AC Milan will turn to Newcastle defender Davide Santon if Ignazio Abate completes a move to Arsenal in the New Year, according to reports from The Express.
The Italian international is being lined up by the Gunners who are searching for replacements for Bacary Sagna, and could be the subject of a serious offer in January.
Milan are keen to keep their full-back, but are aware that if he does move on that they will need to draft in a new man to replace him.
Santon is believed to be their top target.
The former Inter Milan man was once heralded as one if Italian football’s top emerging talents, and was even compared to Azzurri and Rossoneri icon Paolo Maldini.
But, injuries curtailed his progress, and he eventually left Serie A to rediscover his form and fitness with Newcastle.
Milan have continued to monitor his development, and are now ready to offer him a route back to his homeland.
The 22-year-old is thought to be happy at St James’ Park, but he could be open to a switch to Italy ahead of the World Cup, which may benefit his chances of making his nation’s squad for the showcase tournament.
Should Newcastle do all they can to keep Davide Santon?
FootballFanCast General Stay ahead in the world of football analysis, commentary, and fan insights with FootballFancast. FootballFanCast General Stay ahead in the world of football analysis, commentary, and fan insights with FootballFancast.
By subscribing, you agree to receive newsletter and marketing emails, and accept Valnet’s Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. You can unsubscribe anytime.
Liverpool midfielder Lucas Leiva has described 2012 as the worst year of his career and indeed his life, reports Sky Sports.
The influential midfielder is currently out with a thigh injury he picked up during the second game of the season, and is set to be out for a further two months.
This has come after the Brazilian was out injured for 6 months, following a serious knee injury he picked up in November 2011.
His injury coincided with Liverpool’s awful dip in form during the last campaign, and Brendan Rodgers looks to be suffering without him also, as he is still in search of his first Premier League win.
FootballFanCast General Stay ahead in the world of football analysis, commentary, and fan insights with FootballFancast. FootballFanCast General Stay ahead in the world of football analysis, commentary, and fan insights with FootballFancast.
By subscribing, you agree to receive newsletter and marketing emails, and accept Valnet’s Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. You can unsubscribe anytime.
“This is the worst year of my career and of my life as well. When we can’t do what we like to do and perform your job, it’s always a bit frustrating,” the 25-year-old told Sportv.
“Everything is a bit new to me because I have never had so many injuries. Two in a row is very complicated,” he added.”We tried to stay positive when the first one happened, but the second one was much tougher as it happened so close to the other one.”
Aston Villa will look to secure a return to the Premier League following a two-year absence when they face Fulham in the Championship play-off final at Wembley on Saturday.
The Midlands outfit saw off Middlesbrough 1-0 on aggregate over two legs in their semi-final tie, with manager Steve Bruce deploying a 4-1-4-1 system in both matches.
Mile Jedinak was the man tasked with sitting in front of the back four and providing that shield, and it certainly worked as the Villans kept two clean sheets.
[ad_pod ]
They may well need that protection again against a free-scoring Fulham, with Slavisa Jokanovic’s fluid 4-3-3 formation seeing them finish the league campaign as the second-top goalscorers in the division behind champions Wolverhampton Wanderers.
We at Football Fancast suggested previously that Bruce should perhaps look to be a little more adventurous and also select a 4-3-3 system because he has the players that would excel in, and it would likely shock the Cottagers ahead of the encounter.
FootballFanCast General Stay ahead in the world of football analysis, commentary, and fan insights with FootballFancast. FootballFanCast General Stay ahead in the world of football analysis, commentary, and fan insights with FootballFancast.
By subscribing, you agree to receive newsletter and marketing emails, and accept Valnet’s Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. You can unsubscribe anytime.
We asked Aston Villa fans to vote on our poll to see which formation out of the two they would prefer Bruce to use on Saturday, and a majority 62% want him to play it safe and not take any risks by sticking with the trusted 4-1-4-1.
It will certailyn be interesting to see what the 57-year-old chooses to do this weekend, as he looks to lead the club back to the promised land.
