Showing posts with label Wayne Rooney. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Wayne Rooney. Show all posts

Sunday, 9 October 2016

Is international football still relevant?

I watched the England v Malta match yesterday, well it was on in the background while I was doing other things. I was amazed to see a crowd of over 80,000 announced during the coverage for a game that England should have won at a canter against a team ranked well outside of the top 100 in World football. To me it was a bit of a non-match that even the TV companies wight have thought twice about featuring. But the fact that Wembley was close to a sell-out has made me stop.

I thought before the match that international football was becoming irrelevant and that matches between the good teams and the bad were a waste of time. But 80,000+ at Wembley and millions of others on TV disagreed with me. Maybe there is something there after all.


I don't believe that the top players in the game see international football as the pinnacle of the game in the same way that they did when I was young. The big international tournaments see the best players turn up injured or fatigued beyond belief so that they don't perform at the peal of their game. I know we can point to what winning meant to Cristiano Ronaldo at the Euros in the summer with his country. But I can't see that being the same with many players. Would Ronaldo have through this way if he had never won anything at club level? It was the icing on the cake, rather than the cake itself.

The England players don't seem to play their normal game when it comes to international football. In the Premier League we are used to high tempo and a pressing game that leads to exciting football and great matches. But for whatever reason we don;t play that way in the international games. When we have pressing players such as Jordan Henderson, Jamie Vardy and Jesse Lingard then we should play that game. We need a high tempo against teams like Malta to make chances, pressurise the opposition and make the breakthroughs that change the game. It appears that players take a step back on the international stage and I don't know whether it is the players or the coach that breed that mentality. I would have loved to see what Sam Allardyce would have done with the players because I can't believe he would have let his players sit back and take it easy.


It is time for a change and I would look at wholesale change with these poor quality of opposition that we have in the group. There has never been a better time to discard the older players and look to the future. I can't see a place after the next World Cup for the likes of-

  • Wayne Rooney
  • Joe Hart
  • Gary Cahill
  • Theo Walcott
And I can't really see what any of them offer now, except for Rooney selling shirts for the FA and Cahill plugging a gap until something better comes along (Smalling and Phil Jones have never cut the mustard at the top level.) There just has to be a brighter future. The England fans that watched in their tens of thousands yesterday can be satisfied with a win but there was little else to excite. I like the way that Jesse Lingard plays the game but he needs more help. I would get Rashford and others on to the pitch and say to them "there you go, guys. You are the team for the next World Cup. Go out there and make it happen."

Tuesday, 17 November 2015

After the emotion, the England v France game has a meaning

After the terrorist atrocities in Paris last week, they said that the match and the result didn't matter. But for England it had to matter. The lesson in possession football and taking your chances that Spain handed out last week showed that England have a lot of work to do before the Euros next year.



With only four friendly dates available between now and the start of the championships every minute counts, let alone every game. Roy Hodgson has work to do,

He needs to decide on formation, first choice players, the makeup of the squad and which utility players to take 

I'd say that he has probably totally settled on only Joe Hart, Gary Cahill, Raheem Sterling, Wayne Rooney and Harry Kane as absolute nailed-on starters. Which leaves 6 first-choice places up for grabs. Let's have a look at them-

Right back
Nathaniel Clyne has pole position for right back at the moment but hasn't really done enough to totally claim his place yet. Clyne played against France but Kyle Walker started against Spain and has played a number of England games for Roy Hosgson.

Centre back
The second centre back with Cahill is really up for grabs. Johns Stones, Phil Jagielka, Phil Jones and Chris Smalling have all staked mild claims to the place but none have made an overwhelming case. I like Stones but it's a case of watch this space.

Left back
Like centre back, there's a few choices here. Leighton Baines and Luke Shaw both having long-term injuries has opened the door. Keiran Gibbs and Ryan Bertrand are in the current squad.

Midfield
Ross Barkley is starting to establish himself as someone that Hodgson trusts but it still not a banker for a starting place. Add to this Dier, Shelvey, Alli, Delphi, Mason, Lallana, Lingard, Henderson, Wilshere, Carrick, Milner, Walcott and Oxlade-Chamberlain and you can see why the positions haven't been settled. Lots of potential but not enough real top quality.

The result of the game against France may be irrelevant in the context of what happened in Paris but for England the performance of individual players will have a massive impact on what they are doing next Summer.




Monday, 16 November 2015

A Review of Fieldoo.com

I can see a great social aspect in using Fieldoo.com as an amateur player where you can network with your intermediaries, clubs and international players. Football is a very social activity in itself. My children talk about football as much as they play football. They talk with their friends, me, their mother, their grandparents, their auntie, their uncle and pretty much anyone else who will listen. We can’t pass a sports shop without going in and looking at the latest football kits and football boots. The video games related to football are in-depth with player statistics and information about clubs from all over the world. Fieldoo is the absolute extension of this – it’s the schoolyard football conversation gone global for the internet generation. Once the word is out then Fieldoo.com will be massive.

It only takes 30 seconds to create a free account and from there the world is your oyster, or it would be if oysters played football. Encourage your friends to join as well and you can start your own local football social network and link it to football communities in far flung corners of the earth (Or closer to home if you wish!). This is your beginning as the life of a semi-pro footballer. Instead of having someone else do it for you, YOU decide which trials to attend, which clubs to send your CV to and which agents to contact.



