The Football.....

[User482]

I didn't think it was all that bad and England was certainly far more joined up than they were against Chile. Townsend and Lalalalallala had their moments, too, and it's always good to see new ambitions at play. Germany, I thought, were quite lucky to come away with the win with that team.

We retained possession much better, but ultimately we failed to create any clear-cut chances against a second-string Germany, who didn't appear to be all that interested for most of the game. They would've murdered us with Ozil and Lahm in the team.

 

[mark st1]

1.Hart
2.Walker
3.A.Cole
4. Jagielka (spelling)
5.Cahill
6.Baines
7.Townsend
8.Gerrard
9.Carrick
10.Rooney
11.Walcott

Imo would be a good team to got to the World Cup with any advances ? Also think Dawson should be in the squad Spurts captain and for me a quality centre back a position where we seem to be struggling.

 

[MarkF]

Don't like some of it Mark. The central area is a middle aged convention and I don't like 2 centre backs, plus Walker is poo.

I'd replace Walker with Johnson, who can actually pass amid his mistakes, Walker just makes mistakes. All our centre backs are crap, stone age footballers, they are totally unnecessary in international football, what do they do? What is their job? After all, no other country is daft enough to play a Carroll-a-like. I'd play Jagielka because he is marginally less crap than the other lumps, with Gerrard alongside him. This will improve distriubution from the back and enable the team to have a non-geriatric midfielder, Wilshire maybe.

I'd keep it very tight, accept England can't take on top teams in an expansive game and use Townsend's "directness", Walcott's pace and Rooney's touch.

Johnson - Gerrard - Jagielka - Cole
Townsend - Wilshire - Carrick - Baines
Rooney
Walcott

1.Hart
2.Walker
3.A.Cole
4. Jagielka (spelling)
5.Cahill
6.Baines
7.Townsend
8.Gerrard
9.Carrick
10.Rooney
11.Walcott

Imo would be a good team to got to the World Cup with any advances ? Also think Dawson should be in the squad Spurts captain and for me a quality centre back a position where we seem to be struggling.

 

[AndyRM]

IMO Rooney is past it, and has been for a while. That shinner he fluked a couple of seasons ago bought him time that he really didn't deserve.

This will no doubt prove unpopular, but I'd play Lambert. No, he's not the most technically gifted player in the world, but he knows where the net is and isn't afraid to get his laces through the ball. He's also an excellent physical player.

The weird obsession that exists around playing football the "right" way, based on Spain's tiki-taca bore-fest is total baws IMO. Play to your strengths. If that means longer balls forward to be played off to a nippy fella then so be it. That's why I reckon a Lambert/Townsend combo would work (ignore Carroll, Liverpool ruined him). It might not be pretty, but if it works, who cares?

 

[MarkF]

The problem England have is keeping the ball long enough to have an attempt on goal, I don't think giving it away (long ball/guessing) will help matters.

 

[swee'pea99]

IMO Rooney is past it, and has been for a while. That shinner he fluked a couple of seasons ago bought him time that he really didn't deserve.

This will no doubt prove unpopular, but I'd play Lambert. No, he's not the most technically gifted player in the world, but he knows where the net is and isn't afraid to get his laces through the ball. He's also an excellent physical player.

The weird obsession that exists around playing football the "right" way, based on Spain's tiki-taca bore-fest is total baws IMO. Play to your strengths. If that means longer balls forward to be played off to a nippy fella then so be it. That's why I reckon a Lambert/Townsend combo would work (ignore Carroll, Liverpool ruined him). It might not be pretty, but if it works, who cares?

There's a lot in that - certainly I buy into the idea that England teams are probably best off not trying to 'play Spanish'. But while it's easy to knock Rooney, and sure, he's not the player he was, I think he remains one of the very few players we have who can actually put oppositions on the back foot. It's not his goal scoring; it's his ability to instantly weigh up a situation and find - and execute - the right pass to split a side apart and set up a new dynamic shape going forward that's really always been his key strength. And that vision and skill, fortunately, doesn't decline with age the way speed or stamina do.

