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ORIGINAL: directorscut


The "holding midfielder" position is a load of tosh, created to validate half-players.  A midfielder should be able to defend and attack (having a midfielder who can only do one of is a waste of a player) and most importantly knit things together in the middle of the field.  Passing the ball and keeping the ball is the most important part of a midfielder's role.  England have no one who can do this.  Fabregas is the best midfielder in the world and is light years ahead of Lampard and Gerrard.  If Lampard and Gerrard don't score or create a goal they contribute nothing to the team. Fabregas is always contributing, always keeping the team's engine running.  Lampard and Gerrard are both finishers - not creators and not dictators of play.  They're essentially extra strikers.

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The "holding midfielder" position is a load of tosh, created to validate half-players.  A midfielder should be able to defend and attack (having a midfielder who can only do one of is a waste of a player) and most importantly knit things together in the middle of the field.  Passing the ball and keeping the ball is the most important part of a midfielder's role.  England have no one who can do this.  Fabregas is the best midfielder in the world and is light years ahead of Lampard and Gerrard.  If Lampard and Gerrard don't score or create a goal they contribute nothing to the team. Fabregas is always contributing, always keeping the team's engine running.  Lampard and Gerrard are both finishers - not creators and not dictators of play.  They're essentially extra strikers.

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ORIGINAL: hiptobesquare_x

And don't even get me started on referring to Breathless as "a failed satire". I bet his mum looks at him and feels he's a failed example of procreation.

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ORIGINAL: directorscut

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ORIGINAL: Frank Castle

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ORIGINAL: Rhubarb

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ORIGINAL: Frank Castle

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ORIGINAL: Rhubarb

My XI would be

Green
Richards
Woodgate
Terry
Ferdinand
A Cole
Lampard
Hargreaves
Gerrard
Rooney
Agbonlahor

532 basically. I think Lampard and Gerrard can play together, if they have an anchoring midfielder. Way to much has been made of thier supposed inability to play together, and it seems Lampard (booed off today) gets the brunt of it because Gerrard is some kind of unfautable national hero. Who still has an agonisingly poor first touch. Anyway, Richards and Cole love to get forward so they would provide the team with width, and Agbonlahor and Rooney occasionaly drop wide anyway. The only sacrifice with this formation is Joe Cole, who I really rate, but you could stick him in for either Gerrard or Lampard as an attacking central midfielder. Hargreaves, I still think, is our best anchoring option, but you could put Gareth Barry in there if you liked. I'd stick Theo Walcott on the bench, I think he'll be big this season.

Yeah because thats ever worked for the last what 8 years?? They constantly pick these guys together and the consistently let us down! They cant do it, they cant play together FACT! There both great players but just to similar. i was hoping that capello would be the man to have the balls to drop one of them. Lampard gets the brunt of it because hes usuallt the one playing his prefered position and failing while gerrard is moved from position to position.
Did anyone watch the highlights on itv? townsend and adams basically ripped into the midfield showing when ever they lost the ball them running around like a headless chicking to try and get it back then leaving there position leaving huge gaps in midfield. This needs to change and quick because croatia will beat us again if they dont.
I agree young needs to be given a chance on the left. i would play cole on the right (u know hes right footed!) and have hargreaves and lampard/gerrard in the centre.
As for upfront i know rooney gets stick but i truly beleive hes are only real world class talent. he just needs to be told to stay upfront! He comes back to much. U could even move him to a central midfield position instead of gerrard and lampard as i think he would be great there. Were lacking in strikers at the mo so i see no probs with ashton and defoe/Agbonlahor(if he continues to play well for villa that is). I know heskey gets lots of stick but id still rather have him them bloody crouch in the squad!

The  very next few words after you highlighted were "if they have a holding midfielder". Good work ignoring that. I don't believe England have had Gerrard, Lampard and a holding mid over the last 8 years to be honest. And yes, they are similar players, but thats why they need the holding midfield player.

Take Chelsea, Ballack and Lampard are basically the same player, but last year played great together when they also had Essien or Makélélé holding for them to go forward. The same was true of Deco and Lampard on Saturday, with Obi Mikel holding. I don't see why England could not implement a similar tactic, in either a 433, 451 or 532.  

