England - Kids are the key to the World Cup

[ollieconnolly]

V

I chose this friendly for two reasons, Scotland had been mouthing off about how they were now a better side than England from the day i took over, we were 20th in the World Rankings they were 11th.
I wanted to put that right, they hadnt even qualified for the European Championships, but they still claimed they were better. Secondly i wanted the game to be away from home, at hampdem park.
Hampdem is a hostile place, and some of my younger players need to get use to this sort of intensity when playing international football. Playing in this sort of environment would also make it very, very competitive, probally the closest friendly England can have to a full competitve match. I needed to find out if some of these lads were big game players.

This is the side i selected:

A much more experienced side, at half time regardless of the score i'd make big changes to test some of the players temperatment.

Scotland 1 - 0 England

A good performance but very poor result. we dominated from start to finish and some player played very well we were just hit on the break by a marvelous individual goal by Stephen Fletcher.

Man of the Match:

Bombed up and down the side but in some real good balls.
The worst performance was from Theo Walcott for me he has really underperformed for me, i will have a word with him i dont want him to be just an impact player and that shouldnt be a players ambition, i think its disrespectful to think of someone that way, so i will talk with him.​

---------- Post added at 05:18 PM ---------- Previous post was at 05:04 PM ----------

Following this, really good. But my god your defence is shi*e, but your attack is amazing

Yeh the defence is struggling, its hard tho Ferdinand is too old to partner Terry and Cahill appears to inexperienced

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These are the teams we will be up against in eastern europe​

 

[Land-E]

good luck mate, need a better defence

 

[ollieconnolly]

i'm thinking Micah Richards at right back and giving shawcross a go with terry?

---------- Post added at 06:59 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:51 PM ----------

Oliver Connolly is once again linked with a Premier League club, he has reportedly been offered the Bolton job, the club are hoping that as he has no matches coming up soon that he may take the job to the end of the season and then see how he performs at the European Championships.

However Oliver Connolly has once again denied any speculation linking him with a move away from the national side. 'I must have said 4 or 5 times now, i'm here to do a job and i will not be leaving this job.'​

 

[ollie56]

Have they drawn the groups yet?

 

[ollieconnolly]

Have they drawn the groups yet?

As you ask that i am just doing this update

European Championship Groups Drawn!!
England miss the group of death and bag themselves a straight forward draw.​

Championship odds:
Spain 3/1
England 4/1
Portugal 4/1
Italy 5/1
France 5/1
Germany 6/1
Holland 6/1​

Spain, Germany and Holland find themselves in the group of death where as Italy and France will feel they can both cruise through their group.​

Opponent Breakdown:
Ukraine: Tricky opponents as they will be on their home grounds with home backing, but other than Milevski should be a comfertable win.
Sweden: Again not too tough, Zlatan is the one outstanding player
Greece: Shouldnt have much to offer, very defensive and will probally win the wooden spoon​

 

[Witsel]

You wrote Spain twice mate.

 

[ollie56]

Great group can't wait to see you go to the Euro's.
I reckon u will play czech rep in quarters

 

[ollieconnolly]

sorry i meant france

---------- Post added at 07:22 PM ---------- Previous post was at 07:19 PM ----------

Great group can't wait to see you go to the Euro's.
I reckon u will play czech rep in quarters

Yeh same, we should have a good run i would be hoping for a semi final place

FA Anounce England's Team of the Year​

​

The Goalkeeper is Alex Smithies​

 

[ollie56]

word of advice. set up a friendly against a top team. youre toughest match so far has been scotland

 

[ollieconnolly]

England Fixtures Announced!!​

Greece - 1:30pm - Methalist,Kharkiv - Sunday 10th
Ukraine - 7:30pm - NSC Olympiyevski, Kiev - Wed 13th
Sweden - 7:30pm - Donbas-Aren, Donetsk - Mon 18th​

England are becoming more and more in favour with the bookies, having a straight forward grouo with the most likely possiblity of playing Czech Republic in the next round England should be making the semi-finals of the tournement

The FA has also confirmed that the side will be playing two more friendlies before the championships:
Ghana - 29th Feb - Wembley
Brazil - 2nd June - Wembley

Will playing one of the biggest sides of the world before the tournment dent the sides confidence if they lose heavily?​

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FIFA have today held the draw for the European qualifying section of the World Cup.

Englands Group:

​

 

[ollie56]

easy group for world cup, only czech's to worry about.

