Full marks for attendance
‘THE boos for Wayne Rooney were heard loud and clear,’ writes Neil Ashton in The Sun. ‘Take your 117 caps, your 53 goals, and sling your hook sunshine. You are not wanted any more. Not as captain. Not as a No 9, not as a No 10. Certainly not as a midfielder.
‘Discarded, demeaned, at the drop of a hat.’
Except it’s not ‘at the drop of a hat’, is it? As Alan Shearer points out three pages later: ‘He has failed to stamp his authority on a major tournament since his appearance at Euro 2004.’ That’s a long 12 years to be playing international football without a significant contribution.
‘That is what it has come to for the Manchester United and England captain. A player, deep into his 14th year as an international, who has never turned his back on his country.
‘Never had a tight hammy, never had a sore groin when it comes to international weeks.
‘Always there, always willing. Always available, always reliable.’
Sorry but that’s a b***ocks reason to show somebody respect. England fans who would sell their firstborn to play for their country once will not and really should not be impressed by a millionaire footballer playing 117 times, even when his form has suggested he really should not be playing at all.
Well done for turning up? Is this what it has come to for the Manchester United and England captain?
Booing the booers
‘WILL it ever become fun again?’ asks Dominic King in the Daily Mail. ‘Or have we now reached the stage where you go to Wembley if you want to be angry?’
Mediawatch would humbly suggest that people go to Wembley to be entertained; there was precious little entertainment available on Saturday for the Malta game. If you pay £20, £35 or even £45 for a ticket, you probably have a right to grumble a little after 90 minutes of largely pedestrian football. Not so, says King.
‘Given the circumstances, this was never going to be a happy reunion but groans and some booing following a win? Is that how bad things have become?’
If we’re happy __with a win – any win – against Malta then how bad have things become?
Isn’t it all so familiar?
Mediawatch was particularly interested to see Dominic King – who has crucially been following England’s Under-21s for the Daily Mail in recent years – seek to blame Malta for Saturday’s sh*t-fest.
‘We call it an ‘international’ as you have a game only when two sides are competing,’ he writes, which makes no sense however many times you read it.
‘Malta, bar one late free-kick, showed no inclination to make Joe Hart work. So what the near 82,000 crowd watched was a 90-minute session of attack versus defence. Malta’s approach was to escape without too many wounds.
‘They could consider it job done. Southgate could be forgiven if it felt like he had been transported back to an Under 21 fixture. He experienced this for three years, __with teams lining up to stifle and frustrate in an effort to avoid humiliation.’
And therein lies the problem, Dominic.
Remember when you went to watch England at the European Under-21 Championships just last year, and watched England lose to Portugal? This is what you wrote:
‘Isn’t it all so familiar? The flawless qualification campaign, the confident predictions of European domination – then the sobering fall back down to earth.’
Then they lost to Italy and this is what you wrote:
‘Not good enough. The words will sting, coming after such a chastening night, but they are unavoidable. They are, simply, the brutal truth.’
And you wonder why England fans aren’t excited about a 2-0 win over Malta in qualifying? Isn’t it all so familiar?
A slight difference of opinion
Headline in the Daily Mirror, p48: ‘ALLI CAN BE THE GREATEST.’
Match rating given to Dele Alli in the Daily Mirror, p51: 5/10.
Alli might have ‘goals, impish link play and a general confidence’, but he was pretty bloody sh*t on Saturday.
Depth charge
Chris Sutton is terribly disappointed with Daniel Sturridge not playing like Chris Sutton against Malta. His usual state of mind is one of disappointment that more strikers do not play like Chris Sutton. He ‘writes’ in the Daily Mail:
‘IF Daniel Sturridge is going to continue leading the line for England, he needs to be more selfish.
‘He played far too deep against Malta and kept getting involved in the link-up play in the wide areas.
‘That’s not what you want from your No 9.’
No Chris, that’s not what you want from your No. 9, which is slightly different.
It’s from one of those forays deep and wide that England’s second goal was scored. Oh and Sturridge had five shots, all from within the area and all but one from between the width of the posts. We think it went okay. In fact, your own newspaper ranked only Jordan Henderson’s performance as better against Malta.
Unfortunately, history does not record how selfishly Chris Sutton led the line in his 12 international minutes for England against Cameroon in 1997.
Made in England
We’re not saying that the MailOnline’s international week filler list of the ‘100 best players in the world‘ is Premier League-centric but so far we have learned:
* Manchester United’s 18-year-old striker Marcus Rashford is better than Euro 2016 winning midfielder William Carvalho.
* Kurt Zouma is the world’s 87th-best footballer, currently better than Mauro Icardi, Carlos Bacca, Grzegorz Krychowiak and Miralem Pjanic.
* Jamie Vardy is a better footballer than all those players, plus Javier Pastore, Jordi Alba and Xabi Alonso. Yes, Jamie Vardy > Xabi Alonso.
Mediawatch is already excited about where Wayne Rooney sits in the top ten. Above or below Lionel Messi?
Granit sh*tty
Over to the Daily Mirror and their international week filler list of the ‘50 best players in the Premier League‘.
At no. 48 – just below Southampton’s Steven Davis (an ‘Andres Iniesta-lite’) – is Arsenal’s £30m-plus midfielder Granit Xhaka.
But Granit should not despair, for although he’s ‘still trying to find his feet at the Emirates, but there have already been signs – notably his goal at Hull – that the quality he has could lead him to be a top-15 player on lists such as this in future’.
Everybody needs a target.
Five ridiculous headlines from far more successful websites
‘BALED PATCH: Gareth Bale lets his hair down during Wales’ disappointing 1-1 draw with Georgia – but is he again hiding a bald patch?’ – The Sun website.
‘Liverpool striker: I’m pleased to be getting better at this’ – the Daily Express website. It’s Daniel Sturridge and it’s heading.
‘Aaron Cresswell: This is what I think of the atmosphere at the London Stadium’ – the Daily Star website. He’s not played there yet but he knows “it is going to be unbelievable and it will be special”.
‘Winger discusses Liverpool exit: This is why I had to leave Premier League’ – the Daily Express website. It’s Ryan Babel. And it was 2011.
‘REVEALED: How Mourinho is preparing his United players for crunch Liverpool clash’ – Daily Mirror website. He’s given his non-international players four days off. Which is quite the revelation.
Recommended reading of the day
Saturday’s Mediawatch extra takes apart Robbie Savage’s Ryan Giggs column
James Horncastle with the good, bad and ugly of European football
Alex Keble on the ‘survivor’ Jesse Lingard