ends.
Roy Hodgson’s England completed their 100% run through Euro 2016 qualifying with a three nil victory over the might of Lithuania.
The easiest of easy groups completed with a 100% winning record now if only UEFA could contrive to make sure England teams of a similar standing in next years Euros then they might not be heading home before the postcards as they did in Brazil.
Unfortunately even with increase in teams in France for Euro 2016 England will meet up with some countries that are slightly better than said Lithuania or San Marino or Estonia and as soon as that happens well Roy and his first choice will be found out.
It probably wasn’t his first choice that ground out this 3-0 victory over the team that finished fifth in Group E. No, Well Rooney is his captain so no matter how poorly he plays or more cohesive England look without him he’ll be starting. You know he wants to play the dullard Henderson and Wilshere. That’ll be fun if he can fit Wilshere and Barkley in the same side, we can have a competition to see who can run into defenders, lose the ball and fall over the most.
Sterling and Walnut will be “on the wings” as they were on Friday. So Oxlade-Chamberlain probably won’t, did he get a high mark like they did for scoring, when like them it was pretty much all he did. Maybe he just doesn’t like performing well knowing that it normally means he’ll be dropped for the next game by his club manager.
God only hopes he doesn’t go with those fullbacks. Does anyone really think Gibbs is an international player, even Roy? Hell he made Danny Rose look the part. Dithering back passes. As for Walker has there ever been a footballer more reluctant to kick a football. Time to defend it’s all hands, arms and fat arse, time to cross the ball and he waits and waits and waits. Actually he does that with defending as well.
Kane is slowly turning into Defoe, apart from not being offside a few dozen times, it was shoot on sight. Though he did hit the target more than Defoe did and made the ‘keeper work and one did lead to a goal, so maybe a rich man’s Defoe.
Roy used some thirty odd player in the 10 qualifying games, funny that they complain that he’s used too many players while complaining that there are not enough players for him to pick from in the Premier League. It was a surprise though that Roy actually gave another goalkeeper a go instead of handing Hart another meaningless cap.
But in reality are there any places up for grab in the starting XI unless Roy’s favourites are unavailable, so was there anything really to play for in these games? There won’t against the bigger teams in the pre-tournament friendlies. They’ll be no real test of England’s abilities that’ll only come when the games count.