England V France - Wembley 8pm Kick-off

dena wrote:

ahlycotc wrote:France is beating England?

Why the shock, France have better footballers, just that Domenech caused them to turn into mush.

Luxz0rz wrote:If you guys think this was bad then look at the Portugal-Spain score

BigPoppaSmurf wrote:

I'm starting to think maybe it's not all Fabio's fault that the English NT is so unsuccessful.

These are the dimmest looking footballers I have ever seen(and considering how dim some footballers are that is saying a lot) they look like they forgot where they parked.

ahlycotc wrote:I think Capello is just a scapegoat to England's problems. The England fans were licking his ass when England were having a terrific WCQ campaign. They start under-performing against better opposition in friendlies prior to the WC than they faced in the qualifications and people start to slowly turn against Capello. The WC is where fans really start turning against Capello and when I look back at England's history, I think to myself, "is it really any different than under past managers"? When is the last time England won anything or reached a final?

It's great to have an optimistic view, but you need to be realistic.

Luxz0rz wrote:Don't take too much from this guys.

It was an exhibition match, we should've done better but we're just experimenting and in transition....plus we had a lot of 2nd string players out tonight.

Worst players for me were Walcott Gerrard and Barry. How Barry is in the squad I have no clue......he does everything half arsed and is just so negative....even when defending he's pretty bad.

Walcott wasn't using his brain at all......I cringed every time he was even involved in anything. Poor marking for the first goal, twice he had the opportunity to put Benzema under pressure but he was just assuming we would win the ball and give it to him. Poor runs, poor passes, just everything was poor.

Gerrard was just pinging around stupid speculative passes that never came off and for someone like him it's just criminal that he's doing it. He's supposed to be the best player on the pitch, but he's not showing anything to prove it. He's had some good periods for England but Gerrard's stupid passes have been happening for too long now. Why Capello hasn't told him to stop is beyond me.

I think the jury is still out on Henderson.....but I was pleased with the other new faces on the pitch. Gibbs gave Valbuena too much space for the second goal but he doesn't get a lot of football and is still learning...going forward he is really good.

Jagielka was good at right back, but not someone I want in the centre for England. Really needed Terry tonight, Jagielka was far too loose on Valbuena for that second goal.

Richards and Warnock were good. Warnock didn't have much time to prove himself but he didn't do much wrong. I think right now I'd have him over Gibbs, simply because he gets a lot of playing time and is better defensively...but still decent going forward.

Carroll was top notch and proved that he can take the step up. Ok he didn't score but the midfield were REALLY poor and didn't give him much to work with.

Bothroyd was actually ok. Decent on the ball, didn't panic and didn't really get a decent enough chance. He showed more work rate than most of the other guys, and that counts...you need people who will sweat blood for the team.

Lescott was good. He did better than expected...he's a fairly basic centre back but he won most of the balls and passed it well.....but with so many of these basic players such as Henderson, Barry and Jagielka in the midfield we were just passing it back to Foster or losing it.....not good enough.

Milner and Young were good up until the final product, which time and time again was poor.

Johnson did well and was being tripled marked...still managed to create chances and win free kicks.

-------------Hart----
Richards--Ferdinand--Terry--Cole
Johnson--Wilshere--Gerrard--Milner
-----Rooney---Carroll-----------

Would work for me. Yes it's 4-4-2 but Wilshere is actually positive on the ball.....get Gerrard to stop doing stupid passes and it would work. Upfront Defoe and Crouch are good alternatives...they've both proven that they can score for England. Lampard could figure and if Gerrard can't stop smashing it then I would stick him in. Subs for wingers would be Lennon, Young, Walcott and maybe even Downing/Albrighton. They're both really on form for Villa so I'm surprised that Downing especially didn't get called up.

yarnbury11 wrote:

Luxz0rz wrote:Don't take too much from this guys.

It was an exhibition match, we should've done better but we're just experimenting and in transition....plus we had a lot of 2nd string players out tonight.

Worst players for me were Walcott Gerrard and Barry. How Barry is in the squad I have no clue......he does everything half arsed and is just so negative....even when defending he's pretty bad.

Walcott wasn't using his brain at all......I cringed every time he was even involved in anything. Poor marking for the first goal, twice he had the opportunity to put Benzema under pressure but he was just assuming we would win the ball and give it to him. Poor runs, poor passes, just everything was poor.

Gerrard was just pinging around stupid speculative passes that never came off and for someone like him it's just criminal that he's doing it. He's supposed to be the best player on the pitch, but he's not showing anything to prove it. He's had some good periods for England but Gerrard's stupid passes have been happening for too long now. Why Capello hasn't told him to stop is beyond me.

