England National football team thread

[thedon5]

Barkley is way too overrated for me and he is an AM anyway, Lallana, Wilshere and Ox can play there better than him.

Would be a shame to see Huddlestone miss out.

 

[ste_mc_efc]

Barkley is way too overrated for me and he is an AM anyway, Lallana, Wilshere and Ox can play there better than him.

Would be a shame to see Huddlestone miss out.

If you're talking about an AM with one striker and as a sort of number 10 then Barkley> both wilshere and chamberlain. if it's in a 4-3-3 type system where wide players have more of the attacking responsibility and the most attacking cm has to do more defensive/box-to-box stuff then wilshere>barkley>chamberlain. But if you're trying to pick a trequartista from the 3 it's barkley and it is not even close. and i think barkley has been way overrated by the media, too.

Lallana is close, he's mostly been out wide when i have seen him this season, though.

if I pretended I wasn't a scotland fan for a minute and was to pick an XI to start the world cup I'd struggle. You have a lot of players who you can justify and a lot of systems. I could easily argue

Hart

Johnson Jagielka Lescott Cole

Henderson Gerrard

Townsend Rooney Lallana

Sturridge

but could also easily argue


Hart
Walker Terry Cahill Baines
Barry
Gerrard Wilshere
Barkley
Rooney Sturrdige

Essentially there are 4 players I'd find a place for no matter what. the other 7 spots have 2 or 3 players each who are all of a similar level. that's also not mentioning players like ferdinand, lampard, lambert, rodriguez, caroll, defoe, chamberlain, welbeck, young, lennon and sterling.


I imagine lescott isn't a popular choice, but 2-3 years ago he'd have probably made it 5 players who should be in no matter what.

No matter what team Roy goes with about 99% of people/media outlets will disagree with at least one selection. you have too many players who are quite good, or are potentially excellent but still too inexperienced and not enough clear cut excellent, stand out players.

 

[thedon5]

Not sure why I said Ox, he never plays AM. Yeah I didn't mention Lallana as he has been playing RM mostly this season. I think he has to play there, but he's two-footed so could play off the left too. Edit: OK I did mention Lallana... No idea why again... One guy I did forget about is Rooney though.

For me Barkley is just too wasteful. It irritates me the number of times he dribbles the ball 5-10 metres and instead of putting a winger clean through, he tries something himself like a shot and fails. I've seen it too many times for my liking.

I like your first squad, but I will honestly explode if the world's most overrated player, Townsend, is selected ahead of Wilshere. I don't even rate Wilshere as highly as some other fans but it'd be a crime to have Townsend ahead of him. Of the players you listed, Lennon has been really off this season, but I would prefer Ox, Rodriguez and Sterling ahead of him too.

 

[ste_mc_efc]

For me Barkley is just too wasteful. It irritates me the number of times he dribbles the ball 5-10 metres and instead of putting a winger clean through, he tries something himself like a shot and fails. I've seen it too many times for my liking.

I like your first squad, but I will honestly explode if the world's most overrated player, Townsend, is selected ahead of Wilshere. I don't even rate Wilshere as highly as some other fans but it'd be a crime to have Townsend ahead of him. Of the players you listed, Lennon has been really off this season, but I would prefer Ox, Rodriguez and Sterling ahead of him too.

yeh that's the thing with Barkley. You watch him control a terrible pass from jagielka that should have went out for a throw-in, beat two players and lay it off and you think "christ this lad is incredible"

next time he gets the ball he tries an impossible pass that ends up in the stands. rather than just slip an easy ball into the channels.

I tried to mix the two sides to make them pretty balanced. I don't really rate townsend, but the media seems to love him and he'll be in the mix.

 

[War]

Barkley is way too overrated for me and he is an AM anyway, Lallana, Wilshere and Ox can play there better than him.

Would be a shame to see Huddlestone miss out.

English media overhypes every young player who shows some semblance of potential. But if we judge Barkley objectively i'd say he is on the same level with young French star Paul Pogba.

The role Huddlestone will play both Gerrard & Carrick can, so unless both get injured, he would miss out.

I imagine lescott isn't a popular choice, but 2-3 years ago he'd have probably made it 5 players who should be in no matter what.

No matter what team Roy goes with about 99% of people/media outlets will disagree with at least one selection. you have too many players who are quite good, or are potentially excellent but still too inexperienced and not enough clear cut excellent, stand out players.

Ha well yea maybe 2-3 years lescott would be considered by i don't think he was every international quality even @ his Everton peak, much less right now while he warms the bench @ City.

If the one player Hodgson picks is Milner, he would get that disagreement yea.

