England Team Thread

[toythatkills]

England drawn against Poland and most of Eastern Europe, business as usual.

England will face Montenegro, Ukraine, Poland, Moldova, and San Marino in Group H when they bid to qualify for the 2014 World Cup finals in Brazil.

[jim g]

England drawn against Poland and most of Eastern Europe, business as usual.

Yep jammy bastards as usual wheras my country Scotland will actually have to play against some REAL football teams to qualify. And Northern Ireland have a real tough group as well

[Flabio]

Spain and France are in the same group. NYahaahaha.

[abigsmurf]

I was hoping to come up with a EASY style thingy for our group but there are literally no words that contain all of those letters.

[EJG1980]

I was a bit miffed by that draw, was hoping we'd go into the group with France. That would have been exciting and would have got me interested in the qualifiers. As it is, same old boring opponents as usual.

[abigsmurf]

I'm finding it increasingly comical that Josh Mceacron and Sturridge are failing to get into the England squad.

Mceachron not being in the under 21's squad was bizzarre enough. Given that Wiltshire is injured, surely he'd be a more obviously replacement than Cleverly who has only played at a championship level outside of friendlies.

[prinnysquad]

Big LOLz at Bent being dropped. Judas. I thought Villa improved your England chances, Dazza? Mista Caplo told you so.

He should still be in, but it's still funny.

[EJG1980]

I'm finding it increasingly comical that Josh Mceacron and Sturridge are failing to get into the England squad.

Mceachron not being in the under 21's squad was bizzarre enough. Given that Wiltshire is injured, surely he'd be a more obviously replacement than Cleverly who has only played at a championship level outside of friendlies.

Cleverley was on loan at Wigan last season and made 25 PL appearances, compared to the 9 McEachran made for Chelsea (not that I remembered that myself, saw it mentioned on SSN at lunch time!).

I haven't seen either play enough to have a preference, although it's a shame we don't have more depth and need to call (or think of calling) on players who haven't even made a seasons worth of top flight appearances combined.

I'd definitely have thought Sturridge would have been given a go in a friendly like this though, given the excellent run he had with Bolton last season.

I'll be going on Wednesday with my Dad and younger brother. As Spurs fans we're hoping that Kyle Walker gets a run out at right back, I think he could step up and become a first team regular for us this season.

[abigsmurf]

To put my conspiricy theory hat on, I sometimes wonder if a lot of the mediocracy of the England squad and performances is as a result of the FA not wanting to risk sidelining or embarassing the (highly profitable and marketable) superstars, most notably Rooney. Rooney hasn't shown any consistant class for England in many, many years now yet we're still fielding sides designed to play to his strengths? Why? As a side England don't deliver the fast balls and crosses he gets at Man U and he's not shown any signs of adapting.

Neither Capello and Mclaren have done anything to try and shake up the structure of England's attack and generally the only suprises have been "which striker will play second fiddle to Rooney today!". We've had plenty of friendlies where some real experimenting could've been done. If star players are out injured, it makes no difference how well their replacements do, they won't be playing when that player returns to fitness.

After the World Cup there was all the "the current players are rubbish, we must rebuild the England side!" talk. It's not really happening.

[Baseley09]

I've seen Cleverly play a number of times in preseason and it's pretty clear why Ferguson hasn't bought a replacement for Scholes.

Surprised at Bent though, I thought he was now Capello's no.1 sharp shooter.

[toythatkills]

I'd definitely have thought Sturridge would have been given a go in a friendly like this though, given the excellent run he had with Bolton last season.

He's been pretty hot for Chelsea in pre-season as well

[toythatkills]

England game is called off now, wot wiv all da riots

[EJG1980]

Shame. Starting to think they may well call off the weekend matches in London too. Ah well, at least I'll get my ?45 refunded so I can waste it on something else

[toythatkills]

This threatens to throw the Fantasy Football into total chaos. Ditch players for any team playing in London this weekend.

[Flabio]

And yet they're letting Forest v County go ahead tonight in Nottingham. Maybe they're hoping they'll be too busy knocking seven shades out of each other to go looting.