England vs. Holland, Friendly: Wednesday 29/02/12, 20:00 Wembley, London [R]

BarryfromEastenders · Feb 22, 2012

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BarryfromEastenders · Feb 22, 2012

A video on this link of Graham Taylor recalling the 1993 World Cup qualifying home game that ended 2-2 -

http://www.thefa.com/England/News/m...atch-Previews/england--holland-93-220212.aspx

sinner78 · Feb 22, 2012

http://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/en/rooney-out-with-throat-infection-/news/anzeigen_84162.html

Rooney misses the midweek game at club level.
So probably wont be called for Holland .

BarryfromEastenders · Feb 22, 2012

Capello wasn't going to pick him for the build up games. Not sure if that has changed now.

RobTheFool · Feb 22, 2012

I thought Capello said he would have picked him for the games this year?

Either way, it's nothing new, Rooney never seems to be fit when we play the top teams in friendlies. Maybe a chance to see Welbeck and Sturridge

mo0. · Feb 22, 2012

so it begins

Pearce plans England experiment

England caretaker coach Stuart Pearce is set to name an inexperienced squad to face Holland in next week's friendly at Wembley Stadium.

Rio Ferdinand, Micah Richards and Michael Dawson will have more reason than most to be anxiously waiting for news of Pearce's party to face the Oranje on Wednesday.

All three made fewer appearances during the Fabio Capello regime than might have been expected.

So, just over a fortnight after the Italian was swept out of office in the most dramatic of circumstances, they will discover whether anything has changed.

That Richards added just a single cap to his overall tally of 12 during Capello's near four-year stint in charge was most perplexing.

It seemed Capello never trusted Richards' defensive capabilities.

Nevertheless, half a game against France in November 2010 is scant reward for his efforts at Manchester City, where he was installed as skipper during Vincent Kompany's recent suspension.

Pearce knows all about Richards from the time they spent together with England's Under-21 squad, but then the same could also be said of Kyle Walker and Manchester United duo Chris Smalling and Phil Jones, who all started at right-back for the seniors under Capello, in addition to Liverpool's Glen Johnson, who has previously been thought of as first choice.

Both Ferdinand and Dawson were involved under Capello.

Indeed, the latter man replaced the former in South Africa when Ferdinand suffered the knee injury that ruled him out of a World Cup campaign for which he had been appointed captain.

However, Ferdinand's only call-up this season was for the postponed friendly with Holland in August that next week's game replaces and Capello seemed to have decided his fitness record was not good enough to merit further consideration.

The 33-year-old has featured in United's last four matches though. And with John Terry ruled out with a knee injury, Phil Jagielka sidelined by a hamstring complaint and Gary Cahill struggling for form since his transfer window move to Chelsea, Pearce may view Ferdinand's experience as a positive.

Dawson, meanwhile, has now recovered from the Achilles injury that forced him to miss four months of Tottenham's stellar season and will also hope to force his way into Euro 2012 contention.

Had Capello been picking this squad, youngsters such as Daniel Welbeck, Daniel Sturridge and Tom Cleverley would have more reason for optimism than Jermain Defoe, Peter Crouch and Frank Lampard, none of whom seemed to be part of the Italian's overall strategy.

Given Pearce was part of that coaching team and has worked so much with the younger England players, an element of continuity is anticipated.

Yet, the entire occasion will be underpinned by the truth that, by Euro 2012, Harry Redknapp could well be in charge and he may bring a different philosophy completely.

Beyond that, should, for some reason, Redknapp end up not taking the job, Pearce would become a live candidate, therefore throwing a load of kids to a Wembley slaughter against the World Cup finalists would not do his job prospects much good.

It is one of the reasons why, if he is confirmed as skipper on Thursday, Steven Gerrard will only be handed the job for a single game even though he would appear to be the perfect replacement for Terry, whose clash with Anton Ferdinand at Loftus Road in October triggered the whole earthquake that caused Capello's regime to collapse.

Of the players not previously used by Capello, it would appear only Manchester United midfielder Tom Cleverley and Arsenal's impressive teenager Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain have a realistic chance of being involved.

Sky-Sports
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BarryfromEastenders · Feb 22, 2012

Lescott has been told he wont be involved in this friendly.

mo0. · Feb 22, 2012

so we can assume he's a shoe-in for Euro 2012 then

BarryfromEastenders · Feb 23, 2012

He's picked Fraizer Campbell

http://www.thefa.com/England/News/m...Match-Previews/squad-announcement-230212.aspx

SyedZada · Feb 23, 2012

Let him atleast play half a season, very happy that the lad has come back and looked sharp and hungry and even grabbed a couple of goals but come on he was out for 18 months.

