posted Mar 27, 2008

Do you mean the same F.A that allowed Alf Ramsey Terry Venables and Glen Hoddle to leave the England camp? and employed Graham Taylor and Kevin Keegan?

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posted Mar 27, 2008

Blinding lights!
The way Owen is banging on about Beckham being able to play on, smacks of desperation on both their parts. Beckham is banging on and on about his fitness and ability and desire. Forget it! Both you and Owen (Lamplard as well) are regarded by Capello as yesterday's heroes. Despite the "too good to go down," or "you don't become a bad player overnight" football style comments, they are finished with England. We need to discard the people who have not won anything for England and develop people like Walcott, Bentley and Agbonlahor. Stop saying we should hold onto the 'old ones' for ever. Capello will throw away now and use the next few months to develop new players for England. I beleive that Capello is ruthless enough to do that. Both Owen and Beckham see the writing on the wall (Lamplard probably still thinks he's indispensable thanks to his media advisors and family) and make media comments to cling onto power. Thanks Beckham - average to good player with no future in England's midfield. Thanks Owen - good goalscorer, but poor career choices, ego and injuries have relegated him to the bench and one step nearer the departure door.

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posted Mar 27, 2008

Dear me, there's so numpties on here today! So blind in their support or hate towards others clubs it's quite funny. First of all, anybody who says Rooney is no good no nothing about football and I mean nothing!!!!! The lad is sooooo good it's untrue but if England keep on playing long ball with him up front on his own.....only one conclusion, the lad will not score. So please stop talking crap and try supporting the team instaed of slating them all the time!

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posted Mar 27, 2008

Why do England lag behind France?

Ironic last night that Scotland got the home draw against Croatia, needed by England to reach the Euro's and England lose to a team Scotland beat home and away in the qualification process.

Maybe England are just not as good as they think they are.

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posted Mar 27, 2008

I would love for Capello to drop the lot of them and play a championship side. They might embarrass the lot of them and play with a bit of pride. I stopped watching England a good bit ago. Over hyped and not up to par

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posted Mar 27, 2008

comment by ozzom_2000 (U1554788)
posted 4 Hours Ago

ROONEY SHOULD RETIRE FROM INTERNATIONAL FOOTBALL!!!!!!!

Do any of the English scouts actually go and watch Man U games??? Obviously not otherwise they would realise that Rooney never plays as a lone striker. He is not a centre forward and wouldn't claim to be. everyone can see he is best suited in a "Free" role behind the front 2! He is being made to work like a horse for nothing, no wonder he gets frustrated.
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No he doesn't. The only time he doesn't play furthest up the pitch is if he's in the same team as Saha (which isn't very often).

I take your point that he can't play up front on his own, but his best position is as a striker - on the shoulder of the last man - using his strength to get onto things.

Asking Rooney to 'pull strings' is brainless and we've seen it time and again for England. He runs round, he wins the ball, he runs into someone, he loses the ball, he shoots from 20 yards he scuffs the shot, he plays with his head down, he hardly picks a killer pass, occasionally he'll back heel it in space to a team mate stood five yards away and the commentator will start salivating.

He has nowhere near the requisite amount of composure to play 'off' somebody. Spain, Brazil, France, Argentina, Italy - none of these teams would dream of playing Rooney as a playmaker.

He's a very good player but that doesn't make him anything other than a striker.

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posted Mar 27, 2008

Update: Englands new record against teams in the current top 20 in the last 7 years - P32, W11, D11, L10.

Remember penalty defeats have been counted as draws.


Just a point for the person who said Greece are better than Scotland - have a quick wee look at the FIFA rankings. Scotland are above Greece.

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posted Mar 27, 2008

He is not a centre forward and wouldn't claim to be. everyone can see he is best suited in a "Free" role behind the front 2! He is being made to work like a horse for nothing, no wonder he gets frustrated.

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Rooney is not best behind 2 strikers. He is not even better playing behind one. Rooney plays best with another more conventional striker like Tevez (or Owen for England) who he can play passes to if he can't pull off the spectacular.
The real problem is that he is used to playing with superb players in the Man Utd team and when he plays for England many of the players aren't as good as the Man Utd ones. With Man Utd, if Rooney wants, he can play the ball out wide right to Ronaldo, who will beat a man and get a cross in (if he doesn't score himself). With England he can play a ball out wide right 10 yards in front of Beckham which will go out for a throw-in cos Beckham won't get to it. Or half of the time it'll be Wes Brown flying down the right hand side. What a wondrous sight.

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posted Mar 28, 2008

MotD got it spot on with the "Passing Game" -
when France passed the ball, the one who passed it moved to make space so he can recieve the ball again ie pass & move. when England passed the ball, the player who passed it stayed in that same position, makeing it difficult for the one who has the ball to find options ie you have it, i dont want it.

not only that, the english lack technical ability on the ball. its fine scoring a 30 yard goal every other game, but what about when you have a chance to beat a man & all you do is pass? & on top of that you dont even run into space to recieve the ball!?!?

the english players have players at their clubs that do all this for them. Rooney & Joey Cole are the only ones that have natural ability with the ball. England are to stiff.

Richards-Rio-Woodgate-A.Cole
Hargreaves
Bentley-J.Cole-Young
Defoe-Rooney

with a line up like this, Rooney will get plenty of attention from the 3 behind him & the 2 full backs, + Defoe would be the "spearhead" allowing Rooney to do what he loves. + it doesnt matter whos in goal because the centre pairing is more then capable of handling a situation, + the confidence of this pairing will only make the keeper confident.

Bentley & Young will bring whats needed on the flanks while Joey Cole & Rooney will do the rest. Hargreaves (for me) would play the "Makelele Role" infront of the back pairing.

as for the bench, Defoe would be my 1st striker call up (if not started in a 442), with Agbonglahor, Barry, Walcott, Lampard & Gerrard, Terry & P.Neville (utility player) as my subs. plenty fire power, options & experiance on the bench. but the key is Joey Cole in the middle, with pace either side of him & a striker (or strikers) that can read the game & are on good form.

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posted Mar 28, 2008

I am absolutely certain Capello's first choice is to play 4-2-3-1 with a very similar line up to the 1st half against France. I thought we dominated possession of the ball and were unlucky with the penalty.

The only thing wrong with the team in the first half was the slight lack of goal threat. I think the problem as Stevie G has said is that Rooney lacked tactical discipline and kept coming too deep.

I am sure Capello will have words, Rooney will start to play where Capello wants or Capello will try someone else in the lone striker role.

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