Delph for England

[Olof's Beard]

Warnock played in a friendly though, I believe.  We have quite a number of 1 cap wonders.  Delph will be England player number 72 should he get a run out:

http://www.lerwill-life.org.uk/astonvilla/england_players.htm

It's a terrible squad though in general.  Rooney being made Captain says it all - there are nowhere near enough other players who convince as international players let alone Captain.  Eight or nine years ago you could pick from Beckham, Gerrard, Ferdinand, Campbell, Lampard etc etc

They really do need to address the lack of English players playing in the top flight.  Those that do get through just end up being thrown into the squad far too early out of utter desperation, like Chambers.

[PaulWinch again]

Congratulations Fabian well earned, please let him be offered and sign a new deal.

[BoskoDjembaSalifou]

I'm getting tickets for the Norway game now. Glad he's finally got a call up, he deserves it!

[Phil from the upper holte]

Glad for the lad, hope he doesn't come back with the I wanna leave attitude that affected some of the other lads that have played

[silhillvilla]

Bye Fabian .

[Dave]

They really do need to address the lack of English players playing in the top flight.   

They just need to train and develop better English players, regardless of where they are playing.

Nathan Baker has been a Premier League player for three years now, it's not turned him into somebody good enough for International football.

If the league is full of Nathan Bakers it's not going to make a jot of difference to how good the England squad looks.

[darren woolley]

I'm pleased for Fabian I just hope he stays with us and signs a new contract.

[peter w]

They really do need to address the lack of English players playing in the top flight.   

They just need to train and develop better English players, regardless of where they are playing.

Nathan Baker has been a Premier League player for three years now, it's not turned him into somebody good enough for International football.

If the league is full of Nathan Bakers it's not going to make a jot of difference how good the England squad looks.

Disagree. England have been able to produce players that hold their own at intenrational, and often get close to winning things, up to the U-19, 20 and 21 levels. it's after that that there are problems. That suggests that the coaching and development is there up to the late teens and early 20s. Obviously the lack of space for ENglish players in Premier League teams is a problem but I think the biggest problem is British football culture.

Our type of football is 100 miles an hour. Whether you are the most adept skillful player or not anyone would struggle with their technique if for 90 minutes you can never slow the game down and look for a pass. The reason our league is advocated as being the best is because of the excitement levels for the armchair fan. Technique goes out of the window to a large extent as the urge to press and get the ball forward is ever growing.

And that's down to the fans. If we pass the ball 30 or 40 times but keep possession the crowd would start to get restless. That it ends up in the back of the net wouldn't be recognised until it happens. That the team may be keeping possession looking for a gap, a chink, a weak link before pushing to goal is seen as an alien concept and 'get on with it' is more common place than enjoying the possession and waiting for the chance to avail of itself. We can't have it both ways. We either develop technique but sacrifice 100 mph football or we stay with our exciting league and accept that the technique of a player will be compromised, and also that England will be lucky to progress deep into senior level competitions.

[Dave]

I wouldn't really disagree with any of that.

However, I don't think (and I'm not sure that you've suggested either) that just meaning more English players are playing in the atmosphere that you describe is really going to suddenly make the England team better.

On another point you raise, I suspect that the main reason England do well at youth level is because of the added physicality.  If you've got a team of fast, 13 stone players playing against a team of technically intricate weaklings then at that age it will be a big advantage. When the players from both those teams are 27, the physical advantage is far less pronounced, but one team has a much better technical level to fall back upon.

[Olof's Beard]

They really do need to address the lack of English players playing in the top flight.   

They just need to train and develop better English players, regardless of where they are playing.

Nathan Baker has been a Premier League player for three years now, it's not turned him into somebody good enough for International football.

If the league is full of Nathan Bakers it's not going to make a jot of difference to how good the England squad looks.

Agreed but it helps if players get the opportunity and the chance to improve before becoming demoralised.  We aren't doing a great deal different in terms of developing players in comparison to twenty or thirty years ago yet we haven't produced anything like the volume of good international quality players.  Players with the natural flair of Waddle, Gascoigne, McManaman etc aren't anywhere to be found these days.  We aren't even producing the natural athletes that we have always produced now but then those that do show promise struggle to break through at top clubs such as Zaha and the like.  And then there's the central defender situation which is absolutely desperate now.  There's a lot wrong, we shouldn't be having to fast track players into the national squad after 20 appearances in the league, it's ridiculous.

