*Official* English Football Season 2006-07

[grecian]

Looks like Phil McNulty agrees with Marc.

Reasonable article but forgets the player we missed most over these two game is Joe Cole, gives us an injection of flair and occasional brilliance.

 

[Matteh]

Utter shambles. Everyone but Steve McLaren knew he'd picked the wrong formation.

 

[Xuhaib]

Hey we hold the Ashes, cricket team will do.

Not for long

 

[marc71178]

When are the England football team going to realise they're nothing special and certainly aren't potential World Cup/European winners?

That's a bit harsh, when you bear in mind Greece won the last Europeans.

You do need a bit of luck at the right stage of tournaments - I mean look at Germany 2002, or France 2006 - lucky to make the final.

Another thing to bear in mind about last night was that Croatia's home record in qualifiers is now played 30, won 21, drawn 9 - not too bad that.

Mind you the manager dropped a big one with the formation change, and I just hope he gets the blame in the press he deserves for it (although in a way it's not his fault that he was appointed when he was a mile away from being the best candidate but the FA made a hash of getting in the right man - one of 3 I could name straight away who are much better)

 

[Craig]

Andre Schevchenko's such a ****ing gimp. Get up you bloody girl. That's why socey is a nothing sport.

So yet you keep posting and watching it>

Either you like it or you don't.

 

[Craig]

These blokes are unbelievable, its extremely hard to comprehend how with so much talented in this ``Golden Generation`` players who do so well at club level can't produce it on the international stage, after every poor performance some players always talks up on how they will improve but they never do. The only England game i remember us playing to the potential i know we can was the friendly vs Argentina last november & the famous win vs Germany, every other game they start well & end extremely poorly.

We went into the WC with a team that could have won it & played some appauling football, McClaren comes in they destroy some minnows & its back to normal again.

Is the coach the problem?, i dunno looking at tonights game its no different to when Sven was in charge, the FA should have really tried to get O'Neil or Hiddink. I want our side to win stuff, i have had faith in them even while they have played poorly. My Father has told me time & again since Euro 2004 that i shouldn't waste my energy behind England since they are worth it, i guess now i actually feel that way which is disappointing, something has to change and VERY QUICKLY or this so called ``Golden Generation`` is gonna go waste.

For me stuff like selections, tatics, formations, the off field stuff is the responsibility of the coach, but whatever happens on the ptich should be the responsibility of the players and they should be held just as accountable. I've taken the view that if you are going to sack a manager, then the players should be sacked as well since it was their own fault for not putting the ball into the net or not defending properly if they are defending.

And yet the morons (in Brazil in particular) who own the clubs are too stupid to see that.

 

[Craig]

If there were a better option to replace him, he'd be dropped, but quite frankly there is nobody to replace him.

He's had 2 average games, most probably because he had that suspension at the start of the season so couldn't get himself into the right level of match fitness at the right time.

And who's fault is that?

Wayne Rooney's, that is.

 

[Craig]

That's a bit harsh, when you bear in mind Greece won the last Europeans.

You do need a bit of luck at the right stage of tournaments - I mean look at Germany 2002, or France 2006 - lucky to make the final.

Another thing to bear in mind about last night was that Croatia's home record in qualifiers is now played 30, won 21, drawn 9 - not too bad that.

Mind you the manager dropped a big one with the formation change, and I just hope he gets the blame in the press he deserves for it (although in a way it's not his fault that he was appointed when he was a mile away from being the best candidate but the FA made a hash of getting in the right man - one of 3 I could name straight away who are much better)

Guus Hiddink would have been perfect for the job.

I have may reservations on Luis Flipe Scolari. The language factor is one, at least Hiddink speaks English.

 

[Craig]

One for James.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/teams/w/west_ham_utd/6039562.stm

 

[TT Boy]

Well at least Scotland lost…

 

[Craig]

Good comeback from Italy.

 

[TT Boy]

Your know your in trouble when your three subs last night do nothing but bench warm for a living. Golden Generation my ***.

 

[TT Boy]

Good comeback from Italy.

Yeah two good results, though the games against Scotland will be the key.

 

[GIMH]

Brumby's been on Corrin's medication, imo.

I agree and IMO he needs to get off it, we don't need two of us spouting nonsense

 

[marc71178]

Your know your in trouble when your three subs last night do nothing but bench warm for a living.

