Hartlepool United’s players have been auditioning for roles in the Great Escape in recent weeks, earning rave reviews from critics.
Now they have one final, big push to claim their place in football folklore. A win against Oldham at Boundary Park tomorrow is a must. If not the curtain on their League One existence could be drawn.
A seven-game unbeaten run including five wins has been followed up by a defeat and two draws; the form has stagnated in the past week. It is a measure, however, of how far Pools have came in the past eight weeks that a draw against Yeovil – a team probably assured of a play-off spot at minimum come April 27th – was greeted with a smattering of boos. There really is so much pinned on each and every game.
The first half of the season was an utter disaster for the Victoria Park outfit. Now, under the stewardship of the philosophical John Hughes, Pools are making a nonsense of their league position. The ire of the autumn and early winter debacles have been, temporarily at least, erased from the memory. Their performances and results are belittling their relegation zone berth. But end of season final standings are the product of months of work; not a third of the season. And that is why there is a fear that just nine nine games left may just preclude the Great Escape act being completed.
Ahead of the game with the Latics, who are a place above Pools with two games in hand, six points is preventing Pools from clawing themselves out of the relegation places. Defeat against Oldham, compounded with results elsewhere conspiring against Hughes’ men, then the sound of the fat lady clearing her throat will be echoing around the streets of Hartlepool.
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It won’t be for the lack of effort from Pools to redeem for their 2012 shambolics, but desire must be met with goals in the final games. Every game is billed as the season’s definitive match, but the battle with the Latics has so much riding on it. Win it and the bridge could have been shortened to a win. Lose and it could be nine points. Tuesday, March 12, 2013: one of Hartlepool United’s most important games in their recent history.
Is this just one escapology trick too far for Harry Redknapp? To save QPR from the inevitable would take the skill of another Harry – Houdini – to undo the weighted shackles dragging the club into the murky depths below the Premier League. Despite a spirited comeback that almost nicked a point at Fulham on Monday their fate already looks sealed with seven points separating them from safety and seven games left on the schedule. It’s a feat no other Premier League club has achieved. But with Redknapp in the dugout anything is possible. If he can harness the fighting spirit demonstrated in the second half at Craven Cottage over 90 minutes in each of their remaining fixtures Rangers may stand a chance. But the players have to start showing they want to remain in the top-flight immediately starting with the ‘six-pointer’ against Wigan.
Roberto Martinez is another patron of late season escape acts and has already set his into motion. The Latics have made a name for themselves in the recent years as survival specialists and five wins from the last six league and cup games has boosted their chances of avoiding the dreaded drop into the Championship. With a game in hand on the bottom three the prospect of pulling away from danger is a massive one especially if they prevail in West London on Sunday. Confidence is high within the Wigan camp and, although they face a tricky run-in after next weeks first ever FA Cup semi-final, they know a victory over QPR will go a long way to adding another ‘Great Escape’ to add to their already bulging album.
Team News
Shaun Wright-Phillips has been ruled out for the rest of the season after undergoing surgery to correct an ankle problem. Other than that QPR have a clean bill of health.
Wigan have Callum McManaman back to full fitness following an ankle injury and apart from their long-term casualties Wigan have no other injury concerns.
What the managers said…
“I’d want to take it if the chairman wanted me to stay. I would stay with the club and have a go at it [the Championship]. I’d do that, but if he said we needed to cut back and I had to go I’d understand as well. It is so difficult to go back up. There are some decent teams in the Championship. The chairman would have to look at the situation carefully. It is well documented that there are a lot of players getting a lot of money here, they would be earning way in excess of what they’d get in the Championship. I know I should be preparing but I don’t even want to think about it.” Harry Redknapp vows to stick with QPR in the event they are relegated (Twentyfour7 Football Magazine)
“It is not a pivotal weekend. We are all set for the final eight games of the season and this period of eight games will be pivotal. QPR is not pivotal in that it will define our season. Instead it is one game in a period of games which allows you to win as many games as you can. And when you’re in this position, the margins of error are very small. Away from home this year we have been strong – we’ve only had one defeat away in 2013. That will be tested against QPR and we must be ready for that. We’re in the moment of the season where you need to reach your highest performance levels and we need to make sure we are as good as we can be on Sunday.” Roberto Martinez insists Saturday’s six-pointer with QPR is not ‘do or die’. (Mirror Sport)
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Pre-Match Statistic: Wigan have yet to be involved in a goalless draw this season with their last stalemate coming in February 2012.
