England 'B' International?

[Jerry The Saint]

Team: Carson, P Neville, King, Dawson, Shorey, Lennon, Barry, Jenas, Bentley, Owen, Smith.

B? Really

More 'A' squad players then our team in the US. Seems to me like an insult to Albania because the FA don't deem them worthy enough to be involved in a senior friendly with a superpower like England.

Even worse, look at the original squad - 314 caps between them

Goalkeepers

Name Caps (goals)
Paul Robinson 34 (0)
Scott Carson 0 (0)
Robert Green 1 (0)

Defenders

Name Caps (goals)
Ledley King 17 (1)
Phil Neville 56 (0)
Gareth Barry 9 (0)
Joleon Lescott 0 (0)
Nicky Shorey 0 (0)
Michael Dawson 0 (0)
Steven Taylor 0 (0)

Midfielders

Name Caps (goals)
Scott Parker 3 (0)
David Bentley 0 (0)
Owen Hargreaves 39 (0)
Jermaine Jenas 15 (0)
Phil Jagielka 0 (0)
Stewart Downing 12 (0)
Aaron Lennon 7 (0)

Strikers

Name Caps (goals)
Michael Owen 80 (36)
Jermain Defoe 24 (3)
Alan Smith 16 (1)
David Nugent 1 (1)

[anto1208]

Whats A joke is lescott on the bench !!! he should be starting ahead of king or neville. great idea though gives players a chance to show what they can do

[Risteard]

Christ, they'd easily be a match for our top team.

[Steve Bruce]

Team: Carson, P Neville, King, Dawson, Shorey, Lennon, Barry, Jenas, Bentley, Owen, Smith.

B? Really

More 'A' squad players then our team in the US. Seems to me like an insult to Albania because the FA don't deem them worthy enough to be involved in a senior friendly with a superpower like England.

Even worse, look at the original squad - 314 caps between them

7 of that squad are uncapped. And there are another 5 with less than 10 caps.

So yes it is very much a 2nd team with some more experienced players.

And also if I'm not mistaken the reason why it is a B team is because international teams have certain dates from friendlies and putting out a B team isn't taking up a friendly slot in the calendar.

It is hardly anything to **** your pants over though. I wish Northern Ireland could field a team as strong as that. If they could play well as a unit they would beat both Northern Ireland and the Republic.

EDIT : Team: Carson, P Neville, King, Dawson, Shorey, Lennon, Barry, Jenas, Bentley, Owen, Smith.

That is no where near the strongest team England have. Only 1 player in that team can be classed as Regular England and that is Owen. P Neville has only played 2 or 3 games in the last 2, 3 or 4 years.

[Ceirtlis]

They did a similar thing prior to the world cup against belarus and drew 2-2.

[Jerry The Saint]

Think about the time of the year and the inevitable withdrawals for friendly games. That wouldn't have been a long way off their best available team.

Only Shorey, Dawson and Bentley are uncapped, and they'll still be uncapped after tonight. Personally I think McLaren is a fool if he needs to see what King, Neville and Lennon can do at this level...

[Bluebeard]

As anyone can see from over the years, England managers are not allowed to experiment at Senior level - if they do, they get hung out to dry. Hence the B international games, so Maclaren or whoever has an annual opportunity to let his fringe players play a more serious game without the weight of "England Expects".

Unfortunately this is the same in Ireland, but we only do B Internationals once every four years. Against Ecuador, (this sticks in my keyboard) Staunton did the right thing, even aside the drop outs. What new thing will we learn from playing the usual suspects. Hmm, Given is good in goal, Keane is good up front when motivated, yes, that's right, Kilbane will try his heart out, etc. I know I'm every bit as whingey about stuff as anyone else - why reserves in England before eL, where did the surfer come from, why no Ronnie, why no Rennie, etc - but really, we need to be trying players out, and if Devlin is only using the B team as a showcase for his stable, it needs to happen elsewhere.

On the continent, particularly in the old East, they tend to take the attitude that you are there to learn not to win, especially on away trips.

Sorry, I got carried away with things. The main points I had were about England B being a try out, and that I think that the England B vs Belarus game last year was against their senior team.