Tuesday 9 October 2012

“Ridiculous” Roy and the Liverpool Boys


On the back of some fairly unconvincing performances, Roy Hodgson has released his latest England squad choices, and some things just get more bizarre every time.

Firstly John Terry was selected over Rio Ferdinand for the Euro's (wrongly IMHO), but in the wake of the FA charging Terry over the Anton Ferdinand incident, Terry has since withdrawn from international football therefore surely leaving that space free for Ferdinand? Nope, instead Hodgson apparently told a bunch of travellers on the tube that Ferdinand was done and wouldn't play for England again (shame he didn't bother telling Rio first), and instead called up Ryan Shawcross...

I like Shawcross as a player, and whilst options such as Phil Jones and Chris Smalling are injured, he's not a bad choice as a backup option, but surely Rio's experience and standing in the game offers more to the squad in the short term?

Ryan Bertrand has also received a call to replace the injured Kieran Gibbs, but do we really need three left backs in the squad? We've already got Ashley Cole and Leighton Baines, and whilst Bertrand can arguably be used in a left midfield position as well, it just seems like an unnecessary selection and we could arguably have used another option upfront instead.

There is however a better selection in midfield, with the inclusion of Aaron Lennon, Adam Johnson, Michael Carrick and Tom Cleverley (amongst others), but we unfortunately see the return of the ineffective James Milner and the horrendous call-up of Jonjo Shelvey!

Seriously, is someone down at Liverpool putting something into Hogdson's water, or is it simply a bizarre attempt to get revenge on Liverpool for dismissing him as manager by trying to prove that their players are good enough but he didn't have time to prove it? The truth is that his Liverpool signings were in the main awful, and not a single one of them merits a regular place there now (if they haven't already been moved on e.g. Poulsen), and most of the Liverpool players he has called up in recent months either aren't good enough (Downing, Kelly, Shelvey) or aren't ready (Sterling).

Shelvey is nowhere near England standard, and if I was unimpressed with Jake Livermore's recent call-up, I'm even more frustrated with this one. I'm all for bringing young talent into the England frame – IF they're good enough (or close to it), and Shelvey doesn't fit into that description in my honest opinion.

I'd rather have seen Rodwell given the call, and hopefully we'll also see Wilshere back to fitness and selection soon as well and we can forget all about this joke of a selection.

Moving onto the forward line and we were treated to Grant Holt's view of Hodgson's management ability with him branding his non-selection as “Ridiculous” and going on to criticise the further lack of call up's for players like Nathan Dyer and Danny Graham (I'm sure I've heard that somewhere before...).

Suffice to say that the outburst didn't help Holt in the selection stakes, with Andy Carroll again being the preferred 'big' man in the front line despite continuing last seasons form of not scoring for his club side (5 games 0 goals so far for West Ham), and having been injured for the past few weeks .

Compare this instead to Holt, who has scored 2 goals in his last 7 league games (nothing amazing to be fair) with both goals coming against 'big' sides in Liverpool and Chelsea. He's proven he's a premiership goalscorer, he's proven he can score against the top teams, but yet again he's not even given a minute's consideration by the England gaffer, and on that point I have to agree with Holt – Ridiculous...

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