Prediction: QPR 2-2 Wigan Athletic
Make your bets ahead of the showdown at Loftus Road by clicking on the banner below
The words common sense and Newcastle United don’t often go together. Certainly, the Toon Army have seen some interesting times at St James’s Park since the Premier League began, ranging from Kevin Keegan’s infamous rant about Sir Alex Ferguson to Mike Ashley’s beer swilling appearances in the home shirt of those who despise him so much. Things are looking up these days for the Magpies after Alan Pardew’s men mounted an assault on the Champions League last season with the likes of Yohan Cabaye and Papiss Cisse all excelling.
Transfers don’t always go that well on Tyneside, indeed there seems to be no shortage of names that makes any Newcastle fan cringe by simply remembering them. Considering the club attracts some of the most passionate and vocal fans in the league, they’ve been represented on the pitch by some appalling footballers. We revisit the past two decades of Newcastle history and put together the worst Newcastle United transfer XI since the Premier League began.
Last week, I was surprised to hear that Tony Fernandes had turned on former QPR boss Neil Warnock, making him a scapegoat for the West Londoners’ woes, as reported by a number of newspapers including The Express. Despite the fact the Yorkshireman lead the club to the promised land of the Premier League and was sacked by Fernandes nearly 18 months ago, the Rangers Chairman has accused Warnock’s signings as being the underlying factor behind the club’s relegation from the Premier League.
Fernandes responded in his usual manner, via his twitter account, by denying that he had made the allegations against his former manager, but whether it is a case of a hyperbolic newspaper story getting out of hand or not, the Malaysian-born business man has certainly been playing the blame-game at Loftus road in the days since their fate was decided following a 0-0 draw with Reading, which summed up both club’s poor seasons.
[cat_link cat=”queens-park-rangers” type=”tower”]
But rather than pinning the club’s relegation on the players, managers past and present or even QPR’s apparent lack of infrastructure, I’d suggest Fernandes starts looking closer to home when searching for an answer to Rangers’ failings. The fact is, money is the root of all evil, and Fernandes has overseen the club’s funds splashed around willy-nilly since their ascension to the English top flight two years ago.
Fernandes cited in his criticism of Warnock the free and inward transfers of Luke Young, Armand Traore, Anton Ferdinand, Shaun Wright-Phillips and Joey Barton during the last week of August 2011, but considering only Wright-Phillips has made over 50 appearances for the club in the space of two years, with Young and Barton not even featuring this season, it seems a rather ridiculous notion to blame QPR’s pathetically poor campaign on these five individuals.
Similarly, it is hardly comparative as to what happened afterwards in regards to mistakes in the transfer market. The appointment of Mark Hughes saw the immediate acquisition of Djibril Cisse and Bobby Zamora – two forwards who’ve come up especially short this year, with the former being loaned out in January by Harry Redknapp – followed by bringing in an essentially entirely new starting XI in the summer following QPR’s Premier League survival. Hughes and Fernandes brought in Park Ji-Sung, Esteban Granero, Ryan Nelson, Fabio, Julio Cesar, Robert Green, Andy Johnson, Jose Bosingwa, Junior Hoilett, Samba Diakite and Stephane M’Bia in the same transfer window, all on excessive wage packages.
Surely the wholesale changes, in which Fernandes played a key role in making happen, considering Hughes’ knowledge of a number of these signings, including M’Bia and Cesar, appeared to be non-existent, are more to blame for QPR’s relegation than the handful of Warnock purchases that have spent this year on the most part dwindling in the development squad. Before the inflated cast of new recruits even had time to settle, they already found themselves at the foot of the Premier League table, and it was clear to see that a lack of confidence, co-ordination and familiarity was making the daunting task even harder.
Furthermore, Harry Redknapp recently revealed that upon his arrival, he noticed the formation of awkward cliques in the dressing room, between those purchased during Warnock’s tenure with those brought in during the summer, being granted bigger pay checks and seemingly stepping into first team places at the expense of players who had steered QPR clear of relegation just a matter of months prior.