Leeds United have recruited a new player to the squad in the form of Japanese midfielder Yosuke Ideguchi.
The 21-year-old has not yet finalised the switch from Gamba Osaka, but is expected to sign on the dotted line next week.
The midfielder will undergo a medical before completing the deal, but the club have confirmed that he will likely be sent on loan until the end of the season.
Ideguchi is expected to join Cultural Leonesa on a temporary deal due to the face that the J1 League only finished in December.
The young midfielder is not well-known on a broad scale, but he already has 10 international caps for Japan to his name.
Leeds fans gave their reaction to the news on Twitter.
As it stands, Thomas Christiansen’s side are sixth in the Championship table following a run of five wins in their last six matches.
FootballFanCast General Stay ahead in the world of football analysis, commentary, and fan insights with FootballFancast. FootballFanCast General Stay ahead in the world of football analysis, commentary, and fan insights with FootballFancast.
By subscribing, you agree to receive newsletter and marketing emails, and accept Valnet’s Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. You can unsubscribe anytime.
Next up for the Whites in the league is a trip to face Ipswich Town on January 13, but before that, the team will take on Newport County in the FA Cup this weekend.
Many Everton fans could have been forgiven for thinking David Moyes’ departure was inevitable the moment Manchester United identified him as a replacement for Sir Alex Ferguson.
Even more concerning for them was the matter of replacing a man who they hired as a relative unknown in Premier League circles from then Championship club Preston in 2002. It was this season that Everton were one of the favourites for relegation. The club hasn’t looked back since. Moyes has taken them from perennial strugglers to top half finishes in all but one of his 11 seasons at the helm of Goodison Park. This left a gaping hole in the club once he vacated his position to take up the same post at Old Trafford, bringing several of his background staff with him to enhance the loss in Merseyside.
Everton’s chairman Bill Kenwright was quick to identify the ideal replacement he felt could bridge the gap for his beloved club. That man was Wigan manager Roberto Martinez- a man who had just pulled off one of the shocks of the season in defeating big spending Manchester City in the final of the FA Cup. Despite this, it looked likely that he would also be taking Wigan down to the Championship and would have to endure the clear dent in his CV that inevitably came with it. Wigan were eventually relegated in a classic display of the highs and lows one can experience in a very short space of time in the world of football.
This did not put Kenwright off his number one target. If anything Everton’s position was strengthened by the fact that Martinez was a manager who was playing the ‘correct’ style of football with Wigan that was surely too smart for him to remain a boss in the Championship. Despite relegation, it is clear Wigan won many admirers for their passing style during their remarkable 8 year stay in the Premier League. If anything Martinez received even more plaudits.
Meanwhile, season after season the same, often boring words were bounded around about Moyes and Everton. ‘Everton will challenge for a top six position but nothing beyond that’. ‘Moyes needs more resources to be able to compete in the very highest echelons of the Premier League’. Some football fans could be forgiven for forgetting Everton in the Premier League. The question is, did the immense progress made by Moyes in the earlier stages of his time at the Toffees eventually become stagnation? By the time the call from the Old Trafford hierarchy came around, it was the right time anyway for Everton to say thanks but no thanks to Moyes and employ someone whose style of football could challenge the very top of English football.
In some eyes the move towards a manager like Martinez could be seen as risky. Wigan were known for their rather blasé defending style which often resulted in them shipping silly goals. However, at the same time Manchester United were not exactly filling the coffers of supporters with a defending master class last season. Neither were any of England’s other Champions League teams. This era of shambolic defending is understood by Martinez in his attacking style. He has already drawn upon the services of three former Wigan players in a bold move to enforce his style upon the current crop at Everton. Meanwhile, Moyes has faltered, if not been embarrassed in the transfer market so far.
Martinez’s fluid style will provide Everton with more adaptability than they possessed under Moyes- the sort of risk that is needed to make that giant leap into a top 4 or FA Cup win. Meanwhile, Moyes will inevitably stagnate the Manchester United side he has at his clutches if he does not learn to encourage his players to take a few risks. In the past few seasons Moyes played it safe at Everton and got away with it because he could fall back on the lack of resource at Everton. Yet Martinez at Wigan always had inferior resources and wowed the football public at times with the quality produced at the DW Stadium, which worked for a club who were always viewed as the whipping boys before the start of the season and went on to prove everyone wrong with their flamboyant style.
