It's been a while since my last article, mainly due to house moving, no internet and taking a short break from writing, but now all the other stuff is sorted I can get back to doing what I enjoy, which in this case is asking what the hell Roy Hodgson is playing at with his latest squad selection.
Having already had to put up with some poor football from a somewhat odd selection at the Euro's, Hodgson has decided to make some changes, and has replaced some of the completely useless players from that tournament – with completely unproven ones instead...
At first glance we see no Stewart Downing in there – hurrah, but who's been selected as his replacement on the left? Adam Lallana...
Now don't get me wrong, I think Lallana is a perfectly decent player from what I've seen of him over the last few years, but it's all been at a lower league level (CCC at best), and therefore I'd have expected him to have needed to have a decent few months in the top flight to show he can perform just as well at this level as he was in the lower leagues. Yet a couple of decent games later and suddenly he gets a call up.
He's then joined in the squad by another surprise addition – Raheem Sterling (replacing Ashley Young). Yet again we have a player who's been given an England call-up, ostensibly on the back of just TWO premier league games where he was good in one of them (vs Man City) and average in the other (vs Arsenal).
Sticking on the wing, James Milner again managed to make the cut (How?), despite looking completely off the pace for most of last season, doing nothing at the Euro's, and further nothing since then. He's a hard worker – great, but how about some quality and attacking threat instead of someone who's good at helping the right back defend?
Whilst I fully understand the logic in removing a couple of under-performing players from the squad, I then expected them to be replaced by players who've shown their ability at this level and arguably are more deserving of a call-up.
Players like Nathan Dyer, Anthony Pilkington, Aaron Lennon, Scott Sinclair, Victor Moses and Matt Jarvis. If any of these guys had been called up I'd have said “Well played Roy”, and given the guy credit for picking players who deserved a shot at playing for their country. Instead we got a completely raw 17 year old and a totally unproven CCC level player.
Moving on from the wing positions, we see further changes in the middle with the return of Michael Carrick, and the selection of Tom Cleverley and Jake Livermore. Well, 2 out of 3 isn't bad Roy!
Carrick should never have been out of the squad, especially after such a good season last year for Man Utd, and Cleverley was also unlucky in my opinion not to have been called up for the Euro's, and whilst his game is still developing, you can clearly see the underlying quality in his games. It's just a shame that this can't be said for the other new midfield inclusion – Jake Livermore.
Whilst Sterling and Lallana are virtually untested in the premiership, at least Livermore has had a bit more game time to showcase his abilities, the problem is that he's never looked anything but average in every game I've seen him in. He's another hard working 'grafter', who may not be especially strong in any area, but he'll run himself into the floor for you.
My issue here is that again there are other players who've either been more impressive or have more experience than he does that haven't even been given a look in, players like Rodwell, B.Johnson, Noble, Nolan, Howson, Gardner, Britton and Surman.
Being fair, it's not an awful inclusion (like Downing) but it's also very uninspiring as well, and a clear indication that the cagey, defensive focused football we've seen so far under Hodgson, has not signs of disappearing any time soon.
There's very little to cheer about as an England fan at the minute as even the recent 5-0 win over Moldova was more down to how shockingly poor the opposition were, than how well we played as a side, a fact which was driven home by the somewhat fortunate 1-1 draw against the Ukraine only yesterday.
At the time I didn't think it was a bad appointment, but the more I see of how things are developing, the more I think I was wrong. It appears we've got yet another 2-4 years of pretty poor international football to come, with yet again players seemingly picked either based on their club side, reputation or some other bizarre reason.
I don't agree that these choices are purely for 'footballing reasons', as if they were, we'd see a very different squad with a number of previously uncapped players being given a fair chance, and other players like Lennon coming back to where they really should be.
We have a number of quality younger players who deserve a shout, as well as a few older heads who've also still got plenty to offer if they aren't overlooked, the problem is by the time we may want to use them, the younger players will be old, and the older players will have retired...
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