 

[ollieconnolly]

yeh i agree but i think we'd back ourselves to beat them home and away

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England Squad for Ghana Match announced:​

The squad is the same as for the last matches, the only change is the injured JT out and Michael Dawson called up.​

On the first day of training Stevie G went down with another injury, it was now unbelievable the amount of injuries he'd had.
I called Owen Hargreaves up as his replacement for his experience

Alex Smithies has also suffered an injury, Paul Robinson has been called up in his place​

 

[ollie56]

smithies not out for tourny is he

 

[ollieconnolly]

England 4 - 0 Ghana
Rooney 5,73 Milner 32 Cahill 58

A fantastic performance beating the best African Nation. Rooney was outstanding and i have deffinantly found my replacement in Dawson if JT is missing.

Man of the Match: Rooney

​

---------- Post added at 08:13 PM ---------- Previous post was at 08:12 PM ----------

smithies not out for tourny is he

no only out between 10 days and 2 weeks

 

[ollie56]

are you doing brazil game

 

[Brummy123]

Mate I loved the way you did **** at the start but carried on and tried different things it's brilliant the way you don't just play the usual players and are trying the youth and to be far your doing well. I hate agbonlahor but he's doing amazing for you just like pato for me in my AC story. Good luck mate

 

[GardnerGFC]

Im following!, keep up the good work.

 

[NUFC_Tony]

At last a clean sheet!

Good luck in the European Championships.

 

[ollie56]

U need to post soon or people will lose interest

 

[ollieconnolly]

Thanks for all the comments guys sorry ve been away for two nights will continue now and will hopefully have done the group stage by mid day tomorrow

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This was my biggest game as manager, my biggest test in the eve of my first tournment, my youngsters needed to step up. This was the squad selected, Only JT was missing, it was worrying as he was desperatly needed against the bigger sides

On the eve of the game i got phone call i wasnt expecting.
'Hello Mr Connolly is Daniel Levy, i want you to become Totenham Manager'
'I'm sorry Sir but ive said many times that i want to remain here'
'Just think on it ollie, £27m transfer budget, £1m wage buget and 30k a week, take until the end of the season after the championships then contact us back.


I selected this side for the Brazil game, it was a huge game and wembley was packed to the rafters.

A goal from Pato in the 15th minute was very controversial, 'clearly offside' i screamd, Ashley Cole got himself booked for abusing the linesman.
Rooney had been growing and growing under my tactics, and score a fantastic strike to level the scores.
I took heart in the first half, as we really did play well passed and moved the ball sharply and quickly.
In the 62nd minute, an inside ball from Gabby Agbonlahor played Jermain Defoe through who slotted passed Julio Cesar.

It was a fantastic performance, Jermain played his way into the euro squad. I was once again dissapointed with Walcott once more.

England 2 - 1 Brazil
Rooney 34, Defoe 63 Pato 16

I couldnt have been filled with more confidence by the result we were a class apart from the great Brazil and we now go into the championships birmming with confidence.

Man of the Match:

​

---------- Post added at 11:42 AM ---------- Previous post was at 11:30 AM ----------

England 28 man Performance Squad:

Goalkeepers:
Ben Foster
Alex Smithies
Joe Hart
Paul Robinson

Defendes:
John Terry
Micah Richards
Ashley Cole
Ryan Shawcross
Gary Cahill
Wes Brown
Phil Jagielka
Kieran Gibbs

Midfielders:
Steven Gerrard
Frank Lampard
Gareth Barry
Jack Wilshere
Tom Huddlestone
Jack Rodwell
Fabian Delph
James Milner
Joe Cole
Ashley Young
Dan Gosling

Strikers:
Wayne Rooney
Gabby Agbonlahor
Jermain Defoe
Theo Walcott
Nathan Delfouneso
Danny Welbeck

The biggest shock off the performance squad was Michael Carrick missing out, many questions were asked from the media about who would be in out starting, but in truth i myself couldnt answer them.
i was asked who my number 1 was, I had backed Smithies for two years but Joe Hart has been so impressive and kept well against Brazil.
Furthermore i was questioned about Gerrard and Lampard, i always believed they couldnt play toegther, but then what do i do? drop my captain?
and is milner the man to partner one of them?

Lots of questions and just 4 days to decide.​

---------- Post added at 12:00 PM ---------- Previous post was at 11:42 AM ----------

England Squad Announcment!!

I didnt want to take the lads on a flash trip away, so we just stayed in a small time hotel by Wembley, Everyone was good in training, Delph was perticularly impressive as was Rodwell he shows maturity was past his age.

I finally decided on this side:

Now to Jet out to Ukraine, i have set a lowest goal of semi-finals​