This season, don’t be surprised to see Everton closer to Manchester United in the table than you think. Simultaneously, it will be Martinez winning all the respect for the fluency of his Everton side whilst Moyes simply plods along behind the wealth and resource at one of the biggest clubs in the world.
FootballFanCast General Stay ahead in the world of football analysis, commentary, and fan insights with FootballFancast. FootballFanCast General Stay ahead in the world of football analysis, commentary, and fan insights with FootballFancast.
By subscribing, you agree to receive newsletter and marketing emails, and accept Valnet’s Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. You can unsubscribe anytime.
Following the upheaval and struggle that both Tottenham Hotspur and Andre Villas-Boas have had to endure during the month of August, this weekend’s fixture away to Reading offers the perfect opportunity for the Portuguese to get his side’s league campaign up and running. But this month also represents the beginning of a new challenge on a separate front, in the form of this season’s Uefa Europa League campaign.
Europe’s secondary cup competition has seemingly evoked a rather mixed sense of emotions in N17 over the last twelve months. For some, its place on the fixture list represents a footballing migraine; a unwanted distraction that takes momentum away from Premier League efforts and pre-empts the death of the Saturday afternoon fixture. For others, it’s a genuine piece of European silverware that the club should be looking to respect and make a concerted effort to win.
Feelings towards the Europa League remain mixed, but there is a belief that attitudes towards the competition are certainly warming at White Hart Lane. The clubs’ last taste of success in the competition, in its traditional guise of the Uefa Cup, was a very distant 28 years ago – but the names of heroes such as Steve Perryman, Mark Falco and Micky Hazard are uttered around as if it was yesterday. Some feel that maybe winning the Europa League wouldn’t represent such a bad achievement after all. And they have just the man to make it happen.
Andre Villas-Boas’ may have a relatively short managerial resume during his time in the game, but one of his undisputable triumphs was how his Porto side triumphed to Europa League glory in the 2010-11 season. In an effort that saw him complete the treble in his first season at the club, his Porto side displayed a stunning level of maturity and attacking intent to win the competition, culminating in a 1-0 victory over Braga in Dublin in the final.
Those who watched Porto’s performance in a final, dictated by Braga’s preference to negate, may not have been overwhelmingly impressed. But his performance in the rest of the competition was a textbook example of how to win a trophy that’s often very much underestimated by teams on these shores.
Harry Redknapp made his malice for the Europa League felt on more than one occasion last term, and it can’t be denied that it has its disadvantages. The ‘Thursday nights, Channel Five’ chants, cause more of a headache for supporters in the necessity it brings in having to play league games on a Sunday, rather than it’s dubious broadcasting credentials and having to fly to far flung corners of Eastern Europe mid-week probably doesn’t do the team too many favours.
But the truth is that for a team of Spurs’ size and caliber, they should have had enough to get out of the group stage, even if they weren’t always fielding their first choice XI. Luck certainly deserted them during their campaign last term, especially in the home tie against PAOK, but their fate was perhaps ultimately dictated by their performance away to Rubin Kazan in which Redknapp fielded what was in effect, a reserve team, bar the presence of Jermain Defoe. Although one could suggest that giving youngsters such as Ryan Fredericks, Andros Townsend and Yago Falque a run out was admirable, fielding such a team away from home to the groups’ strongest team was in effect, writing the tournament off. A strong line up at home to PAOK was too little, too late for Tottenham.
It will be interesting to see quite what Villas-Boas’ approach is when his team take on Lazio at White Hart Lane in their opening Group J fixture on the 20th September, but you would have hoped that the Portuguese wouldn’t view the competition in quite the same way as Redknapp. If his side are still failing to pick up results in the league, the subsequent pressure could see him turn a blind eye to Europa League proceedings. But considering how well it served him during Porto, you’d find it hard to think he’d consider bottling it with Tottenham.
