer, Kane has scored 3 goals in 6 England games and Townsend more often than not puts a shift in when playing for England. So these players are currently on a good run of form while playing for England, so why would you not play them ? What 18/19/20 year olds do you think should be playing ahead of the current team ?
That's not what I am saying - What I am saying is that anyone of those 18/19/20 year olds on the outside with a chance of playing for England will think "what's the point" if the same players get picked all the time. Clyne & Walker? Townsend is not very good - playing well once in every 15 games is not very good - he doesn;t start for his club side so he shouldn't be considered for England. Kane was terrible last night (and has been all season) he wasn;t very good in the last game when he scored - his only league goal this season was from 2 yards offside but the linesman felt sorry for him! There are a number of players better suited to that position than him but he will get picked regardless - he has been awful all season for club and country - breaking the record means very little when you do nothing else for the team. Rooney is not on a good run of form because he broke the record - he broke the record despite his ****e run of form!! Hasn;t played well for club or country this season (not saying I don;t think he's a talented player - just he's currently playing ****e!)
I agree with Marcus in principle, there are players lining up for our country bang out of form, Rooney being the main culprit unfortunately. Having said that, I believe you need leaders and characters in the team, out of interest did anybody watch that documentary on Rooney? It was quite good I thought, the lad always has and always will just want to play football. Yeah he's got all the riches too but that passion he come through with aged 16... you don't see that in any of these lot, maybe Barkley has it in smaller doses. Sterling... ****ing £50m, imagine what a 17 year old Rooney would be worth today at that ridiculous price for Raheem 'No soul, Forrest Gump' Sterling. I think Roy's trying to get a familiarity going with the players, making exceptions for those who are playing exceptionally well such as Smalling who's come in to stomp all over Jagielka (hopefully for good) and Shaw who let's face it if he never got injured Baines might as well retire from international football. It's coming together a bit more nicely than it has for years, but like others have said, I can't see us getting past the bigger teams, not just yet.
England have used 33 players (I think) in this campaign, that is 3 different teams, so nobody can say we have not given youngsters a chance, but my question is why play youngsters when the main team are playing so well. We have won 10 out of 10, regardless of the opposition, we have won 10 out of 10.
Because patriotism by definition is a love of your country and it's characteristics. The England football team is exclusively English I didn't say not liking the football team doesn't make you a patriot, but it makes you less of one for sure. Someone who loves everything you mentioned and the England football team is more of a patriot than you.
The EDL is in essence, exclusively English too, I'm not a fan of them, then again I'm not a patriotic type of guy, I don't really like this country very much. Anymore.
Mark my word... Whether we've won 10 out of 10 or 50 out of 50..... The minute England play a remotely 'above average' country we'll get beat & be on our way home again. Simple as
I'ld say it's nationalistic as opposed to patriotic as it's based on believing they are better than others based on nationality as opposed to love of culture.
Fair enough. Sport is sport for me, if you like it fair do's if you hate it, doesn't make you less patriotic... some people hate all sports for example, liking sports doesn't make somebody more patriotic. Somebody who specifically grows English variants of flowers at the Chelsea flower show could argue they're way more patriotic than a football fan.
