The Dutch team have an interesting conundrum - RVP and Huntelaar are both in ridiculous form and the team actually play more cohesively with Huntelaar up top as a target man. But it would be foolish to drop RVP.
to be fair i'm not english myself but i think england whilst not on the level of spain or germany are pretty close and imo ahead of the likes of france and italy when it comes to young players. I'm not referring solely to clubs such as manu, chelsea, arsenal etc but also the likes of southampton, aston villa and west ham which are loaded with talent. The problem is most england managers are unimaginative and tend to stick to the old guard rather than giving new players a chance trusting long held reputations and media hype rather than judging for themselves. They continue to really on physicality and graft rather than flair and technical ability.
The French players are a typical example of 'good' individual players not making for a good team. Too many competing ego's maybe.
JJSB - thats been the problem, we "think" we have good players, because they are good for their clubs, but they cannot play international football, not technical or disciplined enough. Whether we like it or not international football is considerably different to English club football, the players that play a more possession style football are comfortable on the ball but others try to force the play or play at 100mph, like Gerrard. Gerrard, Lampard, etc etc as a team were not effective. I think the players we have coming through now will be more effective. I think Ashley Young has come on leaps and bounds, it might be too soon for Sturridge. Rooney doesn't cut it for me at international level and he is our best striker, Wilshere is ready but I can't see any real quality offensively, defensively solid but not at CB. Barry is too slow, Parker would make a better DM but where is the real quality in the team ? As for Germany being as good as Spain or close to them, oh leave off. First of all the Spaniards showed their togetherness in recent tournaments, whether Real Madrid or Barcelona, they will play as a team and play possession football unmatched by anyone else - like they did in the World Cup. There will not be any splinters in the team, thats wishful thinking, we saw Catalans and Madridistas celebrating together at the World Cup and the Madrid/Barcelona rivalry was feisty then.
Thats a decent enough team but Wilshere would need to play as an AM in my view, he'd be a major threat. The CB pairing would get mugged off though, any intelligent forwards would make them look silly in my view. As much as I don't like to admit it Terry is still the best CB England have. Walcott would need to be played as a pseudo striker not a winger to have any affect at all, we all know he is pants as a winger. Young's whipped in balls will be a danger as will his shooting. Still don't think this team could beat any decent team though, just not used to playing intelligent football, its always meat and 2 veg football.
to be fair most of them are playing in the u21s or lower but there are flair player and if i was to select a team consisting of them (very young mind you) it would be: Hart walker jones smalling baines AOC wilshere rodwell(when fit) young rooney sturridge
I have to disagree here. Goetze over Schweinsteiger any day of the week for me. Mario is the assist leader in the German league and is starting to add goals to his game also. This is debateble though, Schweinsteiger is a quality player. Mario Gomez HAS to start. The man is a goal machine. 39 goals last Season and he's on 37 already this time round. Gomez gets a bad rap because of the last Euros, where he was expected to perform after being linked to a whole host of Premierleague clubs but it just did'nt happen for him.(would have been a GREAT signing for Arsenal) Regardless Klose is old, barely starts these days while Gomez is arguably the most consistant striker in Europe.
nope dont know anything about italy while a little about france admittedly though i try and keep an eye out for these things but russia has quite a few talents if im not mistaken as does serbia....actually we were strongly linked with one of them in the january transfer window who plays for cska. His name is alan dzagoev. I might put up a video of him on the transfer thread actually seeing as he may be another option for attacking midfield
It's funny when people called Arsenal a foreign team full of French players. Now we carry potentially 2 of the best future English players, and another 3 more that will feature for England. We should have at least 3 English players playing for the national team at the same time. We will hopefully usher a new era of English football that won't rely on kick and rush, but on skillful, technical play....
I always worried about Lescott at the highest level, but his form is good. I take your point though, Terry has all the experience in these tournaments. I don't agree with Wilshere being pushed into attack, he needs to develop as a player more to fit that role. I understand we want him for that role because of the space in Arsenal's team, but his best position is the centre circle as a central hub. Plus, I really think we need Gerrard still. I would expect Walcott to come in off the right, and that's another reason to put Gerrard in, as he is capable of covering the flanks.
That's fine. I think Goetze would be amazing in any team but I just potrayed the German team most likely to start. If it was for me, Khedira wouldn't be in the first XI at all. I rate the Bender-twins higher than him for example. Schweinsteiger is the 'captain without armband', he is the leader of the team and the player who dictates play. He was the German at the last World Cup IMO. Schweinsteiger and Goetze are completely different players. Klose was a regular for Lazio until he got injured about 2 weeks ago and has played a good season in the Italian league. Based on the qualifying campaign (only Huntelaar scored more) and recent internationals, I can't see Gomez starting over Klose. They trashed Holland last November and Klose was outstanding in that game. I agree that Gomez is getting unfair judgement because of the last Euros, I still have no idea how he was so horrible after having a great season for Stuttgart. On the French team: I completely forgot that Ben Arfa is French, he would be a great option. When is the last time he played for them? Must have been a while.
Thing is thats where Wilshere played in the youth team, far more of an attacking midfielder and he was fantastic, he'd drift past players with ease, slide in strikers or go for shots around the box, I personally think that would be his best position - he is wasting his talent sitting deeper. If you have a player who can beat a man you want him to play where he can hurt the other team. Has Gerrard ever had a good game for England ? I can't remember if he has. Looking at Arsenal's English players, if Walcott develops as he should he'd be a starter for England, Gibbs would be LB - he's very composed, with OXO and Wilshere providing some creativity - 4 England players isn't too shabby at all.
Fair point, I just think its risky to put our attacking midfield in such young hands. We know he can pass the ball and keep possession better than anyone, which is why I think he should be the central midfielder. However, if we move Wilshere forward, that leaves room to bring in Milner, who is massively under-rated. Milner works so hard all over the pitch. Man City could do with playing him more in their current form.
