D’ya want the good news or the bad news?

November 19, 2008 by Martin Banks
Filed under: Ashley Young, Aston Villa, International Football, Match Previews 

Ok, I’ll make it short for this one, but I’ve just read the starting line-up that Fabio Capello has chosen for the Germany game and at first delight spread across my face when I saw Gabby Agbonlahor’s name up front… but then I saw another name and I swore out loud! Don’t worry I was alone, my four month old daughter wasn’t subjected to my double four-letter display, when I saw the name Downing in the line-up. Argggggghhh!!! What has Ashley Young got to do to prove himself?!

Let me state why I feel Young should be starting tonight; he has played outstandingly all this season and most of last; he makes the rest of the team play better due to his positive attacking play; he creates goal-scoring opportunities with his selfless passing and crossing game; he keeps possession of the ball better than Downing and his passes and crosses are much more accurate and decisive; blah blah blah… because he’s the dog’s banana’s! That’s enough!

I’m sure plenty of Middlesbrough fans out there would leap to their boy’s defence (and as hardened fans, so they should), but bear these 2 points in mind:

1. It’s a friendly, so the result is not as important as in a competitive game.

2. Downing has already played for England many times (never shining all that brightly), whereas Young hasn’t and this is a perfect chance to see what he’s made of on the international stage. Especially as the opposition is decent, it’s not even like we’re playing the Faroe Islands, where you already know Young could run rings round them, no… this is a golden chance to pitch Young against good quality international players. And it’s being wasted. Yeah we all know he’ll come on as a sub at some point, but Young is not a ’super-sub’, he’s a team player.

Disappointment is an understatement… Agbon in the starting line up goes some way to make up for it, but still I shake my head in disagreement.


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