Tag Archives : england

After being named in Fabio Capello’s squad on Saturday night for the friendly against Hungary, Paul Robinson has announced that he has retired from international football. The Blackburn keeper probably wasn’t expecting the call-up and so felt no need to announce the decision before, but when named he pulled out. No one knows the pressures of playing in goal for your country better than Paul Robinson. The 30 year old has been villified in the past for mistakes made in previous England qualifying campaigns. Robinson is now keeping his head down as Blackburn’s number one, and who can blame him for wanting to perpetuate that status quo. [Read more...]

Fabio Capello has named his first squad since the lacklustre display in South Africa this Summer. Missing from the 23 that flew home from the Southern Hemisphere are James, Green, King, Carragher, Upson, Warnock, Carrick (injured), Lennon, Joe Cole, Wright-Phillips, Heskey (retired), Crouch and Jermaine Defoe. If there is a surprise in the names just listed it must be that he may not see Defoe involved in England’s future. Green goes out and is effectively replaced by Paul Robinson, the goalkeeper who cost England with his howler against Croatia. Joe Cole is possibly another surprise omission, but he has every opportunity to play himself back in to the squad getting regular game time at Liverpool. [Read more...]

First of all I would like to make it clear that I too was shocked just at how bad England played in South Africa. There were too many players who just didn’t turn up and it will frustrate me further when I see these players performing miracles for their club this coming season. The jury is out as to why they performed as they did, and it would seem that not even a bad decision by the officials against Germany will [Read more..]

Like many people I have been reading newspapers, listening to the pundits on the TV and presenters of various phone-in radio shows over the past few day harping on about how Fabio Capello needs to play a 4-5-1 against Slovenia. The general consensus is for Joe Cole to replace Emile Heskey and play on the left with Gerrard playing behind Wayne Rooney. I however cannot for the life of me see the England manager changing the structure of his side this late in the day. [Read more..]