One amazing function of Fieldoo is the ability to gain trials at professional football clubs. They currently have a fabulous opportunity to go on a trial with Almeria, a Spanish second division team. You can get the chance to train for 7 days with their top players. Almeria has a track record of nurturing young talent and they have produced players such as Alvaro Negredo (Valencia), Aleix Vidal (FC Barcelona) and Felipe Melo (Inter) in the past.

As with any social media platform, this will become more prevalent for players as they enter their teenage years. It’s from here that they can compare stats, photographs and their latest match with other young footballers from all over the world. The buzz and excitement that a young footballer will gain from this is immeasurable. It’s one thing as a British school kid to compare yourself against the best in your year, your school, your district or your league. Try taking that to the next level and finding players of your age to compare against from Mexico, the United States, Argentina, Italy, Spain or from World Cup winners Germany. The future networking ability of this platform are beyond measure – just look at the amount of hits football skills videos get on YouTube and multiply that by the fact that you can get to know about the players you are watching, wherever they are in the world.

The social aspect ramps up from here and is dependent only on the number of other, more traditional social media platforms that you are subscribed to. Want to showcase your latest match stats on Twitter? You can do that. Want to upload your promo video to Facebook? Yep, that’s possible too. How about Google+? Of course, that’s another link.

In my experience, it’s every young footballers dream to make it in the game. Reading about the humble beginnings of Lionel Messi or Cristiano Ronaldo only inspires more. By having a presence on the top football social networking site, the chances of this happening can only increase. I can see a future for fieldoo as the managers of local teams look to the stats of opposition players for team preparation, tactics and recruitment purposes.



With Jamie Vardy making the leap from Semi-pro footballer in the non-league to the England team in a relatively short period of time, there’s a massive spotlight on the quality of players in the lower leagues. The big clubs are sending their scouting network out over the parts of the game that they ignored only a few years ago. The semi-pro leagues in England are awash with talent. There are players there who were let go from major clubs at academy or under-21 level, players that are on the way back from a career-threatening injury and players that will still make it into the professional game.

Semi-professional football is tough. Most players juggle a full-time job with fitness, training and matches, sometimes travelling long distances to play. The love of the game is a major factor in playing at this level but many will harbor dreams of making it. The ultimate dream is to do a Vardy” and go from the non-league to the top league, to swap a rainy Tuesday night in the North East of England to a balmy autumn evening with the England squad in Alicante, as Vardy has done recently.

To work, train, travel and play at once is a real handful for anyone. And it’s here where players can often end up concentrating on these time-consuming aspects of life and forgetting the networking that can enhance their career. This is where the football networking site fieldoo.com steps in. Once you’ve created your profile as a footballer you have a presence.  Football academies, scouts and coaches can check out your position, your top attribute, your career stats and how you got on in your last match. Networking in this way gets you a foothold in the world of football. It’s one thing having scouts from the big clubs starting to take notice of the semi-professional game but it’s another altogether to enable them to see you and what you can do on a network that puts them in touch with all aspects of your game.

The next step in the game and the next step on Fieldoo is to find someone who can enhance your career prospects while you are getting on with the rest of your life. Football agents are active on Fieldoo and finding the right agent is key to maintaining your footballing dream. Fieldoo enables football agents or intermediaries to build a network of contacts from all over the world to help their players build a career. It really is like the excellent functionality from your favourite football management game brought to life and applied to real people- the main real person that you want it to work for is YOU.

It’s all about taking that next step from semi-professional to professional football, and Fieldoo doesn’t stop there. If you’ve made it to the professional ranks then you still need to network.

Fieldoo has functions for the Pro footballer as well. If you have a career arc in the same shape as this article (from young footballer to semi-professional to professional footballer) then you may well take Fieldoo with you throughout your career. But even if you start with fieldoo as a professional footballer there are great functions on the website for you. Many people see professional football as the top few Premier League clubs and the riches of David Beckham, Wayne Rooney or Frank Lampard but the professional game in England stretches to League 2 and sometimes to what is currently known as the Vanarama National League. Not every player has a Roman Abramovic or the riches of Abu Dhabi to pay their wages, and the game is vibrant in the lower leagues. Clubs search for value for money as they attempt to balance their own books and keep an eye on financial fair play rules. And this is where a quality networking site will come into its own. I’ve read media stories of football clubs and their scouts using the Football Manager computer game statistics to start to look at potential transfer targets.  Why use a computer game when you can have access to the real thing? As a professional footballer, your career is relatively short and you need to make the most of every season and especially every move. The game is global, and opportunities are not just on your doorstep. When I was growing up, players used to play for their local club but now the opportunities to play for a top team in leagues all over the world are there, if only you could find them. Fieldoo enables you to find an agent, a trial, a coach or a club all in one place. Once you have a profile as a player and it’s updated with all the best parts of your game, the networking can commence. You can find an agent on the site and their contacts can open up opportunities for you in the game. The contacts on Fieldoo are verified by the site so you can contact with the confidence that you are dealing with the right people. The value of verified contacts is often in the news as players are asked for money to secure a trial with a club and then find that they have been conned out of their savings.



As a footballer of any level, Fieldoo can enhance your career. From the schoolyard to your local team, from semi-professional top professional footballer, there are large parts of the website that makes football more fun, more social and gives you more chance of making it.

Check out the main website
And the Almeria trial