Jonjo Shelvey (now playing for Burnley)

[Mr Logic]

I like Shelvey as a player but does no one suspect he might be a bit of a dick? As suggested the harmony is good in the squad.

 

Harmony is top notch in our squad by all accounts, including Shelvey.

[Happinesstan]

I get the feeling he's maybe just a little more introverted than your average footballer. Despite willing him to be selected, I also thought he would likely be isolated to a degree. No way he shouldn't be involved in the future though. Start picking him for squads once the world cup is over.

[Guest Howaythetoon]

I like Shelvey as a player but does no one suspect he might be a bit of a dick? As suggested the harmony is good in the squad.

 

Harmony is top notch in our squad by all accounts, including Shelvey.

 

By all accounts he’s a shy quiet retiring type whatever that means and that is an aspect of his character that Rafa has challenged in order to make him push himself more. He plays like that at times. I think the red mist is because he gets easily frustrated. An arm around type player more than anything which is maybe why he hasn’t always looked the part under the demanding Rafa. He needs someone to keep pushing him though. I think we have players in the team that help him in that regards as well, Lascelles and Ritchie namely.

[steve_69]

I like Shelvey as a player but does no one suspect he might be a bit of a dick? As suggested the harmony is good in the squad.

 

Harmony is top notch in our squad by all accounts, including Shelvey.

 

I'm not suggesting Shelvey would be a disruptive influence in the England squad, i'm saying that integrating a new player/character into an already tight-knit England squad could have been seen as a risk at such a late stage. Call it over-cautious but you could understand if that was the thinking.

[Geordie_once_removed]

When neither he nor Lascelles were selected I thought Southgate had made a mistake. I've changed my mind a bit on not selecting Lascelles, mainly as Maguire has done so well and I get Southgate's system much more now (though I'd still have taken him over Jones).  Not taking Shelvey remains in my opinion a big error.  He'd not start for me, but take the Colombia game for example, bring on Shelvey instead of Dier in that situation and I feel we could have seen out that game a lot more comfortably.  His defensive work is underrated and his passing ability would have pinned Colombia back a bit, especially with Vardy's pace and runs up front.

[steve_69]

Shelvey has the potential to be deadly in a counter-attacking team, particularly one with an abundance of pace.  Tonight's game could be one where his passing ability on the break could've been invaluable if, as expected, there are long periods of the game where we're pegged back by Croatia's midfield.

[Hanshithispantz]

I think we’ll take the game to Croatia like. They’re better on the ball but our midfield will be everywhere.

[Mole_Toonfan]

Don't understand how anyone watch how we play and think Southgate made a mistake.

 

 

[steve_69]

Don't understand how anyone watch how we play and think Southgate made a mistake.

 

 

 

Name a player not in the starting 11 who has made an impact at the tournament?! That's why....

[Guest]

I’d have taken him as a plan B like but we’ve never needed that yet.

[Mole_Toonfan]

Don't understand how anyone watch how we play and think Southgate made a mistake.

 

 

 

Name a player not in the starting 11 who has made an impact at the tournament?! That's why....

 

We are in the semi final

 

I simply don't understand why people think Shelvey would fit into what we have done.

 

We defend on the front foot with a lot of sprinting and recovering, there's no way in hell Shelvey would be any good

In such a setup.

 

It's thinking like this is why we've failed for so many years, we finally have a team and people are trying to think of ways to mess it up.

[Guest ElCid]

Don't understand how anyone watch how we play and think Southgate made a mistake.

 

 

 

Name a player not in the starting 11 who has made an impact at the tournament?! That's why....

 

We are in the semi final

 

I simply don't understand why people think Shelvey would fit into what we have done.

 

We defend on the front foot with a lot of sprinting and recovering, there's no way in hell Shelvey would be any good

In such a setup.

 

It's thinking like this is why we've failed for so many years, we finally have a team and people are trying to think of ways to mess it up.

 

We could have been out against Columbia with the last part of the match and extra time - Southgate got a bit lucky there with bringing Dier on as the game totally changed for the worse. The players coming in for the Belgium game certainly didn’t show anything either. Still maintain Shelvey should have been in that squad as an option with his passing. The first 11 have done well to get this far no doubt but as I said in an earlier post that the first choice members have not had to chase a game from being a goal down yet hopefully it will not happen but I still think Shelvey would have been the best option to have in case it does.

[ChrisMcQuillan]

Don't understand how anyone watch how we play and think Southgate made a mistake.

 

 

 

Name a player not in the starting 11 who has made an impact at the tournament?! That's why....

 

We are in the semi final

 

I simply don't understand why people think Shelvey would fit into what we have done.

 

We defend on the front foot with a lot of sprinting and recovering, there's no way in hell Shelvey would be any good

In such a setup.

 

It's thinking like this is why we've failed for so many years, we finally have a team and people are trying to think of ways to mess it up.

 

I think the Tunisia game and spells of the Colombia game they were crying out for him. On top, decent share of possession, needed something different to unlock.

 

[steve_69]

Don't understand how anyone watch how we play and think Southgate made a mistake.

 

 

 

Name a player not in the starting 11 who has made an impact at the tournament?! That's why....

 

We are in the semi final

 

I simply don't understand why people think Shelvey would fit into what we have done.

 

We defend on the front foot with a lot of sprinting and recovering, there's no way in hell Shelvey would be any good

In such a setup.

 

It's thinking like this is why we've failed for so many years, we finally have a team and people are trying to think of ways to mess it up.

 

No one can criticise anything Southgate has done because we're in the semi-final of a World Cup, absolutely right. Southgate and the first team have done an amazing job. However, what happens if we win tonight but Kane, Henderson or Maguire get injured or sent off tonight? We're relying on the likes of Vardy, Dier (neither of whom have done anything of note) and either Cahill or Jones. You confident in those players because i'm not?

