My team:
Hart
Johnson Cahill Lescott Cole
Lennon Gerrard Carrick Oxlade
Rooney Welbeck
Not going to predict a score, but I'm confident we'll beat them.
I think Poland will win this game, they have some class players. Bet http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jan_Tomaszewski features heavily in the build-up as per usual. I'd worry about any team of ours led by peanut brain shrek but seriously I think we might be found out
I think Milner will play instead of Lennon. We might nick a goal from a corner and edge it 1.0, otherwise a boring nil,nil.
2-1 England.
Poland are beatable, the lads need to get their heads out their arses for once and have a go.
However, this will change if we keep trying to pass the bleeding ball in the net.
Thing is, passing the ball properly (and yes that does mean more slowly) is the best way to play. That's why Spain and Italy are ahead of us, they don't have this impatient need to see the ball in the box every time they have the ball and it results in much better attacks when they do, it also helps the defence a lot because they have the ball most of the time. We're too impatient in this country, demanding the ball forward all the time and bemoaning the more continental players like Carrick (or at our level, Cairney) who play the ball sideways more often. Sadly, the people who display this impatience are the same ones who go on about how far behind the other top countries we are, but don't want to seem to want anything done about it.
Spain are so good because their work rate is far greater than anybody elses. They do lose the ball afterall. The likes of Xavi, Alonso, Iniesta, Busguets work hard to win it back, which is something Carrick, Milner, Gerrard, Lampard etc can't compete with.
It's also about having the confidence to pick the right pass- against San Marino we tried to play it through the eye of an needle every time, we had wingers in Baines & Walker, but everytime they came inside, rather than beat their man. They need to mix it up. A better team will mop that up.
Unfortunately, we don't have Iniesta, Xavi or Pirlo- so you can't always play possession football. Sometimes running with it at pace, and passing it around faster/ more direct is a good thing.
I expect us to play on the break. It might suit us away from home.
I don't agree that they will be worrying more about playing us, if anything it's a freeroll for them against our over-rated prima-donnas. It's a shame Walcott got injured because I don't like Lennon at all, for me he's the new Wright-Phillips, a huff and puff fairy on big wages who flatters to deceive, maybe Ok for Spurs now and then. Also that image of him smoking the cigar after we got busted out of the World Cup in Germany doesn't sit easy with me. The problem is we have so few players now that the old scummy types will keep getting recalled, that's why Beckham was playing till he was pension age.They have a few decent larkers, but we have much better players and they'll be worrying about us far more than we need to worry about them. They could well get a result, but it'd be an upset and we're nowhere near as bad as we like to make out we are.
You're probably right about Milner, that was just the team I'd like to see. I don't mind Milner for the record, but I prefer Lennon.
I don't agree that they will be worrying more about playing us, if anything it's a freeroll for them against our over-rated prima-donnas. It's a shame Walcott got injured because I don't like Lennon at all, for me he's the new Wright-Phillips, a huff and puff fairy on big wages who flatters to deceive, maybe Ok for Spurs now and then. Also that image of him smoking the cigar after we got busted out of the World Cup in Germany doesn't sit easy with me. The problem is we have so few players now that the old scummy types will keep getting recalled, that's why Beckham was playing till he was pension age.