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Terry has since withdrawn from international football therefore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...