Because most importantly for Spurs, Villas-Boas has seemingly got the basics right in the cup competition, such as negotiating out of the group stage safely and grinding out results away from home. In 2010, AVB negotiated Porto out of an extremely tricky group, which included hostile trips to the likes of Besiktas and CSKA Sofia, undefeated with five wins and one draw. Even last season at Chelsea, however unconvincing it may have seemed, the Blues finished top of Group E under his stewardship.
From there on in, Porto knocked up an astonishing 22 goals in the knock-out stages on the way to the final as they produced some ruthlessly clinical football to see off the seasoned likes of Sevilla, CSKA Moscow and Vilarreal on the way. Villas-Boas knows how to win this competition and he knows how to win it well. An art of which many English teams have tried and failed to master.
There is often a pre-conceived idea that if any of the Premier League’s teams actually sought to take the Europa League seriously, that they’d come out on to. Yet in reality, this simply isn’t the case. In recent times the likes of Liverpool, Manchester City and most prominently Manchester United, have all come unstuck in recent years after fielding strong, strong line-ups. If anyone had any doubts about the pedigree of Europa League football, you need to look no further than the fate of Sir Alex Ferguson’s team at the hands of Marcelo Bielsa’s Athletic Bilbao side last year.
Because the prestige, the honor and jubilation that comes with winning a piece of European silverware simply cannot be underestimated. Of course, the Europa League isn’t quite of the stature of the Champions League but that doesn’t matter. Look at the footage of Villas-Boas’ Porto side from 2011 or any side that has won it for that matter. Witness the unparalleled joy and outpouring of emotion from the fans and players alike; that is what football is all about, as the great Danny Blanchflower said – the game is about glory.
FootballFanCast General Stay ahead in the world of football analysis, commentary, and fan insights with FootballFancast. FootballFanCast General Stay ahead in the world of football analysis, commentary, and fan insights with FootballFancast.
By subscribing, you agree to receive newsletter and marketing emails, and accept Valnet’s Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. You can unsubscribe anytime.
Look at the likes of Perryman and the standing of that ’84 winning team against Anderlecht in the history of the club. No one is saying AVB will go down in history, but that is the sort of prize that’s on offer – long, hard history. A fourth place finish doesn’t have a place in any record books or trophy cabinets- but a European trophy lasts forever.
Spurs have the manager to achieve that success, in the short-term anyway. Andre Villas-Boas has had a tough time adjusting his side to Premier League fortunes and the undeniable truth is that it is a team in transition. A challenge for Champions League football must beckon but he can’t let the pressures of the league affect his outlook for Europa League success. This is a trophy the manager; the club and the players are capable of winning. And what better way to get supporters on board, than lifting it in Amsterdam next May.
How do you feel about a run in the Europa League? Do you not fancy a twirl with the Champions League’s unfancied sister or do you think it’s time Spurs brought some real silverware back to White Hart Lane? Let me know what you think on Twitter: follow @samuel_antrobus and bat me all your views.
Manchester United defender Timothy Fosu-Mensah posted on Twitter after his loan spell with Crystal Palace came to an end on Sunday and suggested that he won’t be returning to the Eagles, and Red Devils fans were quick to react.
The 6ft 3in tall right-back, who can also play as a defensive midfielder, had something of a rollercoaster campaign with the south London club, being something of a regular in the XI up until February, before he was then struggling to make Roy Hodgson’s matchday squad in the final couple of months of the campaign.
Meanwhile, United manager Jose Mourinho could be looking to sign a defensive midfielder and right-back this summer, although Fosu-Mensah will hope that he can stop the Portuguese manager needing to strengthen in one of those positions by making a big impact in pre-season.
Man United supporters, who didn’t enjoy the performance of a 20-year-old in the 1-0 win against Watford on Sunday, took to social media to respond to the Netherlands international’s message, and while one said “come home now”, another said “welcome back to United my bro”.
Arsenal have already signed one player this summer in Petr Cech for one of the key areas of their team that needed to be addressed if the Gunners are going to be challenging for the title next season.
