Saturday, September 03, 2005
Young not Bent
Wales 0 England 1
England duly won their World Cup qualifier this afternoon at the Millennium Stadium, in front of a large but quiet Welsh crowd. Charlton's Luke Young started the match, but Darren Bent, who was among the substitutes, did not feature.
Young played as expected by the Charlton fans - as he does most weekends - playing it reasonably safe at all times, but I expect the media will say he is not good enough to wear the Three Lions shirt. In fact, Young's display was very much akin to those by Chris Powell a few years back - solid, unspectacular, without error. I'm sure that anyone who doesn't play for Chelsea, Arsenal, Man Utd or Liverpool will immediately be put under pressure by the media these days, and Young can expect that to happen, though I don't really know why? He has been consistent over the past year or two for Charlton, and with other more favoured players injured (Neville G, Terry) or not good enough (Johnson, Neville P) he was an obvious choice. He couldn't win really, being up against Ryan Giggs. If he played well (as he did) then that will undoubtedly be because it was a poor Wales team and Giggsy played inside; if he had had a bad game and Giggs had taken him apart (as the song goes...), it would be because he's not good enough. He has to play again on Wednesday (versus Northern Ireland) and that will only help his confidence; bringing Phil Neville into the team would be a backward move.
The 4-5-1 "experiment" didn't really work. I thought Wales so poor that two forwards would have destroyed them. As it was Wright-Phillips made and Joe Cole scored the goal, but neither looked convincing, with SWP shouted at to get wider (where he should have been) midway through the first half.
Rooney looked good and is such a class player; Becks saw lots of the ball but was very deep all day; Lamps and Gerrard looked disinterested; The defence didn't have too much against them and coped OK. Robinson made one very good save from the lumbering Hartson. Sven's favourites got sub appearances - Hargreaves, Richardson, and Defoe.
This England squad has great potential, but the pressure on them to go on and win something is immense. The whole country gets behind our boys (see cricket at the moment), especially when there is something at stake (World Cup, or Euro championship) but the media loves to knock our heroes, which I hate. We are nearly qualified for Germany 2006 - two wins will do it - so let's all get behind the lads over the next few months and stop knocking Sven and the boys.
Oh, and a mention of the National anthems. The boo-ing during God Save the Queen was atrocious, and if an English crowd had made that much noise then the calls for the birch, ASBO's, National Service, and the like for "so-called football fans" would have been huge. As it came from subjects of the Principality, I doubt it will raise a murmur. Double standards once more? You decide.
England duly won their World Cup qualifier this afternoon at the Millennium Stadium, in front of a large but quiet Welsh crowd. Charlton's Luke Young started the match, but Darren Bent, who was among the substitutes, did not feature.
Young played as expected by the Charlton fans - as he does most weekends - playing it reasonably safe at all times, but I expect the media will say he is not good enough to wear the Three Lions shirt. In fact, Young's display was very much akin to those by Chris Powell a few years back - solid, unspectacular, without error. I'm sure that anyone who doesn't play for Chelsea, Arsenal, Man Utd or Liverpool will immediately be put under pressure by the media these days, and Young can expect that to happen, though I don't really know why? He has been consistent over the past year or two for Charlton, and with other more favoured players injured (Neville G, Terry) or not good enough (Johnson, Neville P) he was an obvious choice. He couldn't win really, being up against Ryan Giggs. If he played well (as he did) then that will undoubtedly be because it was a poor Wales team and Giggsy played inside; if he had had a bad game and Giggs had taken him apart (as the song goes...), it would be because he's not good enough. He has to play again on Wednesday (versus Northern Ireland) and that will only help his confidence; bringing Phil Neville into the team would be a backward move.
The 4-5-1 "experiment" didn't really work. I thought Wales so poor that two forwards would have destroyed them. As it was Wright-Phillips made and Joe Cole scored the goal, but neither looked convincing, with SWP shouted at to get wider (where he should have been) midway through the first half.
Rooney looked good and is such a class player; Becks saw lots of the ball but was very deep all day; Lamps and Gerrard looked disinterested; The defence didn't have too much against them and coped OK. Robinson made one very good save from the lumbering Hartson. Sven's favourites got sub appearances - Hargreaves, Richardson, and Defoe.
This England squad has great potential, but the pressure on them to go on and win something is immense. The whole country gets behind our boys (see cricket at the moment), especially when there is something at stake (World Cup, or Euro championship) but the media loves to knock our heroes, which I hate. We are nearly qualified for Germany 2006 - two wins will do it - so let's all get behind the lads over the next few months and stop knocking Sven and the boys.
Oh, and a mention of the National anthems. The boo-ing during God Save the Queen was atrocious, and if an English crowd had made that much noise then the calls for the birch, ASBO's, National Service, and the like for "so-called football fans" would have been huge. As it came from subjects of the Principality, I doubt it will raise a murmur. Double standards once more? You decide.
