A) couldn't think of another rb but maybe Kyle Walker? B) could drop welbeck and play carrick ( I know he's not great, but the point is trying to establish a team core) but Rooney seems to want to drop deeper and you could see against benfica that if he does that on his own up front, there's nobody to pass to. Could drop cleverly for carrick I suppose for someone a bit more defensive, but I think that's wasting the young talent. C) since Walcott can't and Lennon is a joke, who do we play there? Young and then play a different left mid?
It's called an opinion. In my eyes he is the worst. I don't care a ****ing jot what you think, you proved nothing to me. We qualified for a tournament and it was the worst display in a major finals in living memory. That's all I care about. He is stealing his living off English football and contributing zero back into the game.
There isn't much point naming a side. What capello should do is put names in a hat, and draw them out. 1 hat for defenders, 1 hat for midfielders, 1 hat for strikers. Then make a gameplan based upon whoever was pulled out of the hat. It's a bizzare idea, but england have tried everything else.
Yes, Kyle Walker. Looks really good and will only improve. He was pretty good for the under 21's too. Him and Richards should compete for the RB spot. As for the DM, Parker has done a pretty good job. Carrick is also good. Those two and Wilshere and the boy Cleverly is again a very good set of CM's. Also i suppose Gerrard will be in and around that group. For the wing, i would play for Young on the other side and play Downing on the right. Just a massive shame that Adam Johnson can't get any games at City.
In my eyes capello is worse than McLaren, because at least the ginger one showed some passion, and seemed to enjoy his job.
Nope. Its not really a opinion. Its a fact. Qualifying for a major tournment is better then not qualifying for one. Hence he did a better job. There is no bigger shame then not making a Euro or World Cup. Taylor is seen as one of our worst managers of all time for a reason. And Steve is alongside him in that shame.
I don't mind downing, it just irks me that he has to cut inside to put a decent cross in the air. Adam Johnson still has the time to move away and save himself, but the wages people get at city seem to stop them being able to escape as nobody can match them other than a select few.
Micah Richards could play right back. Carrick would be a backwards step and for me we need to get rid of the older players and go with a young squad, like Germany did so brilliantly at the last world cup giving master coach Capello and his boys a football lesson. Walcott can play there, this bloke just talks ratshit. As much as it pains me to say this though, Downing could be an alternative on the wing. I don't rate him but he could yet improve.
Oh please. Have you watched Walcott play for England? The boy is scared ****less. The amount of stick he got for a bad game was unreal. Chris Waddle called him out and everytime he does something bad people always go back to that.
How long til rodwell fulfills his potential? Are there any good, young, defensive minded midfielders who are English any more?
I know. England have such a talent like Johnson who can can do everyting a winger needs to and he is getting wasted.
Hmmm, good shout. The jump between u21's and England enforcer might be a bit large though. Might want to ease him in.
Probaly. But for now having 3 in the midfield is probaly enough cover. You can get Parker to hold and let Wilshere and Cleverley to swap between doing a bit of defensive cover and going forward. Wilshere has played behind Fabregas in this role and did it to a really good level. Cleverley has played in a 2 man midfield so he should be doing something to get picked for United in terms of the defensive side of his game. But their attacking skills should never be in doubt. Two really high class players in terms of their passing,dribbling and one touch play.