But that doesn’t mean Gunners manager Arsene Wenger’s business is done just yet. There are other areas that Arsenal need to strengthen in, and these are right up the spine of the team. The key positions are in central defence where the Gunners need to strengthen, in defensive midfield and up front.
And what could be a better place to find this talent than the Bundesliga? Here are five top players the Gunners should be looking to sign this summer.
The first of these is Christoph Kramer, who is a German international defensive midfielder, but is also comfortable at centre-back.
Kramer is just 24-years-old and has already got 10 international caps with Germany. He has played his football on-loan at Borussia Monchengladbach for the last couple of years but is now hoping to nail down a permanent position at his parent club Bayer Leverkusen.
[ffc-gal cat=”arsenal” no=”5″]
He may be best known for his surprise World Cup final appearance where he was subbed early following concussion, but he is well known in Germany as one of their top young players. He is a midfield rock, strong at breaking up attacks and allowing his team mates to play, a typical good defensive midfielder and would be a good signing for Arsenal.
The second player Arsenal should be looking to sign is Borussia Dortmund striker Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, who would certainly address their striking problems.
Aubameyang is a well known player to English fans; he has incredible pace, can play out wide or up front and importantly for the Gunners, he scores goals.
He scored 16 league goals last season, mainly from the wing, but he is also fully capable of playing up front. The forward would get plenty more goals up top considering the chances Wenger’s side creates. The Gunners have already been heavily linked with the Gabon international already and for £28m it could be a fantastic deal for Arsenal.
Another player from the Bundesliga that the Gunners should look to sign is Wolfsburg’s Kevin De Bruyne. The former Chelsea man was one of the most creative players in Europe last season, scoring an impressive 10 goals and tallying a staggering 20 assists.
The Belgium international would prove to be a pricey transfer, but with those sort of numbers the Gunners would be getting a player capable of creating chances a plenty and is really a top drawer player.
Schalke whizkid Maximilian Meyer is another player with the potential to be a success in the Premier League; he is not exactly a household name as of yet, but he is expected to become one.
At just 19-years-old he has already been capped by Germany and has been a regular feature for Schalke over the last two seasons.
Meyer is an attacking midfielder and has already been compared to Mario Gotze and Lionel Messi, due to his dribbling abilities and lightening pace. He is a huge talent and will become a fantastic player
This next player is not quite as inexperienced and that is Borussia Dortmund’s Marco Reus, who would be the biggest signing of the lot.
FootballFanCast General Stay ahead in the world of football analysis, commentary, and fan insights with FootballFancast. FootballFanCast General Stay ahead in the world of football analysis, commentary, and fan insights with FootballFancast.
By subscribing, you agree to receive newsletter and marketing emails, and accept Valnet’s Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. You can unsubscribe anytime.
Reus is an outstanding talent, a German international and one of the best players in the Bundesliga. He has 25 caps with Germany and has regularly notched over ten goals a season from wide positions for Dortmund.
Reus is best known for his versatility, speed and his superb technique. And this versatility means that Reus could even be considered as a striking option for Wenger’s side.
He is of course more suited to the left wing, but is as equally able to play on the right or centrally due to his ability to control the ball with both feet. The German is a superb player and would be a huge signing for the Gunners.
If Arsenal can complete one or two of these deals then Wenger’s side would much improved for it.
A Fernando Torres in his prime is something every Arsenal fan would love to see at the Emirates. But that Torres is long gone, now replaced by a shadow of the player who once lit up the Premier League and could be considered the best in the world.
There is work to be done for both Arsenal and Torres, and off the bat it is far from a partnership that could work. The lack of patience for the Spanish forward would be astonishing at the Emirates, only likely to further his underwhelming performances and lack of cutting edge in league games. How far do we go in entertaining this rumour that was thrown out over the weekend? Arsenal have been linked with everyone there is to name ahead of this summer; why wouldn’t someone throw Torres’ name in the hat just for kicks?
