Euro2016

[ik9000]

So the squad is announced and The owl-man Roy has put his wise old thinking to BS effect and selected two crocks and a haphazard over two in form players.

I bet Sturridge doesn't start a game, Wilshere gets injured and Barkley contributes absolutely sweet FA.

Drinkwater links well with forwards who make runs and Townsend showed he can come off the bench to make an impact. Barkley and Sturridge should have stayed at home. Roy needs his head looking at, and in the Hexus sweepstake I'll say we crash out in the last 16 due to defensive frailty and lack of a holding midfield when Dier has to go into the back row. People who are saying quarters or even semis are mad IMO.

Let the debate commence.

[Lanky123]

I agree on the holding midfield - against any half decent side we're going to need two holding midfielders to protect that defence...and Roy has spent all the warm up games playing one. Wilshere and Dier can play there, Milner and Henderson if necessary but none of them are top quality specialists in that position. I'm hopeful that at least there won't be too many 0-0 draws however we end up doing...

[ik9000]

I don't understand omitting Drinkwater (and not just because he one of ours). All season he's helped protect our defence and shown he has an eye for threading a well-weighted through ball to cut through the field and release fast strikers. Playing any of Vardy, Rashford, Kane and Sterling can all get onto balls like that with their pace. Crazy to omit him for Barkley who has done nothing of any real merit in the last 4 months. When will our team learn you take FORM players to a tournament not duffers because they once did something special 5 years ago.

[wazzickle]

I agree with most of the above, but with the proviso that this is squad represents the best shot at winning the euros since 1996, for me. If the right players sparkle (Dele Alli, Kane), no-one screws up (Hart, Smalling, Stones, Cahill, Dier), and Rooney gets injured early, I think we've got a good shot. Should be said I'm far from one of those people that just gets excited every time a competition comes round and overeggs our prospects, and also that Roy Hodgson does make some 'odd' decisions from time to time.

[ik9000]

also that Roy Hodgson does make some 'odd' decisions from time to time.

Yup. No Drinkwater for example!

[ik9000]

so, 2nd place in the group... will it be an issue? If Hungry beat Portugal we could have a nice match coming up. Come on Hungry!

[wazzickle]

Wow, all the home nations making it through! Mental

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Disaster!! Iceland just beat us 2-1 and we are out.

[OilSheikh]

We need to have a serious look at our FA cup and Premier leagues. Injecting too many foreign players have eroded the quality of our own. When was the last time we convincingly beat an opponent or made it to a Semi final?

It's embarassing that Wales and the others have gone through and we are out.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Its because even though we have good individual players,they don't seem to really gel well as a team. Not really sure how we can change that in the short term.

[Biscuit]

We didn't take a squad, we took players. Curse of the premier league is that the England manager is expected to take players from the top teams.

[wazzickle]

We need to have a serious look at our FA cup and Premier leagues. Injecting too many foreign players have eroded the quality of our own. When was the last time we convincingly beat an opponent or made it to a Semi final?

It's embarassing that Wales and the others have gone through and we are out.

Pesky immigrants again

[Spreadie]

The England team skews a little young for them all to have voted Leave, don't you think?

[snedger]

Well, I'm going to do my insignificant unilateral bit to not support Sky and overinflated wages anymore - not renewing Sky.
Would so love to see the premier league destroyed and go back to have an inclusive D1,2,3,4 league and have apprentices achieve their full potential rather than being passed over for pure mercenary players.
Who'd have thought that not having skill, heart and passion was a bar to competing against l'il 'ole Iceland.

[Jowsey]

We didn't take a squad, we took players. Curse of the premier league is that the England manager is expected to take players from the top teams.

Agreed.

Drinkwater should have been there due to his vision with Vardy.

Carol/Defoe should have been there to give the strike force a new dimension.

Sterling shouldn't be there. He has not hit form all season and has been a bit part player for City. I, as a Sunderland fan, will happily admit that Townsend should have been there.

I'm going to stop myself but it's very easy to just rail of a list of people who shouldn't be there and have only got there due to the club they play for. Rashford? RASHFORD?!

[wazzickle]

Rashford should definitely have been there. People bring up Scott Dann as if that's evidence that england managers prefer players at big clubs. They do, as it happens, because big clubs tend to buy up good players, e.g. Gary Cahill. Scott Dann wasn't good enough to make the squad, Rashford was, on top of being an exciting prospect for the future.