If somebody would have answered my question when I asked 3 hours ago Chazz we could have avoided all this, now I can think about my team in full understanding of the rules ..
This hard for me because I'll only pick players from World Cups I remember. I was to young for Italia 90, we didn't quality for 94. So 1998 is the first one I remember. 1.Seaman 2.G.Neville 5.Ferdinand 6.Campbell 3.A.Cole 7.Beckham 8.Scholes 4.Gerrard 11.J.Cole 9.Rooney 10.Owen
Shilton Wright (Billy) Butcher, Moore (capt) Robson, Gerrard, Gazza, Matthews Charlton(R) Shearer, Linekar Bench: Banks, Edwards, Greaves, Ball, Keegan, Hoddle, Waddle.
On the outcome of cause home advantage helps greatly, but that was not my point, at the time the England team was not individually the 11 best players in the country, but players that fitted what Ramsey wanted to do.
I think most people picking these teams show what has gone wrong with the "golden generation" weve had recently. Nearly anyone you ask who the first name on the team would be and it would be Scholes... except the England manager who decided he should be played on the wing which made him retire. Absolutely criminal he wasn't played in centre midfield, should've been him and lampard as our midfield 2 as he was a class above any other players we had. Also of recent times Owen should always be in there as he never failed in games that matters unlike most.
Scholes played more than half of his England career in an attacking role in central midfield. It's just he went a bit rubbish for England there. And he wasn't quite played on the left wing. It was the left-hand side of a midfield diamond, which Zidane (among others) used to play in frequently for France with no detrimental effect on his game. The problem with the golden generation was that they were built to be good in domestic football in England but not much beyond. Scholes and Gerrard are as good a pair a midfielders as I've seen in the English top flight, but both were mostly disappointing for England. You can maybe lay a little of the blame at the door of Eriksson for that - once he started with his 'untouchables' nonsense he'd try to crowbar them all into the same XI rather than take some tough decisions and leave some of them out. I genuinely believe that the only player from the Golden Generation who had any real claim of being the best in the world in his position based on all three levels of football (club, Europe and international) was Ashley Cole. Rio Ferdinand and Gary Neville maybe got close too. Rio was the best defender in the 2002 World Cup, Neville was terrific in 1998 and 2006 - one of the best defensive full-backs on show in both tournaments, and one of the most under-rated crossers of the ball to ever wear an England shirt.
Just a shame the players never performed to the standard they could as we definitely should've won something with that set of players.
Pearce? Didnt he turn us down and signed for a non league team instead? Wealdstone i think? Hard to choose between him and A. Cole, but Pearce shaded it for being 'Psycho' and playing with a broken leg and his penalty celebration against Spain. That and the fact that Cole is a monumental bell end.
I always felt that Pearce was a bit over-rated. He wasn't that good defensively (an opinion shared by Brian Clough if you read his autobiography) and was largely admired because he shouted a lot and looked like he cared (see also, Butcher, Terry). Ashley Cole is undoubtedly a massive bell end, but that doesn't mean he wasn't a terrific full-back. Look at the job he did on Cristiano Ronaldo in the 2006 quarter-finals. Anyway, Pearce came to us on trial with another Wealdstone player for a few reserves games. We offered the both a contract but Pearce didn't take it because the other guy didn't. He ended up at Coventry, then Forest. I preferred Wayne Jacobs anyway...
I felt that we had a defence to win something. Worse keepers than Seaman or James have won international tournaments. Gary Neville was a very good right-back, Cole a terrific left-back, and in Rio, Sol Campbell and John Terry we had central defenders that would have got into most teams in the world. Our forwards were pretty good too. Michael Owen could unsettle any defence from 98 to about 2006, Rooney from 2002 to 2008. Latter-day Teddy Sheringham was great up until 2002 too, and Emile Heskey wasn't as terrible as people like to make out (he reduced Brazil's defence to ruble in the first half of the 2002 quarter-final game). I always think it's been our midfield that has stopped us competing. We lack the patience, the guile, the discipline and the intelligence to thrive against the best teams in the world. We look for the final ball too early. We get dragged out of position too easily. We have too many players who love the spectacular but needless Hollywood balls. We prefer tacklers to interceptors. Too many of our midfielders can't spot what an opposition defence is doing and alter their games accordingly (look at the way we kept trying to knock long balls over the Iceland defence's heads after they dropped deep after about 10 minutes in the last Euros. Rooney in particular showed that he has learnt nothing in his career in that game). To a lesser extent, we too frequently focus on what the players with a genuine spark can't do rather than what we can. We love pace too much (to the point where in the past decade or so we still have wingers who have built semi-decent international careers based on them simply being very fast runners). A lot of the things above are assets in domestic English football. They are an hinderance in international football, however.
That was in a friendly against a sort of Brazil XI (calling it their third team would be generous). His excellent substitute appearance against Argentina in 1986 was a much better demonstration of what he was capable of against quality opposition. He clearly wasn't fit in 1990, and that was where a lot of the bitterness towards him derived from. Which was a shame as he was generally better than people remember. Beardsley was a superior player in an England shirt, however.
No Brooking....Maybe in the 2nd XI then: Clemence Neville, Adams, Rio, Cole Scholes, Brooking, Beardsley, Rooney, Lofthouse, Owen Bench: Seaman, Peters, Lampard, Pearce, Campbell, Francis, Ince