[cat_link cat=”arsenal” type=”list”]
But the issue here is that Torres does need a move away from Chelsea and away from English football. He won’t line up for Real Madrid, for reasons beyond his diminishing status in the game, while even Barcelona and their apparent need for a Plan B would seem a stretch.
It wasn’t too long ago that Torres himself claimed to be returning to his best. What he defines as “best” I’m not quite sure, but it’s far from what he produced in his debut season at Anfield. The pace is gone but surely the intelligence hasn’t deserted him too. Torres should still be capable of scoring 20 league goals in a season if he adapts his game and, importantly, people stop baying for something comical. The Premier League as a whole won’t be so kind.
Napoli is another club who have been linked with the Spaniard, though that could just be due to the convenience of Rafa Benitez taking over at the San Paolo this summer. Much like at the Emirates, how would those in Naples greet the idea of Torres replacing the possibly outgoing Edinson Cavani? It just amounts to another dead end for the striker, unless of course he can muster a season-long effort that resembles something above a decent striker.
Torres would have been one of the most disappointed by Spain’s loss to Brazil in the final of the Confederations Cup. For long spells in the game, Julio Cesar had very little to do. Juan Mata, likely through fatigue, had one of his worst and most ineffectual games in recent memory. But Torres is seen as the senior striker in the squad, even ahead of David Villa, who often plays wide when Torres is in the team. It only takes a poor season from him and a very good one from a collection of his compatriots for him to be completely out of the squad for next summer’s World Cup. He surely knows that, Vicente Del Bosque, who has stood by the striker through difficulties, can surely not be so kind after the Confederations Cup exposed a number of weaknesses.
A move to Arsenal for Torres would simply represent a half-hearted attempt by the club’s board to rectify the glaring problems and appease the fans. Torres is as big a name in European football as you’re likely to get; he’s won the lot bar a league title. But his arrival would be such a far cry from what Arsenal actually need. It would be hugely underwhelming to go into a season with your marquee signing being propped up by the ropes after a near-disastrous last two seasons in English football.
I question how keen Atletico Madrid would be to taking him back, though the obvious bond between the player and club could disguise his shortcomings. AC Milan are unlikely to look to a striker who is nearing his 30th birthday after they made it quite clear that youth is their policy going forward. That doesn’t mean there isn’t a good club on the continent for Torres, nor does it mean he can’t be an asset somewhere. Yet the obvious clubs that spring to mind are not the best fit, while Torres himself needs to get as far away from the damaging nature of English football and repackage himself ahead of what should be another enormous summer for him and Spain.
FootballFanCast General Stay ahead in the world of football analysis, commentary, and fan insights with FootballFancast. FootballFanCast General Stay ahead in the world of football analysis, commentary, and fan insights with FootballFancast.
By subscribing, you agree to receive newsletter and marketing emails, and accept Valnet’s Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. You can unsubscribe anytime.
Would Torres be a disaster at Arsenal or is it a match made in heaven?
Instigating change is tough in football. This week has shown the dangers of doing it quickly, with Andre Villas Boas coming under instant pressure at Tottenham and Brendan Rodgers’ Liverpool struggling to come to terms with the new style of football that was the signature of his Swansea team. It is unsurprising then that Roy Hodgson, holder of the poison chalice that is the England manager’s job, has distanced himself from this new fad, insisting that he is in no rush to dispose of the ironically named ‘Golden Generation’, which has never led England to anything like silverware, never mind gold.
At the heart of the issue, as usual, is England’s midfield dilemma. For years the questions in the build-up to England games surrounded which of the 400 players England had tried on the left side of midfield would be given the nod to start the upcoming match. Nowadays another issue is at hand. The centre of midfield the position up for debate, particularly with injuries to steady Gareth Barry and golden boy Jack Wilshere leaving Hodgson with such depleted options in the area that Jordan Henderson cannot be far away from another call-up.