[Olof's Beard]

They really do need to address the lack of English players playing in the top flight.   

They just need to train and develop better English players, regardless of where they are playing.

Nathan Baker has been a Premier League player for three years now, it's not turned him into somebody good enough for International football.

If the league is full of Nathan Bakers it's not going to make a jot of difference how good the England squad looks.

Disagree. England have been able to produce players that hold their own at intenrational, and often get close to winning things, up to the U-19, 20 and 21 levels. it's after that that there are problems. That suggests that the coaching and development is there up to the late teens and early 20s. Obviously the lack of space for ENglish players in Premier League teams is a problem but I think the biggest problem is British football culture.

Our type of football is 100 miles an hour. Whether you are the most adept skillful player or not anyone would struggle with their technique if for 90 minutes you can never slow the game down and look for a pass. The reason our league is advocated as being the best is because of the excitement levels for the armchair fan. Technique goes out of the window to a large extent as the urge to press and get the ball forward is ever growing.

And that's down to the fans. If we pass the ball 30 or 40 times but keep possession the crowd would start to get restless. That it ends up in the back of the net wouldn't be recognised until it happens. That the team may be keeping possession looking for a gap, a chink, a weak link before pushing to goal is seen as an alien concept and 'get on with it' is more common place than enjoying the possession and waiting for the chance to avail of itself. We can't have it both ways. We either develop technique but sacrifice 100 mph football or we stay with our exciting league and accept that the technique of a player will be compromised, and also that England will be lucky to progress deep into senior level competitions.

Players from abroad seem to come in and maintain their technical ability whilst abating the apparently restless crowds.

[Steve67]

Well done Fabian. Pleased that we can watch England games and enjoy them if only for the fact that we have a Villa player in there.

[john e]

Delighted for him, but ultimately this is only going to end one way
He'll be of

[Hairbandinho]

Oh well that's him gone then. His head will be turned at training like very villa player before him who got called up.

[peter w]

They really do need to address the lack of English players playing in the top flight.   

They just need to train and develop better English players, regardless of where they are playing.

Nathan Baker has been a Premier League player for three years now, it's not turned him into somebody good enough for International football.

If the league is full of Nathan Bakers it's not going to make a jot of difference how good the England squad looks.

Disagree. England have been able to produce players that hold their own at intenrational, and often get close to winning things, up to the U-19, 20 and 21 levels. it's after that that there are problems. That suggests that the coaching and development is there up to the late teens and early 20s. Obviously the lack of space for ENglish players in Premier League teams is a problem but I think the biggest problem is British football culture.

Our type of football is 100 miles an hour. Whether you are the most adept skillful player or not anyone would struggle with their technique if for 90 minutes you can never slow the game down and look for a pass. The reason our league is advocated as being the best is because of the excitement levels for the armchair fan. Technique goes out of the window to a large extent as the urge to press and get the ball forward is ever growing.

And that's down to the fans. If we pass the ball 30 or 40 times but keep possession the crowd would start to get restless. That it ends up in the back of the net wouldn't be recognised until it happens. That the team may be keeping possession looking for a gap, a chink, a weak link before pushing to goal is seen as an alien concept and 'get on with it' is more common place than enjoying the possession and waiting for the chance to avail of itself. We can't have it both ways. We either develop technique but sacrifice 100 mph football or we stay with our exciting league and accept that the technique of a player will be compromised, and also that England will be lucky to progress deep into senior level competitions.

Players from abroad seem to come in and maintain their technical ability whilst abating the apparently restless crowds.

Yes but the very few that have been able to do that aren't necessarily those that have stood out in their own football. Thus they were more suited to English (British) football. But of course there are some that do well Zola for instance mcManaman doing well at Real madrid also shows that some players are just suited to certain football.

As for Dave's post English certainly do not have a physical advantage at the same age. Although to perhaps contradict that there are more that tend to have broken into first-teams at club level at an early age than many other international teams.