Ted Hughes wrote:Bridge'srightfoot wrote:Ted Hughes wrote:Bridge'srightfoot wrote:Downing both scored and assisted more goals than Johnson last season, playing in a far worse side. There is little justification to say AJ has been better over the last couple of seasons.
Other than opinion no.
It is my belief that Downing is a headless chicken & AJ is a quality player. Downing plays every week though & AJ doesn't. Downing also plays in sides who rely on crosses with forwards who get on the end of them. Milner's stats for Villa were comparable with those of Ryan Giggs (once again misleading). AJ doesn't play in that kind of side. Imo, Downing isn't a very good footballer & AJ is.
If AJ became available, imo, Freguson would want him. From Villa, he chose Ashley Young, who is also miles better footballer than Downing (as is Milner).
With regards to England, it's only fair for Capello to pick players who do the business for their club and when he sees Downing both scoring and creating more it's not that hard to believe he got the nod. AJ has the ability to be miles better than Downing. He is supremely talented, but he rarely shows it. He goes through games where you barely notice his presence and imo only really looks great coming off the bench. His final product, shot, through ball mostly fail and don't reach their target. Every now and then he'll come up with a moment of real quality but he doesn't do it consistently enough.
In terms of being a 'winger', Downing is a far better crosser of the ball and that will ultimately lead to goals. He's certainly not shit like you're making out.
I think Downing is a shit winger who suits Fat Sam style percentage foottball teams; he'd do well at Stoke. I would describe Downing's career, on the whole, as being fairly shit . Not, admittedly, Gerry Creaney shit, just fairly shit. I recon most games he plays, he is selfish, blind to other's positions, runs down blind alleys, whacks the ball aimlessly into the box & shoots when he should pass. When he's at his best he's very good. Imo that's rare. By his standards he probably had a good last season for Villa but I judge that along the same lines as Dunne & Barton having good seasons for City; almost everyone else played below par & the team was shit.
Milner created plenty of goals for Villa because, like Downing, he was asked to whack the ball into the box & hope someone scored. The team were expecting it & so it works TO A DEGREE. The lose possession & fuck up in other areas. Downing does that all the time. That's not supposed to happen for England though. With Downing it does.
AJ has been quality for England & had he been a Utd player, the idea of him being dropped for some mid table quality headless fucking chicken would be laughable, yet on here people think it's acceptable. That's England in a nutshell. Would a rag player who is consistently good for England be dropped just because he'd missed a few games injured ?
Still don't buy it. He isn't shit, he's managed to progress his career from Boro to Liverpool with a number of England caps. AJ doesn't perform consistently for us so why should he get the nod ahead of Downing. You complain about United players being in the England team but you think City players automatically should? When was the last time Johnson really tore apart a really good team? He is exceptionally skillful but most of the time his dribbles, runs and crosses lead to nothing whereas Downing's lead to goals. What's wrong with crossing a ball into the box? It's a perfectly good way of scoring a goal. Unless you think Nasri is shit because his assists have come from crosses into the box aswell.
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