Gareth Southgate has confirmed his 26 man squad he expects to secure World Cup qualification next week. So what does this squad tell us; The field is narrowing– Nobody was dropped from the September England squad with Vardy, Welbeck, Chalobah and Heaton missing out through injury and Forster & Delph coming in. The current injury […]
Month: September 2017
Heading north of the border
There are calls from Glasgow for Celtic’s Scott Sinclair to be called up for England. Over the years plenty of Scots have made it by playing in England from Dennis Law & Kenny Dalglish to Colin Hendry & Gary McAllister but how have Englishmen faired north of Hadrian’s Wall. Terry Butcher (Rangers 1986-90) How’d he end […]
5 Possible surprise call ups
On Thursday Gareth Southgate names the squad he hopes confirm England World Cup qualification. With a lengthy injury list (Rose, Lallana, Welbeck, Clynne, Antonio, Heaton, Barkley, Drinkwater, Chalobah & Shaw) who might be in for a call up: Fraser Forster This wouldn’t exactly be a shock given Tom Heaton is injured and Southgate has a […]
EFL Cup Winners & Losers round 3
Winners: Leeds United That’s how you respond to your first defeat of the season- knock a premiership club out of a cup! Leeds have a recent habit of beating Premier League sides in cups. This was a hugely entertaining game at 1-1 hour going into injury time. 4 minutes later Pablo Hernandez put away a […]
Updated: England’s Centre Back options
Back in pre-season I ranked England’s centre back options, 2 months on things have been shaken up for the better with Phil Jones much improved and some promising young defenders making their mark. previous ranking in brackets… 1. (1) Gary Cahill ‘A nailed on starter but for how much longer?’ I said in the summer, […]
England’s winners and losers Premier League week 5
Winners Jamaal Lascelles 2 goals in 2 games and leading a stiffening defence. Young and improving and a team captain. England call up next month? John Stones It’s been some week for Stones. He doubled his career goal tally on Wednesday and another excellent ball playing display on Saturday. Now he just needs to do it […]
Leicester 2-0 Liverpool: Shinji & Slimani down Reds.
The personnel changes but the result remains the same, Liverpool dominate the ball but can’t score, at the other end they can’t defend in the air and concede goals. In a move typical of the recent League Cup both teams picked strong but not full strength teams with Ulloa & Slimani starting up front for […]
The Fall and Rise of the EFL Cup
15 years ago the League Cup was in trouble, the games were being played by Premier League development squads and there was nervous talk of the competition losing its UEFA cup berth. The cup has always borne the name of its sponsor but in a difficult climate for the competition signing a sponsorship deal with […]
The blocked pathway- How the Premier League is failing young players, England and its own Champions League ambitions
This week in the Premier League only 65 English players started games that’s 29.5% last week it was 64. It’s a shocking yet predictable statistic. It gets worse- those numbers include retired England players Milner & Rooney and veterans Jagielka, Barry & Ashley Young. Since it’s formation 25 years ago when the elite clubs gained […]
Chelsea 0-0 Arsenal: Wenger proves a point
So far this Arsenal have won all their home games and lost both their away matches without scoring and given their record at Stamford Bridge this looked a home banker, but we were about to see a very different Arsenal. Antonio Conte went with tried and tested with the recovering Hazard kept on the bench, […]