Hodgson hasn't got a clue. He'll get Rooney in the team to the detriment of the other players because he absurdly thinks he's a world superstar. Best chance is a loss in the first game which somehow forces Hodgson to reassess and play to the squad's strengths.
Yeah but Rooney has scored 52 goals for England. He's a warrior, a leader and an absolute world class player.
This interested me, I had no idea Rooney had actually scored that many for us. Decided to look up who they were against: Andorra (2) Argentina Australia Belarus (2) Brazil (2) Bulgaria (2) Croatia (4) Denmark (2) Ecuador Estonia (2) France Iceland (2) Kazakhstan (3) Liechtenstein Lithuania Macedonia Montenegro (2) Netherlands Norway Poland (2) Russia San Marino (5) Scotland (2) Slovakia (2) Slovenia (2) Switzerland (4) Ukraine Uruguay Pretty uninspiring record against the bigger teams....
I think we were on top at 11 v 11, once they went down to ten men they shut up shop pretty damn well, yes maybe we could of opened them up a bit more but Portugal are a good team even without Ronaldo. I dont remember Portugal being that much of a threat in our third throughout the game to be honest. This wasnt as bad a result/performance as the press will make it out to be.
Can someone explain why pundits (and Roy) keep saying "Portugal going down to 10 men didn't help things". Do they really not want an opponent to get a red card in the finals? Perhaps we should start with 10 men. I can't stand these idiotic statements.
To be fair I always thought it was worse than this. I don't rate him really, definitely not as good as Kane/Vardy but he has scored a fair few against decent teams. I'd imagine most strikers who have been prolific at international level have scored a lot against weak teams as there is such a gulf in class and as England are top seeds for their groups every qualifying campaign there are few other top teams to play against each year (in comparison to smaller teams).
As I previously said though, his scoring record in finals is quite abysmal apart from his first in 2004.
I didnt understand that either, good training exercise as we might get to play against ten men in the tournament.
Any England fans better hope not as Roy and his loyal acolytes said after the game yesterday, that was the reason we didn't win.
He seemed very pleased about keeping a clean sheet against 10 men who hardly got forward... Think we could have managed that...
Must have been trying to get their strikers in form.. BTW I see Rooney is already trotting out the "boredom" excuse already for if it all goes wrong!
Correct! 12 games albeit against uninspiring opposition (although it does include 4 teams also at the Euros. We also haven't won an away friendly since August 2006 now too!
Any sane Englishman with an interest in football has been bored of his England performances since 2006 when the **** got himself sent off in a World Cup Quarter Final.
Unhelpful of Arsene to put in a bid for Vardy now. If nothing is sorted by the time he goes to France, he'll be distracted. If he decides quickly whether to stay or go, he'll be worrying whether he's made the right decision, and will be distracted. Champions League hero at Leicester, Champions League hero at Arsenal, or bit-part player at Arsenal? One certainty, two unknowns.
Mark Wright and Jermaine Defoe both deserve to be starters after their performances in this weekend's friendly, although Roy will probably stick with Louis Tomlinson as he puts big names over form.
Northern Ireland to be best finishing UK & Ireland team (ENG / WAL / IRE / NI) is 33/1. Not the worst option given they are undefeated in 12
Shocking bet. Look at who they played in those 12! Not saying we're good, but we've lost 2 out of our 22 since the last WC (losing to Spain and Holland) and have played better teams in those 22 than NI have.
3 very even teams in our group though and then a Germany team which I think might flop (I think they have lost 3 times since we have lost and that includes ROI and Slovakia). Personally I think Wales will flop and ROI won't win a game. In my eyes its 33/1 between us and England then and you never really know which England will turn up. After watching Slovakia on Saturday I think they could cause problems as well as Russia. 4 points could be enough to top the 'mini league'. Will be having a flutter myself but probably blind optimism!
I think you are letting this unbeaten record get slightly to your head. Those games include draws against some pretty crap teams, and you've literally beat no one of any real significance. Don't get me wrong i'd love NI to do well, but your team has some unbelievably poor players in it for this standard of football.
I don't think I am. We have a horrendous away friendly record which I pointed out previously on this thread. That explains the Qatar result. We drew with Wales as we gave away a stupid last minute penalty and also conceaded very late against Finland but we had already qualified so I wouldn't look into that result much. Other draws were against Romania and Hungary, both in the top 25 in the world and both in the Euros. And then finally Slovakia who had just beaten Germany and have a long unbeaten run of their own (beat Spain in the qualifiers too). We don't have a team of superstars, but neither did Greece or Leicester. What we do have is a passionate team and a good manager, something England don't have, which I think makes 33/1 good value. Lafferty has just limped out of training this morning which will be a blow but won't be the end of the world
Surely you can appreciate the job he has done at Northern Ireland? We were one of the worst teams in Europe when he took over and he has slowly built a solid side that has qualified for its first ever Euros (by winning the group too) and reached its highest ever FIFA World ranking.