Haven't seen an enormous amount of the lad but, just watching him here, he hasn't got exactly what you'd call 'silky skills' has he. Looks more of 'bustler' to me.
[!! Tying in w/what was said around here about England utilising a "target-playing" C-F: it's time to bring back Tommy Lawton to wear the 3 Lions shirt... & !!]
A couple of goals for our forwards and Shelvey makes his debut. Nice for Ox to get his first senior goal now too. Now it's the first tough away trip.
as with many I thought several players were not at their best today and our constant tactic of forcing the ball through the eye of a needle led to one of the more frustrating 5-0 results I have seen if we can pull out a win on Tuesday then we should be in a very good position
For sure. As you say, watching people REPEATEDLY come back inside, including Walcott, (while he was still, y'know... alive), instead of trying to knock the ball past the fella and go past him was bloody frustrating. And Rooney kept dropping back to get the ball off the Cb's too. I mean, this is against San Marino, FFS
Yeah, it was all rather laboured, ponderous and predictable. If we play like that against the Poles we'll probably get well beaten.
I found it a combination of the above by several players and some extremely over elaborate play by others. While Shelvey is still quite green and some may feel he is not ready for this level- he is at least willing to and take a shot from distance- which is more than can be said from some of his teammates during that display