We've been very lucky with injuries and the draw but we won't always be. All i'm saying is that looking forward to the Euros in 2 years time, we need more quality in the squad, including Shelvey and possibly Lascelles.

 

[tmonkey]

Don't think being in the semis is a strong argument against Shelvey potentially making an impact in this team. We barely beat Tunisia (ok, storming first 30 minutes where we should have scored alot more), thrashed the mighty Panama in style but it's still Panama, barely scraped past a James Rodriguez-less Columbia on penalties where they looked the better footballing side over the 120 minutes, and did alright against a dull defensive Sweden side half comprised of Championship tier players (i.e. the type of players our PL lot are used to playing against). Croatia is going to be the first big test and they're barely decent themselves (scraping past Denmark/Russia on penalties). It's a freak tournament, and I'm not sure we know whether this England side is actually good or not - everyone else is also average/crap and we've had a draw of a lifetime where we won't face a single big gun until the World Cup Final . No Germans, no Argentina, no Brazil, no Portugal, no Spain, no Italy, none of the usual lot who tend to knock us out, and maybe one game against the French. The stars have aligned for once (hopefully).

 

In terms of Shelvey, I think it's insane to not have taken him. He might not suit Southgate's system, and the team probably is finely balanced (the three CB's effectively do what Shelvey does for us in terms of spreading the play from deep, Alli/Lingard are more like false CM's who join the attack alot providing the sort of off-the-ball movement Shelvey doesn't, Henderson does the donkey work which isn't Shelvey's playstyle). However, Shelvey in the past season is comfortably in the top 5 passers in the PL imo (De Bruyne obviously way out in 1st place). He's also very neat in possession. Whilst he's not tested outside of the PL, I'd at least want the option of taking a CB off and sticking Shelvey in front of the defense, spraying balls forward, in situations where England desperately need a goal. It's better than throwing the likes of Dier on and hoping they do something.

[Rod]

tmonkey is bang on.  At the end of the day, regardless of what "achievements" England have done, and let's be honest the only decent team we played defeated us, Shelvey is far superior than at least three of the midfielders included in the squad.  The midfield we have taken are very similar in style, Shelvey would have been another option.  I personally think we will progress to the final but many fans will be saying "why haven't we got a player to deliver a killer pass".  We have but unfortunately at home.

[steve_69]

I hate to be that guy but I’m going to be - we can’t retain the ball for shit in midfield and we’re being overrun. Our options are Dier and Delph. Whether we win or not, right now is exactly what I’ve been talking about. Shelvey would be a fucking Godsend right now. Instead Gareth has called upon a left-back. ?

[Shearergol]

Shelvey would be a much better option than Delph, don’t think any could disagree. He’d still not get on the pitch though.

[steve_69]

Of course he would! We haven’t had the ball since 45 minutes

[Beren]

Imagine bringing on Dier rather than Shelvey.

[Guest ElCid]

We saw today exactly why Shelvey should have been in that squad

[Odear]

We saw today exactly why Shelvey should have been in that squad

 

Yeap. All the arrogance was starting to show when they hadn’t really played anyone of note.

 

No creativity in midfield.

 

But they looked wrecked. I’d wonder how this could effect a number of the top teams for the first few months of the PL, they’ll have a number of so called top players underperforming.

 

Could give clubs like us a chance to get a solid start.

[Colos Short and Curlies]

We saw today exactly why Shelvey should have been in that squad

 

Yeap. All the arrogance was starting to show when they hadn’t really played anyone of note.

 

No creativity in midfield.

 

But they looked wrecked. I’d wonder how this could effect a number of the top teams for the first few months of the PL, they’ll have a number of so called top players underperforming.

 

Could give clubs like us a chance to get a solid start.

 

I wonder if there is any correlation there, especially after a tough defeat in a semi.

 

Can imagine the Spurs lot will be dead on their feet and in the head, wouldn't be surprised if none of them play first game

[tmonkey]

As much as a quarterback style passing CM can, Shelvey just had a season where he fucking decimated at least half the teams in this league through ridiculous passing ability alone, and this in a relatively dire/low quality side going forward. As I said, insane to not take him, to not even try him.

 

Southgate is just another false dawn mong manager in a long list of mong managers operating in the UK, even more so with his dickhead goodie two shoes retarded waistcoat act the goofy rat faced mother fucker. Bet he didn't even see Shelvey play the entire season, and was too scared to handle a potentially difficult player which requires man management (Pards anyone? World Cup semi final = 5th anyone?). Went for the players at the bigger clubs (Delph Man City, Dier Spurs, Rose Spurs, etc) even if they'd done literally nothing in recent seasons and country miles less than Shelvey has, and then dick rides on the back of this supposed "faith in young blood" nonsense when the truth is there's no real options in the 26/27+ category as everyone has either retired or gone way over the hill. Got lucky this tournament with the draw, didn't beat a single good side, and he'll probably fuck up Euro 2020 with more shitty selections as I bet the likes of France/Spain/Italy/Germany will come back stronger.

 

Anyways, same old.

[Infinitely Content]

It obviously was a bad decision not to take the best passer of the ball in the country, but tbf I'm not sure he would have made much of an impact in the tournament. Southgate had a clear plan (to his credit) and seemed undeterred. Dier replacing Henderson would have likely still been the preferred sub for better or worse. Delph next in line, so I won't sweat it too much.

 

Shelvey, I imagine, will be watching from home even more motivated to show up his midfield national counterparts this season and ensure he's in that squad for the Euros.