Norway v England - 26th May

England play away in Norway in what will be Roy Hodgsons's first game as manager.

Liverpool right back Martin Kelly has been called up into the squad as cover just for this friendly only.

Wayne Rooney is out with an injured toe so this could be an ideal time to see what Andy Carroll can do up front.

This is how I expect us to line up.

.................................Hart........................................

Johnson......Cahill...................Terry......................Cole

Walcott............Barry.........Lampard......................Young

............................Gerrard.......................................

.............................Carroll..........................................

Any comments or predictions?

I actually like this line-up but at the same time the England line-up I would love to see here is:

.....................................Hart..............................................

Phil Jones...........Micah Richards..........Cahill..........Ashley Cole

Ashley Young.........Walcott...........Adam Johnson....... Wilshere

..........................Gerrard......................................................

..........................Carroll..................................


Influxing youth but with experience, following the German model of using youth but also having that experience in there, because let's face it, England is getting old, it is time to go younger

Terry
Jack Wilshere is still out injured and Adam Johnson and Micah Richards
were not selected for Euro 2012 so none of those guys will be playing for England any time soon.

Oh I see, then in that case, England needs to go younger, follow the German model and trust me you guys will be successful

Robert Green is to start in goal and Andy Carroll will be playing upfront against Norway says Roy Hodgson

It will be the Hammers keeper first run out for England since that incident against the USA at the 2010 South Africa world cup.

I can see Parker breaking down. People have realised you don't have to be the "best team" to win but I wouldn't want us to become too defensively minded (in the actual tournament). Man U tried the Chelsea approach against City and were embarrassingly impotent in attack.

Let's hope Carroll can do the biz and get his England career up and running.

Line ups

Norway
Jarstein, Hogli, Demidov, Hangeland, Riise; Tettey; Elyounoussi, Henriksen, Gamst Pedersen, Braaten; Moa.

Subs - Grindheim,Huseklepp,Ruud,Yttergård Jenssen,Bugge Pettersen,Madsen,Berisha

England
Green, Jones, Baines, Gerrard, Jagielka, Lescott, Milner, Parker, Carroll, Young, Downing..

Subs: Kelly, Hart, Henderson, Barry, Oxlade Chamberlain, Walcott, Defoe, Adam Johnson..

I've gone for a comfortable 2 or 3 nil win for England. What they should be doing. Carroll, Gerrard, and Young to score.

Young scored so far and England look quite comfortable. Good runs upfront.

Terry, you seem to have got Walcott and Johnson, 2 wingers, in central midfield, with a central midfield player, Wilshere, on the left of midfield. Maybe if you put Walcott on the left with Gerrard and Wilshere in the centre, and Johnson in the hole it might look a bit more logical.

I guess you could swap Richards and Jones as Richards, although a competent centre back, is a natural right sided player.

I do like Johnson though, he finds space and makes excellent runs into the box.

Keeping possession well, and Gerrard had a few bad balls after the crowd started booing him, for a tackle which injured a Norway player. Young is looking very lively. Well deserved goal.

Gerrard and Parker off in the second half. England can't keep the ball and Norway are getting back into it.

England came, scored, got pegged back a little in the second half, then won. Good attacking 1st half, good defending second half. Or maybe that could be not so good attacking in the second.

Against a tougher team, They'd get dominated.

OK , so i watched this game and i kept an eye on one player in particular just to make sure what i felt about his league play and lofty status with some was in fact the truth. This game however i expected him to do something of note as it was only Norway and not a top flight Euro title challenger. That player of course was Baines!
I expected to see him dash down that wing like he had done against the likes of Blackburn ,Bolton and such quality as it was about the same as what he was up against today. The fact that he is playing to gain confidence in his manager should have made his impact even more so. What i witnessed was a player pretty much ghost out there ,i'll have to be honest and say that he didn't see much of the ball.BUt when he did i expected him to blaze away .NOTHING! Absolutely NOTHING from that player.
I am hoping this was just Hodgson taking a look at players ,but when i saw henderson on the bench `i was pretty much convinced this manager will be embarrassed in the Euro's . Downing, barry, henderson, Milner and PArker ,that is too many players in the middle of the park with no creativity. Just straight up cookie v cutter typical 80's English quality.
You can afford to have 2 player's out of that lot Parker and Milner ,because of their tireless work ethic and decent quality maintained for at least 80 mins. The others are just completely worthless. I have said that all along against the better teams . But when you look at their performance against this NOrway side it backs up my opinion 100%.

I hope the best for England , i really do and i know we have the players to give any team major issues ,but yet again we have put a manager in place that has taken the team back to the 80's.

Result

Sat 26th May

Norway 0-1 England
0-1 - Young 9’

I thought England started very well in this friendly and deservedly took the lead on 10 mins.
It was a very well taken goal by Young who turned Fulham defender Hangeland inside out before firing in.

We were well on top around the 30 min mark passing the ball around very well with Gerrard and Parker both dominant.

In the Second half though it was a completely different story and Norway were in control with John Arne Riise seemingly everywhere!

For somebody who is not even going to Euro 2012 I think Phil Jagielka was the MOTM with an assured display at the back

Andy Carroll had hardly an service at all on his own upfront which was disappointing and may not be the answer to face France.

It should be noted that none of the Chelsea contingent were here neither was Wayne Rooney so for anybody to come
on and write off Roy Hodgson already who won his first match as England manager clearly doesn't have a clue what they are talking about.

Any more comments on Saturday's nights result?

Watching England is like watching paint dry. How is Carrol an international player? He makes Crouch look like Pele

Welbeck then if anything should be up front or how about Oxe

Ox was lucky not to get a card, 2 bad challenges in about 10 mins

Are you serious? Welbeck couldn't hit a cows ass with a banjo from 2ft. He is most definitely not an international striker, in fact he's not a striker at all, HE CANNOT SCORE GOALS.
This England team/performance is the sort of dross we will have to put up with for the next few years, and will always have to put up with until the FA choose a manager that that has some balls and picks players because of their form and not the club they play for.

I agree with you, Welbeck is really overrated, but I do disagree with you about him not scoring goals. He'll get some!

I don;t live in the UK to see day to day what kind of press Welbeck is getting but as far as i can tell on the internet and Sky sports i cannot see anything that indicates they rate him anymore than he deserves. Earlier this season he was doing very well ,he showed absolutely no fear or trepidation in attacking and was very aggressive. I think he is exactly what England needs a fearless young one still trying to make his way in the game.