As a result, in the build-up to Friday’s World Cup qualifier in Moldova Hodgson has intimated that he may select Steven Gerrard and Frank Lampard alongside each other in the middle of the park. It would be a disappointing decision by Hodgson, who flatters to deceive by suggesting he is ready to make brave decisions by selecting the likes of Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and yet continues to follow in the path of his predecessors by sticking with squad players who have previously been found wanting and making tactical decisions such as the Gerrard-Lampard one which are likely to see England move backwards rather than forwards. England have failed to reach the last four of a major tournament since 1996, and yet Hodgson seems to think that nothing is broken and therefore, as the saying goes, he is not going to fix it. In reality, the time has surely come to realise that international success for England can only follow large-scale changes.
Sir Alex Ferguson, the best of the bunch among managers, recognises this need for change to reignite a team, and having suffered the bitter disappointment of defeat to the ‘noisy neighbours’ last year on goal difference, he has drastically altered his attacking options. The futures of key players such as Nani and even Wayne Rooney have been thrown into question, with new blood such as Shinji Kagawa and Robin van Persie providing a new dimension at Old Trafford. Ferguson has never been one to fear cutting ties, with countless superstars like Keane, Beckham and van Nistelrooy able to testify that when he feels a player needs to be moved on for the good of the team, Ferguson is never slow to respond. It is one of the many characteristics that make him arguably the greatest club manager of modern times.
Obviously, the task is significantly less straightforward for Hodgson. If he decides to usher the likes of Gerrard and Lampard from the international set-up, he cannot simply spend an oligarch’s ransom on a world-class midfield player to replace them in the same way that top club sides can. He must look to promote from within, and the number of international standard players in England declining, with the influx of foreign talent that makes its way to the Barclay’s Premier League every summer leaving even those with the most exciting of potential such as Danny Sturridge, Danny Welbeck and Steven Caulker with a tough battle to hold down a first-team place. These three players are all examples of those who have dropped down to clubs of lesser resources on loan to learn their trade , but a mid-table Premier League club does not prepare them for international football in the same way as Champions’ League experience with a club that teaches them the habit of winning. As a result, many of the best young English players are still learning the game at the top level.
But it is too easy to say that picking Gerrard and Lampard in midfield together is the best option because there is no better option. Barry and Wilshere may have been the pair’s closest rivals if fit, but they are far from the only options. Tom Cleverley shone in his last England outing. Jack Rodwell looks to have added an extra dimension to his game in his brief spell at Manchester City, and has also impressed in his fleeting cameos at the heart of the England midfield. Michael Carrick, recently returned to the international scene, has won countless medals down the years but has never been a regular starter for England. Leon Britton had a pass completion rate to rival Andres Iniesta, and yet has never been considered for an England side that was shown to be hopelessly incapable of retaining possession at Euro 2012.
These players may currently be on the rung below Gerrard and Lampard as individuals, but that is not to say that they should be disregarded as options for what is fast becoming a problem position for Hodgson. After all, creating a great football team isn’t about picking the most talented players, but about picking the best team to win the match. Sergio Busquets, for example, is a regular for Barcelona and Spain, there are many other rivals for his place that would be considered more technically proficient. The Gerrard-Lampard axis has never looked natural since Lampard became an England regular in the build-up to Euro 2004. They have had plenty of chances, and have shown what they are capable of. With this pairing in midfield, England might get to the quarter finals of major tournaments, but they are regularly hopelessly outclassed against the world’s elite.
FootballFanCast General Stay ahead in the world of football analysis, commentary, and fan insights with FootballFancast. FootballFanCast General Stay ahead in the world of football analysis, commentary, and fan insights with FootballFancast.
By subscribing, you agree to receive newsletter and marketing emails, and accept Valnet’s Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. You can unsubscribe anytime.
The conservatives will argue that wholesale changes may result in disaster. England may fail to qualify for the World Cup. They may get knocked out in the group stages. But in reality what is the difference between a first round exit and a quarter final? Both are failures. Both will be greeted with the same feeling of deflation that has become all too familiar to England fans in recent years. England need to improve, and only experimentation and new ideas can lead to improvement. Selecting the same team again and again will lead to continuity, and for England, continuity is no longer the order of the day. So come on Roy. Take a chance, go for glory. Make England exciting again. Make a change.