The England thread

[Hobo]

Henderson isn't bad he just seems scared shitless most of the time. A lot of that might be from playing on the wing. He is also quite young. I think he will be a good to great player but he needs to grow a pair.

[Lineker]

Rooney's out of the Norway game with a minor injury.

[Matt]

Wouldn't be playing him anyway, play the system we're going to play against France and Sweden.

[9 to 5]

Aye exactly, not much worth playing Rooney anyway. Maybe for a half in the last warm-up match but even that's a push.

[stokeriño]

Is this an injury that Rooney picked up tripping over a dead hooker in Vegas?

[Lineker]

Martin Kelly has been called up for the Norway game.

[Colly]

Who did Micah Richards rape in the Hodgson household?

[Adam]

Roy.

[Lineker]

You shouldn't cwy wape :/

[Rich]

cwying shame that.

[Pesci]

Have to wonder about the Richards exclusions... but I think Kelly's awesome so I'm not too bothered. Strange that after so many years of having awful right backs we have three or four choices to pick from all of a sudden.

[IAceI]

One defender, two defender, three defender, four,

He gets the ball he beats them all you know we're gonna score,

Wearing red and white he is Sunderland through and through,

He hates the maggie scum because he's just like me and you,

Hen-der-son tra-la-la-la, Hen-der-son, tra-la-la-la

I love super Jordan. His inclusion in the standby squad is odd but if he gets into the squad I wish him nothing but the best. He has the potential to be a very good player and I just hope he realises that potential and doesn't stagnate.

[Matt]

I don't understand why Martin Kelly's been brought into the squad at all. Just use the 23 players we're taking :/

[The Quasi Juice]

Surely something happened with Richards in the England squad because this doesn't make sense at all. With Capello, people just thought he simply didn't rate him highly, but now with a new manager he gets overlooked as well? It's not like Kelly has consistently played this season either.

[Matt]

I wouldn't look too much into Kelly being called up, he's probably just there in case of emergency with no expectation of getting gametime, in the same way Butland is the standby goalkeeper ahead of Carson, Loach, Smithies, etc: who have more experience

[Adam]

Kelly's been called up because Terry, Cole and Cahill are all being given extra time off after the CL final.

[Dingle]

Surely something happened with Richards in the England squad because this doesn't make sense at all. With Capello, people just thought he simply didn't rate him highly, but now with a new manager he gets overlooked as well? It's not like Kelly has consistently played this season either.

We've discussed it a couple of times recently here but the prevailing belief is that for both Capello and Woy, Micah is far too much his own man and doesn't stick to the tactics set out by the manager.

[IAceI]

Roy will know Kelly too from their time together you'd imagine, and since there's obviously a reason Richards isn't in the squad at all it would make no sense to call him up for one game so I see why Kelly has been called up for this game.

[Matt]

Surely something happened with Richards in the England squad because this doesn't make sense at all. With Capello, people just thought he simply didn't rate him highly, but now with a new manager he gets overlooked as well? It's not like Kelly has consistently played this season either.

We've discussed it a couple of times recently here but the prevailing belief is that for both Capello and Woy, Micah is far too much his own man and doesn't stick to the tactics set out by the manager.

So he picks Phil "get the ball and run 40 yards with it leaving a massive hole in the defence" Jones? That's not knocking Jones by the way, he's a good player but he's similar to Richards in that regard.

[MJB]

Surely something happened with Richards in the England squad because this doesn't make sense at all. With Capello, people just thought he simply didn't rate him highly, but now with a new manager he gets overlooked as well? It's not like Kelly has consistently played this season either.

We've discussed it a couple of times recently here but the prevailing belief is that for both Capello and Woy, Micah is far too much his own man and doesn't stick to the tactics set out by the manager.

So he picks Phil "get the ball and run 40 yards with it leaving a massive hole in the defence" Jones? That's not knocking Jones by the way, he's a good player but he's similar to Richards in that regard.

This is a very valid point and needs to be brought up more often because I thought I was only one who noticed it.