Come anticipate Roy Hodgson's three months in charge og England with me.

That midfield! Jeezus.

lennon doesn't make the standbys, lol

I mean an entire midfield with at best 2 players who've had decent half seasons (Parker and Barry) And Barry is still forlornly chasing Ozil in my mind.

On the other hand Roy's done a good job of dampening down expectation there. Getting out of the group would be a Mourinho level of achievement.

England shouldn't be boring. Not a great start.

Midfielders: Bastian Schweinsteiger (Bayern München), Toni Kroos (Bayern München), Thomas Müller (Bayern München), André Schürrle (Bayer Leverkusen), Lars Bender (Bayer Leverkusen), Sami Khedira (Real Madrid), Mesut Özil (Real Madrid), Marco Reus (Borussia Mönchengladbach), Sven Bender (Borussia Dortmund), Ilkay Gündogan (Bourssia Dortmund), Mario Götze (Borussia Dortmund), Julian Draxler (Schalke 04), Lukas Podolski (1. FC Köln)

the two must meet

tbf any selection is deckchairs on the titanic stuff, a cm of cleverley and guthrie with thudd as registra is gonna get biffed off just the same

yeah deffo. It was more like, as number none put it, when you see the squad written down you see what meager pickings Eng have.

Vindication for Dalglish tho, we really have signed the cream of English talent over the last 18 months. Hendersen on stand-by to make it a clean sweep.

yeah but picking form players from outside top four would at least be an acknowledgement of a willingness to try to fuckin change it

Carrick really should have made it. I've thrown a lot of bile the guy's way over the years but i honestly think this has been the best season he's had for Utd

deems at this point the only effect hodgson can have is to suggest rearrangements of the old deckchairs and titanic metaphor

Didn't notice Carrick's absence but yes, hard done by.

he was sitting in the deckchair next to scholes

carrick? oh shit, that's harsh.

i mean i don't think he's any fuckin use, but look who's going ffs

parker will just get serially fucked by every cm even like sweden

back to askin why the fa are paying anyone to sit back every two years and ask 'what the fuck d'you want from me, eh?'

come on we all know what carrick is by now

deems picking grant holt or nathan dyer is not gonna shake anything up, the only thing to do is study how outside top 4 managers get better returns out of these even more limited players and try to apply it -- and even then lol premiership metrics in europe

downing selection is mad grating i agree but even then the only option is someone else a bit less out of form; johnson, sturridge, richards can be said to be hard done by but then theyre not even first choice picks for their clubs so

lennon doesn't make the standbys, lol

― pet tommy & the barkhaters (darraghmac), Wednesday, 16 May 2012 13:30 (26 minutes ago)

and i assume this wasnt a complaint cos lol rite back at u if so

their clubs are far far better than england, tbh

lennon's england's best right winger, unless i've missed somebody v obvious

deems otm

parker will just get serially fucked by every cm even like sweden

otm

hart
johnson johnson johnson johnson
johnson johnson johnson johnson
johnson johnson

this tournament will be the end of the hype over him.

struggle to think of an english cm who'll get less overrun than parker, tbf.

can't believe Roy overlooked Scunthorpe's greatest ever player tbh

We have a second-choice goalkeeper who has been playing all season in the Championship and his morale is still probably destroyed from 2010.

gk reliant on morale can gtfo play snooker or w/e christ sakes.

should, obv, have picked barton

Laura Barton I presume?

Lars Bender (Bayer Leverkusen)

childish lol

xpost gerrard won't be overrun as such, just he doesn't actually do anything anymore. his goals tally is hugely down, he doesn't bother tackling/defending anymore and he never surges forward on the ball either as far as i can tell. keep waiting for him to get a new lease of life but don't think it's going to happen.

i just think parker is too ponderous for international level. he was exposed hugely in the holland game.

parker is smallish, leaden footed, unintelligent and technically limited

all he has is work rate and aggression

Laura Barton I presume?

a lofty ball descended, the scent of the sea on its fine pig's bladder, if that were still used as in times of yore.

then a striker cunted it into the net.

hey now it's hardly parker's fault that he's english
xp

Is everyone else still playing with two holding midfielders? Parker alongside someone else, ie Carrick, might have worked reasonably well, but we have no idea.

Foster, Richards, Ferdinand, Jagielka, Gibbs, Lennon, Carrick, Scholes, A Johnson, Sturridge, Crouch <- would stand a chance of beating that lot.

surprised woy didnt/couldnt get ben foster out of retirement

the lack of interest in richards surprises me, he looks pretty damn effective to me.

why would benfo suddenly decide spending four and a half hours on a bench in eastern europe sounds like fun

i don't think foster could be arsed unless he was actually gonna play, which was unlikely.

neither mancini nor capello seem to trust richards, he's always looked good to me.

"I spoke to Kenny at length about [Carroll] ... and he was absolutely convinced about the players ability, personality and seriousness as a professional. When I heard that I had no further reservations."

parker wins, protects, recycles possession, he's got decent feet and offers a lot of out ball for the fullbacks. Undersold itt.

duh-duh
duh DUH duh-duh duh
duh-duh
duh-duh
duh-duh duh duh duh

I spoke to Kenny at length about Carroll , Downing, Gerrard, Henderson ... and he was absolutely convinced about the players ability, personality and seriousness as a professional. When I heard that I had no further reservations."

Roy never fails to strike the wrong note. I've been stanning bigtime for Carroll, but now I'm not sure.

england manager talking to a club manager about anything other than a player's fitness should be a sackable offence imo

bitter scot always a reliable source of advice for the england manager, i wonder did he call roy keane as well

cos kenny was likely to say - "you know what roy i spent £35m on the fucker and not a day not an hour not a minute not a second has gone by since when i've not regretted it and wept bitter tears at my folly. He's no good Roy, he's...just..no..good" (sound of sobbing down the line)

and yet still no call up for kit deal

I was wrong, Roy has failed to dampen down expectations. For some people I suspect such a thing is impossible

Riaz Hussain on Twitter: "There's enough in the selected squad to reach final of Euro 2012.Lets not forget we have 4 or 5 world class players included"