And they've had there chance with a holding midfielder as well and failed! Move on,one has to be dropped for england to progress and look into something that hasnt consistantly failed for years.

The "holding midfielder" position is a load of tosh, created to validate half-players.  A midfielder should be able to defend and attack (having a midfielder who can only do one of is a waste of a player) and most importantly knit things together in the middle of the field.  Passing the ball and keeping the ball is the most important part of a midfielder's role.  England have no one who can do this.  Fabregas is the best midfielder in the world and is light years ahead of Lampard and Gerrard.  If Lampard and Gerrard don't score or create a goal they contribute nothing to the team. Fabregas is always contributing, always keeping the team's engine running.  Lampard and Gerrard are both finishers - not creators and not dictators of play.  They're essentially extra strikers.

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ORIGINAL: Sexual Harassment Panda

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ORIGINAL: jesseLujack

People need to lower their expectations and realise that last night we should have lost to a better side.

Lets not worry about the manager or who was or was'nt picked, the fact of the matter is there are not 11 Englishman playing at the moment who are good enough to match even the most modest of expectations.

GK  James - always has and always will be a liability.  The fact he is the best English keeper shows how low we have sunk.

RB Wes Brown - Average squad player, struggles against any sort of quality, hardly international class.

CB J Terry - Fantastic leader and the best choice for captain, however not even the best CB at Chelsea and gets found out against pace.

CB R Ferdinand - Probably the stand out player in the England side. Braaaaap.

LB A Cole - Pace gets him out of a lot of trouble, still struggling to find his form.

RM Beckham - Maybe 2 years ago, well past his best.

CM Barry - Adequate performer, offers nothing special or different.

CM Lampard - Probably the best goalscoring midelfielder in the world, although all round cm he aint.  His defending is average as is his long range passing.  He does all his best work in and around the box, you either play him there or not at all.  In truth probably the 4th best midfielder at Chelsea.

LM Gerrard - Too indiciplined to play in the middle (see Rafa), runs around like a headless chicken, loses possesion with his attempt at a hollywood ball far too often.  I would take Masha and Alonso from liverpool over him everytime.

CF Rooney - Surely he's lived off his repuation long enough?  Seems to be getting fatter and more useless by the season, hard working player unfortunately little else based on the past couple of years performances.

CF Defoe - No, just no.

The sooner we realise we are an average squad with average players the better, in all honesty with the players we have we should be viewing 2-2 against the Czechs as a good result.

I love how every Chelsea player got a nice positive note to go alongside anything negative, whereas pretty much everyone else just got the negative comments

Anyway, Wes Brown needs to be given his chance, I'm not standing by this not International Class bollocks, to be fair I don't even think "International Class" or "World Class" is a category that can be defined by performing on the world stage, infact I'd go as far as to say performing in the Champions League is far better proof of your worth than performing on an international stage. Brown has shown in a Utd shirt both domestically and in europe that he's a solid right back, he may not have the ability to go forwards like other full backs do, but defensively he's superb, yes he's made some mistakes in an England shirt, but thats what few runs in the team will do to you, he needs to be given his chance just like he was at Utd, Gary Neville got injured and he played every game, and when you play more you play better as you build your confidence and that's exactly what he did last season and the season before that, he deserves far more praise than he gets. He's one of the most reliable players in our Man Utd team and I wouldn't swap him out for Gary Neville, and by the looks of things neither will Ferguson.

I'm not saying because he's a great Utd player he will be brilliant for England, but he needs to be given a run in the team rather than the odd sporadic appearance, and given the chance to prove his ability, lets face it both Gerrard and Lampard have been given chances in midfield despite rarely putting in good performances, the same can be said for our string of keepers, so why can't someone like Brown be given the chance to prove his worth? It takes more than just one appearance to prove how good you are.

