When Gareth Southgate was named England manager I was surprised and the reason being they had a plethora of established coaches they could have called upon after the Sam Allardyce (whom I respect a lot) saga. I embraced the adventure even though I ceased supporting the 3 Lions of England after their exit at the 2016 Euros though friends and family think I am fooling myself and I am sure as you read this you are like why am I writing this if you don’t support them anymore. I am a football buff and even if I don’t write as much as I want to, I will still find a way to write about a topic that I have love for.
Don’t mind me I decided to write this because someone mentioned something that triggered my thought process. I don’t think I am making sense again but hey its my memoirs, take me as I am. Maybe the long trip from Northampton to London played a major part in this story.
Back to the story at hand. England played 2 BIG friendlies and emphasis on the BIG because they played Germany and Brazil in those games. Both games ended 0-0 and if you ask me if the English team was impressive 100 times you will get the same answer over and over again which is YES. The squad was so different from the usual in terms because it was youthful side he fielded against both footballing giants with Gary Cahill, Joe Hart and Kyle Walker the most experienced lads that made the cut (if you ask me). The hunger was in these young lions and left to me the bulk of the players that executed this game should be taken to the World Cup next year. Yes people will say it was just a friendly match but how else do you prepare for a tournament?
Matt Le Tissier’s comments the other day regarding Dominic Solanke coming on for Jamie Vardy in the game against Brazil apparently triggered this post. Going halfway into this article and I don’t have much to say but the man should take a seat. He claimed Dominic Solanke has seen 85 minutes combined in all the premier league games he has played in and started none.
When else will a player get tested? He has to crawl before he walks and it is a friendly when are you supposed to test your options? Besides Dominic won the Under-20 World Cup with England and obviously trains regularly with his club Liverpool.
Yes Le Tissier was a legend for Southampton and he represented England 8 times but during his time it was Paul Gascoigne we knew, a true England legend.
Maybe I didn’t make sense with the post, I blame it on a very long week and tiredness.
Thank you for stopping by……. Have a fabulous week ahead.