Not only did it smack of disloyalty from the boardroom to the players, which was no doubt a huge demotivation for those already at the club, but furthermore, Fernandes oversaw the purchase of a group of Premier League mercenaries. It does not take a footballing genius to work out that Jose Bosingwa, a player accused of lacking the right attitude when challenging for Premier League titles and Champions League trophies, will have a rather lackadaisical approach when it comes to a relegation battle.
I have a similar view regarding a lack of motivation for players like Granero, Park and M’Bia, who’ve all had to settle for moving to a middle-order club after playing for European powerhouses and contributing heavily to lifting domestic and continental silverware. A relegation battle is not what they’d signed up for – the party line was that everyone at Loftus Road expected a top half finish – and upon finding themselves amid one, they did not have the right temperament to perform.
But I am afraid that is all you get when your sole motivation for players is money. Excluding the likes of Clint Hill, Shaun Derry and Adel Taraabt, none of the QPR roster have even spent enough time at Rangers to forge a meaningful bond with the club itself or the fans. Why should a group of players, the majority of whom have entered the tail-end of their careers and taken a step down to move to Loftus road, care about the relegation of a club they’ve been at for just a matter of months – especially when they are all sitting pretty on bumper contracts that exceed the market’s norm.
Of course, they will be concerned at a superficial level, as no professional footballer enjoys the experience of playing badly or the prospect of their reputation being damaged, but it is still some way short of the attitude required to come out on top in a relegation scrap – the kind of all-or-nothing, fight to the end, all for one and one for all, mentality that can be witnessed week-in-week-out at Wigan, Norwich and even Reading.
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Just as money got QPR into their mess of being hopelessly adrift at the bottom of the Premier League table, it was soon judged as the only solution to get them out of it, working as a justification for current manager Harry Redknapp to bring in even more expensive signings in January, in the form of Christopher Samba and Loic Remy.
They may have been two of QPR’s better performers in the latter half of the season, and indeed the club’s poor form had Redknapp’s hands tied in regards to the need to bring in new recruits, but it is clear from the get-go that both would not see out the full tenure of their contracts should QPR fail to beat the drop. More than anything, it was an opportunity for both players, who were both searching for new homes in the January transfer window, to showcase their abilities to other Premier League clubs and prove their quality in the English top flight, in the mean time picking up a wage package of 75k per week in Remy’s case, and 100k per week in Samba’s case.
At the heart of the catastrophic car-crash which has been QPR’s attempt to become a Premier League club has been the money. It has been the replacement for any sense of infrastructure, natural progress or long-term planning, and it has cost the club two managers, a relegation, a wage bill which has doubled in the space of two years and a now tarnished reputation.
The transfer market will always be the quickest vehicle for change and progress, but the manner in which Fernandes has viewed it, as a quick fix to becoming a top half club and apparent European contenders, was greedy, chaotic, naive and destructive. Money became the solution to every problem, thrown at every player who’d shown a fleeting interest in moving to Loftus Road, but the large wage packages corrupted the professional integrity of the players, and in turn, the soul of the club itself. Money is the root of all evil, and Tony Fernandes been the wallet at Loftus Road.
Aston Villa will reportedly offer Shay Given £5m to write-off the remainder of his contract and also look to sell Charles N’Zogbia.
The 37-year-old former Republic of Ireland veteran goalkeeper still has three years remaining on a £60,000-a-week contract he signed when former Villa boss Alex McLeish snapped him up from Manchester City in summer 2011.
However, with Brad Guzan now firmly established as current boss Paul Lambert’s first-choice custodian at Villa Park, the club are looking to get him off the books and will pay him a handsome figure to part ways.
In a further lowering of the wage bill, France international winger N’Zogbia is also poised to depart with ambitious French side Monaco ready to take him to his homeland this summer following their promotion to Ligue 1.
The former Wigan and Newcastle man cost Villa £9million in 2011 and the club are set to try and recoup at least half that fee while also getting his salary off the wage bill.
As we reported previously, veteran central defender Richard Dunne is leaving at the end of his contract having missed all of the past season because of a groin problem, while record signing Darren Bent and Alan Hutton are both likely to depart too.
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Sunderland midfielder Lee Cattermole looks set to stay at the Stadium of Light after Nottingham Forest saw a loan bid for the midfielder rejected, according to the Daily Mail.