BarryfromEastenders · Feb 23, 2012

Why has he picked Bent on top of that too? Makes the Campbell pick even worse. Why not give someone like Danny Graham a chance instead for that place? He's done far more than Campbell.

BarryfromEastenders · Feb 23, 2012

He's picked 5 full backs and so little cover at centre back too.

SyedZada · Feb 23, 2012

If talking about just form and season, Holt and Graham have done fantastically. Euro isnt 2 years away, its at the end of season, nothing wrong with some in form short term options.

SyedZada · Feb 23, 2012

Smalling and Richards CB partnership? Though Richards at CB is still a scare (so is Jones at the moment though).

BarryfromEastenders · Feb 23, 2012

SyedZada said: ↑

If talking about just form and season, Holt has done fantastically. Euro isnt 2 years away, its at the end of season, nothing wrong with some in form short term options.
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I would give him, Graham or even Carroll who's barely been capped a look in this game if we are looking at differing options.

No logic to keeping Bent and dropping Lescott.

BarryfromEastenders · Feb 23, 2012

Oh God! Pearce says he'll take the job. This is excrutiating.

SyedZada · Feb 23, 2012

Missed Graham in the post Barry, sorry had to edit.

SyedZada · Feb 23, 2012

Rooney call up also doesnt make sense to me, he is not going to play two very important matches, so play without him at any chance you can before you have to.

sinner78 · Feb 23, 2012

BarryfromEastenders said: ↑

Oh God! Pearce says he'll take the job. This is excrutiating.
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Of course he will take the job. They will try to get redknapp on the cheap and when it falls through they will give it to "psycho" . He will then go on to ruin the Euro's and WC qualifying . Bernstein is the worst FA official I can ever remember .

BarryfromEastenders · Feb 23, 2012

sinner78 said: ↑

Of course he will take the job. They will try to get redknapp on the cheap and when it falls through they will give it to "psycho" . He will then go on to ruin the Euro's and WC qualifying . Bernstein is the worst FA official I can ever remember .
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The press are all praising Pearce's press conference now. If he gets the job that will be it for me. Will get a less painful hobby to follow like stabbing myself in the head with a fork for three hours a day

sinner78 · Feb 23, 2012

BarryfromEastenders said: ↑

He's picked Fraizer Campbell

http://www.thefa.com/England/News/m...Match-Previews/squad-announcement-230212.aspx
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Frazier campbell!!
1 goal in 2 years. If ever there was a form player its him!! hahaha

Kingpin idiot pearce makes an amazingly bad squad choice. Afew will pull out and he wont replace him. In terms of management skill Id say pearce ranks below even Graham Taylor.

sinner78 · Feb 23, 2012

BarryfromEastenders said: ↑

The press are all praising Pearce's press conference now. If he gets the job that will be it for me. Will get a less painful hobby to follow like stabbing myself in the head with a fork for three hours a day
Click to expand...

So they have mysteriously dropped all the stuff about his clash with Ince?

Bernstein will give him the job because they wont give Redknapp the deal he wants. Then we will hear excuses about how he took a "tough job" on short notice and did the best he could ,blah blah .
He will then take charge of our WC group and do a terrible job . It will be like the 1992/1994 period repeated again.

BarryfromEastenders · Feb 23, 2012

sinner78 said: ↑

Frazier campbell!!
1 goal in 2 years. If ever there was a form player its him!! hahaha
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He's a good player that has been very unlucky with injuries but there is no logic to this selection at all.

He hasn't even had enough games to prove he's fit enough in the long run. It is also a kick in the teeth to those players that have been doing well.

Utterly ridiculous.

BarryfromEastenders · Feb 23, 2012

sinner78 said: ↑

So they have mysteriously dropped all the stuff about his clash with Ince?
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It was mentioned and he said something like 'It was dealt with then, I was wrong and I feel bad for Paul because he would have got calls asking about it' blah blah blah.

Stretch Armstrong · Feb 23, 2012

Generally I quite like it. It tempers slightly my dilemma of wanting England to do well and Pearce badly, which was already beginning to cause cognitive dissonance.

Frazier Campbell is an odd one, but he does have pace. I like Graham, but I'm not sure he would make it International level.

Would liked to have seen Caulker, but the selection seemingly guarantees Jones and Smalling will start together which can only be a good thing.