The England Thread

[Scaly piscine]

Heh @ that defending, then the dive...

 

[Scaly piscine]

Hilarious defending again there, so nearly yet another o.g. clip for youtube.

 

[BoyBrumby]

Well if the plan was for us to look so mediocre it completely extinguishes any talk of us winning the thing then a great first half, but if not....

Me, I'm personally wondering if a strike force of a cripple, a recently recovered cripple, a giraffe & a child is quite the masterstroke it was hailed as. Decent header from Owen, but he's looked off the pace so far.

WRT Carragher, he's looked ok, but surely his prescence in the 11 when in Carrick & Hargreaves we have two players who play the holding role for their club sides, is a tacit admission Sven has picked the wrong squad?

 

[Barney Rubble]

Well if the plan was for us to look so mediocre it completely extinguishes any talk of us winning the thing then a great first half, but if not....

Me, I'm personally wondering if a strike force of a cripple, a recently recovered cripple, a giraffe & a child is quite the masterstroke it was hailed as. Decent header from Owen, but he's looked off the pace so far.

WRT Carragher, he's looked ok, but surely his prescence in the 11 when in Carrick & Hargreaves we have two players who play the holding role for their club sides, is a tacit admission Sven has picked the wrong squad?

Was it hailed as a masterstroke? I always thought everyone thought the same way as me....that it was a fricking stupid idea.

 

[BoyBrumby]

Was it hailed as a masterstroke? I always thought everyone thought the same way as me....that it was a fricking stupid idea.

A lot of the gentlemen of the fourth estate seemed to be quite impressed with it. Sven's clearly onto something with Lennon but I think he's kidding himself with Theo.

Great goal from Crouch as I type. Great turn & finish.

3-1 a bit flattering tho.

 

[Scaly piscine]

Hope everyone caught the brilliant 'winning lead' remark there. I don't see a problem with Theo particularly, it's more that there are only 4 forwards (and one of them isn't available for a while).

Anyway I've said it before and I'll say it again, England playing anything but a 4-4-2 is a waste of time - except against Brazil possibly.

 

[Scaly piscine]

heh @ Lawrenceson giving England 7 out of 10. An average Brazil performance would get a 20 then eh.

 

[Barney Rubble]

A lot of the gentlemen of the fourth estate seemed to be quite impressed with it. Sven's clearly onto something with Lennon but I think he's kidding himself with Theo.

Great goal from Crouch as I type. Great turn & finish.

3-1 a bit flattering tho.

Lennon was a good idea. SWP was clearly short of match practice and Lennon's been in scorching form.

Walcott wasn't a good idea. He's struggled to make an impact in his two short appearances so far - compare that to the debut of a certain other 17-year-old, when he took Australia on and nearly scored two or three times. Theor Walcott isn't Wayne Rooney, and the sooner Sven realises that, the better.

The selection of Owen Hargreaves was another one that struck me as, well, stupid, seeing as he's not been in the setup much for the last 12 months and is crap at best.

Downing wasn't that illogical a selection, but an odd one nonetheless, seeing as he's not had any experience apart from 30 minutes in a friendly, and Sven has shown in the warmups that he's reluctant to use him. He'd have been better served picking another striker - Darren Bent should have gone IMO, as other than Crouch, we have no-one capable of being a target man. No matter how often Sven tries Owen on his own up front.

The thing that struck me first about the selection was "Rooney's injured, and Sven has no Plan B, so he's gambled on a series of left-field selections". I hope that's not the case.

 

[BoyBrumby]

Lennon was a good idea. SWP was clearly short of match practice and Lennon's been in scorching form.

Walcott wasn't a good idea. He's struggled to make an impact in his two short appearances so far - compare that to the debut of a certain other 17-year-old, when he took Australia on and nearly scored two or three times. Theor Walcott isn't Wayne Rooney, and the sooner Sven realises that, the better.

The selection of Owen Hargreaves was another one that struck me as, well, stupid, seeing as he's not been in the setup much for the last 12 months and is crap at best.

Downing wasn't that illogical a selection, but an odd one nonetheless, seeing as he's not had any experience apart from 30 minutes in a friendly, and Sven has shown in the warmups that he's reluctant to use him. He'd have been better served picking another striker - Darren Bent should have gone IMO, as other than Crouch, we have no-one capable of being a target man. No matter how often Sven tries Owen on his own up front.

The thing that struck me first about the selection was "Rooney's injured, and Sven has no Plan B, so he's gambled on a series of left-field selections". I hope that's not the case.

I suspect Crouch is our plan B; that plan being "hump it up to the big lad".

Personally I think Bent played himself out of the squad against Uruguay. He looked overawed by the occasion (and it was only a friendly) and a bit out of his depth. I think Ashton might've got the nod if he'd have been fit for the run in; he's probably the closest thing we have to an old-fashioned "English" number 9 around just now.