Black Cats manager Paolo Di Canio is said to have had the final say, and decided he wanted to keep the former England Under-21 midfielder at the club.
The Italian is understood to have taken the former captain to one side this week and asked him to buy into his plans for the club.
Sunderland have endured a difficult start to the season, and Di Canio believes Cattermole could be a major help to the cause if he returns to his best form.
Cattermole featured heavily under former managers Steve Bruce and Martin O’Neill, but doubts have been cast over his future on Wearside after the huge influx of players bought in by Di Canio.
However now the Italian has rejected the approach from Billy Davies’ side, it appears Cattermole is set to be given another chance to prove himself at the Stadium of Light.
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The midfielder only managed to make ten Premier League appearances last season after suffering an injury hit campaign.
The news will come as a blow to Nottingham Forest who are still looking to take advantage of the Football League loan window and strengthen their midfield.
In an interview with MUTV, Manchester United legend Sir Alex Ferguson has admitted he should never have let Dutch defensive rock Jaap Stam leave Old Trafford.
Stam was sold to Lazio under ambiguous circumstances in 2001, and a popular misconception of the affair is that Ferguson disposed of Stam due to a few damaging revelations exposed by the centre-half in his autobiography.
The truth is, Fergie had been crunching the numbers and concluded that his defensive focal point was not the same player since he came back from an achilles injury.
“When I think of disappointments, obviously Jaap Stam was always a disappointment to me, I made a bad decision there,” the Scot said.
Stam later wrote about the day he agreed to leave Manchester in another autobiography, emphasising his regret in letting it happen so easily.
“One quick conversation in my car at a petrol station in Manchester was enough for me to leave that big club,” Stam said.
“When I think about it now, and I have never talked about it before, I find it unbelievable I let that, as a player, happen to me.”
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Fergie is releasing his much anticipated book today, My Autobiography. As well as shedding more light on the Stam-incident, it is expected to reveal details on Roy Keane’s departure, David Beckham and the flying boot affair, and perhaps even explain the signing of Portuguese flop Bebe.
When it comes to the Premier League’s final standings, Liverpool’s ultimate position in the English table – and resultantly whether they qualify for the Champions League for the first time since 2009, stage an audacious late charge for the title or fall short of both aims at the final hurdle – will undoubtedly be determined by how many goals they can score between now and the end of May.
I guess you could say that about any Premier League side – or for that matter, any club in any league in any part of the world – but while Chelsea, Manchester City and Arsenal don three of the best four defensive records in the division, Liverpool have conceded 35 times already this term – a statistic only three goals better than 16th-place Crystal Palace.
While the Reds’ ruthless SAS strikeforce of Daniel Sturridge and Luis Suarez are considered to be arguably the best in the English top flight, the same cannot be said for Liverpool’s rather frail backline, who have kept just seven clean sheets so far this year – the lowest amount in the Premier League’s top half.
When Glen Johnson is featuring regularly at left-back, £15million signing Mamadou Sakho – the most expensive purchase of Liverpool’s summer – has managed just twelve league starts all season and loan flop Aly Cissokho is still depended upon as back-up despite being one of the weakest performers on the Anfield roster, you know that something has intrinsically gone wrong.
Right now, Brendan Rodgers faces a situation where his best centre-back pairing remains unclear and full-back selection has become a case of whoever is fit enough to play most likely will. It’s safe to say that Liverpool’s defence isn’t what you’d describe as ‘top four quality’.
In obvious ways, Liverpool’s defence is their biggest burden, and if it wasn’t for the form of Luis Suarez and Daniel Sturridge this season, who have netted an incredible 42 Premier League goals between them, the Reds would probably be struggling for a Europa League spot right now.
But there is a flipside to that proverbial coin – is it possible that, as well as being Liverpool’s potentially most fatal of flaws, their shaky defence is also their greatest blessing?
The juxtaposing quality of the Reds’ defence and attack makes them an incredibly difficult opponent to gauge. How can you accommodate your game plan for both at the same time, whilst also considering Liverpool’s quality on the ball in the middle of the park?
