England u21

Will Harry Kane finally turn up tonight? Will we ever create a chance for him?

I know you are Irosh anyway Rob, but I'm guessing you are supporting Italy?

Northern Irish. And yes I watched every second of our thrilling 0-0 with Romania the other week. It actually was pretty thrilling.

Am in 2 minds on this one. Would love some England success. They are my second team!! Plus we have ticked for the Switzerland game where I think they'll secure their place for Euro 2016.

But you must have at least half the Italian side?

Very few actually. Romagnoli , Crisetig and Berardi and that's it. Italy didn't take De Sciglio, Verratti and El Shaarawy who are all considered senior internationals. Italy's most interesting players are a bit younger - Scuffet, Capradossi, Romagna, Mauri and Cerri among the one's I like best. 

On the U-21's I don't rate Bardi but the back four are very good, Rugani in particular. Lots of Italian reporters see him and Romagnoli as a future pairing at full international level and both are young for the U-21 age group. The midfield is pedestrian but Cataldi and Sturaro are decent. Up front Berardi is different class. 31 in 61 Serie A games and he's a winger, owned by Juve but at Sassuolo.  Sterling over hyped by the English press??

Sterling is, you're right.  When you see players like Costa and Sanchez going for fees in the mid-thirties and Sterling won't leave for less than £50 apparently, it does seem ridiculous.  I guess you can argue that City are paying a premium for English eligible players, the trouble they have is that teams know they need home grown players and have plenty of money to do it with.  City seem to be very short of these players now and seem keen to address this problem this summer, but at what cost?  Paul? Geoff? Thoughts?

Have a feeling Italy will cause us a lot of problems tonight, players like Berardi and Bernardo (Portugal) are certainly very very good players, but hard to compare if they are on a par with Sterling, whose form has certainly nosedived since he decided that he wanted out of Anfield.

Rugani the guy you are after from Juve?

Tom@Charlton wrote:

Rugani the guy you are after from Juve?

Yup

I'll keep it quiet don't worry.

Shocking 2 minutes.

Can't see us scoring 3 against this defence.

Nope. Zappacosta doing well. And Belotti showing well up front.

That was disappointing, a world of difference between our young stars and the Italian young stars, we looked like kids, same old problem for me, nobody much in our team has any sort of relevant experience barring Kane and the only other one who has that experience, Ings, just isn't good enough. Even our goal came just as Italy realised they too had been knocked out. I never know whether to cry or laugh with England.

Were we really playing 442 ? our team looked a bit wonky with a few out of position ? I despair.

As for City signing English players I think that's how it should be, we're in England, City are an English side, they should be fielding at least half a team of English talent, but then we'd be crap too most probably, so that ain't happening any time soon. If we do sign any English players I hope it costs the club an immense amount of money, maybe then, when it starts hitting them in the pocket, they will start to get serious about developing english talent, we do have the facilities now, now we need to use them.

It's no wonder I support Brazil

Agree with Paul on the lack of experience. Italians literally had double the top flight games last season. I think it was about 260 to England's 130. Take Kane and zings out of the 130 and it's reduced to 75 or so. The Italian loan and co-ownership system lets the likes of Berardi and Rugani who are owned by Juve play full seasons elsewhere. And the issue of non availability isn't a question as Italy had as many missing stars as England.

On player quality ..... I agree Ings isn't international quality but neither are Forster-Caskey, Redmond, Garbutt or Gibson and Jenkinson looked horrible defensively. 

Italy have some weaker players in their team as well like Bardi, the keeper and Batocchio who was Watford. They did have some class though in the CB pairing, Belotti is a good old school CF, Benassi and Crisetig are classy in midfield and Berardi id the star (with no Verratti or El Shaarawy playing).

Top division games played are key though as most other countries are giving younger players a chance.