Jump to content
tlw content
tlw content

England's budding talent would look great in red (ESPN article)

by Dave Usher for ESPN

 

I did something this week that I very rarely do; I sat down and watched an England game. Furthermore, I didn't browse the internet while the game was on and I never even bothered channel surfing. I watched the whole thing. Nothing out of the ordinary for many football fans of course, but for me it was extremely rare. Outside of major tournaments, I'm not sure when I last sat through an entire England game without losing interest. Most of the time, I rarely switch it on at all.

 

My interest in international football -- and England in particular -- rarely extends beyond hoping that LFC's players return to Melwood in one piece. If they acquit themselves well for their country, all the better, but avoiding injury is by far and away the most important thing for me.

 

That's why I take very little pleasure in the plight of Jack Wilshere, who has been ruled out for six weeks with a foot injury following a challenge with Liverpool's Daniel Agger. Despite some hysterical behaviour from a minority of internet Gooners (I'm half expecting an online petition to have me removed from ESPN after this!) there was clearly no malice in the challenge from the Reds' defender; it was a good old fashioned 50-50 tackle, but unfortunately for Wilshere he came off worse, and perhaps exacerbated the problem by playing on for almost an hour before eventually being substituted.

 

I actually sympathise with the Gunners; Liverpool have suffered in similar fashion on several occasions down the years and it's incredibly frustrating when it happens. It's a blow to Arsenal's top four hopes and admittedly that does Liverpool no harm, but “there but for the grace of God” and all that. It could so easily have been Agger limping out of that challenge with a broken foot, or heaven forbid, Daniel Sturridge or Steven Gerrard.

 

As it turned out, the game couldn't have gone much better from a Liverpool perspective; Sturridge scored the winning goal, Raheem Sterling earned the man of the match award and Gerrard, Jordan Henderson, Glen Johnson and Agger all appear to have come through it unscathed.

 

It was the inclusion of five Reds in the England side that peaked my curiosity enough to make me tune in, but by the end I found myself wishing that one or two more of the players on view would be joining that quintet on the flight back to Merseyside. I wrote prior to Liverpool's game at Southampton last week that I'm a huge Adam Lallana fan, and how I'd love to see Luke Shaw as Liverpool's left back for the next decade. Nothing I saw at Wembley -- or indeed at St Mary's last weekend -- changed my opinion on either player; both would look great in Liverpool Red.

 

Read the full article here.


User Feedback

Recommended Comments

There are no comments to display.



Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Add a comment...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.


×
×
  • Create New...