Do the 2 wingers even get that close to action?

Poor as he's been, I'd still have had Downing on the bench ahead of Richardson.

 

[Pothas]

Utter shambles. Everyone but Steve McLaren knew he'd picked the wrong formation.

Indeed anyone who thought that formation was going to work knows nothing and surley Mclaren must know something??

 

[steds]

So yet you keep posting and watching it>

Either you like it or you don't.

It's watchable. Just get very frustrated by it. Too much ****ing about doing absolutely nothing. And it's supposed to be a contact sport, yet the bloody girls that play it fling themselves to the floor whenever someone gets within 2 metres of them.
It'd be a good sport if they got rid of fouls, apart from sending off offences, and outlawed passing sideways or backwards.

 

[BoyBrumby]

Worst Englaish performance since, oh, Saturday.

WTF was this 3-5-2 crap too? It's no great surprise that half of our players looked like they were lost, pretty much every successful team in the Prem plays a good old-fashioned (dare I say English?) 4-4-2.

Parker showed he's not international class & inexplicably seemed to be playing further up the field than Carrick. Carrick himself was mediocre in the extreme, did he make one telling pass? The new Butch Wilkins for mine; does nowt but lay the simple ball off sideways. Lampard shows no signs of recapturing his best form &, despite playing three hulking centre-halves, their pet Brazilian was unmarked for his goal. Robinson hopelessly out of postion for it too.

Whatever one may think of Sven (& I wasn't a fan or a critic particularly) there's no way on God's earth that he would gone into a vital qualifier with an unfamiliar formation. McClaren just not up to it, which I've said from the outset.

To look on the brightside we have four first XI players (& a crucial sub in Lennon) to come back; three of whom (Gerrard, J Cole & Hargreaves) will probably be available come next March. The manager might want to swallow some pride & make a call to Madrid too.

 

[Scaly piscine]

Worst Englaish performance since, oh, Saturday.

WTF was this 3-5-2 crap too? It's no great surprise that half of our players looked like they were lost, pretty much every successful team in the Prem plays a good old-fashioned (dare I say English?) 4-4-2.

Parker showed he's not international class & inexplicably seemed to be playing further up the field than Carrick. Carrick himself was mediocre in the extreme, did he make one telling pass? The new Butch Wilkins for mine; does nowt but lay the simple ball off sideways. Lampard shows no signs of recapturing his best form &, despite playing three hulking centre-halves, their pet Brazilian was unmarked for his goal. Robinson hopelessly out of postion for it too.

Whatever one may think of Sven (& I wasn't a fan or a critic particularly) there's no way on God's earth that he would gone into a vital qualifier with an unfamiliar formation. McClaren just not up to it, which I've said from the outset.

To look on the brightside we have four first XI players (& a crucial sub in Lennon) to come back; three of whom (Gerrard, J Cole & Hargreaves) will probably be available come next March. The manager might want to swallow some pride & make a call to Madrid too.

Indeed, just a World Cup quarter final (or a last 16 game as well if I remember correctly).

 

[Jungle Jumbo]

On the basis of the last two games, I think it is clear that more than anything we are missing a spark up front. Defensively I do not think we have a problem - when we play 4-4-2 anyway, but there is nothing coming out of the likes of Carrick, who has Brumby has correctly said, can only pass the ball sideways. In my opinion, the likes of Gerrard and Lampard are more box-to-box, back-of-the-net midfielders than real playermakers/wingers/'spark' players. The only time we looked like getting remotely close to carving out a real chance last night and on Saturday was with Wright-Phillips on the pitch, and given that he is short of game time, is still an international quality winger. The return to 4-4-2 is all but inevitable, it has been shown in the Eriksson years that nothing else seems to work (the Northern Ireland debacle with Beckham in the centre of the park et al). The big question is that does McClaren have the guts to leave out one of Gerrard/Lampard to accomodate a right winger in Lennon/Wright-Phillips, Hargreaves and Joe Cole (the only real prospect down the left) in the same side?

EDIT: Crouch may be banging the goals in, but he's far from a target man. The likes of Rooney are outcompeting him in the air at the moment. Johnson a possiblity, even with my pro-Everton bias?

My team for Israel in the new year:

Robinson

G Neville
Terry
Ferdinand
A Cole

Lennon
Gerrard
Hargreaves
J Cole

Rooney
Crouch/Johnson