Centre forward: Ayoze Perez
One of the most gifted and exciting players to have been signed by the club in recent years, if Perez is still here then next season has to be his chance to hold down a regular place in the starting line-up. He’s good on the ball, can hold it up better than you’d expect given his size, and is able to get decent shots off from any position. Playing him on the wing is a waste, as is featuring him as a lone striker, so pairing him with a man who can take the burden off him and also flick it forward for him to latch on to seems like a no brainer.
Centre forward: Aleksandar Mitrovic
The other half of what could become a classic little and large partnership. At times frustrating due to the number of chances that he’s spurned, you can’t doubt his commitment to the cause and his ability to win the ball in the air and hold it up. He’s also shown a good touch on the rare occasion anyone is up with him in support. Worryingly though he conceded more fouls (50) than anyone else during the course of last season, and he’ll miss the first four games due to his red card against Spurs (his second of the season). For a man deemed to be aggressive he does well not to rise to a lot of the goading he gets from defenders, but needs to work some of the more reckless challenges. That said, his physicality could be a bit of a bonus in the more competitive Championship.
Mr. Roy went on a tour of Notre Dame and a took Seine cruise instead of watching England’s next opponent live in the same city. Where Iceland’s fans were building a bond with the players and their nation was coming together. If anybody saw and heard them during the match, and especially afterwards, you would know what a mistake this was.
Again, I will say, Roy is a proud and arrogant man and pride certainly came before a fall.
Roy said he had watched tapes of the game. THAT IS NOT THE SAME, you fckwit. This is about passion and glory, however short lived. It was not a day off, your next opponent was playing in the same city you visited.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Let’s hope that our pommy friends don’t now so arrogantly write off ‘lesser’ teams and leagues and stop believing their own hype. Two examples of how the English are so easily duped highlighted in a few days.
I have to say I’m enjoying the shadenfreude.
😀 😀 😀
Brisvegas(Quote)
AMF: I never expected England to win it but I didn’t expect this. Mismanagement from top to bottom. From Squad selection to tactics. From letting Rooney dictate to dismissing and looking past Iceland and taking a day trip instead of watching them live.
It was epitomised by Mr. Roy taking off the talisman, the hope for all England, the press darling, with 5 minutes to go and replacing him with an 18 year old afterthought. There was no plan, there were no tactics.
All of this defending of Rooney, his captaincy, 2nd in command status, brother in arms with Roy, were all dismissed as if they both did not know what they were doing from the beginning.
If there was true faith in this project, in Rooney, he should have been on until the bitter end. To see it through. To fall to the ground and wonder WTF just happened like his teammates did.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
England played like they wanted to lose last night. Joe Hart was terrible in goal. Stirling was trying to one man the ball again, instead of passing to a team mate. The passing was sloopy and made it easier for Iceland to hold on. Iceland did very well and should be very proud of themselves.
Terry(Quote)
BrisV: I might get a bit loopy with you 2 now and again but I doubt if I will ever get accused of hyping England 🙂
Eric Sykes(Quote)
I think the obvious choice for interim manager of England is Lee Clark.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
? own hype? lesser leagues? Our league is the most watched in the world, not due to the English lads, mainly overseas stars.
If Smalling and Cahill are the best English defenders we can deploy then we have serious problems.
Iceland stopped our wingbacks from off which made us play more central. Roy should of spotted this and took dier off straight away. instead he keeps playing Sterling who looks like he never has control of the ball.
I only expected us to get to the quarters and to be honest we only played well against Wales and scored late on. Looked poor against the Russians and ***** against Slovakia so I dont know how we can be accused of being arrogant?
Gashley(Quote)
Gash: I agree that nobody was ever arrogant about England on here except Troy. Everybody had us down for a QF exit. To go out to Iceland is embarrassing but no less than we deserved.
Now take a look at Schteve. Why is he still employed?
heturf.com.au/2016/06/28/steve-mcclaren-chats-s-gets-banged/?
Eric Sykes(Quote)
The link to Schteve didn’t work. It is on newsnow though if you want to look.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Sheesh, what an arrogant response ! 😛 😆
Aussie Magpie Fan(Quote)
Did Hodgson select the squad on his own or am I write in thinking there is a panel of selectors?.
Hodgson made his statement very shortly after the game & it was pre planned (written out) – which tells you where his head was at!!. I don’t think the FA helped him with all this talk of him getting the bullet after this tournament anyway – but take nothing away from Roy – he is at fault!.
Firstly all I will say is Sterling.
But secondly, this Rooney carry on was stupid too. He played CF all through the pre tournament qualifiers & scored goals for fun. Then you get to the actual tournament & he decides he wants to change position?!.
I’m not saying Rooney played badly, but if you have set up a certain way & know how the team works with Rooney up top – then it doesn’t make sense having to start again going into a tournament.
People say Roy doesn’t know his best 11 – that’s because his 11 for the last 4 years had Rooney as a forward. Then 4 games ago Rooney goes to him and says he wants to play midfield?!.
He’s had 4yrs building up to this tournament & a last minute decision like that totally derails the final plan. I say last minute as I assume that to be the case with Rooney having never played there, even in the last couple of friendlies.
I fully expect the FA to recruit another puppet like Southgate or Neville as next manager. But for me, if you look at ROI with ONeil & Keane, you need motivators & coaches the players respect (and probably fear a little bit).
Sharpy17(Quote)
the passing in the tournament by England has been the worse ive seen for donkeys.. how many balls too high, too long. Dier, Rooney, Wiltshire, Kane all guilty of it. how many players standing around and not fighting? how many balls over the opponents defence instead of on the ground?
Too early for the likes of Ally, dier, showed he isnt as good as he thinks he is, same could be said for Kane, Sterling..
All I will say is I think Townsend would of made a difference. We only had forest gump (sterling) and Walker who was marshalled and forced central every time he got the ball. Townsend would of been a decent outlet for Walker last night
Gashley(Quote)
http://www.skysports.com/football/news/12016/10327062/steve-mcclaren-freezes-on-air-as-england-concede-to-iceland
Love this as well!!.
The grin reaper talking down the Iceland threat just as they score the second 😆
If you look closely you can actually see the look on his face saying “bollocks, I’ve been caught talking **** again!!”. 😆 😆
Sharpy17(Quote)
Gash – there as no urgency to get the ball forward. We didn’t play to the strengths of Kane or Alli. We made horrible decisions on the set pieces.
But I still think that moving Rooney back to midfield caused problems for the team. Young players getting used to playing a certain way for years & then you get to a tournament & all of a sudden you don’t have your top scorer making those runs or being that front line presence.
Kane on freekicks last night – what the hell?!.
Sharpy17(Quote)
New thread
https://www.nufcblog.co.uk/2016/06/28/the-five-greatest-newcastle-players-of-the-premier-league-era/
Eddie Howe new England manager for me. My mate said he wanted Pardew this morning, nearly killed him.
Andy The Magpie(Quote)
Is that true? If it is then that is absolutely unforgivable.
Shamrock(Quote)
The things is, football is a wimps game – so you can expect the players to bottle it. Now a man’s game is Rugby – and if you want to look at the character of a nation then you compare the rugby teams. In fact, there was a recent example of this when the Aussie side got whitewashed 3 Nil on their own turf. 😆
Shamrock(Quote)