Re: FIFA World Cup 2010 : Sat Jun 19, 2010 10:10 am  

Awful, awful, awful! Them "players" may as well pack up their belongings and come home immediately. That dross last night was worse than watch hungover pub footballers on freezing cold Sunday mornings in January. There should be zebras on that pitch, at least they'd pay for themselves and score more goals.

JAMES - Didn't make his customery mistake - for once!
JOHNSON - Will go forward until the cows come home, but isn't interested in defending.
CARRAGHER - I've seen knackered beaten up Ladas turn quicker than him, his booking was very predictable.
TERRY - A certified coward if ever there was one.
A. COLE - Totally not interested in playing.
LENNON - One of the best players four years ago, but has gone backwards.
GERRARD - Talks the talk, but can't back it up with action.
LAMPARD - Vastly over-rated, the amount of chances in seven years or so he has had to prove himself and only had about three good games for his country really is an insult to the country and the fans.
BARRY - Had a go, but uninspiring.
HESKEY - Complete waste of time him being there, first touch every time is shoddy.
ROONEY - What a let down! And bad-mouthing the fans who have paid thousands of pounds and travelled as many miles to be there on live TV is very irresponsible behaviour.
WRIGHT-PHILLIPS - After his terrible showing against the yanks, why was this jackass given a second chance when there's a perfectly talented player in Joe Cole rotting on the bench?
DEFOE - Never got involved in the match when he came on apart from his would-be shot.
CROUCH - Not even gonna waste my breath with that one.

All of this while poor Nobby Stiles, one of 66 heroes is recovering from a nasty stroke, he was somebody from an age when footballers were footballers, instead of the lazy prima-donna millionaires who care more about the condition of their sportscars rather than their performance.

My heart goes out to all the England fans who have travelled to South Africa and have been taken for mugs. At this rate, England would not even beat Scotland and to use the phrase "we're tired" is appaling and sticking two fingers up at the fans. So to end with, send the whole bloody lot of these wasters either to Afghanistan or Iraq, say how these pampered prats cope out there without any guarantee of making it through the day.

Rant over!

Re: FIFA World Cup 2010 : Sat Jun 19, 2010 10:23 am  

Sex scandals, one dimensional tactics, pressure from the media to change those tactics, results, only once before do I remember it being so bad for England at a World Cup. It was the Mike Bassett: England Manager reign in Brazil.

Rooney has some soul-searching to do. An absolutely disgraceful performance. We can lambast Heskey all week, and yes, he was rubbish last night. But Rooney was just as bad if not worse, which is inconceivable after being compared in the same bracket as Messi and Ronaldo all season.

Everybody knows Gerrard is getting nullified out wide. Play him where he plays for his club, Rooney plays a similar role to Torres for United anyway. I've serious doubts as to whether Lampard can justify selection as well, but I don't know if it's also that wise for us to make wholesale changes so quickly.

James
Johnson Dawson / Upson Terry Cole
Lennon Barry Milner / Lampard Cole
Gerrard
Rooney

Re: FIFA World Cup 2010 : Sat Jun 19, 2010 11:33 am  

El Pac Carnegie wrote:

What a well reasoned reply. On second thought's I'm awfully glad you decided to drop by

Glad I was able to get down to your level of intellect!!

It was hard work but I am pleased by the success.

Thank you for proving my points so succinctly!!!

Re: FIFA World Cup 2010 : Sat Jun 19, 2010 11:36 am  

Wanderer wrote:

Barry spent half the night protecting Terry and Carragher.

Isn't that half the job of a defensive holding midfielder?

I don't see why Carragher is getting so much stick, when called on to defend he did his job, bar that swing that lead to nothing, he defended pretty well. Considering everyone knows that's what he is, a defender and not a ball player a la Beckenbauer, why jump on the bandwagon and criticise when he doesn't play like a ball player a la Beckenbauer?

For me, a major part of the problem is that the ball was not sticking up front, in the few times it did we looked a lot better.

Rooney is badly off form and doesn't look like he can control a ball at the moment.

If Heskey doesn't win the ball and hold it (did in the first game, didn't last night) he offers virtually nothing to the team.

Gerrard is no longer a central midfielder and has had his best games for Liverpool playing off Torres, and has been that way for 2-3 years now. Why not play him there?

Lampard offers nothing playing in a deep central midfield role, he offers goal scoring threat, he's not a ball winner, he isn't a player to ping 40 yard balls to wingers, why are we trying to shoehorn him into that role? We may as well play Carrick there, he'd probably do a better job.