I think the jury is still out on Henderson.....but I was pleased with the other new faces on the pitch. Gibbs gave Valbuena too much space for the second goal but he doesn't get a lot of football and is still learning...going forward he is really good.

Jagielka was good at right back, but not someone I want in the centre for England. Really needed Terry tonight, Jagielka was far too loose on Valbuena for that second goal.

Richards and Warnock were good. Warnock didn't have much time to prove himself but he didn't do much wrong. I think right now I'd have him over Gibbs, simply because he gets a lot of playing time and is better defensively...but still decent going forward.

Carroll was top notch and proved that he can take the step up. Ok he didn't score but the midfield were REALLY poor and didn't give him much to work with.

Bothroyd was actually ok. Decent on the ball, didn't panic and didn't really get a decent enough chance. He showed more work rate than most of the other guys, and that counts...you need people who will sweat blood for the team.

Lescott was good. He did better than expected...he's a fairly basic centre back but he won most of the balls and passed it well.....but with so many of these basic players such as Henderson, Barry and Jagielka in the midfield we were just passing it back to Foster or losing it.....not good enough.

Milner and Young were good up until the final product, which time and time again was poor.

Johnson did well and was being tripled marked...still managed to create chances and win free kicks.

-------------Hart----
Richards--Ferdinand--Terry--Cole
Johnson--Wilshere--Gerrard--Milner
-----Rooney---Carroll-----------

Would work for me. Yes it's 4-4-2 but Wilshere is actually positive on the ball.....get Gerrard to stop doing stupid passes and it would work. Upfront Defoe and Crouch are good alternatives...they've both proven that they can score for England. Lampard could figure and if Gerrard can't stop smashing it then I would stick him in. Subs for wingers would be Lennon, Young, Walcott and maybe even Downing/Albrighton. They're both really on form for Villa so I'm surprised that Downing especially didn't get called up.

Fuck me! How the hell do you watch the game and keep tabs on every single players performance?

blackskar wrote:One thing I did like about the game was when the ITV pundits were saying Walcott can't cross ect. then during the game kept constantly saying Walcott should run to the byline and cross it in

Luxz0rz wrote:

ahlycotc wrote:I think Capello is just a scapegoat to England's problems. The England fans were licking his ass when England were having a terrific WCQ campaign. They start under-performing against better opposition in friendlies prior to the WC than they faced in the qualifications and people start to slowly turn against Capello. The WC is where fans really start turning against Capello and when I look back at England's history, I think to myself, "is it really any different than under past managers"? When is the last time England won anything or reached a final?

It's great to have an optimistic view, but you need to be realistic.

Na I've always been unsure of Capello. It's not just him, the players haven't performed when they've needed to (and the officials haven't either)....but generally I didn't like anything that he did or said.

He was playing Heskey and Upson for starters......we were never going to win the World Cup by sticking Heskey into the team . The formation....the tactics......these are all things that Capello can change, but he didn't. In the end it has to come down to him...I'm not saying we would've won the World Cup but even with officials against us we should've been playing better.

Same could be said about a lot of recent managers. We've just had a lot of bad managers, and a lot of terrible officials. In the end there's so many that people can't believe it's them and just say "Na England just suck" when that's not the case.

BigPoppaSmurf wrote:Na England just suck

ahlycotc wrote:I didn't say England sucks, but they aren't one of the best in the world either. They are a Round of 16 or a Quarterfinal type team if we are using the World Cup as a measurement. They are no top 4 team by any stretch of the imagination. On paper I would rank the following teams higher than England: Brazil, Germany, Argentina, Netherlands, Spain, France, Italy, and Portugal. I think those teams are good on the field as well with the exception of France (maybe fortunes will turn around under the new coach) and Italy. In conclusion I would rank England somewhere between 7-9 in the world.

ahlycotc wrote:
So if you think about it, England reached a stage they were expected to reach. Germany is significantly better than England imo, so it was no surprise they defeated them. You can cry about the goal being disallowed all day, but at the end of the day, Germany won by 3 goals. You can't say for sure that England would have beat Germany had the goal been given. Although they reached the quarterfinal and lost to the better team, what I think England fans should be really upset about is the performance in the group stage. I thought England would have had an easy time against their opposition and should have finished top of the group.

ahlycotc wrote:
So going back to my original statement, is the England manager the real problem here? Many mangers have come and gone and produced no better than Capello. Capello has also proven himself as a top manager with several clubs. I realize managing national teams might be different. I think the problem has to do with the players and the footballing system in England. The players are not fully concentrated or committed because of their personal lives getting in the way and the media reveals their personal lives and causes unrest in the England camp. How is Capello supposed to control or change that? The EPL is also hindering English growth in the sport and the clubs don't really care much for the national team's well being. As long as people have "Club > Country" mentality, England is going nowhere.