But as i mentioned before, the world cup is not a tournament in general for too much slow players, given the hot conditions as the confederation cups & ENG's one game last year @ the Maracana showed. The more athletic young players the better.

This is why the only over 30 mid-fielders ENG should take are Gerrard & Carrick. A guy like Barry although he may end up having a excellent season playing that DM role - would have to miss out.

ENGs very aggressive 4-2-3-1 formation they used in the latter qualifiers vs Poland & Montenegro can't be used in Brazil either. Along with athleticism factor, i'd say ENG need to pack the mid-field & look have a possession based game. Don't want to be losing the ball often in those conditions - especially in Manaus.

So at this stage presuming that Walcott & Johnson indeed won't go, i'd pick this XI & squad:

------------Hart------------

Walker Cahill Terry Cole

----------Gerrard-------------

----The Ox--------Wilshere-----

-----------Barkley-------------

-----Sturridge-----Rooney------

Foster, Forster, Jagielka, Baines, Jones, Carrick, Lallana, Henderson, Sterling, Townsend, Carroll, Defoe

Note: I believe Baines is better than Cole these days. But if Hodgson indeed recalls Terry, i'd be tempted to keep the Chelsea defensive trio together. We have seen in recent times with the Germany/Bayern/Dortmund & the Spain/Barca connection, how useful it can be to replicate club partnerships into your national team.

 

[thedon5]

Pogba is far, far better than Barkley, not even worth going over why because it's such a huge difference.

 

[War]

BBC Sport - John Terry: Roy Hodgson rules out England return

Roy Hodgson - John Terry's England career is over - ESPN FC

BBC Sport - John Terry: Roy Hodgson right to look to England's future

Well fair enough, although i dont agree. However if he not going to pick Terry, i'd say he should pick Dawson to back-up the first choice pair of Jageilka/Cahill. Jones & Smalling can't be the 1st choice back-up given their lack of consistent game time @ United & the clubs poor form this season.

----------

Pogba is far, far better than Barkley, not even worth going over why because it's such a huge difference.

Don't think so & i watch Pogba pretty much every week these days in the last few months, because I like observe Juve regularly to watch Pirlo mainly.

The same criticism you leveled at Barkley for maybe trying to much over adventurous shots or passes - Pogba does not all the time with Juve.

Only difference i see with them is that Pogba at the moment is more adept at playing in a deeper mid-field role. Haven't seen Everton play Barkley in a DM role - just AM.

While i believe Barkley can be used with some effect in a wide mid-field role, Pogba just looks like a young Patrick Vieira.

 

[MasterBlaster76]

Pogba is far, far better than Barkley, not even worth going over why because it's such a huge difference.

Unfortunately, he's not English.

 

[War]

Roy Hodgson casts doubt on Ashley Cole's England future | Football | The Guardian

 

[thedon5]

Good. No way he can go to the WC ahead of Gibbs or Shaw.

I hope Walker and Johnson don't get any more undeserved call-ups too instead of the far superior Nathaniel Clyne.

 

[War]

Clyne is playing well no doubt, even though of late, another young ENG right-back C Chambers is playing ahead of him ha. But i don't think Clyne is putting the same pressure on Johnson/Walker - like Shaw/Gibbs is putting on Ash.

 

[thedon5]

The difference is Ashley Cole is still a decent footballer. Johnson and Walker are both awful players.

Calum Chambers is certainly a great prospect too. Clyne has been getting injured and Chambers has been solid whenever he's replaced him. No matter how good the replacement, when someone is playing like Chambers has been, you can't automatically put Clyne back in the team. I would also take Chambers ahead of those two awful RBs.

 

[ste_mc_efc]

Good. No way he can go to the WC ahead of Gibbs or Shaw.

wow.

 

[thedon5]

wow.

Cole is done.

 

[War]

The difference is Ashley Cole is still a decent footballer. Johnson and Walker are both awful players.

Calum Chambers is certainly a great prospect too. Clyne has been getting injured and Chambers has been solid whenever he's replaced him. No matter how good the replacement, when someone is playing like Chambers has been, you can't automatically put Clyne back in the team. I would also take Chambers ahead of those two awful RBs.

Ha think you are being a bit over the top to say Johnson/Walker are awful.

Walker i'd accept is still very suspect defensively. His position play can indeed be awful at times. But he is so quick he tends make up for this fault, by being able to recover. Then again this is mantra of most modern day full-backs, most are excellent going forward & suspect defensively.

Johnson is very solid these days. Since the 2010 world cup, Johnson has improved leaps & bounds defensively.

If anything, Clyne is more challenging Walker for a squad place.