Milner is still there. Got nothing in his game apart from running . I bet he would do better in the olympics than footy .
All a bit random. Why are Defoe, Milner and Carroll in the squad but Phil Jones and even Henderson dropped who were deemed the young options a few months ago? Don't know why Bertrand is near the squad when he's not going to start club games either. Really underwhelmed for this campaign.
Phil Jones has an illness. He probably realised Henderson is not up to it, also with Allen signing unlikely to be be starting regularly. It's a bit of an odd squad but at least he seems to get over the obsession with picking every Liverpool player with a pulse.
I doubt he has realised he's 'not up to it'. If he doesn't think Henderson will play enough then why is he picking Carroll? He'll have more issues under Rodgers.
I have been racking my brains for a few days now. When was the last time our keeper saved a penalty in a shoot out? (as opposed to the opposition missing or hitting woodword) Best I can come up with is Seaman in 96.
There's another one I forgot. In 2006, Paul Robinson made a save, I think he saved Petit's shot in the losing effort against Portugal. FML.
Really, I think that the fans and the media bemoan our chances at winning on penalties because the penalty-takers are chokers. Really, it's the keepers that are the chokers. 3 saves out of 31 shots. THREE. I'm sorry that's god damn embarrassing. That includes poorly taken efforts that are easily saved as well. We don't need to practice penalties. We need our keepers to not spit the bit when it's do or die time. I remember in 2004 when David James dove the wrong way ON EVERY SINGLE PENALTY.
So I have been a fan of England since 1998 and I've seen two of the three penalty saves. FML x infinity.
How many times do we hear a pundit say "its alright for the keepers, they're not expected to save it" how about if we say "change of plan son, we DO EXPECT you to save some!" maybe a change of mentality is needed
The Portuguese keeper in 2006 said he KNEW he was going to make the saves. He didn't care how good Lampard and Gerrard were at taking penalties. He was going to make the saves. Hart's the first keeper England has had in a long time that actually looked confident up there. Of course he didn't make one save either.
Walcott out injured and not replaced unless im mistaken. Complete waste of an opportunity to call up other players . Wasted game .
2 strikers isn't really looking good.. I guess we only use one at a time though. I'm not sure if Hodgson will move away from the more rigid formation he used at the Euros towards something more fluid.. I'd like to see this: ----------------Butland Walker---Jagielka--Cahill--Bertrand ---------Carrick--Cleverley Johnson----Lampard----Young -----------Carroll
Been on vacation in Destin... Time to get back to business.. I wonder if Roy will finally decide to attack a bit ..
Does anyone have a link to a feed for this game? It's of course not on Fox Soccer. SMH. Thanks in advance.
I think the selection for the Italy game is just Hodgson looking at players he has not seen much of before.
A midfield of Carrick, Cleverley and Lampard is a massive upgrade over a 2 man Gerrad and Parker....at least in terms of keeping possession.
Have we not got a game thread for the Italy friendly? Anyway, assuming not, Walker's doing OK at right back.
Most inexperienced Italian team I've ever seen. Talk about a rookie side. Even more so now Balzaretti has been replaced by Peluso. De Rossi has got more caps than the rest of the team put together!