Criticism of England squad is bizarre

England manager Roy Hodgson
Photo: The Daily Mirror

Earlier this week Roy Hodgson announced his squad to face Lithuania and Italy later this month. And, like every time the England squad is announced, there has been a huge backlash on social media to the manager's selection.

But I'm really struggling to understand why.

There can be no denying that the squad is a strong one. We have some promising young defenders in there; in Nathaniel Clyne England may well have finally found a strong enough replacement for Gary Neville at right back. The midfield section boasts a wealth of talent, most notably of which has to be Jordan Henderson who's transformation in the last 18 months has been astounding. We have four strikers who can all give something different to the team. As for the goalkeepers, you just have to look at their respective performances against Barcelona and Chelsea in the last week to see how well Joe Hart and Fraser Forster are playing at the moment.

Although people might disagree with one or two of Roy's selections, there is literally no point in kicking up a fuss about it. What is it actually going to achieve?

We have this extremely bizarre tradition in this country of damning our players before they even play. Yes if we play poorly in our next two games, then criticise Roy's selection, but don't do it before a ball's been kicked.

Surely it's a good thing that there all these players that should feel unlucky not to have made the squad? It means that we have strength in depth and Roy clearly has a greater pool of talent to choose from then many may think.

I really respect what Roy Hodgson is trying to do at England. He's attempting to bring a club mentality to England by picking similar squads each time. And that's how it should be. You can't keep making wholesale changes to the squad because a handful of players have played well, or haven't played well in the last few months. These players only get about a week to train together; so if Roy was to make 5-10 changes to his squad then they simply wouldn't be able to gel.

So let's stop the whinging and the whining and get behind our boys.

COME ON ENGLAND!

Don't lay the blame at Pellegrini's door for the mess at City

After crashing out of the Champions League this week, many have been calling for the head of Manchester City manager Manuel Pellegrini.

Despite having a very successful season last year, winning the league and cup double, City currently find themselves six points behind league leaders Chelsea and out of all knock-out cup competitions.

Although you can't expect to win trophies every year, the Manchester City fans expect their team to be at the very least competitive, something which they haven't been at all this season.

Under pressure manager Manuel Pellegrini
Photo: London Evening Standard

In terms of their failings in the Champions League these past two years, yes Pellegrini must certainly take his fair share of the blame. His decision to play two in midfield in the first leg against Barcelona was incredibly naive and the fact that he didn't know that one more goal in that win in Munich would've seen them top the group was scandalous.


But instead I look at the guys who run the club. Their decision to sack Roberto Mancini in 2013 was shocking. He had built a strong squad and delivered trophies. He was also very close to signing a player who would've helped them retain the title in Robin Van Persie. But the chief exec. and the director of football faffed about trying to re-negotiate his agreed terms. This went on for months and in the end Fergie stepped in and offered Van Persie what he wanted. The Dutchman signed for United, scored bucket loads of goals that season and almost single handedly won them the title.

Former City boss Roberto Mancini waving goodbye after being sacked in 2013
Photo: The Daily Mirror

But this isn't the only example of the guys at the top cocking up the club's transfers. Mancini was close to bringing in Eden Hazard and Edison Cavani until the club's owners sacked him. Since then they've spent £327m on transfers. And how many of their signings are currently in the starting XI? Most weeks - just two! What an absolute joke.


They also didn't take control of the dressing room mutiny that was taking place. The players didn't like being forced out of their comfort zone by Mancini so they ganged up against him and begged the owners to get rid of him. The owners gave the players their wish and by doing so effectively put the players in charge of the club.

So City fans, don't take your anger out on your manager but instead on those upstairs who sacked his his successful predecessor, mucked around with his transfers and most likely won't back him when the players come calling for his head. 

Video technology MUST be brought in to help referees

One of the most debated topics in football is whether to have video technology in order to aid referees. 

It's clear to see why too; the amount of big decisions that have been called wrong by Premier League officials is off the scale.

And this weekend has been no different with referee Anthony Taylor incorrectly sending off two players in the  FA Cup quarter final between Aston Villa and West Brom. 

Referee Anthony Taylor incorrectly sends off West Brom's Claudio Yacob
Photo: Daily Mirror

For me, video technology in football is an absolute no brainer. A system whereby referees are given a second look at an incident before making a decision which will have a major impact on a game, i.e. giving a penalty or sending a player off, seems perfectly sensible, no? 

Well apparently not as we persist in reluctantly failing to give our refs any help. And instead decide to continue with this horrible culture where whenever there's a contentious decision in a game, straight away those in the press box, TV studios, watching at home and even fans in the crowds watching vines on their phones are able to instantly watch the incident again to reach a verdict. And yet the one person who actually makes the decision, the referee, is the least informed out of everyone. It's ridiculous.

