LATEST ENGLAND SQUAD ANNOUNCEDAZURRI

Otto's Olympic Dream wrote:
Problem is, team spirit can only get us so far, as we've proven time and time again with gritty players without enough quality.

I don't think we even have team spirit anymore. With all the money, the prestige, the endorsements, the hype and so on, our footballers all play as individuals, using the national team as a means to furthering their own careers rather than the nation's sporting reputation.

You can see this whenever mistakes are made. When Gerrard misplaces or overhits a pass and England lose possession, no one is charging back to help the midfield win it back again. And because Gerrard thinks he is Mr Football, to the extent of being so tactically inept that even his club side put two DMs on the pitch to cover for his profligacy, he never runs back to win the ball when playing for England. Likewise, if a defender makes a mistake, the other defenders don't really bother to cover, knowing that the blame will all be placed on the one who made the initial mistake.

Going forward, hardly anyone takes proper risks (due to not wanting to be individually blamed for collective failure), and of course, being England, we have no wingers and our forwards are weak when it comes to positioning/movement. Everyone just plays conservative passes or blockbuster long balls that will only come off one time in twenty, but if they do they can claim credit (individually) for making a chance.

Regardless of lack of technical ability, regardless of tactical naivety, regardless of an incompetent FA, regardless of a stupid pack of supporters - if the team are all just individuals solely concerned with maintaining or enhancing their own reputations then we will never win anything.

Same is true of broader society, for that matter.

Looks like Lampard is fit to play.

So a Barry + Lampard midfield. Then Joe Cole and one other on the wings.

Guessing by the hype it'll be Defoe partnering Rooney up front.


------------ Barry ----- Lampard

--- DB* --------------------------- J Cole

------------ Rooney ----- Defoe



DB = either Bentley or Beckham.

Bring back the sigs! wrote:

Otto's Olympic Dream wrote:
Problem is, team spirit can only get us so far, as we've proven time and time again with gritty players without enough quality.

I don't think we even have team spirit anymore. With all the money, the prestige, the endorsements, the hype and so on, our footballers all play as individuals, using the national team as a means to furthering their own careers rather than the nation's sporting reputation.

You can see this whenever mistakes are made. When Gerrard misplaces or overhits a pass and England lose possession, no one is charging back to help the midfield win it back again. And because Gerrard thinks he is Mr Football, to the extent of being so tactically inept that even his club side put two DMs on the pitch to cover for his profligacy, he never runs back to win the ball when playing for England. Likewise, if a defender makes a mistake, the other defenders don't really bother to cover, knowing that the blame will all be placed on the one who made the initial mistake.

Going forward, hardly anyone takes proper risks (due to not wanting to be individually blamed for collective failure), and of course, being England, we have no wingers and our forwards are weak when it comes to positioning/movement. Everyone just plays conservative passes or blockbuster long balls that will only come off one time in twenty, but if they do they can claim credit (individually) for making a chance.

Regardless of lack of technical ability, regardless of tactical naivety, regardless of an incompetent FA, regardless of a stupid pack of supporters - if the team are all just individuals solely concerned with maintaining or enhancing their own reputations then we will never win anything.

Same is true of broader society, for that matter.

Predictions v Croatia?

I think Croatia will be a cagey 0-0. England will just play not to lose, and does have a pretty strong defence, so could hold out. Both sides would be reasonably happy with a draw.

1-1. A scrappy set piece goal from England to equalise in the 80th minute or later after being comprehensively outplayed.

If they draw with Croatia,England will of gained some respect. If they win a scrappy game 2-1 It will go a long way to help the side feel they are clawing themselves out of the barrel. As a fan yes it would be great to see good football, I'm looking for some metal, hard work from the whole team with a never say die attitude. Real True grit stuff. Thats something to build on everyone can see. If you want pretty football please do not turn on the television.

On the evidence of Capello's last outings, i expect a 2-0 loss to Croatia.

I really really hope that we lose to Croatia. The longer we go on kidding ourselves that we're as good as we'd like to think we are the longer we'll go without us winning anything. People still genuinely think that Croatia beating us twice was down to them playing better on the day, or us playing poorly considering our ability or our players not putting in the effort. The truth is that Croatia ARE a better team than England - yet still we choose to ignore this plain fact and con ourselves that it was all the managers fault or suchlike.

The best England team in recent times was the World Cup 2002 one, the reason it worked so effectively was because after the disaster of Euro 2000, people started to question just how good as a country we actually were. From then on we actually BUILT A TEAM, a team that was able to thump Germany 5-1, beat Argentina and come very close to beating Brazil, which had we done, we probably would have won the tournement.

England needs to be built from the ground up, we need to essentially start again and if that takes another failed qualification to drum it home to the people in this country then i'll be happy to take it.

I'd like to see a 4-1-3-2 against Andorra which should for the most part be a 2-1-5-2



ideally I'd play Gerrard or Beckham at fullback, but Gerrard is injured and Beckham can't run. Terry wouldn't be in the side either but he's captain so will be first choice (my only reason for supporting Ferdinand's captaincy)

Rasiak-9 wrote:
The best England team in recent times was the World Cup 2002 one, the reason it worked so effectively was because after the disaster of Euro 2000, people started to question just how good as a country we actually were. From then on we actually BUILT A TEAM, a team that was able to thump Germany 5-1, beat Argentina and come very close to beating Brazil, which had we done, we probably would have won the tournement.

