England Euro 2016 qualifying campaign

England's Euro 2016 qualifying compaign starts here with the squad for the first match being announced today. Rooney is captain.

Goalkeepers: Fraser Forster (Southampton), Ben Foster (West Bromwich Albion), Joe Hart (Manchester City)

Defenders: Leighton Baines (Everton), Gary Cahill (Chelsea), Calum Chambers (Arsenal), Phil Jagielka (Everton), Phil Jones (Manchester United), Danny Rose (Tottenham Hotspur), John Stones (Everton)

Midfielders: Jack Colback (Newcastle United), Fabian Delph (Aston Villa), Jordan Henderson (Liverpool), James Milner (Manchester City), Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain (Arsenal) Raheem Sterling (Liverpool), Andros Townsend (Tottenham Hotspur), Jack Wilshere (Arsenal)

Forwards: Rickie Lambert (Liverpool), Wayne Rooney (Manchester United), Daniel Sturridge (Liverpool), Danny Welbeck (Manchester United)

Jack Colback and Fabian Delph Fear England!!

This has to be the weakest England squad for some time....Oh well they can't do any worse than previous squads.

We can gauge how good this squad is, once they have played the friendly with Norway. My fear is that the defence will not be able to cope in the qualifiers, It looks like the one area of the team that we could have serious problems and add to the possibility of a small crowd at Wembley that could be drowned out by the visiting supporters.

Jack Coleback 'Ginger Pirlo'.. Disgraceful

A very, very weak looking squad but Hodgson doesn't exactly have a wealth of options. The defenders aren't good enough - that was proved with Phil Jagielka and Leighton Baine's laughable displays in Brazil. Jagielka's been a fine leader for his club but he's simply not international class.

I think England will score some goals but doubt that they'll be enough to qualify and to outscore the amount we let in at the back.

(29-08-2014 07:41 )Regenerated Wrote:  A very, very weak looking squad but Hodgson doesn't exactly have a wealth of options. The defenders aren't good enough - that was proved with Phil Jagielka and Leighton Baine's laughable displays in Brazil. Jagielka's been a fine leader for his club but he's simply not international class.

I think England will score some goals but doubt that they'll be enough to qualify and to outscore the amount we let in at the back.

We just have be realistic and admit that expectations have to remain low for England. The defence is very weak. Chambers has potential as does Stones but Jones and Jagielka are error prone while Baines, good at going forward isn't really defensive enough minded.
Midfield isn't too bad though so long as Oxlade Chamberlain, Wiltshire and Townsend can surprise everyone and stay fit for any length of time. Not sure about Colbeck though.
Usual under-performing forward line will score a goal or two but miss too many chances they should bury. Why England managers' keep selecting Welbeck is beyond me. The guy runs with blinkers on and his head down. Although Rooney gets plenty of criticism (deserved much of the time) he does have a good assist stat that ensures his place. I just think he is a poor choice as a Captain...hardly inspirational.

^^^ I agree with all of that.

Defense looks particularly weak.

Midfield is strong on paper, but almost all are injury risks. My gut feeling is that they are also all average players that are flattered in their club sides by the fact that they are surrounded by other world class players. All together in the same midfield, I think they will be exposed.

Welbeck is a mystery to me too. Why? I mean ... why? And time will tell whether Sturridge is really all that and a bag of chips or if 2013/14 was a just an aberration.

Not much to report about the Norway match. Rooney scored the only goal from a penalty, his 41st goal for his country, and is now 4th all-time England scorer. The attendance of 40,181 was the lowest for an England match at Wembley since it was re-opened in 2007.

Could crowds get even lower after that performance? I just think that we are going to have a campaign that will be typical dominate in some games and not get anything out from it or we will be so poor that we could get beaten by a team that we are expected to beat and the penalty I felt was likely the only way were going to win last night. At times we looked way short of ideas going forward but really the only players for me who did well were Sturridge & Sterling. Given time, I think that partnership could be one that serves England well.