 Thierry Henry and Graeme Souness watch replays of an incident in the Sky Sports studio
Photo: Daily Mail

In our other national sports which have video technology (cricket, rugby and tennis), we are seeing far fewer contentious decisions, so why can't it work in football?

And yet there are still those who are staunchly against the use of video technology in football, claiming that it would 'ruin the game'. But the simple fact is that the game is already being ruined by the amount of poor refereeing decisions that are happening at the top level. 

And to those who claim it would destroy the flow of the game, when you're watching a replay of an incident at home, how long does it take for you to reach a verdict? 10, 15 seconds? Maybe a little more? Not long enough to ever really disrupt a game's flow though.

Instead, by implementing video technology, far less games will be ruined by incorrect decisions and, perhaps even more importantly, we'll see the end of managers using refereeing decisions as a woeful excuse for their team's poor run of results. 

The Premier League are missing the bigger picture over Winter World Cup fury

Earlier in the week it was announced that the 2022 FIFA World Cup was going to be moved from the summer to the winter.


This has caused much anger from the major European league's, including the English Premier League, who will now have to re-organise their season come 2022.

Now I fully sympathise with the Premier League's predicament, but I have been amazed at the huge amount of reaction the change in date has produced, including many who have even branded it as a 'scandal'.

FIFA President Sepp Blatter announcing the 2022 World Cup to be in Qatar
Photo: Qatar is Booming

But I disagree. In the summer the temperature in Qatar can sometimes be as high as 45 degrees Celsius which is definitely not a suitable condition for footballers running around a pitch for 90 minutes in.

And there's other reasons as to why the move to winter is sensible too:


It is worth remembering after all that a summer world cup messes up loads of leagues all over the world.  Despite the fact that many of the players play in the European leagues,  football shouldn't be run for the benefit of the most powerful. The tournament is called the 'World Cup' not the 'European Cup'.

As well as this, a winter world cup could also help the England national team.  How often have we seen English players looked tired at a world cup? A winter world cup would see our players full rested, having only played just a few months of football leading up to the competition. Surely anything which will give our national team a better chance HAS to be something worth considering.

Zurich protest against 2022 World Cup location Qatar last October
Photo: Revolution News

Finally, there is obviously more contentious issues surrounding this world cup than a rearrangement of the footballing calendar. There has been allegations of bribery by the Qatar football association and protest against the countries current treatment of women and homosexuals. But the most problematic factor concerning the World Cup being held in Qatar has to be the appalling situation with the migrant workers who are building the stadiums. Last year, Nepalese migrant workers were dying at a horrifying rate of 1 every two days. The fact that such a large amount of people are having their lives ended because they don't even have the basic human right to leave the country without their employer's permission, is simply diabolical. 

And that's the real scandal of the 2022 World Cup.

Stop making pathetic excuses otherwise we'll never get rid of diving

There aren't many things which get my goat more in the beautiful game than diving.

Two years ago, FIFA's Vice President Jim Boyce described diving as a 'cancer' within football. It has also been labelled as 'a dark art' and 'a blight on the game'. Call it what you will, it's cheating - end of.

And, sadly, it's never been more prevalent in English football than it is now.

Wayne Rooney diving against Preston
Photo: BBC Sport

And once again it was in the headlines this week after Wayne Rooney 'won' a penalty for Manchester United in their FA Cup tie against Preston on Monday through simulation.

But what really irked me about the incident, wasn't the fact that Rooney dived, but some of the pathetic excuses that have been wielded out to defend his dive.

The most notable of which came from England manager Roy Hodgson who denied that his captain dived and instead claimed that Rooney was instead taking 'evasive action'. I don't think I've heard anything more absurd in my life.  Surely evasive action means getting out of the way, not falling to the floor? I think it's really shameful that the coach of the England national team should go on national television and hide from the truth and give a half-arsed excuse to defend his captain. Roy Hodgson could've made a real statement that night by saying "we at the FA have a respect campaign which has been set up to stamp out cheating and we don't want any of our players diving." 

But the whole thing reeks of hypocrisy too. I bet if we see a Spanish player or an Italian player diving in a game against England at next year's European Championships we won't see Hodgson describing it as 'evasive action', will we?

