Smalling, Lescott, Cleverly, Oxlade- Chamberlain, Young I know it is San Marino but surely players who are playing regularly (Dawson, Lambert, etc.( and currently in good form should be given a chance?
It's not, it's full of very good players. You think England you choose Lambert and then have ago at the players that are playing.
The team should be a mix of players currently in form and people that are effective for England (Lampard, Gerrard, etc.). Lambert is an example of a striker who is currently scoring regularly against top Prem teams. Defoe hasn't scored in weeks. Many of the players out there tonight have not played more than 2 or 3 competitive games since Christmas. Form does not seem to matter.
Where did he say they weren't good players? He said they were reserve and sub players rather than regular starters. Personally I'm in favour of keeping a fairly settled England squad regardless of whether the players are starting for their clubs, always the opportunity to drop ones who are completely out of form or to bring in someone.
And? They are part of big squads were they play a lot of games. How many game would Lambert play at Manchester City? he wouldn't. Lescott played against Barnsley and i watched him and toure off the ball and they were very good. He could go to 18 clubs in the Premier and be first choice. But he's at a very good team. Only Kompany's been a regular in the city central defence. All the others play in rotation.
Lescott is 31 and yes, a good player but is not getting regular games. Smalling is fit but is not even being rotated into the Man Utd team. Why not give Shawcross or Dawson a go as they are possibly the future of the England team as people like Terry, Ferdinand etc. are on their way out? Defoe is in a very poor run of form so why not give Lambert or Gary Hooper a run out, players who are scoring regularly. International managers always express concern that they don't have enough time to look at and work with players but there is a team out there that are good players but some are obviously not in form. But maybe that is the future of the England team the way the Prem is going - our "best" players are subs and rotation players.
Played three times since end of January. Hoopers not exactly knocking them in. The last i new he was not exactly knocking them in up north. The last statistic i heard was he had scored 15 league goals, in SCOTLAND
Its not if it goes to goal difference !!! Ok maybe we can claim some sort of tribunal if we go out on goal difference , we can use the argument that 4/5 goals was enough for us, even if the other teams scored 10 .
If England let it go to Goal Difference then theres a problem Mark. This is a World cup qualifier. When was last time England didn't make a world cup? 1994.
Will it make you feel good tonight Bossman more than a 5-0 win would? It wouldn't me. It would be nice to get the points. Scored a few goals but humiliating a side doesn't warm me up inside.
Of course but it would be other games that did that. Shame on any group of players that didn't get England to a world cup.
To be honest HT yes I would like us to get as many as possible, it's never nice for a team to be humiliated but I'm afraid at this level there's no room for sentiment, my own opinion is that we shouldn't even be teams like San Marino,