Hodgson’s Decision to Leave out Townsend Could Prove Fatal…Here’s Why

Shearer's Right Foot

Alan Shearer had to retire from International duty to preserve his knee and prolong his Newcastle career. If he had not, then he would not be Newcastle’s all-time record goal scorer. Shearer required those extra, vital years of play to break Jackie Milburn’s long standing record. From Michael Owen to Tim Krul and Rob Eliot, Newcastle have suffered from players getting injured whilst ‘serving their country’ on international duty. For that reason, I’m fairly pleased that Andros Townsend and Paul Dummett are merely watching the EUROs on telly like the rest of us as opposed to playing in them.

For the men themselves I’m disappointed, because both of them should have made their respective squads and deserve to be there representing their club and countries. Of course Townsend’s future at Newcastle is uncertain, popular with fans following his form and commitment in the final weeks, Townsend will have plenty of suitors. He has a relegation transfer release clause too, allowing him to talk to clubs should they meet the agreed fee. But should he stay, he will no doubt physically benefit from a June holiday rather than training and playing for England.

The decision to leave him behind though could cost Roy Hodgson and England very dear indeed. Roy’s selection of just three centre halves and five strikers is quite baffling and, unfortunately for him, a complete give away of how he intends to play at the finals. His lack of width in the squad clearly outlines Hodgson’s plan to play one of two possible formations. Either two up top with a diamond midfield or a 4-3-3 with a narrow top three consisting of players who usually play centrally.

Both systems rely totally and unreservedly on the attacking width being provided by the full backs. This leaves the defence painfully vulnerable and exposed…just ask Roberto Martinez. It’s the system he tried so desperately to implement at Everton which saw them plummet down the table and cost him his employment.

Townsend also would have provided a goal threat in what is otherwise a shot-shy forward line. With the exception of Barkley and Alli, England’s midfielders are not keen on letting rip from outside the area. Townsend, as we have seen, can be deadly when cutting inside and striking at goal. England also lack a set-piece taker, a role Townsend could easily have took up. Are England seriously going to let Harry Kane take free-kicks from wide of the area, as he did against Portugal?

Several players of the England squad will see no game time whatsoever. So to take players like Wiltshire, Henderson and Sturridge, who have seen so little game time of late, in place of Townsend, who finished the season in fine form, is very strange, and could be fatal.

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170 thoughts on “Hodgson’s Decision to Leave out Townsend Could Prove Fatal…Here’s Why”

  1. Icedog:
    So Koeman going to Everton then,so I expect de-boer to get Everton job

    Ice – Koeman leaving suggests to me that Saints plan on selling players he doesn’t want to go again – Mane & Wanyama for example.
    Otherwise it doesn’t make much sense to me – Saints finished higher than Everton who have an aging squad that will need quite a bit of work to it.

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  2. SHARPY it’s a strange one mate,the chairman at saints said there was no hurry to discuss a new contract with Keoman last week maybe that upset him cannot be that Everton have 100 mil to spend as all PL clubs have money to throw around this year,I see he wants to take the c/h with him that will be to cover for Stones as he will go imo

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  3. Ice Ref Sissy I have never came across such a big strong guy that is totally gutless with a heart the size of a grain of rice.
    90% of our games he was less than useless, so if **** want him I’ll pay his taxi fare , though what he would offer **** is beyond me but the they like the Frenchies plus softies .

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  4. DAVE I think it’s gobshite doing all the talking I don’t really think Wenger wants him there no way he’s better than what they have,Ozil,Cardoza,Ramsey ect,imo go dream somewhere else son

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  5. Ice – that’s ridiculous man isn’t it?!. If I was a Saints fan I’d be pissed right off!!. Loosing Potch last season & selling off most of your best players – fearing the worst. But the getting Koeman & what a job he did for them.
    The can’t believe they will be that fortunate again.

    De Boer apparently isn’t interested. Pellegrini might fancy it, but after that who’s left? Martinez, Moyes?.

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  6. Icedog:
    DAVE I think it’s gobshite doing all the talking I don’t really think Wenger wants him there no way he’s better than what they have,Ozil,Cardoza,Ramsey ect,imo go dream somewhere else son

    Ice – and Wilshire, the Egyptian lad they signed in Jan & they’ve just signed that Swiss kid from Germany.

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  7. SHARPY that makes it less likely mate,as I said ect as I couldn’t remember them all lol

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  9. Set Arsenal as the bar and fool the likes of West Ham into thinking they have stolen a world beater from a rival.

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  10. Why don’t we offer Sissoko the chance to hook back up with Pardew & instead of Townsend, the dancing goon can take Siss.
    Let’s say £10m plus Dwight Gayle for Sissoko and we keep Townsend.

