Morning all.
I don’t know if there are any Strictly Come Dancing fans out there but Big Tony Adams was shaking his stuff on the dance floor for the first time with his partner. He was lowered down onto the stage sat on a cannon whilst dressed in a red suit, white shirt and a red tie. To top it off, his dance routine was to Pet Shop Boys, Go West… Honestly, to say he was awaful is an understatement. I felt embarrassed for him, but… It’s week one. Stick Craig Revel-Horwood in the middle of a back four and he’d be awful too. Next week Tony, next week…
Talking of awful, England was pretty dire the other night too. I think changing the manager will only do some good if the new guy dumps a few of the older players. Just look at the top two leagues in the country, there are young, exciting and very talented footballers. There’s no need to be picking players like Maguire, Henderson or even Kane. There is no way Bukayo Saka should be playing at left wing-back when his skill is creating and scoring goals from the right. Southgate and his team deserved no more than what they got. Defeat and relegation from whatever division they were in in this crazy nations league. Iran, Wales and the USA await them in their World Cup group and I’d imagine all three fancy their chances. England face Germany tomorrow night at Wembley.
In other international news, Takehiro Tomiyasu is reported to have left the Japan camp and he’s on his way back to north London. He might even be back by now but there are no injury concerns, just an agreement with Arsenal.
We would like to inform you that defender Takehiro Tomiyasu will be withdrawing from the Samurai Blue ahead of the [match against] Ecuador on September 27th due to club circumstances,’ a Japan statement read on Saturday.
No idea sure what ‘club circumstances’ mean but with so many fixtures coming up, Mikel Arteta will need everyone fit. What I don’t understand though is Martin Odegaard missed our last match because of injury yet he’s away with Norway and played 71 minutes yesterday in their 2-1 defeat to Slovenia. If that’s had been any other club, I’m sure Odegaard would have been told to stay at home. Totts have done exactly that with a couple of their players, including Lloris but I bet your bottom dollar he’s in goal next weekend at The Emirates.
Talking of north London derbies, it was great to see the womens NLD played at The Emirates and on mainstream television without the need of the BBC iplayer. The Emirates wasn’t packed but the attendance was greater than I’ve seen before at an Arsenal women’s game. This is when I wished I lived nearer to London because I’d have been there, just as I would have been back in the days of Vik Akers. Obviously not at The Emirates though. Arsenal romped home 4-0, a scoreline I hope lights up the scoreboard next weekend too.
After the game, Vivianne Miedema, scorer of two of the four goals was asked what colour north London is and her reply was simple:
It’s red, always red! What a stupid question!
See you in the comments.
Good day Rico, I saw a picture of Tony Adams arriving on-stage aboard a cannon, I confess to not noticing particularly his costume but did see that he was hitched up to a safety harness and support wire. Elf n safety strike again.
I’ve read various reports of last night’s game, they all blame a number of players for the debacle, Dier and Maguire for playing too deep. Rice and Bellingham for lateral passes, Saka for either not getting forward enough or too much. Sterling for being everywhere but in his stipulated position. The only player not criticised is Kane. I suppose that’s because we have all become used to seeing him jog around the middle of the pitch doing very little whilst waiting to take the penalty he hopes will eventually arrive so that he may add to his personal goals total.
I can’t see the FA sacking Southgate before the World Cup as there won’t be many saps queuing up for the job knowing that they would be on a hiding to nothing. Better to wait until the inevitable early return of the squad to give the new guy a bit of breathing space.
ps, I have never watched a single episode of “Strictly”. 😉
Morning Cicero.
The reports I read said Saka should never have played in the position he did. A refreshing change I thought.
Ha ha re Strictly, it’s fun, good too if dance is your thing..
Not my thing either but if Ta 4 is in it . I hope he does well
Well… Tierney was injured against Ireland, not that big of a surprise.
Saka seemed to have played LM against Italy, which is a signature ESR position. The 5-2-3 (3-4-3?) was a bit weird, but at least Southgate tried to do something unexpected. He removed the midfield creativity and the back-3 was strange, but the front 3 had the potential to carve something out for themselves.
The next manager will face tha task to bring England back from League B to League A, with a younger squad, I assume.
The chance of him doing well are slim to none Potter.. lol
I stand corrected:
Everything is “okay,” said Clarke. “We took Kieran off as a precaution.”
Same article suggest Odegaard is close to full match fitness after playing 71 minutes against Slovenia
https://www.standard.co.uk/sport/football/arsenal-kieran-tierney-injury-martin-odegaard-b1027934.html
Partey is injured though, according to NN.
Tierney was taken off before half-time with a “head knock”. He has subsequently withdrawn from the squad.
Partey injured? Who would have believed that?
Partey was selected to start against Brazil but felt a “discomfort” during the warm up and was given permission to withdraw from the squad and return to Britain for further tests. The Ghanaian FA said he had suffered a knee injury.
I’m not happy Cicero, but probably now than later.
A dreadful first 60 minutes then the substitutes make all the difference, Saka and Mount turn it round from 2 – 0 down to 3 – 2 up before a combination of Pope, Maguire and Dier.gift Germany an equaliser.
If Southgate considers Pope our No.2 goalkeeper then why should any of us England fans be surprised at the current slump and complete lack of invention from our national team.
Not just Pope either Kev. Maguire? Crazy that he’s still playing imo.
New post up now by the way.