Undoubtedly we now have enough world class players to challenge for the world cup but do we play the men or do we play the system? I would happily forsake a couple of big name players in order to get the balance and shape of the first team right. I would go with Robinson Neville Terry Ferdinand ACole Beckham Lampard Gerrard Richardson Rooney Owen and I think (always have done) that Sven is clueless. Why does everyone rate him so much? We want big sam (cousin of fatsam!)
fatsam, I'd worry about playing Rooney and Owen up front. Both have immense skill but their talents lie in running at defenses at pace and causing defenders problems around the box. Neither of them is the sort of player who could 'hold up' the ball. With someone like Beckham in the team you know that he could find a targetman easily who could lay it into the path of Rooney or Owen, but without this target you end up trying to dribble past 5 men as we saw against Northern Ireland. Otherwise I agree with your team selection. The biggest problem for me is that we never seem like a 'team'. One of the commentators said, quite rightly, at the end of the Northern Ireland game that you wouldn't swap a single England player for a Northern Ireland player, and yet they played so well as a team, with so much drive that they matched us and eventually beat us...when on paper it should have been a walk-over. I don't know whether this is a product of bad management, or lack of team experience. I personally doubt the former and the latter is unavoidable. The players hardly get any time to play together as a team outside of competitions and when they do play friendlies the formation and team selection is changed so often its no wonder they get mixed up. My personal gripe is with David Beckham. He is undoubtably a fantastic player. His enthusiasm is astounding and will always fight to the end, but for me he is the weak link in the 'team'. He is usually positioned on the right, but instead drops into the middle in-front of the back four. His distribution from there is first rate, but it means we rely on the long ball all the time without getting men up the pitch. It also confuses Gerrard and Lampard as they don't know what to do with themselves, and leaves the right hand side exposed. The next two games are vital for England, and especially Sven. As a nation we don't do failure well (You'd think we be used to it by now). The big test for me will be how the players react. If they can't raise their game for these occassions then they don't deserve to be in the team...regardless of how much they're worth! leafy
sven turned england around, we were hopeless under keegan (tactically inept, played southgate in the holding role(!), played cards with his mates in a little clique.....). since then; squad unity restored, two quarter finals, one losing to the best team in the world, the other robbed of a semi-final place because of that cheating ref. sven has done a great job repairing the damage done by keegan. ok, not everything has been rosy but wanting sam allardyce? is that a joke? a long ball merchant, he'd probably play kevin davies up front for england. passion will only get you so far...
I wholly agree with the David Beckham comment Leafy. I have thought that maybe Sven should drop him for a couple of games to teach him a lesson. And you are right that a mix of strikers would be better but alas, no more alan shearer and it will be a while maybe until one of them comes round again. Denby, what has Sven done? and do we play attractive, interesting football now? As far as I can tell, half of our players are always looking for that 'hollywood ball' - the 60 yard pass which ends up getting to no one. Big Sams team are a tad long ball yes but the point is they play as a team and they make the most of the talents available. As far as I remember, Sven never had that good a club record considering how much resource he had available at his disposal! My biggest case for sacking Sven can be summed up in two words - Owen hargreaves! what the hell is he thinking?!
i dunno sven has only won (googles..) the swedish title, the portuguese title 3 times, the italian title, several domestic cups and 1 european title. that's versus allardyce's er nothing i've enjoyed matches such as v france (even though we lost), switzerland and croatia in euro2004, v argentina and denmark in wc2002, and of course the 5-1 demolition of germany owen hargreaves isn't that bad, anyway, he's an easy target because we don't really know how he plays week in week out at bayern munich. he's never really done a lot wrong for england (apart from that spell at the end of the northern ireland match *shudders*) sven is doing a good job in my books but my books are often full of rubbish
No - all fair points my friend. But to be fair, I could win the portugese title!!! He really struggled to secure the italian one, thats right before he messed up Lazio and was then promptly asked to move on. You are right, there has been the odd good game but to be fair, most of the games have been pretty dreadful to watch. Especially the ones where we loft the raking pass up the field to find the 4ft tall Mr Owen. We give away so much possession sometimes, its unreal
I'm thinking of starting a campaign to get Michael Owen some Platform football boots. The number of times I've seen him get into a fantastic position, dive for the header and miss it by 2 inches defies belief!! Either that or he needs a really solid mohican of some sort...
I don't know. He's certainly been guilty in my eyes for a lot of the complacency that I've seen in the England team recently, but he is still undoubtably one of the best defenders in the country, and will be back in the team if Sol Campbell is still injured. He just needs more of a talking to, that's all... leafy
Tonight is a brilliant opportunity to play Ledley King in the holding role and SWP, Kieron Richardson on the wings. But alas I fear the right footed Joe Cole will be playing on the left flank.
He probably will start with Joe Cole, but hopefully he'll put Kieren Richardson on at some point. I'm interested to see how Ledley King works out (If he does play in that role), because personally I can see that being a very promising formation for England given our style of play. However I wonder what Erikson would do if it did work, when Beckham returns... leafy
Well the general concensus is starting that he should EITHER pick Gerrard OR Lampard but not both. Like you say, I think King will do alright although to be fair I havent seen much of him (dont have sky)
oh, fan-flaming-tastic. Our media has hounded out our manager, ruined any chance that we have of a decent replacement, and the current word is that they are going to offer the job to Steve Maclaran! Don't get me wrong. I like the guy, and think he's a pretty decent manager...but he is definitely not up to the England job. But it doesn't matter whether he is any good or not, clearly, the main thing is that he's English. The media can finally sleep at night. Leafy
Department of Transport. Due to the nature of the quality of driving in England the Department of Transport has now devised a new scheme in order to identify poor drivers and give good drivers the opportunity to recognise them whilst driving. For this reason as from the middle of May 2006 those drivers who are found to be driving badly which includes: - overtaking in dangerous places: - hovering within one inch of the car in front: - stopping sharply: - speeding in residential areas: - pulling out without indication: - performing U turns inappropriately in busy high streets: - under taking on motorways and: - taking up more than one lane in multi lane roads. These drivers will be issued with flags, white with a red cross, signifying their inability to drive properly. These flags must be clipped to a door of the car and be visible to all other drivers and pedestrians. Those drivers who have shown particularly poor driving skills will have to display a flag on each side of the car to indicate their greater lack of skill and general lower intelligence mindset to the general public. Please circulate this to as many other motorists as you can so that drivers and pedestrians will be aware of the meaning of these flags. Department of Transport.