you are all still assuming the english players are good enough! the players you're talking about are ALL very similar and havn't got a sniff of the type of creativity that makes the difference.... 98, zidane 02, ronaldo 06 zidane again. one of the worst for creativity really. germany were the best side to watch. 10 zavi, iniesta the fact is ronaldo and messi will be the next stars of a world cup not rooney. come on guys! english players lack the true flair and are all athletic, pacy (hopefully) and powerful but they are not xavi, not iniesta.... SIMPLE
The thread was too long to read, so this may of been covered earlier. But as I see it, there are numerous reasons why the England team fails so spectacularly at major competitions. The first being the media: For however long England remain at the tournament (whether Euro or World Cup), the media seems to think its acceptable to completely invade the travelling players lives, and scrutinising every bit of it. The same happens for all sports in England (whether its Tindall at the rugby, Flintoff at the cricket, or Hamilton in F1), throughout the whole time its all negative media. This makes it a particularly difficult environment to work in, these are footballers, not page 3 models whoring it up infront of the paparazzi to gain more fame (ala Jordan). They are there to play football, and if each player has to worry about every single thing he does whilst at a tournament, I couldn't imagine how stressed they would be, even before thinking of the quality they are expected to display by the same media invading their lives. This also means that these players cannot relax, something much needed in such a high pressure environment, it just creates a whole heap of negative vibes that really impacts heavily on the players, something that COULD be avoided if the media wernt such scavengers for any kind of story. The second reason is the Premier League: Players in the English national team are pretty much all players for the top teams in the Premiership. Whilst this is the same for most of the countries teams, the PL is the single most competitive league, and these players are spread over the best teams. As an example Spain: Their league has really only 2 competitive teams, Barca and Real Madrid. Pretty much all the first choice Spanish team comes from those two clubs ( i think maybe 6-7 from Barca alone). This means they are all playing with each other week in week out, and know each others games inside-out. The England players don't have that luxury. For the most part they are playing against each other trying to beat each other. This doesn't do the national team any favours, because these players can't gel as a unit if in their day to day playing they are trying to beat each other. This leads to... Point 3 - Lack of team camaraderie: You saw it when Spain won, they seem to all be friends off the pitch, and have fun together as a unit.. I saw that when England beat India recently in the test and one day series... Its something that just while seemingly superficial, I believe has quite a big impact on the field. The England players don't seem to remotely like each other, and whilst professionalism has its place, it just can't beat that camaraderie when you trust someone implicitly to do their job so that it in turn helps you. There doesn't appear to be any team building, and that everyone is just better in their own crowd, and playing their own game. 4th Point - Primadonnas: We saw it at the last World Cup, Rooney telling the fans who spent hundreds/thousands of pounds to watch the team play, that they wernt loyal. Instead of critizing his own extremely poor performance, he lashed out, and showed he had no regard for the English public, and the money they spent to watch him play at a high standard, that he didnt achieve. Its hard to tell how much these players care about football anymore, what with 150k a week going into their pockets, why would they need to. Especially when the National team contributes nothing to your wage packet. Also it seems players deem their worth by how much they are earning, players earning 150k a week, seem to think they are forever better than those earning less than them, when everyone else knows that there are highs and lows in performance, during the course of a career. These players have attitudes if they dont get the ball as much as they feel they deserve (probably by some deluded thought of im getting paid the most, i should have the ball the most), and at times it has seemed as if they are fighting for the ball between themselves (not in most recent performances admittedly). Fifth point: The manager - Not in recent times have we had a genuinely competent all round manager. You look at the quality of the individual players that can be selected, and think well, there is some great talent here, and then it just doesn't get delivered. I've only seen a handful of truly confident and controlling performances from England, and it just isnt good enough when you arent playing against a top nation. Now this may come down from the previous points, but the buck stops at the manager, he should know the best formations, the best team setup, and allowing players to play their game, but within a grand scheme of what the manager wants. He should know how to motivate the team, and inspire that kind of confident performance, that we should of seen vs Algeria, or thought we were going to see vs USA. Now I have no complaints in the bigger games, everyone seems to step up their game and play better once a big team comes a long.. but a tournament has psychological elements to it. After the horrifically weak group stage, Germany knew where our weaknesses were, they had the confidence to play their game, that all stemmed from complacency in the group stage, something a decent manager would of stopped happening. My last point, whilst has no scientific relevance, or relation to any of the kind of poor performances that have been seen, it has affected our tournaments, and that is BAD LUCK: The last couple of major tournaments and in ones past, we've had just awful luck (coming in the form of bad referees). We've had an obvious goal not count (something that would of made the outcome of that game completely different), we've had Rooney getting sent off for being fouled, vs Portugal (quite simply awful refereeing), we've also had Sol Campbells header being disallowed (for the softest foul ive ever seen), and Ronaldinho's cross that turned into a goal. Quite simply these events have all ended our Major tournaments, regardless of the performances behind them, we've been in a position to progress, but denied by either bad luck, or flat out moronic referees. For those TLR - England are bad, because there are no space fairies whispering in the players ears!