As for Hargreaves, I'm a long way from being a fan, but he has just played a crucial role for a team who've completed the double for (I think) the second year on the bounce. Plus, of course, he can play more or less anywhere in defence or midfield.

 

[steds]

I suspect Crouch is our plan B; that plan being "hump it up to the big lad".

Is Sven Joe Royle and/or Howard Kendall in disguise?

 

[Barney Rubble]

I suspect Crouch is our plan B; that plan being "hump it up to the big lad".

Personally I think Bent played himself out of the squad against Uruguay. He looked overawed by the occasion (and it was only a friendly) and a bit out of his depth. I think Ashton might've got the nod if he'd have been fit for the run in; he's probably the closest thing we have to an old-fashioned "English" number 9 around just now.

As for Hargreaves, I'm a long way from being a fan, but he has just played a crucial role for a team who've completed the double for (I think) the second year on the bounce. Plus, of course, he can play more or less anywhere in defence or midfield.

Well, I suppose "hump it up to the big lad" is better than our plan against Portugal, which looked like "hump it up to the two little lads".

I agree Bent didn't have a great game against Uruguay, but I think he's got an ability to hold the ball up which few English strikers have these days. Ashton, however, is one who does, and I certainly agree that had he been a bit more physically sharp he would have certainly been a good bet.

As for Hargreaves' versatility, it's a fair point - but if we're picking someone for that job, I would actually rather we'd have taken Phil Neville!

 

[James]

Chris Waddle makes a fair point about Hargreaves:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/world_cup_2006/teams/england/4944192.stm

I feel sorry for Owen Hargreaves. He plays in a diamond at Bayern Munich where he sits in front of the defence and does it very well.

You are no mug if you can get in the Bayern Munich team every week.

We do not see the Bundesliga, we just see him come on for England for 15 minutes every now and again and I feel for him.

I don't think he has ever been given a good run in the side but if you are looking for an anchor midfielder, along with Carrick he deserves a chance.

He is very effective in Germany, where they rate him very highly and I don't think we have seen the best of him and I am not sure whether we ever will.

 

[marc71178]

Vegetable always gives the nod to the 'big club' player whenever possible and virtually ignores whether a player is used to playing in a certain position or not.

Which explains Ledley King how exactly?

And which other "small" club players deserve a place in the team then?

 

[marc71178]

Heh @ that defending, then the dive...

Assuming you mean the penalty, it was a dead set foul, and thus a correct decision.

 

[steds]

Assuming you mean the penalty, it was a dead set foul, and thus a correct decision.

Didn't touch him.

 

[aussie]

was at OT for the 1st 60 minutes of the game (yesterday english time), very glad that Sven went for the 4-5-1, but initally i was peplexed at why Carragher played in the holding mid-field role, but he didn't look to out of depth in that position. But it makes you wonder what use Carrick will have in the WC now that Sven has seemingly gone for Carragher in that position.

 

[Craig]

I thought Joe Cole took his time to get involved in the game.

 

[marc71178]

Didn't touch him.

And your point is?

It was a dead set penalty, regardless of contact.

 

[Pedro Delgado]

Well he's had a look at Carragher and Hargreaves, hopefully it'll be Carrick on Saturday then we'll see who will start in the role and who will be the back up. You can say what you like about Bayern and Hargreaves, he doesn't look good enough for me I'm afraid, the scouse centre half did better; is Waddle advocating building the side around Hargreaves or summat?

Good grief.

Anyway, this is what it'll be like playing Sweden (as if we need to know) men behind the ball and breaking, Sweden are better than Hungary though obviously. Hope Carrick gets the holding role on Saturday, if he or Neville get injured Carragher can do either role, though he needs to look up more after he's won the ball, he looked decent but limited. Hungary wouldn't have scored if Carragher was still on, he'd have closed down that chap I reckon. Great goal though nevertheless. Not impressed by Hargreaves again.
Lampard looked a lot better when Gerrard went off. Owen will sharpen up and start putting those chances away, J.Cole is playing consistently well now. Gerrard did okay, doubt he'll get many free headers like that again though, blatent dive from the cheesy-faced **** too. Crouch again proved he's a good late sub, I like it. A good 'keeper would've claimed the catch for the JT goal. A.Cole and Rio, meh. Theo, settled in okay, pacey and looked dangerous at times but the game passed him by a little.

Friendlies mean **** all really though, players are at 80-90%.

 

[Scaly piscine]

I can't believe how positive the BBC are about that performance, it was ordinary at best. Hungary were absolutely atrocious, they had an good attacking free-kick at 2-0 and they put two players up for it - they were there just to be thumped nicely so England could look good, but England didn't even manage that. Hungary would have struggled to beat San Marino with that performance last night, even when they had everyone back defending (which was most of the game) they still managed to give Crouch several acres to turn and score the third. The other two goals were set pieces that were also defended badly. Anyone who thinks 4-5-1 is going to work is living in cloud ****oo land - it didn't even work against Hungary (anyone remember what happened in the first half hour? No, because anyone watching would have fallen into a coma)