    Done deal 😛

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  12. Townsend wouldn’t have got a game anyway. I’m not all that sure I’d have had him in my England squad, but then again I haven’t thought much about an England squad to be in a position to say whether I’d have chosen him or not.

    It seems that the subtleties in the difference between statements like
    I think this is a boring topic (ie in my opinion this is boring. Full stop. Categorical statement of perceived truth)
    and
    This is a boring topic … for me, that is. (ie it’s a boring topic for me, but I accept that it may not be for others)
    can’t be grasped by Eric.

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  14. If you say “for me” at the beginning of a sentence it is a crutch statement, something that is meaningless because it it obviously coming from you. At the end of a sentence it can mean “that is”.

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  15. If you left out the words “for me” at the beginning of a sentence, the sentence would have exactly the same meaning. Don’t you see that?

    Whatever, man. You two peas in a pod stick together.

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  16. Eric, Will ESPN be playing the England game on Saturday? I’m in Vegas at the moment but have no idea whether Euro 2016 will even be on their radar this far West.

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  17. Stuart: ESPN are showing England at noon Vegas time. Usually, if you can bet on it Vegas will find a way to show it.

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  18. To be fair
    If I am being honest
    For me
    If truth be told

    They are all beginnings to sentences that don’t need to be there because I am not doubting your fairness, honesty, me-ness or truthfulness to begin with.

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  19. Good stuff. Bit shitty as I am flying home Saturday evening so can’t have a real good drink but noticed a few Sports bars so should be good watching England.

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  20. Why would you want to watch England anyway Stu? According to AMF they are totally shyte. I think we will only make the QFs, but you never know?

    And 3 of 4 progress from the group stage so it will be hard to fail. To be honest, and if truth be told and other meaningless phrases.

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  21. Always like watching England in tournaments, Eric. Although one things for sure, they always let us down. Don’t see too many really good sides to stop us getting to the Semi’s if we get a decent draw but that depends on how Hodgson plays them. We have to attack to have any chance.

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  22. And don’t take Townsend. He wouldn’t get a game according to AMF? Wilshere, Henderson and Rooney never get injured, do they? Or sent off?

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  23. Eric… please re read your responses to Vegas… they make no sense at all… any way bottoms up!

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  26. I will make the point again that England took 4 fullbacks when Dier and Milner can cover those positions. Townsend might have sat on the bench but there is a good chance that Wilshere (especially) and Henderson will get injured again and Mr. Roy doesn’t know where to play Wayne. So, he is better cover than too many fullbacks are. For me.

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  28. Let’s put them all into one sentence to show how meaningless they are…

    To me, in all honesty, to be fair and if truth be told, the square root of 9 is 3. See, meaningless and add nothing.

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  29. Yes, it’s so much better to play people out of position. I remember how you applauded Pardew for that particular innovation.

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  30. BrisV: I was wondering about your response to AMF because it made no sense, not what AMF said.

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  36. My last post was in response to AMF’s respeonse to BrisV, which I am still mystified by:

    See. You mention bottom and up in the same sentence and he gets confused.
    Vegas ? ?

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  37. Milner and Dier are obviously better suited to the full back role than ben Arfa and Aarons are. They can tackle and have played there before with a bit of success.

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  38. Sissoko has played full back as well, and so, apparently, according to some, has ben Arfa.

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  40. My last response was in response to the response Eric made in response to some other response that was made before the response that was made to some other response that he responded to.

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  41. I never said ben Arfa played fullback. I said he was deployed by Pardew as an auxiliary right back. Which was a total waste of his talents.

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  42. More Aussie humour. Paul Hogan will be rolling in Benny Hill’s grave at that.

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  43. Was that ‘badly’ response to my response, or was it to some other response that you were responding to?

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  47. Now tell me, when you say ‘by rights’ what does that add to the sentence, exactly? Or is it one of those redundancies that rail against?

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  49. I really did think Paul Hogan was dead and was making a cheap joke about how he copied Benny Hill in his early career. Sorry Aussies if that upset you. I had heard that you were taking the Union Jack off your flag and replacing it with a picture of Hoges.

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  52. And putting ben Arfa at fullback is the same thing as putting Milner at fullback 🙂 🙂 🙂 Do you know anything about football?

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  53. BrisV: Mr. Roy is taking Dier as a defensive midfielder AND backup centre back allowing him to take only 3 centre backs, so why not as right back where he has played and why not Milner as backup for fullback (where he has played)?

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  54. Just so I don’t get called out by Aussies if I say “Apparently” or “I mean” or something similar. That is for emphasis and “for me” is redundant.

