International Friendlies - why? why not?

[Maximo Mark]

With Frank Lampard and Steven Gerrard both withdrawing today along with the injuries to Joe Cole, Ashley Cole, Wes Brown and Emile Heskey and 'injuries' to Wayne Rooney and Rio Ferdinand along with John Terry being taken off injured on Saturday it could leave England with just Theo Walcott and David James as the only fit players who played a major part in our highly successful campaign so far.

The friendly has long been considered pointless and irrelevant and I put the entire blame with Sven Goran Eriksson. I've never been a fan of his but his constant decisions to use 20+ players in every friendly we had completely ruined them and ever since they've been seen as a joke.

But they shouldn't be, they're vitally important for success at international level, 1) for the squad gatherings, the players don't get that much time to train and play together and it's probably when the manager learns most about these players 2) for trying out youngsters. You may argue that this is now the perfect chance to play some younger and fringe players, but all at once, that'll do no good at all. How is anyone supposed to find out how the fringe players fit in?! It's alright if someone comes in and does well, but how do you know they fit in with the players they'll actually play with if needed (although having said that we play Lampard and Gerrard at pretty much every given opportunity....)

I was looking forward to this friendly, now it's just a joke. I do hope Lampard is genuinely injured though and credit to John Terry for saying he'll play through injections if it means he can lead his country out. The only choice for captain IMO!

[Panda]

Who knows what the starting line-up's going to be... I guess Gareth Barry will start the game as captain or maybe even James.

[Panda]

It's worth mentioning Jimmy Bullard and Scott Parker have been called into the squad due to the injuries.

[Razzle Dazzle]

on the other hand it gives players like agbonlahor and young a chance to impress. the line up could be

------------------james---------------------
Richards - upson - terry - bridge
walcott - barry - carrick - young
-----------agbonlahor - defoe------------

that to me is a strong lineup whilst giving youth a chance. richards is the future of the england defence, upson is a solid defender that is cover for rio and terry so is vital he gets games, along with wayne bridge being vital as cover for ashley cole. then if terry is fit he adds the much needed leadership. i have always said young is our best option out wide, last year he made more assists than ronaldo and fabregas put together, he is skillfull, a bit of pace and can take a man on very much like walcott on the right. we always always always play lampard and gerrard in the middle so it is a relief to see neither will play and will be interesting to see how we cope. i have no idea who will get the nod, i just asume the 2 most capped players. upfront we have a dire crisis. 5 years down the line who will be playing upfront for england? crouch, owen, heskey will be to old. rooney is our only quality striker. ashton is never fit and the rest are not good enough (AJ, smith, beattie and whoever else gets the odd call up). then the kids coming through the u21's... derbyshire, miller, jerome, ebanks blake, blackstock etc, they hardlies fill you with much optimism that another rooney or owen is in the pipeline. so defoe, bent and agbonlahor need to play games because who else will play if rooney is crocked again next world cup.

i am p*ssed off that half the big name players that are "injured" will be fit enough for their next club game, it is always the same

[Maximo Mark]

I think the likes of Welbeck, Sears, Campbell and Sturridge could turn out to be better than most of those strikers. Though I do like Ebanks-Blake...

[o]

I really dont give a MONKEYS!
But all the injuries are genuine, apparently.

[frag]

Defoe and Agbonlahor are really very good strikers, and I'm glad they're being given a chance. Same with Ashley Young.

I may be watching the game through a drunken haze

[Panda]

Theo Walcott's dislocated his shoulder!

[Paddy]

TBH, i would rather they use these friendlies to test out young talent, like darren bent (top english goal scorer in premiership for 3 years running, but never gets an england chance), abloblingor?, wright-phillips, maybe lower league players too. IMO, lower league players are just as good, and they often have more enthusiasm, and more umph in them to get themsleves noticed for their qualities, but they can play just as well, as shown in the FA cup, when Barnsley beat Chelsea and Liverpool!

Anyway, is the game in Berlin on TV tomorrow night? On the terrestrial channels!?

Might watch it for once.

5-1 anyone?

[Panda]

It's on ITV.

[Paddy]

Cheers hamster.

[frag]

And now Walcott's out for three months. f***ing brilliant.

[Maximo Mark]

On a related note, went to watch the under 21s last night. Quite a good game and not too many recognisable names in there. Was impressed with the sub keeper, Frank Fielding, he looked very good.

Craig Gardner, Frazier Campbell and Richard Stearman stood out too. Aaron Lennon was utter sh*te though.

[Maximo Mark]

There is absolutely no way that friendly was pointless. With so many names out the only 'big' name playing was Terry and we've shown that what is effectively a second string side is good enough to beat a Germany side away from which at some point included Schweinsteiger, Mertesacker, Klose, Gomez and Podolski - all players who played a part in reaching the Euro 2008 final.

Terry, bar the goal which Carson was as much to blame for, was outstanding and was a great leader, especially making up for his error with a winning goal. Downing was abolute quality and probably the best game he's ever had in an England shirt, if his dead-ball quality can stay that consistant then the Beckham argument will take another knock as that's the main reason for his inclusion. Gabby's pace is astonishing and something we should definitely take as an option. Barry and Carrick were great in the centre, especially Carrick's passing, Wright-Phillips, Johnson and Bridge proved more than able back up too! And after that astonishing performance Crouch is surely going to be starting the next game!

In the end, a hugely pleasing result.

Annoying? Maybe. Pointless? Certainly not.

[Panda]

Nov 19, 2008 22:54:26 GMT 1 Maximo Mark said:

Downing was abolute quality and probably the best game he's ever had in an England shirt, if his dead-ball quality can stay that consistant then the Beckham argument will take another knock as that's the main reason for his inclusion.

Definitely Downing's best game for England... Strangely enough, I've always thought his dead ball ability was one of the weaker parts of his game so it was nice to see him create a couple last night and replay Capello's faith in him after the horror show against Andorra.

A very good game overall for a friendly. Yes, it meant nothing, but it would've been so disappointing not to have won after playing so well. It's just a shame we have to wait nearly 6 months for the next World Cup qualifier...

[Razzle Dazzle]

we found out carson is bloody useless, agbonlahor is good enough at that level, downing is not as sh*t as people think, johnson is actually ok at something other than stealing taps from B&Q, if we ever get an injury at centreback upson can fill in and even do a better job than rio anyway and best of all we don't need to rely on so called big players

[Tom]

Was sorely tempted to give last night's match a miss, and in fact missed the start, but i can't remember the last time an England friendly was so good - they're usually complete rubbish!

Agree with mrh and mark that that was Downing's best game for England, he was my MOTM (never thought i'd say that) closely followed by Upson (someone who would be in my favourite Reading XI after his loan spell 6 years ago) who after starting the last few games now looks really settled into international football.