For the life of me I cannot understand why England manager Roy Hodgson has decided to call up Spurs winger Andros Townsend and not take a look at Swansea wide men Nathan Dyer and Wayne Routledge.

The Swans have made a terrific start to the season and currently lie in fourth place (as of Sunday morning). Both Routledge and Dyer have been key to the Welsh sides success.

They have both made seven appearances each, in the seven opening English Premier League (EPL) fixtures. Dyer has bagged three goals, whilst Wayne has two goals and an assist to his name.  Yet Townsend is struggling in North London, so far making two substitute appearances and failing to do much with them. He has also started two Europa League games, but again hasn’t impressed.

It’s hard for wingers to still have relevance in their late twenties these days but at twenty-nine Wayne Routledge has matured into a fine performer. He has an added advantage of being able to play on either wing.

At twenty-six, Nathan Dyer is enjoying a great time in his career. He also managed to grab six goals last term. His pace on the right is electric and he also attacks at the opposition, an attribute the English fans like to see.

For the past three or four seasons in the Premier League both have been key in Swansea City’s quick football that is easy on the eye. They help by getting the ball forward quickly and stretching opposing teams. But they often get forgotten about as Wilfried Bony or Michu scored the goals or managerial changes happened.

Yet these two players are overlooked in favour of Andros in the ‘Three Lions’ set up.

I’m not a huge fan of Townsend. Mainly because his stats are terrible and his style of play isn’t productive. In the past two EPL seasons he has only managed three goals (the same as Dyer in his last seven outings!). His last and only Premier League assist came during his loan spell with QPR in 2013.

The winger has a spectacular amount of efforts on goal yet can’t get on the scoresheet enough, with most shots ending up wide of the target or over the bar. His crossing with accuracy is close to non existent at times.

Yes he impressed with his opening two games in an England shirt but surely his form since then hasn’t been good enough to merit a place in the England squad. It’s certainly not been good enough to merit a starting berth at Tottenham.

England aren’t blessed with too many talented natural wingers at the moment. Theo Walcott is still recovering from his injury, Aaron Lennon like Townsend is out of the picture at White Hart Lane, Adam Johnson has had a mixed start to the season and does anyone even remember Shaun Wright-Philips?

Yet Hodgson continues to overlook two more consistent wingers in the shape of Routledge and Dyer. It’s interesting to note, that Roy has never been to the Liberty Stadium to view Swansea City first hand during his tenure as England boss nor has he spoken to Gary Monk since he became the Swans new manager earlier this year.

Yes he has selected Jonjo Shelvey but that is a player he knew about during his Liverpool days.

Now I am not saying that both of these wingers are going to become England greats or should be fixtures in the squad. But surely, they deserve a chance if form is a criteria and what better time?  Roy could have selected both of them and had a look at them against San Marino and Estonia.

It’s bewildering to think that Roy Hodgson can be so closed off and not take a chance, especially when it comes to selecting creative players.

Posted on October 5th, 2014 by scott
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