 

[AndyRM]

There's a lot in that - certainly I buy into the idea that England teams are probably best off not trying to 'play Spanish'. But while it's easy to knock Rooney, and sure, he's not the player he was, I think he remains one of the very few players we have who can actually put oppositions on the back foot. It's not his goal scoring; it's his ability to instantly weigh up a situation and find - and execute - the right pass to split a side apart and set up a new dynamic shape going forward that's really always been his key strength. And that vision and skill, fortunately, doesn't decline with age the way speed or stamina do.

That's a fair point about his vision and the accuracy of his passing. I suppose my counter to that would be that a good pass is all well and good, but not much use if the receiving player doesn't know what to do with it.

If he was aiming at Van Persie, it would be a different matter.

 

[MarkF]

Spain (and others) play a 6 second rule, that is if they lose possession, they want it back within 6 seconds........ max. It takes some of the England players that long to get the ball under control. That's another reason why I'd junk unnecessary centre backs and have Gerrard there, England are decades behind, best (IMO) to have players capable of controlling a ball and set (not hoof) pace free, Walcott, Townsend etc.

 

[AndyRM]

Set Walcott free?! So he can hare down the wing, get confused, try to cut in, ending up in a graceless heap on the floor?

When I said longer balls, I didn't mean aimless hoofs. More a considered pass to a player capable of controlling it, holding it up and having the guile to do something decent with the ball.

 

[MarkF]

I don't think England have enough (if any) of those players capable of doing that, that is running, thinking & controlling a ball at speed.

I wouldn't want Walcott on the wing, I'd have him as the last man because England don't have any strikers to frighten anybody, the latest "hope" has reached 24 and can still only use one foot!

 

[TheMcDay]

As a Southampton supporter I'll be hoping for a slightly better result against Arsenal than some of you are predicting. Hoping being the key word here.

 

[Archie_tect]

Your faith in Sunderland and Newcastle is encouraging!

 

[RedRider]

Jose Mourinho really is a curious character. A proper good baddy

On a referee's apology:

"I'm very curious to know the consequences of it. At least now the referees know, they know one thing. If in a controversial – I'm not saying a mistake – decision that hypothetically – and, I repeat, hypothetically – favours Chelsea they know they are going to be publicly exposed by their boss. That they know.
"They can make, hypothetically, mistakes, favouring other teams, nothing happens. If hypothetically – and, I repeat, hypothetically – they make a mistake, they are publicly exposed by their own boss.

"I'm very curious to know if it was just an isolated phone call. I'm curious to know if people see that as a normal situation. I'm interested to know if this is the start, that from now on it's going to be the same for everybody.

I'm curious to know if Steve Bruce got a phone call. I'm interested to know if Chris Hughton got a phone call. I'm interested to know if Laudrup got a phone call. Nobody called me to apologise about the fact that it was not a free-kick against West Bromwich in their second goal. Nobody apologised to me for the penalty against Everton, which would have been 1-1 for us. I don't know if Paul Lambert got a phone call. I don't know.

And on whether he called Jonas Olsson a Mickey Mouse player:

"Giant players, giant coaches and giant clubs, they don't speak about what happens in the tunnel. The game is a game, the game finished, in the tunnel sometimes a couple of things happen, a couple of words, not aggressions, nothing. But giant clubs, giant players and giant managers, they close their mouths. And the next day is another day."

It's childish stuff but dead entertaining.

 

[Andrew_P]

I guess the allure of the Premiership cash, coupled with no one really fancying the job means we CPFC go from publicly stating we want a progressive coach and to play similar style to Dortmund to employing Tony Pulis! Some turn around that!

 

[ianrauk]

Get in there Lukaku......
A couple more years and he is going to be a world class player.