Ben Watson is 5 years older than Lansbury. Their youth careers never crossed. Pearce picks loads of Championship players but his selection policy is idiotic. Nothing to do with club bias.
I never thought I'd ever see Cameron Stewart in an England u21 squad. Some pundits are surprised The Ox isn't in the seniors but Pearce has a vested interest in not picking him. Not that I'm complaining mind.
Pearce has only picked Stewart because Scotland want him and he's already lost Phillips. Stewart was nowhere near the U21 set up for the last games.
It's an interesting one. Phil Neville is much more intelligent than most of our footballers. Bringing him in can do no harm. Will have to see how it goes.
not sure if that is saying much.Its almost like trying to decide which is the best lump of shit that fell out of a donkeys ass . I hope he can do some good. More than clowns like Southgate anyway .
i'd stump for a Neville brother over Carragher (at this point in time). personal preference, although i've followed Carra's willingness to learn and take that next step into mgmt closely over the past 1-2 years.
but our technical players are disliked by the idiot masses because they are too busy trapping and passing the ball instead of lumping it forward and showing "passion" so its no suprise that we have seen a lack of techincally gifted or technically focused coaches
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SWAAUIWCmsc"]Stupid football players; Phil Neville - YouTube[/ame]
Phil is just full of the usual cliches you expect from ex pro's. I think we'll only improve the coaching if we can get a system like Holland where off field education is a big part of the system. Most pro's over here havent been in school since age 16. Wolves have just hired a manager who can barely even speak a sentence. Some really bad hires taking place right now.
There can't be many footballers who (like Carracher) managed to plough through Tony Blair's book, said he enjoyed it and was going to read Mandelson's next. If that wasn't enough to qualify him he appears to be something of a student of the game, and from what I've seen talks a lot of sense about football.
This 'student of the game' stuff was said about David Platt too and he was utterly dreadful. I'm not saying Carragher would be terrible because it's very hard to tell what players will be like after their playing days (unless they are completely braindead). The issue isn't even who comes in. It's the structure of the FA that is dire at these youth levels. No common goals or philosophy and everyone left to their own devices. Then we get ex-players coming in that have done no youth or development training coming in to 'learn'. Learn in a part time job when you don't get a great deal of time working with players during a season. It would be much more logical imo if the FA called in young English coaches from clubs' U18 or U16 teams to help out rather than ex-players.
The thing is, I'm sure these guys make good coaches and assistants. Platt has come back at Man City in that role and there are quite a few ex-pros doing good coaching at the upper levels of the Prem. They just shouldn't be thrown into the management roles. The problem is the FA would likely promote Pearce to the senior job, then bring in a Neville or Carragher to take over the U21s. This is a job which should ideally be going to a young English managers with proven talent and who plays passing football - like Eddie Howe or Karl Robinson, or to experienced managers who are out of work - like Curbishley. I'm sure a fair few would turn it down but with the right salary and a 2 year contract to cover a qualifying/tournament cycle they could find someone decent to take the job.
A real "student of the game" would be Mourinho. He entered college and studied Psychology at degree level before getting into management. Not only is he an expect tactician he is also an expert on people management. Then you look at the someone like Pearce! what does he know about management or psychology? let alone anything tactical. He thinks that someone will be motivated by ranting on the sidelines. The whole structure of the game is rotten because too many people get jobs depending on who their mates are.
He is an ideal candidate but with one caveat - if he ever got a top managers job I would be concerned how he'd cope with the media pressure.
what players should i be watching for when i watch the england vs belgium game this wednesday i know about jones, chamberlain, are there any others
Short sided game and barely any short passing. Just loads of players whacking the ball at goal full pelt - http://www.thefa.com/video/England/...elgium home/Small-Sided-at-Middlesbrough.aspx
mentioned this on twitter, but neither you nor i know the plan behind the drill. not to mention it is a spliced video capturing only minutes of a full training session. perhaps it's to quickly pass/move/shoot under pressure? perhaps not. just don't think it's right to bash a short video for something that we're not really versed in. maybe they pushed the goals back and did a 50 yard short sided session later on. who is to say.