Jack Ripper:

if your going by stats then surely leon britton would be the first choice>?

But Leon Britton needs a midfield partner and he has not played alongside any of the internationals.

4-0facup94:

and apparently Carrick opted not to go because he wasn't guaranteed to be first choice. I personally would rather see a lesser player who wants to wear the shirt, and is happy to wait for his chance, get picked over others who don't really seem too bothered.

Carrick never did any of that, all he wanted to do was contribute to the team and at his age what good would it be for him to be a standby player? Are you telling me that a Manchester United midfielder should watch a City,Spurs,Liverpool,Chelsea midfielder trying hollywood passes that never work, run with no real purpose and lose the ball when clearly he should be in there based on merit. He did mention that he would be there if he was needed and Hodgson didnt need him.

if your going by stats then surely leon britton would be the first choice>?

The fact hodgson only took 3 central midfielders was the big mistake. two of which (parker and gerrard ) struggle to play consecutive games and are injury prone now. the third player being henderson who shouldnt have been there in the first place. i know his options were limited, but if you could have replaced parker and gerrard with scholes and carrick int he second half we wouldnt have run out of steam the way we had. to be honest i would have put jones on for parker rather than henderson too.

Whilst England needed these 2 players, we have to consider that Scholes had already quit international football, and apparently Carrick opted not to go because he wasn't guaranteed to be first choice. I personally would rather see a lesser player who wants to wear the shirt, and is happy to wait for his chance, get picked over others who don't really seem too bothered.

Ultimately, I would have preferred Hodgson to drop all the older players and have taken the likes of Shawcross, Bertrand, Cleverley and Sturridge (Who I hope recovers well from his illness). It is time for England to move on from the supposed 'Golden Generation', who never lived up to all the hype.

Hodgson had no intention of this England team keeping possession.

Scholes and Carrick would have gone against his stratagy of letting the opposition have the ball and trying to counter.

Cleverbeck.:

You don't need stats to see it. You just need to have a brain.

Give the man a break, he read :)

You don't need stats to see it. You just need to have a brain.

just read a very intresting post which proves my theory all along that england needed carrick. stats show that carrick and (obviously) scholes had better stats in nearly all departments then gerrard, parker, barry, lampard and that other guy hender something. just have a look at the stats and tell me they shoudnt have been in the england team. if englands biggest problem is keeping the ball then why would you not choose are two best passers??? http://manutube.net/2012/06/28/the-stats-to-prove-scholes-and-carrick-should-have-gone-to-the-euros/