Good idea for a thread.
Slightly optimistic about the upcoming Euro's. Not really the insane amount of pressure of WC2006 or 2010, see no reason why QF/SF are impossible.
France and Sweden..
Look... I love Scholes and is one of my favourite players but why would we want to ask him to return to the England squad when this tournemant is about trying out new young blood. I see no point at all taking Scholes when we should be looking to the future and looking at young players instead, the "golden generation" have had their time in an England shirt, it is time to move on and try out younger players.
The possibility of seeing Scholes & Gerrard in CM together, gets me hard, if I'm honest. In my opinion, the 2 best CM's of the past 10 years, if not ever in the Premier League.
If Ginger was in the team, I'd probably go as far as saying we could win it. Even with Woy as manager.
Look... I love Scholes and is one of my favourite players but why would we want to ask him to return to the England squad when this tournemant is about trying out new young blood. I see no point at all taking Scholes when we should be looking to the future and looking at young players instead, the "golden generation" have had their time in an England shirt, it is time to move on and try out younger players.
I'm all for your suggestion and that's what I hoped we would do too for this tournament, but with Hodgson as manager I can't see him blooding the new youngsters. He will play it safe and play the old names.
If anyone can tell me any young players he has signed during his last three stints at Liverpool, WBA or Fulham then I'm all for it - or at least young players he has given a chance to. Most of his signings are 28 or over so I can't see why he'd go all out of character and pick the young players.
Michael *** said:If a disciplined, organised style of play is perfect for leading an underdog into a major international tournament, there is only one choice. Hodgson’s successes have generally been with underdogs; the only problem anyone can have with his style of management suiting England’s situation this summer is if (a) they refuse to accept England are underdogs, or (b) they are frustrated at the confirmation of England’s status as underdogs.
(All this ignores long-term goals: granted, this is a major reason why England are currently in their current situation, but it’s difficult to see what long-term planning England can do between now and the Euros – regrouping after the summer is more logical. Talk of abandoning any attempt to compete at Euro 2012, in favour of a long-term approach looking forward to World Cup 2014, is a nice idea but assumes qualification and a reasonable idea of who would be in the side in two years’ time. Future international XIs are notoriously difficult to predict – predicting this year’s XI is difficult enough. In 2006 England took Theo Walcott to the World Cup, and though he didn’t play, he picked up ‘good tournament experience’, supposedly. This was totally useless when England didn’t qualify for Euro 2008 or when Walcott wasn’t deemed worthy of a place at World Cup 2010, and it was a wasted place in the 2006 tournament. To ‘do a Walcott’ with an entire squad would be suicidal.)
One thing I am looking forward to is the France game. They're a rejuvenated team under Blanc (who by the way, has had the balls in most of his matches to kick out the old generation and get some exciting young players into the mix - Remy, Payet, M'Vila etc).
There's a difference. All the England old guard did was play badly. The French old guard dissolved into a massive civil war, got into fights with their staff and one another. It made their situation untenable.
Yeah ok I'll give you that one. Still though, that particular match should be an accurate measure of how much we may or may not need to play catch up against a nextgen team.
It wont be an accurate measure. Blanc has had two years, Roy hasnt even had the players yet.
Give Roy ten years in charge of England and I don't think the outcome would be any different to be honest. I've never been so pessimistic about a tournament in my life up until this one.
It still wouldn't be accurate. And its also a somewhat unfair, and somewhat unfounded judgement on Hodgson in the long term.
It still wouldn't be accurate. And its also a somewhat unfair, and somewhat unfounded judgement on Hodgson in the long term.
Mentally scarred from his time with us (pool). I just find his style of play so underwhelming and don't think he has what it takes to take on a club any higher then mid table level. He achieved nothing with Inter too, realistically the only two big jobs he has ever had.
I said it earlier in the thread I think, he has done a great job for WBA and certainly for Fulham, but that is definitely where his level is. The press are going to eat him alive if we struggle in our first game.
Did brilliantly with Switzerland, and there is where we are now.
Who gives a monkeys about the press? They are just bitter cos they didnt get Redknapp.
Name the young blood in that role though? Wilshere? Injured. McEachran? Barely kicked a ball. We have Cleverley right now and thats it.