England squad for the Dutch
Big Macca has announced his squad for the oh-so-important friendly with Holland this week and everyone but the tea lady has been included. Too much deadwood for my taste - I'd certainly like Phil Neville, Jermaine Jenas and Stewart Downing to be shown the door at this point.
Here's the squad in full:
Goalkeepers: Paul Robinson (Tottenham), Chris Kirkland (Wigan), Ben Foster (Man Utd)
Defenders: Gary Neville (Man Utd), Phil Neville (Everton), Micah Richards (Man City), Rio Ferdinand (Man Utd), John Terry (Chelsea), Ledley King (Tottenham), Jamie Carragher (Liverpool), Wes Brown (Man Utd), Michael Dawson (Tottenham), Ashley Cole (Chelsea), Wayne Bridge (Chelsea)
Midfield: Aaron Lennon (Tottenham), Shaun Wright-Phillips (Chelsea), Steven Gerrard (Liverpool), Frank Lampard (Chelsea), Michael Carrick (Man Utd), Scott Parker (Newcastle), Jermaine Jenas (Tottenham), Joe Cole (Chelsea), Stewart Downing (Middlesbrough)
Forwards: Wayne Rooney (Man Utd), Peter Crouch (Liverpool), Jermain Defoe (Tottenham), Darren Bent (Charlton), Andrew Johnson (Everton).
Your comments, gentlemen?
posted by gatorbob @ 4:09 PM
3 Comments:
Not nearly adventurous up front. Only 5 forwards and 2 are well known. Even though McLaren won't get to see enough of them in action, I'd have dropped Defoe, Downing and SWP in favor of that Villa boy Aglabahor or whatever his name is, and Theo just to get them used to being in the squad and training with the first team.
This just looks like Second-Choice-Steve's strategy is to wait until Owen gets back and then pair him up with Rooney or Crouch depending on whether we're up against the Liliputians of Japan or the Lurch brigade of any number of Northern Europeans.
We've got to find a few more strikers.
What other forwards deserve a call-up? Theo's the only one that comes to mind and I'm not sure that Macca's ready to go down that road quite yet. It's a shame that Sven blew that one for him. If Theo'd been passed over for the WC, Macca could've come in with a bold move for Theo and people would've eaten it up.
For a meaningless friendly, you pick new faces to mingle in the squad. I agree that Theo and Aglabahor aren't yet ready to go out and revive the Euro Qualification campaign, but what's the point of including defenders who are barely Premiership standard like Wes Brown and Mike Dawson, and midfield wasters like SWP and Jenas, and the disastrous Pip Neville who you already know won't be up to the job. Your logic would have David James back in ferchrissakes.
My point is that for a game like this, bring up a few from the U21's and give 'em a taste of the big time when it really doesn't matter.
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