England scapegoat

Evening all,

In the past the press have found a scapegoat when tournaments havent gone to plan. If it should all go pearshaped this time who do you think, rightly or wrongly, will be the scapegoat?

My guess is between Rooney or Smalling.

Cheers

Alli, can see him losing his head at a vital moment, later in the tournament

I've already mentioned it on the podcast last night but I'm expecting Dele Alli to see red at some point in the tournament.

Rooney is the permanent scapegoat.

Gonna go for Kane.

In Rooney's case it isn't really scapegoating given the lengths gone to fit him in the side.

I'd say Sterling but the ex Liverpool players in the media have already done an effective hatchet job on him. Kane's a solid choice.

People for some reason wanted Kane to have a poor second season, he didn't. If he doesn't do well can him being slated.

Rooney is a usual suspect. Smelling and Dier I expect as well.

Roy will probably be the scapegoat now I think of it!

As it turns out, the England fans are quickly becoming UEFA's scapegoat which, considering they were the aggrieved parties in Saturday night's trouble is a bit rich.

Im going for Dele Alli to get sent off vs Wales we lose and we bomb out after Wales throw a game vs Russia

If Russia haven't been sent packing by UEFA first.

Looks like Kane is being targeted now. Media reporting that he's either going to be dropped against Wales for Sturridge, or has one last game to prove himself. Not sure I believe the reports, but to be fair he was probably England's worst player against Russia - he looked absolutely nackered.

Crimey wrote:Looks like Kane is being targeted now. Media reporting that he's either going to be dropped against Wales for Sturridge, or has one last game to prove himself. Not sure I believe the reports, but to be fair he was probably England's worst player against Russia - he looked absolutely nackered.

Thought Sterling was giving him a good run for his money there - how can a professional footballer be unable to pass the ball 10 yards?

While it wasn't Kane's best match, he had a few 'nearly' chances where he made good runs and the midfielder just couldn't pick the pass out - partly good defence and partly poor execution.

I'm not convinced that Sturridge is a better fit for the side - is quicker and more able to beat a defender 1 on 1, but he's not going to hold the ball up well and bring the overlapping fullbacks into play.

dummy_half wrote:Thought Sterling was giving him a good run for his money there - how can a professional footballer be unable to pass the ball 10 yards?

Has astonishingly bad technical ability, does Raheem Sterling. Has the worst 'contact' with a ball, I've seen from such a supposed top player. Labelled the English 'Jesus Navas' this week by the media, sounds about right.

LiamB wrote:

dummy_half wrote:Thought Sterling was giving him a good run for his money there - how can a professional footballer be unable to pass the ball 10 yards?

Has astonishingly bad technical ability, does Raheem Sterling. Has the worst 'contact' with a ball, I've seen from such a supposed top player. Labelled the English 'Jesus Navas' this week by the media, sounds about right.

Sterling was appalling. I'd love to know what proportion of his possessions ended with the Russians having the ball. At the moment, he's essentially Theo Walcott without the finishing.

The media are just guessing. They haven't a clue if Hodgson is giving Kane 'one last chance' or not. Nonsense.

LiamB wrote:

dummy_half wrote:Thought Sterling was giving him a good run for his money there - how can a professional footballer be unable to pass the ball 10 yards?

Has astonishingly bad technical ability, does Raheem Sterling. Has the worst 'contact' with a ball, I've seen from such a supposed top player. Labelled the English 'Jesus Navas' this week by the media, sounds about right.

Sterling's technical ability reminded me of the comment about Carlton Palmer, that his first touch was so heavy his second touch was a tackle...

It really is annoying that we keep having these fast young wingers who just don't develop into good footballers, a line that can be traced back at least to Aaron Lennon. Townsend must be gutted to have been left out, as at least he tends to produce a shot at the end of his runs.

Sterling didn't play well against Russia, or have a good season, but he is a much better footballer than Aaron Lennon or Andros Townsend. He has already proven, at a young age, to be capable of playing in three or four different positions well. He's got a good footballing brain - I think what he tends to lack is confidence. He overthinks things, when he acts instinctively, he is much better.

I actually think he's worse playing out wide than he is centrally, he gets too much time out wide which means he overplays. When he's in the middle, the fact that he's under pressure means he acts much quicker.

sterling is far too young and inexperienced to say hes proved anything at the moment. lennon looked a class act at one point then fell apart. easily could happen with sterling, whos only had one top class season himself

wallcott, swp, ox. heck even pennant. we've been here before people hyping them only for them to turn sh!t soon as defenders realise the only thing they've got is pace

Joe Hart putting in a good claim

hopefully sterling wont play again so he may escape the scapegoat tag

Roy doesn't believe changes are necessary ahead of Slovakia....interesting thought process if that's true. I must have missed something with those great performances from Sterling and Kane in the first two games

think woy may have taken the leading role for scapegoat after last night. i just think were not very good so blaming anyone would be pointless

compelling and rich wrote:think woy may have taken the leading role for scapegoat after last night. i just think were not very good so blaming anyone would be pointless

For the oddest reason though, I don't think the changes really made a huge difference. The actual performance was basically identical to the previous two. In this case most of our good play came through the right back, didn't fashion good enough chances, striker kept coming deep to get on the ball, Lallana was full of good running but didn't produce a good enough final ball. 

The only real difference is Wilshere was much poorer than Rooney and Bertrand seemed more of a liability than Rose (which surprised me.)

I think he can be scapegoated for not producing results in a way, but the media seems to be focusing on the changes, which is odd.

agreed at left back. the way we play most of our width comes from the full backs and betrand seemed petrified of getting forward. he gave us nothing down the left.

think people have been carried away with rooney, im struggling to think of many chances he's created. showy cross field balls but very little penetrative forward passes. but do agree the same team against wales wouldn't have done much difference

compelling and rich wrote:agreed at left back. the way we play most of our width comes from the full backs and betrand seemed petrified of getting forward. he gave us nothing down the left.

think people have been carried away with rooney, im struggling to think of many chances he's created. showy cross field balls but very little penetrative forward passes. but do agree the same team against wales wouldn't have done much difference

I agree that Rooney has been over-praised this tournament, but Wilshere was truly awful. He's not fit at all and shouldn't have played. I don't think it was necessarily a mistake to not take him as England have a lot of cover in that position anyway and if he did manage to get properly fit in time he's better than the alternatives.

No real scapegoats last night, thought Slovakia defended very well at times, keeper pulled off a couple of decent saves and with a bit of better finishing we could have easily had four.

Generally don't see that there's too much to be fearful of with the possibility of facing Iceland, Austria, Hungary or Portugal.

We were all pretty much wrong and right.

The correct answer was... All of them in equal measure was utter gash, apart from Marcus Rashford who'll now have the weight of the nation thrust on him until in 2 years time he's then blamed for England's exit from the World Cup.