The England thread

[Colly]

For me if you hear a song about Rio and Anton Ferdinand, and your assumption is that the connection between the two is that they're black, rather than brothers, you should have a long hard look at yourself. Rio.

Basically I'd infer that since that song requires an extra person/team/whatever to scan properly had the same situation occurred with Gary Neville a few years back, poor Phil would have ended up there too.

Rio.

[MJB]

I'll just come in here and say that I thought Smalling had a good game. He was solid in the air, kept his concentration well, looked comfortable on the ball and didn't let much get past him all game.

Lescott on the other hand ...

[Lineker]

Am I the only person on EWB who rates Welbeck then?

[MJB]

He's a great worker. He's strong, he's quick and he's got a decent first touch.

However, he can't finish for toffee and in the final third, his final ball is terrible.

[Lineker]

You're saying he's a fast Heskey?

[Summers]

Heskey's first touch was shit.

[Lineker]

So he's a fast Heskey with a good first touch?

[MJB]

Welbeck hasn't quite mastered the art of falling over yet. Especially with nobody within 50 yards of him.

[Adam]

Heskey was far better at 22 than Danny Welbeck is now.

[Colly]

I agree.

[Summers]

It all went downhill for him at 23, though.

[stokeriño]

He's a great worker. He's strong, he's quick and he's got a decent first touch.

However, he can't finish for toffee and in the final third, his final ball is terrible.

We had one of those until recently.

...

(*insert Torres joke here*)

[Nerf]

You can't tar Torres with the same brush. He's one in 50 million.

[Gazz]

Something something Carroll thirty five.

[Lineker]

England U21 squad for Israel 2013:

GOALKEEPERS

Jack Butland (Stoke City), Declan Rudd (Norwich City), Jason Steele (Middlesbrough)

DEFENDERS

Steven Caulker (Tottenham Hotspur), Nathaniel Clyne (Southampton), Craig Dawson (West Bromwich Albion), Tom Lees (Leeds United), Danny Rose (Tottenham Hotspur), Luke Shaw (Southampton), Adam Smith (Tottenham Hotspur), Andre Wisdom (Liverpool)

MIDFIELDERS

Nat Chalobah (Watford - loan from Chelsea), Jordan Henderson (Liverpool), Tom Ince (Blackpool), Henri Lansbury (Nottingham Forest), Jason Lowe (Blackburn Rovers), Josh McEachran (Chelsea), Callum McManaman (Wigan Athletic), Jonjo Shelvey (Liverpool), Andros Townsend (Queens Park Rangers - loan from Tottenham Hotspur)

FORWARDS

Marvin Sordell (Bolton Wanderers), Connor Wickham (Sunderland), Wilfried Zaha (Crystal Palace - on loan from Manchester United)

Sterling and Rodwell are the main absentees there. Injury I'm assuming?

Elsewhere, it's been confirmed that Jack Wilshere will miss the senior team's summer friendlies against Ireland and Brazil.

[Adam]

Sterling's not really been playing for 'Pool lately, plus it's been a long season for him.

[Nerf]

He's not injured, he's just been given the rest of the season off to rest.

[Hobo]

And because he injured his thigh.

[brenchill]

He's not injured, he's just been given the rest of the season off to rest.

Anybody would think he had been working down a coal mine 12 hours per day, 7 days a week for the last 6 months.

He plays football for fucksake! Why does he need the rest of the season off to rest?

[Matt]

Rodolph Austin has played pretty much for 3 years straight (minus a few weeks out for a broken foot) because of Jamaica's international schedule. And Hazard has played something like 70 games in the last 9 months... It is a bit pathetic that some players complain about tiredness.

Edit: not to say Raheem, specifically, did that