Sitting deep only plays to the Reds’ strengths – the more Steven Gerrard, Philippe Coutinho and Luis Suarez get on the ball the more likely the Anfield side are to score. All three are visionaries, capable of unlocking defences with their guile and craft or getting on the scoresheet themselves. At the same time, you’re throwing away your greatest chance of winning the match, by not relentlessly attacking and probing an incredibly uncertain defence – undisputedly Liverpool’s biggest weakness.
Premier League teams have realised this, especially when the Reds are away from home, They’ve conceded 23 goals on the road this season, which is the fifth-worst record in the top flight, and resultantly, opponents have felt compelled to take advantage of the Anfield side’s defensive frailties.
But in return, that allows for Liverpool to enact their most effective mode of scoring – the counter-attack. The Reds have found the net six times on the break this season, which according to Whoscored.com makes them the most dangerous and consistent counter-attacking threat in the Premier League.
Looking at the players, it’s easy to understand why; Daniel Sturridge, Raheem Sterling and Luis Suarez are perhaps the most penetrating front three in the division in terms of pace, dribbling ability and lethality in front of goal, whilst a stretched game allows Steven Gerrard to do what he does best – those world-class long-range passes from one end of the pitch to the other, taking players and often entire departments out of the game with a single accurate propulsion of the ball.
If Liverpool had a Vincent Kompany or John Terry in their ranks, this tactical conundrum for their opponents would not exist. A strong defence, in addition to a possession-centric midfield and a speedy attack, suggests that sitting deep and hitting on the break is by far the most sensible and realistic approach to claiming a result. There would certainly be no great benefit of attacking a side that can easily nullify your threat going forward, only to take advantage of the space left behind.
But whilst Kolo Toure continues to add to the Premier League bloopers reel, Martin Skrtel’s ill-discipline verges upon 90’s football territory and Aly Cissokho struggles to make a single forward pass without losing the ball, Liverpool’s opposition are in effect obliged to try and take advantage, even if it does result more often than not in the Reds taking all three points.
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More than any form of thought-out philosophical master-plan from Brendan Rodgers, this has been by far the most tactically beneficial influence on Liverpool’s season.
Patching up the Reds’ defence, especially at full-back, will most likely be the Anfield gaffer’s first port of call in the summer transfer window. They’ve already been linked with a variety of defenders in the tabloids, ranging from Sheffield United’s Harry Maguire to Chelsea’s Ashley Cole, and Arsenal’s Bacary Sagna to Wolfsburg’s Ricardo Rodriguez.
But bizarrely, that process could in effect nullify Liverpool’s greatest and most potent weapon – the tactical uncertainty their oxymoronic defence and attack generates in opponents – and paradoxically, improving the Reds’ defence could make it much harder for the Anfield side to score.
Newcastle boss Alan Pardew has slammed referee Phil Dowd for his performance in the 2-1 defeat to Liverpool, reports Sky Sports.
The Magpies had led 1-0 at Anfield following a Martin Skrtel own goal, before quickfire goals from Daniel Agger and Daniel Sturridge turned the game in the Reds favour.
Newcastle found themselves reduced to nine men, with Dowd showing Shola Ameobi two yellow cards in quick succession for dissent, before sending off Paul Dummett for a challenge on Luis Suarez.
“I know Shola. He doesn’t swear. I told the ref he doesn’t swear so how angry can he possibly get,” said Pardew
“I don’t actually know how angry you can get. He said: ‘If you carry on I am going to send you off’.
“Whether it was sarcastically I don’t know but Shola said: ‘You are going to send me off!’ And he did.
“That’s sort of explanation that Phil gave me. So I think he should have managed that far better than that.
“It was shame. Liverpool then got two goals but with 10 men it was always going to be difficult.”
Pardew felt his side deserved more from their performance, and insisted Dowd had a big influence on the outcome.
I thought our season in terms of performance was strong,” added Pardew.
“We had a good game plan. Perhaps we were slightly unfortunate not to get the second goal when Gouff (Yoan Gouffran) was one on one.
“The ref played a part in my view in the second half.
“He should have managed the game a lot better than he did. And we conceded two goals.
“He had a part in the first one by Vurnon (Anita). Then there was a foul from Agger on Shola.
“Liverpool have had a fantastic season and they showed their quality. If you give too many set plays away it will hurt you.
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“Unfortunately we didn’t quite do as well as we should have.”
