Would some kind soul wake me up in August please after the latest England tournament debacle has finished. I have nil faith in Woy.
What happens if Dier gets injured/suspended in the first game? There's no other defensive midfielder capable of breaking up play. Squad looks very imbalanced, lots of much of a muchness average midfielders, none of whom can tackle or play the holding position. No width at all either, looks like Roy's been taking notes from Quique...
Indeed. A combination of a Dier injury plus a centre back straight red card wouldn't leave us looking too clever. (it's not beyond the realms of possibility like Morocco 1986). Balance looks odd, with the added downside of 3 players with question marks over injury/fitness.
Exactly. Being England manager must be the worst job in the world. No matter who Roy chooses he's going to get abused. I'd have taken Drinkwater, but I get why he didn't.
its hard to think of many managers who publicly slate their players. walcott knows why he isn't there, the other players do too and thats enough for me
Del Bosque didn't call up Cazorla, Mata, Isco, Saul or Vitolo oh and Diego Costa. All managers cannot please every one.
Pretty sure if anyone criticises Del Bosque, he'll just wave a World Cup and a European Championship in their direction. What can Roy wave? Ray Lewington?
Quarter finals is par I think. But I reckon the FA will keep him even if we bumble through the group and get a hard second round draw and lose?
I think its quite simple really for Roy but outside influences must have played a role in him picking who he did. If it was me, today picking the squad and I had no outside influence, then I would pick a team filled with players that all played a similar system to the winning or someone that over achieved. Leicester and Spurs both played fast football; one was counter attacking, the other was high press attacking football. So for my base strategy I would either play High Press or Counter attack. I would then look at the players in both those teams and determine what formations they played. Leicester 4-4-1-1 (Okazaki dropped deep) and Spurs were 4-2-3-1 so VERY similar formations. So if we picked a 4-4-1-1 I would then look at every English player and see how they could fit the Leicester style. Neither Spurs or Leicester have English keepers, so I would go with what we know best. Joe Hart. He would kick it long at every opportunity, like Schmiechel. Left back would be a support wing back, not a flying attacking one. Bertrand it is. Rose is too attacking for Leicester's style. Right back needs to be slightly more defensive than the left back - Walker is too attacking so its would probably be Clyne or Simpson The CD need to be big and strong and tough like Morgan was. In that case, Stones misses out of the first 11 and Cahill and Smalling would do. Nothing fancy, just get the ball away. Albrighton left midfield cuts back on his right foot and crosses, so we need a player on the right hand side that can arrive at the back stick to meet the crosses, like Mahrez did, who is also left footed. In that case I would pick Townsend Right Midfield. We need a Kante style player in the middle of the park to break and play and go forward. In that case, I would go with Milner, very hard working and gets tackles in. We need a Drinkwater style player to play as Drinkwater, so in that case Ill select Drinkwater The deep lying forward that plays like Okazaki could be Kane or Deeney. Both drop deep and both work hard. Then Vardy is Vardy in my team. Hart Bertrand Simpson Cahill Smalling Albrighton Milner Drinkwater Townsend Kane Vardy You may not agree, but atleast there is method in this first 11.
On a lateral - SHIRTS Just that ... this is what you can expect to actually see in June and July during the Euros -
Most Boring Set - England Best Home - Ireland Best Away - Croatia Ugliest Home - Ukraine Ugliest Away - Russia Shirts most affecting my OCD - France (please make it symmetrical!)
Spains away kit is also hideous. Like somebody entered a hotdog eating contest and used their shirt as a napkin.
My first posts have been updated with the final 23 of each team. I haven't updated the key players/young talents with any omissions, as I can't really be bothered :drinking:
Guardian have a great interactive guide, if anyone is bored at work this avo - http://www.theguardian.com/football...ide-to-every-squad-and-every-player-in-france
So here is what I would do if I were Roy. We all know that pace beats skill/ tactical awareness don't we. So, we sit deep, all players behind the ball. Then, when Smalling, Dier or Hart wins it we hoof, and every other player runs at full speed towards the opposition goal. As we do not want to be too attacking, Dier can drop back next to Smalling and protect the back four when this happens. http://bbc.in/1P5hlPk England 10-4 Russia
I remember reading in Roy of The Rovers when i was a lad a comic strip in which the team all decided to attack together, all at once. All 10 outfield players, charging up the pitch, passing as they go, confusing the hell out of the opposition, and they scored. It worked, but only for that 1 goal, it was the element of suprise you see. If it worked for fictitious football team Melchester Rovers then i don't see why it wouldn't work for England.
Never seen that before, that was fantastic. Obviously the defender who hoofed it up had to get it right, if the ball was just 10 yards short then Stuttgart would have bombed it down the other end and scored.
5 players at the Euros: Costel Pantilimon (Romania), Craig Cathcart (Northern Ireland), Sebastian Pr*dl (Austria), Valon Behrami (Switzerland) Daniel Pudil (Czech Republic) Pantilimon and Prodl are first choice aren't they whilst in the past Behrami certainly has been a mainstay of the Swiss side. Think Cathcart and Pudli will be going as cover.
Maybe but I think the 2 West Brom lads (Evans and McAuley) start at centre half for NI unless O'Neil is going to do a Flores and stick Cathcart at right back..
Cathcart will 100% be starting. Will either be him or Evans at LB, probably Evans. Cathcart's played well their for us before though. NI now the 2nd highest ranked team in the British Isles, moved above Wales and reached our all time high of 25 now. I know the FIFA Rankings are quite dodgy at times but its still a lot better than being outside the top 100 a few years ago!
that was brilliant! But no, it wasn't like that, it was more like 10 men all charging forwards at once, with lots of passing between players everytime the opposition came near. If England tried it Sterling would pass the ball behind Ali and then we'd have 10 opposition players clean through on Joe Hart instead.
This friendly has depressed me. I was excited about our team, but if this is how Roy's going to set us up we might as well not go. 433 with Vardy and Kane out wide, just to shoehorn Rooney in? I like Rooney, but it's ridiculous that he just HAS to be picked at the expense of probably our two most exciting players. Vardy and Kane have done nothing all game and are wasted out wide.