Pundits Roy Hodgson, Kevin Kilbane and Phil Neville discussing the dive after the game
Photo: BBC Sport

In his column in this Daily Mail this week former Liverpool defender Jamie Carragher argued that Wayne Rooney shouldn't be criticised for his diving as 'all players cheat'. I'm sorry, since when has that ever been a reasonable excuse for someone doing something wrong? Absolutely ridiculous. If ex-pros like Jamie Carragher want to see a much fairer game, then they need to stop trying to defend players who cheat. 

So please let's stop these pathetic excuses before diving becomes an irremovable part of our game.

Manchester United are just as bad as they were under David Moyes last season

Now before I receive a tonne of abuse from United fans, just hear me out. Yes your team may be four places ahead of where they were this time last season, but have they actually improved since Van Gaal took over in the summer?

Louis Van Gaal and David Moyes
Photo: 3 Sports

They are only six points better off where they were at this stage last year which I think is pretty poor considering the huge amount of money Van Gaal has spent on players to improve his side.

I believe that David Moyes was out of his depth managing Manchester United last season. He made some really poor decisions and he never really stamped his authority on the club. But look at the strength of the teams he had to compete with though: Manchester City who were ripping teams apart 5 or 6 nil on a regular basis, Liverpool who were playing some of the best football this league has ever seen, Chelsea who were solid as a rock and Arsenal who led the league for 128 days. But this season, none of the big boys bar Chelsea have been anywhere near as good as they were last term and yet United, with a £150m spending spree in the summer, are still way off challenging for the title.

In his column in The Independent this week, former United midfielder Paul Scholes described his former club's football as 'miserable'. And you'd struggle to find a United fan who would disagree with him. Their sides' football has been slow, predictable and unimaginative and they are arguably as boring on the eye as they were last season.

Louis Van Gaal and Angel Di Maria
Photo: The Japan Times

And a lot of the blame has to be put on the manager's shoulders. The best player this country has produced in the last decade, Wayne Rooney, is being wasted in midfield. Angel Di Maria, one of the best wingers in world football, is being played as a centre forward and Phil Jones, a centre back, is taking the corners. It's an absolute shambles.

With the departures of Rio Ferdinand and Patrice Evra in the summer, Manchester United have no, what you would call, 'world class' defenders anymore. And yet, despite the heavy spend in the transfer window, they still haven't addressed their defensive frailties. Instead Van Gaal decided to spend £6 million on Radamel Falcao, a striker no less, for just one season!

United fans who see improvement under the new regime are kidding themselves.

Pardew to Palace, why it's the perfect fit for all parties

As I write this, it is looking ever more likely that Newcastle United manager, Alan Pardew,is set to make the move back to the club where he spent a large period of his playing career. 

But is this really a sensible decision, half way through a Premier League season? I believe it is, and for all three parties involved too. Here's why:

Firstly for Crystal Palace. They look to be in free-fall at the moment with their 0-0 draw at QPR on Sunday taking them to no wins in their last 7 matches. They currently sit third from bottom in the league table and are struggling to score goals. If Alan Pardew does come in, they will have a manager who has managed to keep Newcastle in the Premier League for four seasons running which is a solid achievement considering the serious lack of money being available for him to spend during his time at the club. His success at Newcastle has largely stemmed from his ability to get the best out of the strikers at his disposal. Demba Ba, Pappiss Cisse and Loic Remy all had high scoring seasons whilst playing under Pardew. Palace fans would certainly love to see him have the same affect on the likes of Frazier Campbell or Marouane Chamakh.  

For Alan Pardew himself, he would love to go back to the club  where he spent 4 great years as a player, most notably in 1990 when his goal against Liverpool took to the club to their first ever FA Cup final. 

On top of this, what would be the point of him staying at Newcastle? He's managed to take the club as far as he can with the limited resources that are available to him, and yet he still gets abuse from large portions of the Newcastle fans. Alan Pardew doesn't deserve to be given this treatment, he was only four points away from giving the club Champions League football back in 2011 remember. 

This brings me on to my final point that Newcastle would actually benefit from this move as well. In my personal opinion Pardew has done a good job at Newcastle, as best as he could under the circumstances. But many Newcastle fans have always had reserved feelings about Pardew as he replaced the much loved Chris Hughton.  As well as this, Alan Pardew never really took the domestic cup competitions seriously. Newcastle United are a huge club with a great history but their last notable cup win stretches back to 1955. A different manager may well see less changes made to the Newcastle starting line up for the cup games. 



And Newcastle certainly wouldn't be short of options with who to replace him with either. Frank De Boer at Ajax (pictured above) and the former Swansea boss Michael Laudrup would introduce a more attractive brand of football to St James' Park, while someone like Tony Pulis is Premier League proven and will certainly tighten up Newcastle's defence.