A matter of inches, a goal post’s exact width to be precise, was the difference between Wayne Rooney becoming an England hero against Italy on Saturday night. Unsurprisingly, he’s now been labelled fairly unanimously as the Three Lions’ biggest, most overpaid and underperforming, zero.
Alan Smith of Arsenal and Sky Sports fame believes the Manchester United star should now be dropped along with Liverpool’s Glen Jonhson, the Daily Mail have described his performance as ‘underwhelming’ and massaged the wound with a plethora of salt by dubbing his shanked corner ‘the worst ever’ (not just England’s worst ever, but quite ridiculously, football’s worst ever), and the Telegraph’s Paul Hayward is now questioning Rooney’s ‘relevance’ to the England cause.
It’s interesting how split seconds can quickly define entire narratives. Not that Rooney’s performance was particularly pleasing against Azzurri, not that the his crucial miss on the hour mark should be instantly forgiven.
The 28 year-old is the current England team’s most iconic player and the best-paid player in Premier League history. With either side of the goal at his mercy, the ball just within the realms of the penalty box and Italy’s Salvatore Sirigu completely sold, letting such a glorious, unchallenging opportunity to equalise whistle past the near post is nigh-on-inexcusable at World Cup level.
But let us consider the alternative for just a moment. Let us flirt with the futile possibilities of ifs and buts. Let us advocate devilishly. If Rooney’s ill-fated strike had veered into England’s preferred side of the post, he would have ended the evening as the Three Lions’ hero, with every beer-soaked England fan up and down the country singing his name along the early-morning walk home from their favourite drinking holes.
Although the intrinsic, driven performance of Raheem Sterling is duly noted, one goal and one assist – that exceptional far post cross to Daniel Sturridge after 37 minutes – would have made the United forward, by default, England’s Man of the Match. Any criticism of his limited overall contribution from the left-hand side would have been entirely forgotten – rather, Rooney would have been heaped with praise for his ability to provide result-determining quality whilst undertaking a role for the sake of the team that doesn’t lend itself to his more natural strengths.
But the combination of one skewed shot and one disappointing result from a fixture we were never likely to win is all the ammunition the British press needs to start a witch hunt, as if England would have beaten the Italians if Adam Lallana, Ross Barkley or Jack Wilshere were on the pitch instead, all of whom boast a combined record of just one goal in 25 appearances for the Three Lions.
Yet Steven Gerrard’s performance against the Azzurri was equally as uninspiring. The 34 year-old was as consistent on the ball as ever, but over the course of 90 minutes had relatively little impact on the match itself. He actually recorded fewer touches of the ball, one less shot and only seven more passes than Glen Johnson. Hardly what you’d expect from an England captain and our most in-form midfielder during an opening World Cup fixture.
Likewise, questions have to be asked of Joe Hart for Italy’s second goal, and the entirety of England’s defence for both.
Perhaps we expect more from Wazza Roo. After all, he is the only England player who can stake a claim for being truly world class whilst amid his peak years. After all, this is the Premier League’s most lucratively-paid player of all time, and a forward who has won five titles with Manchester United. Many felt that considering the lukewarm tone of the 28 year-old’s Three Lions career thus far, a committed and clinical performance against Italy was a timely opportunity for redemption.
I’d subscribe to that theory too – the Italy match was a fantastic opportunity for Rooney to hit back at his wealth of critics, whose numbers have multiplied like heated yeast since the end of the Premier League season.
But the England international has always been a player who takes a while to get going; Sir Alex Ferguson often remarked of Rooney’s limited sharpness unless he’s playing bi-weekly football, and the cliché that his scoring form tends to improve towards the midseason-mark is no coincidental misnomer. Furthermore, striking an ideal equilibrium between quality, age and experience, he is still by far England’s most threatening individual entity.
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Many will feel Three Lions managers have overlooked soft international performances from Rooney only too often in the past, but he surely deserves the courtesy of featuring in all three of England’s group games before he’s made into public enemy No.1. Judging him on a single performance, where he played in a significantly less influential position but still almost produced the quality required to earn England a point, is nothing short of scape-goating.
But perhaps that is England’s eternal curse – whilst our young players impress and delight, free from the pressures of a nation’s expectations, it is those we feel we deserve more from that we are most prepared to blame.