I'd go along with the majority and change the formation, it's ok having a set formation when you can bring players in to fit it, when you can't you're better changing the formation to suit the players you have. Maybe it's time to bite the bullet and drop one of Gerrard or Lampard to the bench.

Re: FIFA World Cup 2010 : Sat Jun 19, 2010 11:37 am  

Matt23 wrote:

Agree with that last bit. Get Joe Cole on the left, stick Gerrard in behind Rooney. Barry can then sit, this will give Lampard more chance to get in the box, and let's face it he or Gerrard are much more likely to score a goal than Heskey. Joe Cole will provide an outlet and abit of imagination on the left, Gerrard looked lost to me last night.

Matt, the Gerrard and Lampard problem is still occurring. It was a problem 5 years ago, it is still a problem now, it will be a problem in 5 years from now. Lampard is not a 4-4-2 central midfield player, neither is Gerrard and when they play there, their game is so restricted and they don't play in a 'natural' way that suits their game. They aren't players who thrive on having the ball in deeper positions, they aren't great possession decision makers, they can spot a pass when they're closer to goal, but they don't dictate play, asking either of them to do so will result in something similar to last night, where the team has no flow and the team is unable to create sustained periods of possession.

I'd honestly drop Lampard and I'd play Gerrard behind Rooney. He tried it once a few years back against France in a friendly, it didn't work but I think he was asking Gerrard to do too much of a striker's job, whereas Gerrard actually thrives off picking the ball up in space, closer to the goal so he can either drive with it, play a short through ball or have a crack at goal. Play him anywhere else and he is wasted, IMO. I'd probably look at playing either Carrick or Milner in midfield next to Barry, just because they provide greater mobility than THudd.

Re: FIFA World Cup 2010 : Sat Jun 19, 2010 11:39 am  

Leaguefan wrote:

Glad I was able to get down to your level of intellect!!

It was hard work but I am pleased by the success.

Thank you for proving my points so succinctly!!!

If your point is that you're increasingly tiresome and there is only you that finds your posts funny, then you'd be correct.

Re: FIFA World Cup 2010 : Sat Jun 19, 2010 12:00 pm  

Robbie Rotten wrote:

I'd probably look at playing either Carrick or Milner in midfield next to Barry, just because they provide greater mobility than THudd.

Huddlestone would need to show a great deal of mobility given that he's not in the squad

Re: FIFA World Cup 2010 : Sat Jun 19, 2010 12:19 pm  

worthing wire wrote:

Huddlestone would need to show a great deal of mobility given that he's not in the squad

I thought he took him? Oh well. He picked a crap squad, it doesn't surprise me he left a decent player at home. Adam Johnson must be thinking 'all my life I've grown up hearing about England needing a left footed left winger, I come along, tear it up in the prem yet I only get 10 minutes of a friendly to show my worth'. Whilst Capello makes inspired substitutions, such as Lennon for SWP, a real game changer.

Re: FIFA World Cup 2010 : Sat Jun 19, 2010 12:27 pm  

Robbie Rotten wrote:

I thought he took him? Oh well. He picked a crap squad, it doesn't surprise me he left a decent player at home. Adam Johnson must be thinking 'all my life I've grown up hearing about England needing a left footed left winger, I come along, tear it up in the prem yet I only get 10 minutes of a friendly to show my worth'. Whilst Capello makes inspired substitutions, such as Lennon for SWP, a real game changer.

The SWP selection is mind boggling! Johnson would have added a real benefit on the left and even Walcott would have added genuine pace. SWP is just a waste of time. Then again so is Barry to an extent, fair enough he sits in front of the defence but all our attacks start through him and he can't pass the ball further than about 5 yards, all he did last night was constantly give the ball away.

Re: FIFA World Cup 2010 : Sat Jun 19, 2010 12:34 pm  

We haven't created enough chances and in 180 minutes against average opposition, we haven't really looked like scoring.

Clearly we need a shake up in attack, so I'd go with:

James
Johnson Terry Dawson A Cole
Barry
Lennon Lampard J Cole
Gerrard
Rooney

We need to see more from Rooney. He clearly isn't happy with the current set up, and he's said he'd rather play up front by himself, so give him the chance, after all, he's our best hope.

We'll see more width from Cole out on the left, and if Capello let the players know this is the side, the two Coles could try and get a partnership similar to that of Neville and Beckham going on the left, as could Johnson and Lennon. That for me has been of the most disappointing things; we have good wide players, both on the wings and at full back, but Capello has not used them, and his refusal to name his squad until two hours prior to kick off gives the players no chance of getting any set moves together, or understanding of each other's games.

As I said last night, I think we'll probably win on Wednesday and qualify, but if we persist with the same formation and tactics we have no chance in the last 16.