Psh, you were never close to beating Brazil. A lucky goal from Owen, fair enough Ronaldinho's free kick was lucky too but with 10 men they still had the better possession and the best chance you got with 1 man extra was Danny Mill shooting from 20 yards.

robert wrote:

Rasiak-9 wrote:
The best England team in recent times was the World Cup 2002 one, the reason it worked so effectively was because after the disaster of Euro 2000, people started to question just how good as a country we actually were. From then on we actually BUILT A TEAM, a team that was able to thump Germany 5-1, beat Argentina and come very close to beating Brazil, which had we done, we probably would have won the tournement.

Psh, you were never close to beating Brazil. A lucky goal from Owen, fair enough Ronaldinho's free kick was lucky too but with 10 men they still had the better possession and the best chance you got with 1 man extra was Danny Mill shooting from 20 yards.

Agreed the best football England have played any time in the recent past was either 96 or 98

98, definitely. 2002 was alright, but the only excellent performance was against Argentina and even then Beckham bottled the penalty and fluked it.

The war is about to begin. England has been brought up war or fighting is a bad thing. Sports are a civil way to get aggression out without killing. Confidence will never be a problem again, and Capello in his own way will get that drive back inside the players.......

Bring back the sigs! wrote:98, definitely. 2002 was alright, but the only excellent performance was against Argentina and even then Beckham bottled the penalty and fluked it.

When you watch him strike that there is no way he meant to go down the middle.


Good football played by England ?

2nd half v Scotland '96

v Holland '96

v Germany '96

Under Hoddle in '98

a period of about 20-30 mins in the 1st half v Croatia in Euro '04 (when Scholes moved into the middle with him and Rooney behind Owen)

McClaren's England were ok v Russia and Israel at home.

Otherwise

Well if you are going to include 20-30 mins how about against the first 20mins against Portugal 2000 or 10 mins versus the Czechs.

Think this is all far too negative. From the hysteria of the tabloids to manic depressives on this board. We don't do moderation it seems

Football Genius wrote:

robert wrote:

Rasiak-9 wrote:
The best England team in recent times was the World Cup 2002 one, the reason it worked so effectively was because after the disaster of Euro 2000, people started to question just how good as a country we actually were. From then on we actually BUILT A TEAM, a team that was able to thump Germany 5-1, beat Argentina and come very close to beating Brazil, which had we done, we probably would have won the tournement.

Psh, you were never close to beating Brazil. A lucky goal from Owen, fair enough Ronaldinho's free kick was lucky too but with 10 men they still had the better possession and the best chance you got with 1 man extra was Danny Mill shooting from 20 yards.

Agreed the best football England have played any time in the recent past was either 96 or 98

Can you really call over 12 years ago recent? and as for 98 I tend to disagree, we played well against Argentina with 10 men but against Tunisia and Colombia we were pedestrian at best and against Romania we lost the match. Whilst i do believe that we deserved to lose against Brazil, I still think we were the 2nd best team in the tournement and i stand by what i've said - we built a team with a decent amount of spirit and not only that, it was balanced - hence the success.

Heskey-Owen (target man+goal poacher)

Sinclair-Beckham (left winger/right winger)

Butt/Scholes (ball winner/playmaker)

and then a solid no-nonsense back 4 with a decent keeper.

Individually they weren't the best players in England history but as a team they worked better than anything we've had in recent times.

England team to play Andorra: James, Johnson, Lescott, Terry, A Cole, Walcott, Lampard, Barry, Downing, Rooney, Defoe.

Walcott starts

so does Johnson, Downing and Lescott

Glenn Hysén wrote:Walcott starts

so does Johnson, Downing and Lescott

what a joke.

Walcott

Can Johnson keep to his reputation and give away another penalty?

Walcott playing is just ridiculous.

Still, we should still win 4 or 5 nil.

Rosicky wrote:

Glenn Hysén wrote:Walcott starts

so does Johnson, Downing and Lescott

what a joke.

Walcott

You'll see a bigger joke called Beckham against croatia

Substitutes
12 Paul Robinson, 13 Wes Brown, 14 Wayne Bridge, 15 David Beckham, 16 David Bentley, 17 Emile Heskey, 18 Joe Cole



why include Bullard if he's not even going to get a shirt?

Walcott is a joke, he wouldn't get into the Andorra team.

Rosicky wrote:

Glenn Hysén wrote:Walcott starts

so does Johnson, Downing and Lescott

what a joke.

Walcott

It's not that strange...

If you play without a striker (as is the case now) Bentley's crosses are wasted anyway, the only thing you can hope for are set pieces, second tier shooting....and someone with speed / flair to beat them on the break.

So either Walcott or SWP.

It's a defensive line-up, Capello obviously goes for the point

If he had thrust in your own capabilities he would have started with Bentley and Agbonlahor and just go for it

What exactly has Joe Cole done wrong? I don't rate him as high as some people on this forum but bloody hell he's better than Downing and he's light years in front of Walcott.

Parks lives wrote:What exactly has Joe Cole done wrong? I don't rate him as high as some people on this forum but bloody hell he's better than Downing and he's light years in front of Walcott.

Rested for croatia spanker apparently

If he's said that fair enough but he didn't start the last friendly either.

Parks lives wrote:What exactly has Joe Cole done wrong? I don't rate him as high as some people on this forum but bloody hell he's better than Downing and he's light years in front of Walcott.

rested, rumour is Capello had planned to play an entire reserve side tonight

Parks lives wrote:What exactly has Joe Cole done wrong? I don't rate him as high as some people on this forum but bloody hell he's better than Downing and he's light years in front of Walcott.

Well, remember when Capello had just taken the job.... I had predicted that J Cole's starting position is at risk - most of you didn't believe it.

Well, just shows that J Cole is just not Capello type of a player, however good he may be. Capello plays players who suit his tactics for each particular game, doesn't care a $h!t about reputations.

Andorra have a player called Andorra