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Telegram Sam
I think we need more width to our play and we're more likely to have that if we employ out-and-out wingers. Perhaps Welbeck can occupy that role, and last night's performance wasn't his best, but regardless of personnel I think we need old-school wingers. Spain and Germany are able to play a relatively narrow formation given their ability to pass and move with greater intricacy than we can. We aren't able to create chances from tighter spaces as they can, and such we need to use our wide players as wingers to draw out the full-backs and create that space.
Look at the Rooney goal, for example - Walcott was wide on the right, and when Wilshere burst forward, he was able to slot the pass through because there was a sizeable gap between the centre-half and the left-back. That's our best bet of scoring, in my opinion, as opposed to packing the central area with players and try and pass our way through the centre-halves.
VP.
Well we'll look at it another way, it doesn't have to be actual crosses does it (head height), but there needs to be some kind end product. So if his low goal tally is due to him playing on the left this season, then surely his assists must be half decent?
Ninja
Which is what I said on page fucking 13, he's struggling in the box at the minute.
And he has 3 assists I believe, same as Young and 1 less than Valencia.
VP.
I'm sorry, i don't hunt through previous pages to make sure i don't mention something someone else may have done already. And tbh, that gif does more to make him look useless than actually good.
Dutton
That makes no sense then, you said you wanted an out and out winger to beat a man and get a cross in. In this situation Walcott's been played through the middle and had a shot. Are you suggesting Welbeck couldn't do that?
Telegram Sam
First, I was commenting on our general style of play - I'll hold my hands up and say perhaps I haven't seen enough of Welbeck to make a proper judgement.
Secondly, Walcott's created that space to run into because he's playing out wide. If he'd started further infield, the left-back would be marking him far closer to the centre-half, and as a result the space in which Wilshere played the pass might not have been there. Walcott's adopted a wide position, creating the space, and once Wilshere's played the pass through the gap he has enough pace to get behind the defender and take a shot.
Ninja
Well I was replying to you at the time, and we were having the discussion about 3 days ago.
AFC
Dutton
And he deserves to be.
Don't understand how Oxlade-Chamberlain is in there though.
Nice to see Dawson in there, hopefully Carrick will be a starter too.
Ninja
Deano
Number 1
Dutton
Genuinely wouldn't surprise me if they didn't take action because of this "news" today.
Telegram Sam
Telegram Sam
I reckon that's our strongest team from that squad. Ferdinand and Dawson should be our centre-back pairing if we're judging solely off of recent form.
Number 1
Already confirmed he's escaped. It's amazing how much of a free ride that is.
Poe
Kicks off he's not in the squad when he doesn't deserve to be, then when he does deserve to be pulls out because he can't be arsed.
Steven Taylor and Rickie Lambert should be in this squad btw.
Sam
Fuck you FA and fuck you Hodgson.
Telegram Sam
What? Why the hate for Hodgson? He was put in an incredibly tough situation before the Euros and handled it the best he could, even if you don't agree with the decisions he made.
bluemoon.
Dutton
Probably because of the pathetic "footballing reasons" excuse.
I don't really care if he plays for England or not, on one hand if he's happy to play for England then fair enough but I'd much rather he didn't for United's sake. I doubt I'd want to play for them had I been so poorly treated though.
Sam
He handled it terribly, he could have easily said the reason Rio wasn't called up was due to the Terry and Cole issue, 'footballing reasons' for Rio's omission was ridiculous. He picked a player with a racist abuse charge over his head instead of a player who's brother had been racially abused, and said it was because of footballing reasons, bullshit. Cahill picked up an injury and Roy picks Martin Kelly as his replacement, still 'footballing reasons'? Rio managed to play 38 games last season in a team that finished 2nd in the table, level on points with the champions.
What are the footballing reasons? Why hasn't Hodgson explained them? He wonders why he's always asked about Rio.
On his way to an Arsenal match in October he tells passengers that Rio's England career was over. Unprofessional and disrespectful towards Rio.
Hodgson and The FA have treated Rio like shit, being incredibly disrespectful to him. Capello also: not even meeting Rio to tell him he was no longer England captain. Rio today arranged a meeting with Hodgson to explain why he couldn't be in the squad, which is very professional of him, complete opposite to Hodgson and the FA.
Ninja
His treatment of Rio has bordered on farcical and been terrible management, whether you think he should be in the team or not.
Carroll.
Flash.
Jamieandhisego
Ferdinand > Terry
Especially this season.
Slashman X
Jamieandhisego
Well deserved call-up, probably get a game against San Marino hopefully.
Poe
He's been absolutely awesome this season.
Telegram Sam
I think you're being quite unfair. The situation was a horrible one, and in my opinion he made the best of a set of bad circumstances. It was clear that Ferdinand and Terry couldn't feature in the same squad, and he had to chose one. In my opinion, and it's one shared by plenty of people, Terry was the superior defender last season and based on his form was the better option for England going into the European Championships. Now, that obviously leaves a bit of a bitter taste considering that he's choosing the supposed racist ahead of the victim's brother, but as manager of the national side he had to chose the player he felt would best contribute to any potential success we were to have in Poland and Ukraine, rather than choosing on moral or sentimental grounds. Furthermore, I completely understand why he described Ferdinand's omission as being down to 'footballing reasons' - which may have be at least partially true, we don't know - otherwise that would have created an even bigger shitstorm in the media than there already was. Sure, you may not agree with that decision, but he had an incredibly difficult choice to make and made the best of a bad situation which landed in his lap as soon as he took the job.
I'd agree with you regarding the incident on the underground, as it was highly unprofessional and inappropriate and it wasn't handled properly. I don't believe for a second that he said what he said because of a lack of respect to Ferdinand, rather that he was decent enough to have a conversation with members of the public, gave them an honest answer - which I agree he shouldn't have in this case - and didn't think of the consequences of what he was saying. It was a cock-up on his part but I believe it was a genuine mistake and he apologised quickly enough. I can understand your disillusionment and/ or anger with the national set-up and the way the situation was handled, but I don't think Hodgson deserves the vitriol you're sending his way.
It's funny, really, that after this whole debacle Ferdinand finally gets the call, and despite stating his willingness to play when he wasn't being picked, it's now become apparent that he's not able to play as many games as he had previously claimed and isn't even going to be in the squad. It's a shame, really, as he's been the best English centre-half in the league this season, but it turns out the product didn't come as advertised.