Oxlade-Chamberlain can play central midfield as well, and Wenger says that he may look to move him there in the future permanently if he looks good enough.

Ox

Way i see it, you should play the best available players. Planning for the future is necessary but if the likes of Jones and say Rodwell aren't good enough/better than Gerrard and Terry then you gotta pick your best ones

Don Mata

Respectfully disagree. Baptism of fire is what's needed for some of these players. The longer Terry stays in the squad, the easier the transition may be for Phil Jones and Co, but the less effective they'll be by WC 2014.

Cull. Cull now. Normally I'm all for easing integration processes, but there is a time to be swift and brutal, and now is that time.

To be fair, Terry and Gerrard may be highly unlikeable characters, but they were two of England's better performers at the Euros. There are other places we could cull before those two.

team for the august friendly

hart

walker
jones
smalling
gibbs

cleverly
wilshere
rodwell

ox
walcott
welbeck

wilshere won't be back for a while yet, he's had a long lay off

not Rodwell for me, after all the big build up i dont see what this kid has to offer in all honesty.

Thats something an England manager can't do though, if he just went all guns blazing and had a massive cull, i'd bet we see a dip in results with a few losses and it only takes a few losses for the media, fans to get on the managers back. Like what a few of us chelsea fans said about our own team is that what's needed is 'evolution not revolution'. We've already got Wilshere in there, now its time to ease other players when there actually ready (smalling). Whereas your players like Jones and Rodwell still have a lot to learn

Gerrard to hold + 2 kids

Then retire Gerrard once they find their feet and then add the in form player who can hold.

smalling for me could play for england tomorrow and look completely at home, he's fantastic

Lets not forget Ravel Morrison either. He has the potential to be the best of the lot. Whether he manages that remains to be seen, but I am looking forwards to seeing him in the PL this season.

morrison has more chance of working in morrisons' than playing for england with his attitude

The next world cup is going to be a total write off. The temperature and humidity in Brasil isn't going to suit our players one bit.

We should take a really young team that can play technical football in preparation for France 2016.

Brasil would be one hell of a party though. Worth going even if England crash out in the groups.

No point having technically gifted players if you have a manager like Roy Hodgson contracted for years of their career, and affecting the development of all the younger ones through his Burton role where they'll be trained in possession-less, defensive minded 442.

The guy openly admits possession doesn't interest him as a stat, as he claims possession isn't what win's football matches. Not sure how he'd know since he always tries to draw them first, but clearly possession counts, for avoiding big losses in stamina even if you believe nothing else.

Can you imagine what Hodgson would do with Barca's first team, and they are as technical as they come, or even their academy?

The future is more scary than the recent past if Hodgson is in charge of it.

RE: weather in Brazil, very much depends on where the games are. If England (qualify and) play in the south, it will be winter there and could be quite chilly, like a lot of the South Africa games. In the equatorial / tropical parts in the north of the country it will be hot and humid, but I'd guess there will be more games in the cooler parts of the country, as that is where more of the big cities and economic development is.

Does anyone want gerrard and terry flaffing about 2 yrs from now. This is not someone with pirlo or xavi or iniesta qualities who has just aged. These are players already unable to compete and are not getting any better.

We either get brave or we are going to turn into what greece looks like now. Only they have a euro trophy, we dont.

The Wonderfully Sweet Little Pea

I've seen these ideas attributed to Hodgson but never read a direct source. Do you know of one?

I have no reason to be sceptical of what you say, just hoping that if I read what he exactly said there may be little qualifications that suggest he is open to a more expansive approach given suitably talented players.

Russian, he was quoted in the Metro this morning from an interview yesterday

possession stats don't interest him

he's a bus parker

The future is more scary than the recent past if Hodgson is in charge of it.

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I don't blame Hodgson for doing what he did. He came in very last minute and had just two games to prepare us. Far from ideal. He made us hard to break down. Not sure we could have expected more in that amount of time.

Also, I thought Hodgson's West Brom team played some nice stuff at times. Morrison, Brunt, Odemwingie, Long etc....They were pleasing on the eye.

I think the foundation is there now. We know we can be defensively sound. Time to build on the other aspects which I'm sure he will.

This tournament was all about low expectations. Nobody thought he would get further than the 1/4's.

I think have the foundations of a good team. Have some cracking young talent coming throug, but the media must let them play......that's the problem the media! Anyway England got to the quarters without being beaten, better than anybody thought! A few better midfielders and England will be ok in the next 4 years.......have a little faith!

Does anyone want gerrard and terry flaffing about 2 yrs from now. This is not someone with pirlo or xavi or iniesta qualities who has just aged.

Iniesta aged??? He's 28!!

Few steps need to be taken before we can compete with the best.

1. Formation has to change. 4-4-2 is from the stone age. We won't get the ball of superior teams without an extra man in midfield. No coincidence that all the best teams play 4-2-3-1 or some variation of that.

2. The young lads need throwing in. Now. Forget about Gerrard, Terry and Lampard etc. By the next tournament they won't be good enough anyway. All 3 are already pale shadows of their former selves. Add 2 years to that and it will be only worse.

3. PL needs to get tough again. Too many average foreign players are clogging up our league and halting the development of some home grown talent.

I'm not talking about the RVP's, Silvas, Aguero's, Nani's......Playing alongside these players should help our English lads. It's the distiinctly average ones that are no better than the English lads we have.

England can get to the level of Spain and Germany but it takes times.

He's not saying iniestas old he's saying Gerard's not on his level

comment by Stretford_Ender85 (U10955)
posted 25 minutes ago
The next world cup is going to be a total write off. The temperature and humidity in Brasil isn't going to suit our players one bit.

We should take a really young team that can play technical football in preparation for France 2016.

Brasil would be one hell of a party though. Worth going even if England crash out in the groups.
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The weather is quite frankly an excuse. Most parts of Italy have worse weather than the North of England. Same could be said of Germany but both teams often turn up in tournaments.

The OP is optimistic that we are blessed with ball-laying midfielders. Out of those, how many are first-teamers for their respective teams? Bar Wilshere, who else?

Compare that with Spain where Fabregas, Javier Martinez, Thiago, Canales et al all get regular playing time.

Or Germany where Ozil, Goetze, Reus also get playing time then i am not so optimistic.

Let's not forget, these same English players embarrassed themselves during the U-21 Euro championship - which Spain won.

you say gerrard is good, but hes not.

hes rubbish, he doesnt know how to hold on to possession the only tactic he has in his mind is hoof