Wherefore art thou, Ashley?
Thursday, 29 May 08, 03:43 AM · Comments (25)
"International friendlies are a waste of time. Stop getting worked up about what you see in a match that, taken in of the context of importance to one’s life, doesn’t matter.”
These were the sentiments running through my mind when discussing last night’s England game and justifying flicking between the action and, embarrassingly, watching arguably a greater wealth of British talent at the same time on ITV.
The more I think about the USA match at Wembley, the more it annoys me that Ashley Young did not even get a sniff. Of course, as Villa fans we all want to see our England trio don the red and white shirt and show their ability on a world stage.
But even objectively speaking, what more can the Villa number 7 do to warrant a place in Fabio Capello’s England fold?
The friendly match is ideally situated and created so that those players who have performed over the course of the season can be assessed on a national level. I’ll let some of the key statistics of the season speak for themselves.
The comparison is on the premise that Ashley would have most probably come on the flank of midfield, either the left or the right, the position where Capello brought on Bentley (for Beckham) and Joe Cole (for Rooney).
Premier League statistics this season:
Conclusion? Goals and assists. Not much more you can ask for from an attacking midfielder.
Of course, the friendly match is all a matter of the manager trying to see how players fit in with one another so to shape the team for matches that actually do mean something. And I’m sure Capello is well aware of Ashley’s quality and the statistics quoted above.
Bentley and Cole are great players who both have performed this season, but surely it is time to give Ashley a long run out and let him perform for England in the same vein as how he has performed in claret and blue throughout the season.
If Young does not make the cut to go to Trinidad then the whole England set-up under Capello will have utterly perplexed me.
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25 Comments · Add yours
Couldn't agree more...
I didnt understand not bringing Gabby or Ahley on... Capello has seen what Crouch can do may times before...
I think the two friendlies this week need to be seen as a whole before we get too worked up. If Ashley doesn't get a decent run out this weekend then there's real cause for complaint. (Dull but true: wherefore means why and not where. Shakespearian quotes to be encouraged though.)
because its the same old approach of not upsetting the egos. why was steven gerrard played on the left wing ahead of ahley young, who was put on the left wing for the team of the year!?have england not been crying out for a good left winger for years?
i couldnt believe it..... yes gerrard should fit into the england team somehow but they moan about the left side of england as being a problem, ash has just made it into the premier league team of the year and still he doesnt get a chance to play for england, bring joe cole on instead, as matt cutler showed he is the best crosser in the league and creates a vast amount of chances, so what more does he have to do mr.Capello to get a starting place!!
Couldn't have agreed more. When they brought Bentley on, i thought fair enough he needs a run out over beckham... couldn't believe even wayne bridge got a run out instead of ashley. He'll get his chance though.
how comes he plays gerrard on the left just to play lampard in the middle its stupid ashley young got the most assists in the premierleague and was in the pfl team of the year so how come he cant get in the england starting line uo? and gabby should have came on 2
Don't see why there is any need to get worked up! Don't worry though, we've still got 10 more years of seeing them play for England!
I can see Young starting against Trinidad & Tobago though, because Mr Capello has left the Man Utd and Chelsea players at home! Apart from Wayne Bridge and Rio Ferdinand!
Gabby will get a go against T&T too! and he'll score!
Barry's pass for Englands 2nd was Superb!
Super Gaz is staying!
Ridiculous starting line up, I thought. What annoyed me was the Lawro and Hansen referred to it as England's strongest line-up. It might have been the most high profile players, certainly not our strongest line-up. My hypothesis is that it was a showcase game involving Beckham and our 'star' players, maybe to sell to the yanks.
I thought it was interesting that the minute Barry replaced fat Frank, England produced our first good move from open play. I can understand not giving Gabby a run out but to not give Young a go (especially with Gerrard on the left!?) was ridiculous.
Great piece Matt. Thoroughly investigated and well put. Could not agree more. I too was flicking between the better talent on ITV and what I could only describe at McLarens side of old on the Beeb. I thought Capello was cutting out 'the team picks itself with the big egos' mentality? Here England are with a team that failed before, because they expect to turn up and win! Ok, so Bentley and Barry were new faces, but did we see Mr Capello experiment with new exciting talent?
Digressing a little but, was it just me that got this feeling, but you know when Barry did that sweet pass to Gerrard, did you think Barry must be think 'I could do with more of this every week with my mate Stevie G'
I was very disappointed not to see Young and Gabby on the pitch yesterday. I thought that Young would have got at least 20 minutes out there, but not even a sniff! Great job by Barry again though, simple yet very effective. Gabby should have come on for Defoe at some stage.
The match itself was pretty awful to be honest. Two great passes settled the match in terms of goals scored but that was about it really. Nothing much has changed since the days of Sven to be quite honest, but it will take time I guess.
I've just seen the squad for the Trinidad & Tobago game and with all the 'big four' players being rested, I reckon that all of the Villa lads may get a bit of playing time, if Capello has any sense!
I think the USA match was always going to be the one to show off the high profile players before the champions league players went off on holiday. Now with Lampard and Hargreaves out of picture, Barry will probably be given the 60 or more minutes that his performance warranted. Expect Gabby and Ash to feature at some point also. From a neutral point of view though, I think that Ashton deserves some time on the field. Slightly worrying how well Barry and Gerrard linked up :( .
as good as gerrard was he constantly drifted in, we were far too narrow, and the US piss poor back four constantly showed that they couldnt cope with pace...
so on comes joe cole and peter crouch
same old england, utter rubbish, hopefully fat frank will be a super sub at best and ash will get a decent chance
I watched some of the match whilst flicking between other things mainly due to the fact that it was so damn boring. I couldnt see that anything had changed, we used the same players, except maybe Defoe who I feel had Mcclown still been in charge he would have done the same thing. Lampard & Gerrard in midfield again whats going on? We've seen that these two cant play with each other for the past 3/4 years so how are they magically going to be able to do it now.