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  55. I don’t dislike Aussies at all. Richie Benaud was my favourite commentator of all time Shane Warne is second, for me.

    I used “for me” in the correct way there. Maybe I am the only one that understands the distinction here. If you put it before what you say, it is unnecessary. If you put it after what you say, it adds emphasis.

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  56. Formica is my favourite particle based chipped board from the Southern Hemisphere. It has all of qualities of wood, but at a better price. You can take your MDF and other synthetic based resin bonded products and stick them in the bin.

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  58. Well for me, that whole argument from top to bottom was a waste of time to be honest. Eric responding to Vegas responding to Eric responding to Aussie responding to Eric and the end result is nobody is any further forward in their argument to be fair.

    Good read SRF. Because Roy does not fancy Townsend, it is likely he will not have played even if he went because he would be number 23 in the pecking order. So what does it really matter? From a Toon point of view it is good news. If he had got into the side and did well in the summer then he will definitely have been snapped up by a top 10 PL side. Now he will stay under the radar and Rafa can do his hypnosis on him so he stays. Happy days.

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  59. Eric Sykes:
    I don’t dislike Aussies at all. Richie Benaud was my favourite commentator of all time Shane Warne is second, for me.

    I used “for me” in the correct way there. Maybe I am the only one that understands the distinction here. If you put it before what you say, it is unnecessary. If you put it after what you say, it adds emphasis.

    ….getting back to what I wrote yesterday. .. Nice write up SRF, but a very boring subject matter (for me)… 

    So after all the arguments against what I wrote, it now seems that Eric has convinced himself that it now adds emphasis! 😆 😆 😆
    Ycmtsu (you couldn’t make this **** up) 😯

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  61. Vegas, you know you can call anyone a horrible name on here but you never, ever mention grammatical errors! :mrgreen:

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  63. You still don’t get it AMF. It adds emphasis at the end and is meaningless at the start.

    But, Townsend should have gone because Milner could have covered as a 4th right back.

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  65. But, have Rooney take the corners. He is useless at everything else so that might just be a job suitable for him?

    Yeah I know, he has scored 52 goals for England but 53 of them were against San Merino.

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  66. I see West Ham have released Joey O’Brien. He’s only 30 and could be a canny option at RB and a Perch type squad player.

    Also Boro have sent Kalas back to Chelsea. He showed himself to be a good Chanpionship CB and could also be a good option.

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  67. THAT WAS PROBABLY THE STUPIDEST ARGUMENT I HAVE HAD IN MY WHOLE LIFE. BUT I WAS THE ONE THAT STARTED IT 🙂

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  69. Georgio: that was a case where “to be fair” could have been placed at the start or the end of the sentence and still been appropriate. I might have to change my mind on this grammar policing.

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  70. It’s a slippery slope Eric and there’ll always be some over educated Oxford don to put you right with phrases you never even imagined. Don’t worry about the Aussies as they know nowt about grammar and even less about football 🙂 Isn’t that right AMF?

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  71. Sharpy – It’s impossible to imagine the make up of the team right now. Rafa might stonewall the lot of them and say you signed a contract, end of. Stay and play or spend a year or two in the U21s. That’ll get you selected for France.

    He does have a reputation for wheeling and dealing but this time it’s absolutely imperative we come straight back up. It’s no time to be building a new team, you have to win 2 out of 3 all season. Interesting times ahead.

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  72. I hope someone can put me right on this one. As of now we have the same amount of cash from TV etc as all the other teams in the PL. It’s at the end of next season we receive the reduced parachute payment leaving a £40m hole as we re-enter the PL. We have enough cash to sell no players, spend a fortune and blow the rest of the championship away. Is that right?

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  73. Georgio:
    Sharpy – It’s impossible to imagine the make up of the team right now. Rafa might stonewall the lot of them and say you signed a contract, end of. Stay and play or spend a year or two in the U21s. That’ll get you selected for France.

    He does have a reputation for wheeling and dealing but this time it’s absolutely imperative we come straight back up. It’s no time to be building a new team, you have to win 2 out of 3 all season. Interesting times ahead.

    Georgio – I agree that Rafa will want to keep the most of side together. But if he has players who are adamant they want out, I think sell them whilst they have a market value & use the money to get the players that will get us promoted.
    I don’t see any point or value in letting them rot in the reserves.

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  74. Now now Georgio … try not to provoke an argument. I’ve struggled to keep track of Erics split personality reasoning and need a rest 😆

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  75. AMF: my problem with you has been that you only come on to moan. So take a 2 week rest like you normally do and then come back and make a snide comment. Like you normally do.

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