England Senior Squad-General Discussions Thread

defoe is shit, holt is a much better option

defoe is your classic poacher, offers nothing but finishing ability like the useless bent

great fopr mid table matches but not against deep defending opposition where u need a striker who brings others into the game

 

they are two vastly different players, and how can you just call him 'shit'? he's a proven goalscorer...both at club and country level. 16 alone this season isn't bad.

i'm not saying x/y/z should go, but, if we're going by statistics alone...he's "better" than both Sturridge and Welbeck.

 

should also point out Welbeck as the link man for United. his possession and ability to bring others into the game is underrated.

wouldn't mind Holt be given a chance though, but we need to find that balance for Euro 2012 between youth + experience, and i don't see Holt falling into the category of an experienced int'l (same with Graham unfortunately).

 

Hasn't Wilshere done something in that line as well? Sure I heard he'd buggered something up and wouldn't be coming back any time soon.

 

It has to be said things aren't looking too healthy in the striking department currently (whatever you thought of it previously).

 

Goalkeeper aside, I don't see an area that could be deemed healthy -from the defence through midfield to attack, to the interim manager/perm situation and all the way up to the ultimate carcinogen of them all - the FA.


What exasperates this situation even more is that some people will point to a player such as Scott Parker as being one of the plus points, one of the few healthy departments. Why is that no one involved in English football seems to have a ********ing clue?

 

Scott Parker is quite good I think but he is prone to stupid moments. As for the striking situation I'd take, Rooney, Welbeck, Sturridge, Crouch, Defoe. It wasn't so long ago (world cup v Slovenia and then the euro 2012 qualifier v Bulgaria) that Defoe was the main man, now he's had some injuries and hasn't really played and he's fallen out of favour. I see it like this, if Darren Bent was fit he would of gone to the Euro's and Defoe/Crouch are better strikers than Bent (if you don't agree they're better, they're certainly not worse) so taken them doesn't "weaken" us

 

I think mentally, Parker is great - he is a courageous and tough player with a fantastic work rate - someone you'd count on in the trenches. But the stupid moments you mention are almost always down to the fact that he has serious deficiencies on the technical side of his game. He is so awkward in possession - I'll be cringing every time the ball goes near him.

Agree with what you say regarding the strikers, although personally I would never actually play Defoe unless injuries forced me to and so am unsure if I would bother taking a 5th striker. I can't envisage a situation where I would even want him as an impact sub. Still, Defoe over Bent.

 

Does anyone else think with the form Tottenham are showing that Harry is basically the enxt England manager?

 

Now that Arsenal seem to have pretty much locked their champions league place and have nothing else to play for ,you would expect that wilshere wont play. Just so they can say he cant turn out for the summer tournies and isnt fit.

For him to miss an entire season at this stage of his career is unbelievable. Im just thankful that he never played in that under 21 cup or Arsene Whinger would have had the perfect scapegoat excuse.

 

people are quick to blame the arsenal medical team but sometimes these things happen

cleverly had a long injury and wilshere was coming off the back of a long season, his first full 1st team season

i hope he makes a recovery but u can't keep blaming arsenals physios etc without any real evidence

these guys are obviously some of the top people in the country, sometimes players just get injured

we often buy cheaper, more injury prone players and have been unlucky with eduardo/ramsey/diaby getting their angles shattered by shit cloggers so our records look worse

 

I remember when he got injured in pre season. In that mini tournament with NY Red bulls and Boca juniors. I think he has some minor existing injury but he still played and took some bad hits in those games. Not sure if it was the red bulls or the argies who played dirty .

 

We discussed this on the chels boards... that these pre-season games, (particularly in the US where players are putting themselves in the shop window for a chance at a big-money move to a European club), are an open invitation for someone to get clobbered in an ill-judged tackle.

I'm guessing they're big earners though, so...

 

It was the argies, they were targeting him all game with dirty fouls. He started the next game vs NY and mysteriously limped off after about 5 minutes having done nothing.

I dont think arsenal should escape blame though. Wenger talks about england burning players out, but it was him that kept picking him for arsenal when he look out on his feet

and then of course are the farsical predictions, two weeks is how long wenger said hed be out for....

 

Yep. If the Arsenal meds say 2 months expect the player to be out for 2 years.

Can anyone name an injury free player at Arsenal? A player who rarely picks up knocks? Sagna perhaps, but he too has spent considerable time on the sidelines.

 

Arteta hasn't been so far, song, koscielny, chezney, Chamberlain, chamakh, rvp in the last 2 years,

I think overplaying youngsters causes it.

 

skillfull players whose selection is not based primarily on physical presence, keeping far more possesion than opponents, in a particularly physical and also leniently refereed league, is a recipe for injuries. the club should be eithr congratulated for bravery or castigated for foolishness, rather than have the medical staff accused of deficiencies by people who are not even qualified in first aid.

 

We have our skillful players cut down over and over again, Ronaldo was the most fouled player at once stage, the whole Arsenal team were doing a hatchet job on Nani in one particular FA cup tie and he still get alot of hard fouls against him, every player who is a threat gets that treatment.Unless you believe only Arsenal got skillful players or everybody is out to get them, Wilshere himself is not averse to giving opposition a rough tackle or two.

One of the fundamental problems of Arsenal acquisition has been getting players with poor injury records because that takes millions of the price like Van Persie who ironically havent been injured all season and this would be first season at Arsenal he completes fully I think, unless those issues were growing up they dont disappear and indicate to natural weaknesses in some area of the body.

For players that come through academy, you would be better looking at how they have been brought up physically, but in some cases you cant do much about it anyway.

 

Wigan?

I'm not sure walcott is picked for much other than his physical abilities.

 

As SirWellingtonSilva said..

..he got injured in pre season when he got targeted for a hatchet job in one game v Boca Juniors. Nothing to do with anything that happened in the league.

Then when Arsenal went through a bad patch in the league they tried to rush him back and he broke down again.