The substitutes were predictable aswell, we have all seen these players play in an England shirt before whats the point in seeing them in a friendly. Waste of time is what it was!
I still think England performed not good despite the 2-0 win. Defoe running headless chicken, fat Lampard who didn't do nothing, Joe Cole again another running headless chicken that shoots at any chance possible and Crouch omg don't need to say much about him. Once again its the London clubs or top 4 that aways gets the nod, look how quick Barry linked up with Gerrard instead of the other tosh! Ashley Young definitely should of come on, Gabby would of done a lot better than Defoe!
On a bright side 9 of the "bigger" players are not going to fly to play Trinidad & Tobago so we may see the proper future England team ;D
Freelancelot:
[quote]Dull but true: wherefore means why and not where. Shakespearian quotes to be encouraged though.[/quote]
You learn something new everyday. I'll try and get a (correct) Shakespeare headline in soon to really get the literary ball rolling.
jkit: [url]LINK[/url] - you are right; let's hope for an Ashley start and seeing Gabby in there somewhere and getting on the scoresheet. Would still have like to have seen Ashley play with the "big boys" though. (I find it quite patronising on his behalf though that he is only going to get a chance because Capello is resting the 'regular' players....)
Without these freindlys fabio capello wouldnt have a clue how his team is going to work we need these freindly as we are not in the euros without the freindlys we would NOT qualify for the world cup either
It would be nice if we could do a six nations compertition for football of course but then im not sure if people would still be happy takes such a lot to please a villa fan and england fan i no that for a fact cause im quite hard to please to
So what do you think should happen england play no games at all unless its a world cup or euros ? If so good luck cause we wont get anywhere
Fabio needs these games to get to no his team more and see how they perform i agree tho there pointless when there is prem games but when there is no prem games what is the big problem ?
Villa_Rules, i agree we do need these friendlies but thats what is so frustrating
tell me other than pairing defoe with rooney (which didnt work cos rooney drifted out wide too often) what did capello learn last night that we didnt learn under sven, only to see repeated by mcclaren and again now?
no debutants no new ideas nothing, if fat frank and lampard both start the czech game then absolutly nothing was learnt last night
Please oh please let Barry stay. Platt was the last settled England player Villa had, why do we have to see them moving on as soon as they become a fixture in the England squad? Certainly makes the friendlies that little more interesting even if he does only get half a game at present. I felt sick though when he put the pass thorough for Gerrard, I could just picture dirty Rafa rubbing that grubby chin with a big grin on his face.
yea same old tosh in midfield. the whole presentation before the game smacked of beckham mania - against the usa is wen he gets his 100th cap. how convinient. young an gabby shud get a run out in the carribean.
Yesterday's match was further proof that International ball is a political farce. I'm a Yank, and if yesterday's performance wasn't embarassing enough, I learned today that for our side Eddie Johnson received the man of the match. W! T! F! He looked like a total ameteur: he made no good moves, won no challenges, made no serious threats on goal. The fact that he was starting at all was a joke--someone, somewhere wants him to succeed, so instead of trying to build some new talent we trot out the same garbage. And Adu--why was he given only 20 minutes or so? When he came on he showed some fire and helped us threaten you guys. I could go on and on, but I'll just sum up by repeating that YESTERDAY WAS A TOTAL EMBARASSMENT.
Now, you guys did play pretty well when you needed to, and you toyed with our guys, keeping the ball away and taking it when you wanted it. But I also can't understand why Gabby and especially young didn't get a run out.
Most importantly, I hope Barry's nice through ball to Gerrard isn't a sign of things to come! That looked a little too natural and comfortable for me!
Yep couldn't agree more, the stats say it all to be honest. Sure he'll get his chance though, Bentley didn't even have a particularly good game I didn't think, both are great talents though IMO.
The more the game went on the more frustrated i got.The substitution he made were pointless ,Glen Johnsonand Bridge, they were just a waste of time what possible possitive effect could they have done for the game?.If it was a case of resting champions league players then why start them at-all.Surely everyone would have liked to have seen 4 exciting attaking players enter the play rather than a bench warmer(Bridge)and a throw back from the 70's (johnson)
Top article, about time!
Im afraid I totally agree with AVFC_Pete. The manager doesn't want to upset the ego's. Gerrard on the left totally baffled me, and how can GB be left out after his recent displays in an england shirt? Im afraid we can only expect the same in the coming years, as you'll be hard pushed to find a manager with enough guts to leave gerrard or lampard on the bench.
Ash must start against T&T, he'll score and set 2 up, and then letts hear what motty and lawro have to say!
Villa_rules, no one is slating the friendlies, but as Brett said, to play a side which has been tried and tested (and failed) when there is exiting young talent on the bench in the shape of Young, Gabby, Bentley and Ashton absolutely stinks.
counting the days down until Beckham retires.
Agreed, Ash and Gabbby could have done with showing Capello some of what they're capable of, though I suspect he's already aware and they will feature in his plans sometime.
PS - Freelancelot: thanks for the encouragement to quote Shakespeare, I can't think of any relevant ones at the moment, but will [i]"Alas, poor Doris. I knew her well"[/i] do? ;D
Agbonglahor i agree with cappello, he is so overrated, 7 goals for a striker is not good enough, especially when you provide next to nothing in open play, carew could get away with it because of what he does for the team but gabby does nothing but run into stupid areas.
AGBONGLAPOOR.
Ashley young on the other hand, in team of the year, above joe cole, above david bentley, above stewart downing... yet not in cappello's eyes... wrong