Football is a game of opinions – managers, players, fans and media ‘experts’ alike.
You might not agree with all of them, but there are some that are so far off the radar that it’s hard to take them seriously.
Take certain reaction to England’s opening World Cup qualifier win in Moldova as a prime example.
Okay, it might not have been the perfect performance but to be critical of a 5-0 away win – irrespective of the standard of opposition - is ludicrous.
What more do people want? Five goals on foreign turf (somewhat dodgy turf at that) is a more than acceptable start to a campaign. Isn’t it?
And yet I read in some quarters that a convincing victory over a ‘Dog and Duck’ Moldova is nothing to get excited about.
For starters, such flippant comments are disrespectful to a developing, proud football nation – and to Roy Hodgson’s England themselves.
I also read, in the same dismissive article, that ‘England are to international football what Stoke are to the Premier League’.
Once again, that’s disrespectful on two further counts. To Stoke and the remarkable work Tony Pulis has done at the Brittania – and to Hodgson.
If Hodgson can achieve, comparatively, anything like Pulis has achieved, I’d be more than happy.
Some have suggested that the England boss should adopt an ‘out with the old and in with the new’ policy. But that’s not his way...and not the way forward.
The likes of Steven Gerrard, Frank Lampard and John Terry still have important roles to play in the national set-up....
Not least to help the young breed – Cleverley, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Sterling, Henderson and others – to settle in at the highest level.
Give the manager a chance; give the old guard another chance; give the youngsters time. Now is not the moment to judge.
Source: DSG
