Hodgson Asks For Schedule Changes.

[Rudolph Hucker 0]

Roy Hodgson wants top EPL teams to avoid televised Sunday games and play on the Saturday instead to give him more time with his players.

Of course, he only picks from the ''top teams;'' those three or four English players who get to play in them and if you are in a ''top team'' this confirms for me the greater likelihood of international selection.

Roy also wants a ''logical'' winter break.

 

I agree it does smaller squads no favours to play so many games over the festive period but what about all these early season blank weekends that cause the congestion.

 

Get on with it Hodgson! England can never win a summer football tournament anyway due to a lack of technique and our frenetic high tempo game. And on top of that most people I would suggest, not only couldn''t care about the England team, but don''t like many of the players and care far more for their Clubs. This has only increased with the comparison this summer of top paid footballers and other athletes.

[nutty nigel 7,902]

It''s getting ridiculous really. Clubs and their fans resent the disruption caused by the national team as it is. These measures won''t increase our chances of winning anything. In fact it may have the opposite effect because if the clubs get more peed off with the disruption the more players are likely to be "injured".

 

[Houston Canary 0]

  Is he really that stupid?

 

  If he wants to see the best up and coming English players, he shouldn''t waste his time watching the top clubs (whom he''s already seen plenty of) (and which feature few English players).  If he''s really interested in making England a top team, he needs to be looking at the clubs that feature more than one or two English players regularly.

  He already knows what Gerrard and Walcott can do, so why waste time watching them. Take a look at the rising, and perhaps not so well known talents, that play regularly for teams like Fulham, QPR, Wes Tham, Sunderland, S''hampton, Norwich, Villa, and so on. God knows doing it his traditional way hasn''t paid off in decades.

 

Players like I''m referring to have the confidence to face off against the superstars of the top teams, so playing for England wouldn''t be any more threatening for them, and it would give England a chance of finding several diamonds in the rough who turn out to be world beaters. 

[Dubai Mark 0]

Aside of the debate about which clubs the players come from, I think that its obvious that a major reason (not the only one) why England dont live up to expectations at the big tournaments is because of when they are played, with our players going into them clearly knackered from a longer season than most play, and also not having had a winter break which really helps with mid season injury recovery. I would back fully the introduction of a winter break and go further and drop the League Cup or whatever it is called these days from the calender for Premier League sides, not needed.

[Bill 1,788]

The winter break is an absolute nonsense, as known and understood by English clubs. It may suit certain European clubs who know pretty much exactly when weather will almost stop all play, but over here it would be a disaster as snow/ice etc can strike at anytime from Nov to almost March. That would then further push more games into an even tight space, with all the consequent problems.

 

One of the main reasons for lack of success in national tournaments is that most pro footballers/managers and clubs see them as Mickey Mouse, and not only an irrelevance but a major cause of fixture pile up - any wonder so many ''injuries'' occur at the time of these games They might suit the national FA''s as the generate revenue but endless, worthless friendlies are what needs to be removed to begin the process of putting a bit more sanity into the fixture list.

 

 

[Bws Cat 0]

I do love the fact that the Spanish and Germans pick players just because they are good, unlike us who just pick them because they are in a "Big team".

Look at podolski for example. He is one of the Germans best strikers yet his team got relegated last season! (Not Arsenal you wits out there)

[ZLF 335]

a longer season?   the major leagues start and finish at the same time and the prem teams play no more games than the top clubs in those leagues.

 

If you have a winter break you have to play the same games in less time.    We are great at finding poor excuses for our so called top footballers;   find me players who can use the ball and play with pride for their country instead of money and ego obsessed whining athletic types then we may start to make some semi finals rather than QFs misery.

 

but in the meantime lets find another convenient falsehood to shield the incompetents.

 

It says it all that lampard, rooney and defoe are heralded this autumn yet none would get close to starting for spain brazil argentina etc...