Your Says of the Day: Lingard call-up ‘a joke’, come home Xabi
Jesse Lingard: Earned first England call-up
Jesse Lingard’s England call-up highlights Roy Hodgson’s lack of imagination, while excitement builds over talk of Xabi Alonso returning to Liverpool.
Lingard’s call-up
Called up to the full England squad after only one Premier League start this season. If he played for Leicester, for example, he would not have been picked.
The likes of Redmond at Norwich must be frustrated by this.
I actually think it says more about Woy and his lack of imagination – so he looks through the big clubs for any young players who have done anything and picks one.
It’s a shocker. He may be great but being picked on the back of one start is a joke.
Alonso coming ‘home’?
I so hope the rumours are true that Xabi Alonso could be coming home in the summer. An absolute legend here and still a damn fine footballer. The biggest mistake Rafa B ever made in his career was to get shot of him. To think he actually wanted Gareth Barry instead shows that the Rafmeister must have temporarily lost his mind. It was definitely the beginning of the end for Benitez at Anfield. Please come home Xabi, you are always welcome here and we have a manager who will appreciate you and not try to play you in place of Mignolet.
Ronaldo’s return?
Agree with Gary 100% on this and I have said it several times. Football is about building teams and when you spend so much money on a player, its all about stability and future potentials. Ronaldo has reached his peak, he has given his best years for Madrid and that’s what they paid £80m for. Its down hill from here. He is no Giggs who can adapt his game. His ego wont allow that. He is all about pace, power and skill, most of which you lose as you grow older. If he joins United, he will be close to 32 nearing the end of his career, for a team like United that’s still rebuilding after SAF, we can hardly afford to waste scarce resources on a two-year luxury item.
If we really want a player from Madrid and have money to burn, lets either go for Bale or Isco.
Modern football is rubbish
I’m not a great fan of possession football. Too much of it is negative, with no ambition or purpose. Admittedly, the opposition can’t score while you have the ball, but with too many teams that seems to be the main objective. We could be in severe danger of going back to the days in Italian football, when 0-0 was the norm. As a spectator, I would much rather see the wide man taking on the fullback and whipping a cross into the box first time. Not checking back, passing it back to his own full-back so he can pass it across the centre backs, to resume down the other side of the field. This point of view may well explain why I never got the Barcelona manager’s job, but I would be interested to know if anyone else out there has a similar view of the “modern” game.
Ward harming Sterling
I see Aidy Ward has been talking again. Apparently, Raheem has gone to ‘another level’ now with Man City. Good luck to him. He was ‘played out of position’ at Liverpool. So were a lot of other players. Did any of those other players get their agent to moan about it to the press? No. They just got on with it. To me, if a player is asked to play a different position now and then, it’s actually a compliment to that player’s ability, rather than a criticism. It’s a shame they both didn’t see it that way. If everything is good with Sterling and City, why does Ward always make these comments? He said that if Rodgers had been sacked in the summer, Sterling would have stayed at Liverpool. Days after Jurgen Klopp was appointed, Ward said that Sterling should have stayed at Liverpool, as Klopp ‘would have got the best out of him’, or words to that effect. Now, he’s on ‘another level’. The excuses they came up with to get a move away were just ridiculous. First, it wasn’t about money, it was about ‘trophies’. Then, it wasn’t trophies, it was to do with the fact that he was ‘homesick’ (yet, he signed for Man City). Ironically, Arsenal were interested in him, but pulled out due to, as one employee of the club stated “Arsene withdrew his interest when he saw the lengths Sterling and his agent were going to, to force a move, and the way they were treating a fantastic football club like Liverpool”. Sterling has also been seen around Manchester smoking his pipe again, and City aren’t happy. Everytime Ward makes these comments, it damages Sterling’s reputation even further in my opinion. Saido Berahino saw Ward for what he is. Sterling needs to do the same
Pair Sturridge and Benteke?
I don’t think we will ever see two start up top under Klopp. He seems to like 4-2-3-1. The thing is how do you fit both into the team? Would Sturridge play in no.10 role or coming from the side? I think Sturridge will be in the bench the next few games. That’s if he is fit to come back.
Be really interesting to see how Klopp can fit both in. It’s a good problem to have. Just our luck silva and sugero be back but if we play like we have done in recent weeks, we can get a result. This is Lovren’s chance now. It’s a fresh start for him and he had to prove his doubters wrong