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The Man in The Shed

26th March – Watching “our team”

Two weeks without a game can leave a large hole in your life. Having fallen out of love with England (the country of my birth) in the last few years it feels as if the number of international breaks increases every season. I know England reached the world cup semi-final just a few months ago but winning back my affections will take more than that after so many years of disappointments. It feels more like a divorced wife trying to seek a reconciliation than a disagreement with your brother down the pub. It takes time to build bridges and rebuild trust.

So I seek solace by following “team Chelsea” individually rather than collectively. The results seem “mixed”

Gold stars for :
  • Ross Barkley (75 minutes in a good win against Czech Republic followed by 2 goals and an assist in the 5-1 win in Montenegro)
  • Callum Hudon-Odoi (with a 20 minute cameo against the Czechs and then a brilliant 90 minutes against Montenegro)
  • Olivier Giroud for goals against Moldova and Iceland making him the 3rd highest French goal scorer
  • Eden Hazard for goals against Russia and Cyprus (plus reaching 100 caps in the process)


Honourable mentions for :
  • Kepa warmed the bench against Norway and made it onto the pitch (effectively as a spectator) against Malta
  • Rudiger warmed bench against Serbia but then played the full game in the win against Holland
  • Kante played most of Frances’ wins versus Moldova and Iceland
  • Jorginho played 90 mins against Finland and managed an hour against the mighty Liechtenstein
  • Kovacic played 70 minutes against Azerbaijan but warmed the bench in the shock defeat versus Hungary
Ironic note that both Batshuayi and Morata scored goals for Belgium and Spain respectively.

So ten out of ten for the strikers (past and present) and probably six out of ten for the rest.

The other real positive from the English lads was how eloquently they spoke after the Montenegro game. Especially from Hudson-Odoi after the highly unpleasant racist chanting from the home fans. It would be nice to think that one of the areas of improvement around the young players today is proper media training.

 Let’s hope that everyone returns without injuries serious enough to impact our next game – away to Cardiff.

The pain of the last game has begun to fade. Let’s see if the team has the fight to earn some points away from home.

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