England 24 -man squad for 2006 World Cup

[marc71178]

yea i know if u look back in the thread my 2 options for the position were Downing & Parker the reason i went for Stew is because of his speed & aslo because i dont like the idea of Gerrard playing in front of the 2 centre-backs.....

Yes, but Downing is a left winger, always has been.

He is not an option for a holding midfield role, end of story...

 

[Barney Rubble]

Fair enough but where have you been watching Cole?? I think given the under 21 games are his only competitive footie games that he is performing well. A run would see a lot of heads turn.

I'm going by Cole's loan spells at Aston Villa and Charlton in recent years, that's all I've seen of him since he broke into the Chelsea side.

 

[Barney Rubble]

Yes, but Downing is a left winger, always has been.

He is not an option for a holding midfield role, end of story...

Exactly. One of the dumbest suggestions I've ever heard. Like playing Rooney at left back.

 

[sledger]

downing as a holding midfielder ? what a joke.

as for the holding role itself, imo it isnt really neccesary, not to any great extent anyway.

 

[Pothas]

downing as a holding midfielder ? what a joke.

as for the holding role itself, imo it isnt really neccesary, not to any great extent anyway.

Yes i agree aslong as Lampard and Gerrard can work out how to play together, that is a key to how well england will do. If they do want a holding player Carrick is definetly the man to do it. If lampard and Gerrard dont learn to play together properly id actualy cosider dropping one of them no matter how good they are

 

[marc71178]

Exactly. One of the dumbest suggestions I've ever heard. Like playing Rooney at left back.

Or Henrik Pedersen at left back...

 

[marc71178]

downing as a holding midfielder ? what a joke.

as for the holding role itself, imo it isnt really neccesary, not to any great extent anyway.

To be honest I thought the 2 yesterday worked well between themselves - one or other seemed to be covering.

 

[Jamee999]

Can I suggest:

----------------------------------------------------ROBINSON-------------------------------------------------------------

---------------------------CAMPBELL--------------FERDINAND-------------------------------TERRY-----------

BECKHAM---------WRIGHT-PHILLIPS-------------LAMPARD-------------GERRARD--------------A.COLE

----------------------------OWEN-------------------------------------------ROONEY-----------------------------------

With JoCo on the bench, along with Downing, Neville, Crouch and a keeper.

 

[sledger]

To be honest I thought the 2 yesterday worked well between themselves - one or other seemed to be covering.

fair point, thats holding in the same way arsenal do, the good way, what england dont want to do is to try deploy a makelele type player in the midfield, im afraid they dont have the squad to pull that off.

BECKHAM---------WRIGHT-PHILLIPS-------------LAMPARD-------------GERRARD--------------A.COLE

where that could work jamee, wright philips has to be on the right wing otherwise he will be totally wasted.

 

[Jamee999]

Fair enough.

 

[BoyBrumby]

Can I suggest:

----------------------------------------------------ROBINSON-------------------------------------------------------------

---------------------------CAMPBELL--------------FERDINAND-------------------------------TERRY-----------

BECKHAM---------WRIGHT-PHILLIPS-------------LAMPARD-------------GERRARD--------------A.COLE

----------------------------OWEN-------------------------------------------ROONEY-----------------------------------

With JoCo on the bench, along with Downing, Neville, Crouch and a keeper.

3-5-2? You're Glenn Hoodle & I claim my £5!

 

[Barney Rubble]

Or Henrik Pedersen at left back...

That's not actually working out that badly considering he used to be a striker. And Ashley Cole was a striker until he was 15.

 

[twctopcat]

3-5-2? You're Glenn Hoodle & I claim my £5!

It's not the worst shout though. Cole and SWP definitely have the gas to run up and down all day and the big 3 at the back make for a steady ship IMO.

 

[BoyBrumby]

It's not the worst shout though. Cole and SWP definitely have the gas to run up and down all day and the big 3 at the back make for a steady ship IMO.

Funnily enough I did have visions of Sven playing Sol, Terry & Rio together against Austria 'cos he didn't have the stones to choose between them.

 

[Barney Rubble]

It's not the worst shout though. Cole and SWP definitely have the gas to run up and down all day and the big 3 at the back make for a steady ship IMO.

The thing with 3-5-2 is that it works best when you have artisans rather than artists on the flanks - SWP and Cole's chances to run with the ball are instantly limited when they have no full-back to cover if they lose it. The 3 central midfielders are also battling for space to an even greater extent than they are now (with Beckham coming inside all the time) if you play that formation - ideally you need two central midfielders who are content to sit deep and one who is given license to roam forward. They'd all get in each other's way if you played that with England, not to mention the fact that Rooney would never, ever be able to drop deep for fear of getting in their way and turning it into a 3-6-1 - our 4-4-2 with him in it is virtually a 4-4-1-1 anyway.

 

[twctopcat]

The thing with 3-5-2 is that it works best when you have artisans rather than artists on the flanks - SWP and Cole's chances to run with the ball are instantly limited when they have no full-back to cover if they lose it. The 3 central midfielders are also battling for space to an even greater extent than they are now (with Beckham coming inside all the time) if you play that formation - ideally you need two central midfielders who are content to sit deep and one who is given license to roam forward. They'd all get in each other's way if you played that with England, not to mention the fact that Rooney would never, ever be able to drop deep for fear of getting in their way and turning it into a 3-6-1 - our 4-4-2 with him in it is virtually a 4-4-1-1 anyway.

Well Beckham would sit and "ping" the ball. The wingback system doesn't literally translate as 5 across the middle however - that would obviously be too cramped. If Cole pushed forward then SWP would drop back to make 4 at the back - that is how it always worked. I just like the idea of all that pace up the flanks.

 

[Barney Rubble]

Funnily enough I did have visions of Sven playing Sol, Terry & Rio together against Austria 'cos he didn't have the stones to choose between them.

I'm surprised he didn't play Rio up front with Owen - the form he's in, he'd have done a better job.

 

[Barney Rubble]

Well Beckham would sit and "ping" the ball. The wingback system doesn't literally translate as 5 across the middle however - that would obviously be too cramped. If Cole pushed forward then SWP would drop back to make 4 at the back - that is how it always worked. I just like the idea of all that pace up the flanks.

It's certainly an attractive idea - but I think Beckham would be exposed in the "pinging" role against better opposition, given his tendency to go walkabout and his slightly careless tackling at times.

 

[marc71178]

where that could work jamee, wright philips has to be on the right wing otherwise he will be totally wasted.

And even on the right wing, he's not that great.

 

[roseboy64]

Not recently at least.