Anyway onto the rest of your post, I can agree with Beckham, though I wouldn't drop him from the squad entirely (I'm not suggesting you've said that by the way). James I agree with, Terry I disagree with, he's fantastic for Chelsea there's no denying, but he shouldn't have been made captain, as I said earlier, losing the armband would have given him a well deserved kick up the arse to try and get him translating his club performance over to an England shirt. Cole, hmmm, I'm unsure, I've never agreed he's ever been that great, so as for finding form I don't think he's got any form to find, he's already at his peak, and as I said earlier he makes mistakes all too often. Barry I honestly don't see the point in his inclusion personally. Frank 'best goal scoring midfielder in the world' Lampard, only if you forget the fact he's not, he wasn't even the highest scoring midfielder in his own country last season, nevermind the world. Anyway he's great for Chelsea, he gets into the right positions and does poach a lot of goals (I'm not saying that's all he does, but it's one good quality of his), and if he could translate that to an England shirt he'd be a shoe in for a starting XI place, but after years of chances he's yet to do it, it's time to give someone else a go. Same can be said for Gerrard, although he has put in the odd good performance at least slightly more so than Lampard. Rooney as I said needs to be given a chance up top instead of being made to play deep, if he plays deep he'll be useless for England, if he still plays just as badly when up top as he does at the moment then drop him. Defoe I couldn't have put it better, although I would still like to say bring in Agbonlahor.

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ORIGINAL: JJ Holiday
As Mark Lawerenson once told me on Pro Evolution Soccer "Football is 'team game".

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I really do think its time to see this 'golden generation' for what it is - Overhyped and overrated

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ORIGINAL: hiptobesquare_x

And don't even get me started on referring to Breathless as "a failed satire". I bet his mum looks at him and feels he's a failed example of procreation.

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ORIGINAL: matty_b

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Gerrard has basically been shafted on a regular basis by 3 England managers now!   

Sorry, but I think this is bollocks. He's been deployed in CM by Sven in two tournaments, McClaren used him there too, and so far Capello has as well.

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ORIGINAL: Harry Lime
Putting Rooney up on his own will force him to stop dropping back and keep him in and around the box where he is most dangerous.

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  It looks defensive on paper but that's a strong side that plays to our best qualities (insert joke about three keepers here). I really don't know who our best keeper is though. We don't have a Banks or a Clemence or a Shilton or a Seaman anymore. I do believe that Capello needs to look to the future in this position (which maybe rules out James) and give whoever he chooses a sustained run in the side.

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ORIGINAL: Spengler

Highest number of goal assists for an Englishman in the entire Premiership season last year, beaten to the top only by Cesc Fabregas.

Why that doesn't merit a place is beyond me.


Oh, and of course you're a Man Utd fan, being from Plymouth

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ORIGINAL: Spengler

Highest number of goal assists for an Englishman in the entire Premiership season last year, beaten to the top only by Cesc Fabregas.

Why that doesn't merit a place is beyond me.


Oh, and of course you're a Man Utd fan, being from Plymouth

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ORIGINAL: Harry Lime

Either him or Jose Baxter.

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ORIGINAL: penfoldwalker

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ORIGINAL: Spengler

Highest number of goal assists for an Englishman in the entire Premiership season last year, beaten to the top only by Cesc Fabregas.

Why that doesn't merit a place is beyond me.


Oh, and of course you're a Man Utd fan, being from Plymouth

When you've got lumbering giants like Mellberg, Carew and Laursen to aim for when taking every corner and free-kick it's pretty easy to knock up your assist tally.

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ORIGINAL: Spengler

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ORIGINAL: penfoldwalker

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ORIGINAL: Spengler

Highest number of goal assists for an Englishman in the entire Premiership season last year, beaten to the top only by Cesc Fabregas.

Why that doesn't merit a place is beyond me.


Oh, and of course you're a Man Utd fan, being from Plymouth

When you've got lumbering giants like Mellberg, Carew and Laursen to aim for when taking every corner and free-kick it's pretty easy to knock up your assist tally.

Crouch, John Terry, Rio Ferdinand - all good in the air.


That's about it though.

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ORIGINAL: *emz6*

ok Bullard has got crazy amounts of enthusiams and energy, hes a good player and has done well at his various clubs but seriously, hes not world class, and hes not exactly the answer to Englands problems.

We dont have a world class striker, we have midfielders who are under par when playing for England, and just generally a squad that gets ripped to shreds when things dont go well and get ridiculously over hyped when things do. I think people just expect to much from England with the current patch of players. We're still missing total quality in a few positions couple that with the fact that the team spirit isnt great because the press always maul them and its no surprise we're not doing great.