There was only a month until the next fixture for England as we have another friendly lined up against Belgium which will be the second time we'll face them in my 6th game in charge although this time, it'll take place in Belgium. As always, the games taking place in that period had an effect on player's form which led to some changes in the squads named at both senior and under 21 level.
Senior Changes
Karl Darlow (Bournemouth) > Joe Hart (Man City).
David Stockdale (Norwich) > Jack Butland (Stoke).
Eric Dier (Tottenham) > Joe Mattock (Colchester).
Kyle Walker (Tottenham) > Alfie Mawson (Burnley).
Michael Bostwick (Sunderland) > Sam Byram (West Ham).
Jack Robinson (Leeds) > Carl Jenkinson (Everton).
Raheem Sterling (Man City) > Nick Powell (Hull).
Wayne Rooney (FC Bayern) > Danny Welbeck (Arsenal).
Wilfried Zaha (Crystal Palace) > Tom Carroll (Bournemouth).
Jonjo Shelvey (Galatasaray) > Mark Davies (Birmingham).
Charlie Austin (Southampton) > Benik Afobe (Bournemouth).
James Vaughan (Birmingham) > Tom Hopper (Scunthorpe).
Some surprising changes for the first team as Michael Bostwick gets a first call up along with James Vaughan. Wayne Rooney and Jonjo Shelvey have impressed abroad and come into the squad which loses Benik Afobe and Nick Powell to injury whilst Joe Hart, Jack Butland and Danny Welbeck have seen their form dip recently.
Youth Changes
Matt Furlong (Arlesey) > Tom Hadler (Crawley).
Luke Shaw (Man Utd) > Matthew Simmons (Ashton Utd).
Joe Gomez (Liverpool) > Michael Marney (Tiverton).
Darnell Furlong (Q.P.R.) > Hayden White (Weston-super-Mare).
Jassem Sukar (Blackburn) > Spencer Hamilton (Corby).
Taylor Moore (Lens) > Christian Maghoma (Dulwich).
Reece Burke (MK Dons) > Steven Whitehouse (Southport).
Rob Holding (Bolton) > Liam Slade (Plymouth).
Ruben Loftus-Cheek (Aston Villa) > Ted Guppy (Hucknall).
Patrick Roberts (Celtic) > Tom Conlon (Stevenage).
Jack Grealish (Aston Villa) > Ademola Lookman (Charlton).
Jordon Rossiter (Liverpool) > Ellis Brown (Worksop).
Solomon Sambou (Aldershot) > Harry Lee (Welling).
Will Randall (Chester) > Jermaine Anderson (Peterborough).
Jason Williams (Southend) > Jerome Mellor (Lincoln).
The Under 21's saw the return of some big name players as the likes of Joe Gomez, Luke Shaw, Patrick Roberts, Jack Grealish and Ruben Loftus-Cheek were drafted in as part of 15 changes to the squad.
The match itself took place in Brussels and we lost Rob Holding and Reading left-back Jonny Connor to injuries without being able to call up replacements. Darnell Furlong, Jack Grealish and Jason Williams had joined the party late after playing Football League fixtures and weren't fit to participate.
Kieron Wolland, Tobi Adebayo-Rowling, Taylor Moore, Lewis Cook, Will Randal and Alfie Crooks were all making first appearances for the under 21's. I had my eye on 19 year old centre back Moore in particular who currently plies his trade in France. The inclusion of Dele Alli and Luke Shaw hopefully adds some experience to the team against Belgium who have lined up with David Henan and Youri Tielemans as ones to watch.
After 3 minutes, Leeds midfielder Lewis Cook gave us an early lead to continue an impressive season where he's scored 7 in 35 starts in the CHampionship. But Colwyn Bay's Kieron Wolland was injured after 20 minutes, leading to a second appearance for St Ives' Brendan Brown in between the sticks.
Brown though, was superb as we went into the break 2:0 up after Alfie Crooks scored just before the whistle. Luton's striker had scored 24 goals in 46 in League Two and it was great to see him find the net again. Ironically, Dele Alli had been the quietest player on the pitch so far!
Shaquille Hunter, who was once rumoured to be monitored by Liverpool but currently plies his trade at Mangotsfield, made it 3:0 after the break, shortly after Marcel Barrington and Mark Beech replaced Crooks and Will Randall.
With Belgium restriced to just the one chance on target, I'm very happy with the performance with the blemish of Wolland being injured added to by a 90th minute red card for Moore who I had earmarked before the game. He'd gone into a tackle with 2 feet with seconds on the clock. A very inexperienced mistake to make!
After the Under 21's won at Stade Roi Baudouin, the seniors played on the same pitch the following evening. We'd recorded a 1:1 draw at Wembley in our previous meeting where Marouane Fellaini had been sent off after Christian Benteke's opener which allowed Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain to tie the game. On balance, we should have won that game so it'd be interesting to see how things pan out this time, particularly as I had lost once and won once in my only away games so far.
The team selection saw Karl Darlow and Luke Hyam handed their debuts whilst Leighton Baines, Ben Gibson and Tom Ince kept their places after our last game, the 4:1 win in Bulgaria. Eric Dier, Wilfried Zaha and Charlie Austin were also handed a first appearance under my tenure whilst Wayne Rooney made his first appearance since my first game in charge! Harry Kane and Kyle Walker were expected to start but hadn't recovered from a Monday night game for Spurs just 48 hours earlier. As a result, Nathaniel Clyne keeps up his 100% selection record in my 6th game.
Wayne Rooney captained the side once more against a Belgian side that surprisingly omitted the likes of Thibaut Courtois, Eden Hazard, Christian Benteke and Vincent Kompany.
A five goal thriller was the result but we were on the losing side. Zaha marked his 3rd cap with the opening goal which was his first for England after 15 minutes but the game was level once more at half-time thanks to Alex Witsel.
Jonjo Shelvey took over from Fabian Delph in the 57th minute but substitute Jelle Vossen was the one who made an impact instead, making it 3:1 with a brace after just 12 minutes on the pitch.
On came Marc Albrighton and Jesse Lingard in place of Zaha and Rooney and we soon pulled one back thanks to Shelvey, also his first international goal.
All in all, we just about edged the statistics but it wasn't good enough on the day. Some of the players seemed to struggle a little bit, especially Ben Gibson. That was a bit of a shame as there are not many natural left footed centre-halves out there for me to choose from.
We now have under two months until the season finishes and we'll then take on Slovenia in a World Cup Qualifier. It'll be interesting to note how the players will end their seasons and if any of them will have also earned any transfers up the ladder following their involvement with us.
The World of Football Management - Chapter 7 - Global Attraction
A tough challenge, turning Leamington Football Club from the smallest club in the English game to a worldwide name, all by building a squad of just one player from any nation!