I reached the "don't give a flying **** about the national team anymore" stage about 2 tournaments ago. I am currently at the "cheering for the opposition" stage. An intellectual, thoughtful & intelligent football manager (in his own mind) like Southgate was never in a million years going to pick a striker from Watford (Or Muff. Wilson probably deserves a call too) over Utd's 3rd choice reserve.. I'm just surprised anyone's surprised.
Who is this Glen Johnson chap? I don't follow the lower leagues as much as I used to. Funny that he shares a name with the guy at Liverpool who left the squad over 2 years ago.
Being beat by Malta and then Scotland next month would be hilarious. England should just fold. At least if we get knocked out in qualifying it will mean we can avoid the usual circus in summer 2018. Shearer had it spot on saying we're a laughing stock. Most over rated international team ever. If we beat Malta there should be no plaudits at all, at best they're worse than league two standard. If Rooney scores a brace they'll say he's back, but that's like him scoring against Woking or Boreham Wood.
There lies the problem, pick average players because they play for a big club rather than pick big players from average clubs and you wonder why England underachieve.
If Lingaard played for a smaller team he'd be perfectly adequate but it would be the same as England calling up Stanislas at Bournemouth. i really hope we only beat Malta 2-0 looking clueless.
According to Soccerbase http://www.soccerbase.com/players/player.sd?player_id=63531 he's taken part in 5 matches this season, including the Community Shield and hasn't completed a whole 90 minutes yet.
I agree - i can't even be bothered to actively watch them - about half an hour before kick off i sit by the tele - scream - "get that flucking donkey Rooney off" then turn on Location Location Location - i might check the score a couple of times to confirm my decision and yell - "why are you taking corners Kane you arsewipe" or "Rooney we are the team in red you to$$er - then back to Kirsty for a crafty wnak
Players that should be considered but aren't, probably due to club size: Deeney, Wilson, Austin, Drinkwater, Gibson, Keene, Smith. There are probably more, please feel free to add... Players who are selected because of their club and/or 'reputation': Rooney, Lingard, Johnson, Oxlade Chamberlain, plus more I expect.
Going against the grain a little, I think that Lingard justifies his place in the squad. He is hard working and adaptable. He played very well against Stoke yesterday. On form, Lallana, Rashford, Sterling and Walcott should start (although I've just read that Lallana is injured). We are a world class all-round midfielder from an OK team. I have no idea what Ox is doing in that squad, why we haven't got another CM in there (Drinkwater), or why he isn't giving Austin/ Deeney a go when we are clearly missing somebody to get on the end of crosses. I'd start with: Forster, Rose Smalling Stones Walker, Henderson Dier Alli, Sterling Rashford Walcott
I genuinely didn't know which club Glen Johnson plays for. I had to look it up - I thought he'd retired.
I'd be pleased for Deeney to get a call up, but for my part I vouldn't give less of a crap about international football if I tried at this point.
TD needs to get his 100th WFC goal at the Riverside. Bracketing the international break with strikes would be the perfect response.....
Considering Big Sam went for a goalkeeper that hadn't played for 6 months, I find it hard to believe they've even heard of Jordan Pickford at the FA. He probably doesn't even have a boot deal with Nike.
It's a step further than that - doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results is the definition of insanity
In which case having attended well over a 1000 Watford matches over 50 years - i must be totally bonkers
Interesting reading. Certainly flies in the face of those on here claiming he has been 'shocking' this season and needs to be dropped as recently as a week ago.
He has been pretty good since the international break, I think that has pretty well been acknowledged by everyone in general. The article doesn't fly in the face of anything. We all know he is on the fringe of being an international. If he had turned up a month earlier, he probably would have been in the current squad.
So that one game alone against Bournemouth on Saturday has made him the highest rated English striker in the league? Five days before that you called for him to be dropped and described his performances as shocking.
Read my post again. I said "since the international break". That includes the games against Man U and WHU, Burnley plus Muff. That makes four. He was bad against Burnley, even you admitted that. For some reason, some people think that being dropped is the end of the world. It means little, JB. When he was dropped for a game or two last season (or was it the previous season) he came back on fire for a few games and said that it was right he was dropped. With 25 man squads, dropping (rotated) should be done a bit more in my opinion. Dont worry, JB, if he gets dropped sometime, you can still keep his posters on your bedroom wall! ;D
You said he had been shocking and needed to be dropped after the Burnley game, implying that his performances had been shocking for a while when the stats prove that is not true. Otherwise you would have been calling for a player to be dropped on the back of one poor game where everyone else was dreadful and he was actually one of the better performers in comparison, which would be ridiculous. It's also worth noting that if your wise words had been followed and we had have dropped the highest performing English striker in the PL for the Bournemouth game he wouldn't have had the chance to put in his best display of the season and we would have likely lost convincingly. I would say that your recent foray into highgrade territory with childish comments about posters on bedroom walls is beneath you, but your posts over the past few months or so are making me seriously revise that opinion.
It isn't worth carrying on with this discussion. I think a club captain on £100k a week should be fit and healthy from the first day of the season - not four weeks later. You think it is admirable and beyond criticism. We just have different standards, JB. You stick to yours and I'll stick to mine.
JB makes a very good point. The match Shoutbox and general Forum early in the season regarding Troy was hysterical and frankly embarrassing. In fact probably up until 1.5 seconds before he scored that fantastic goal at West Ham. Now probably many of the same people are up in arms that he hasn't been selected by England. Have a look at yourselves.