A large problem with the England team

spudbynight

spudbynight

spudbynight

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I've just read that Jesse Lingard has been called up to the England squad. This is a player who has now played a total of five times for his club.

It is unfortunately a regular occurrence, we end up with England managers selecting players based on their club rather than their own ability. Time and time again we see players called up based on the back of a handful of games for Man Utd, Liverpool, Arsenal etc.

I think it is quite telling to see the amount of players who have been capped while at Man Utd only to never get close to selection when they move on. Surely it is high time we started seeing the best players selected, regardless of what club they play for?
 
Shamikebab said:
They watched him in training, they played him in the reserves and they sent him out on loan. Again Lingard had all this and was deemed good enough.
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Are you seriously suggesting that there is any sort of equivalence between playing in the reserves and playing in competitive fixtures in the league?

Lingard has done nothing to merit a call up to the England squad - apart from play for Man Utd it seems.
 
Shamikebab said:
Play well for United, something Zaha never managed.

And of course this is a friendly, isn't the whole point to try out new players? It just sounds like the usual anti large club nonsense.
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So what you are saying is Zaha might be playing well for Palace but he didn't play well for Man Utd? How on earth can that be "anti large club nonsense"?

I'm not disputing that playing well for Man Utd is a reason for a call up - just not after five games. A friendly is an opportunity to give a chance to blood new players, that have earned a chance by playing well for their club.
 
Talksport are running a poll on this.

http://talksport.com/football/poll-...jesse-lingard-wilfried-zaha-or-nathan-redmond

63% think Zaha should have been called up
18% for Lingard
14% for Redmond

Piece on Sky News (with some stats) as well

http://www.skysports.com/football/n...ingards-england-call-up-surprises-tony-cottee

Lingard has just broken into the Manchester United first-team and has played just 169 minutes of Premier League football this season, with one goal and two chances created.

In contrast, the likes of Leicester's Marc Albrighton (911 minutes, one goal, 22 chances created), Norwich's Nathan Redmond (765 minutes, four goals, 24 chances created) and Crystal Palace's Wilfried Zaha (747 minutes, one goal, 14 chances created), have been key performers for their clubs since the start of the season.
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toshj said:
Apparently the problem that Hodgson and the staff at England have with Zaha, and to a degree Redmond, is that their defensive abilities are severely lacking. It's another reason why Utd were happy to let Zaha go; he can't defend, won't track back and his overall teamwork is terrible. Hodgson and the England side like to see attacking players who won't undermine the defensive shape of the team - they worked hard to mould Sterling into a better all-rounder, and although he still isn't brilliant at tracking back, he's certainly improved.

.
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Those comments might have applied to Zaha when be was at Man Utd, two years ago, but they aren't the case now. His defensive play is much improved as is his teamwork.

I'm not suggesting Zaha is perfect - just that Lingard hasn't shown himself to be good enough to get in ahead of him.
 
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