steve_69

And the midfield?

I think I can see the point you are trying to make but I think it's too early to hail Carroll as the best header of the ball in the league. Can't think of occasions were Bent has shown aerial dominance either ... Just because Carroll is tall and strong, it doesn't mean we simply have to lump it forward to him. The same goes for Davies and Crouch, both as good, technical players with the ball at their feet. I'm not talking about lumping it forward to him at all. I'm talking about playing to our strengths. Service from out wide to two dominant strikers is not the same as just lumping balls forward. We do not have the players capable of playing like France or Spain. Neither do our players have the coaching to play an Italian style game. They have been coached from grassroots playing 4-4-2 with two pacy wide men. We have an abundance of players who could play this way very effectively, complimented by some excellent goalscoring central midfielders. However, Sven, McLaren and now Capello have sought to horse-shoe our players into formations that they are neither suited to or used to, and look at the results. It would be fantastic to see England playing an up-tempo passing game like France, Spain or Brazil but who are we trying to kid? If this is going to happen the players need to be coached that way from an early age. The current crop of players have been coached to play the english style of football, so lets get the best out of them by sticking them in a formation they are acustomed to and asking them to play the way they know best. Tottenham finished 4th in the league last year playing attacking english style football in a 4-4-2 formation - two pacy wide men, two strikers, one sitting midfielder and one creative midfielder.

Stopped reading after this, we don't have the personnel for such rubbish. 4-3-3 is the only way for England to go. Carroll - biggest aerial threat and best header of the ball in the league (also a big f***er) Rooney - 27 goals last season, many of them with his head and supplied by Antonio Valencia (a proper winger) Crouch - 6,7 Bent - very good in the air Kevin Davies - nuff said Jonhson - winger Lennon - winger SWP - winger Downing - winger (and one of the best crossers of the ball in the league) To suggest we don't have the personnel for it is ridiculous. We have exactly the right personnel for it.

for me it highlighted why england will have to go to grassroots and change the ethos of how wew train our kids and the mentality behind it. Absolutely, but until we have players who have been coached to play a more continental style from grassroots level we have to play to our current strengths. Shoe-horning ill-suited players into a formation they're not used to playing and asking them to play a style of football that they're not used to playing will rsult in shit football and shit results. It's like asking Spanish or Brazilian players to lump the ball up to a big man so he can hold it up and lay it off to the on-rushing midfielders - wouldn't ever happen and if it did, it would be an unmitigated disaster.

The problem is English teams have historically always played 4-4-2. English players are therefore geared up to play 4-4-2 - one-footed wingers, defensive midfielders, attacking midfielders, big physical strikers etc. The influx of continental managers and players who are schooled in a different style of football has influenced how our national team play. We should just play to our strengths with a team of players who are best suited to a formation they have grown up playing. We can't outplay the likes of France, Brazil, Germany, Spain but we'll give them a decent game if we play the traditional English style of football - pacy wingers beating the full-back and crossing the ball to big, powerful strikers. For me, last night highlighted exactly why we need an English manager in charge of the national team. As much as I hate Harry Redknapp, i'd love to see him manage England - he'd have us playing decent football with a proper English mentality and i'm confident that we'd be a lot more successful under him than we ever will be under Capello

Rooney is a striker and had his best season for Man Utd when he player up top and stayed there. Gerrard is a central midfielder and always has been. He looked much better when he dropped back into a proper midfield role last night. This is exactly my point. These players came into the game in very definite positions but through managers fucking about with formations they are now considered something else. Rooney plays between the midfield and attack, Gerrard plays in a more advanced midfield role - Bollocks, total bollocks! Gerrard - midfielder Rooney - striker Lampard - midfielder

Force of habit tbh. Any fucker would do.

I know it's been said before but short corners really boil my piss. They don't fucking work! The first corner England got yesterday, they should have just swung the ball into the box but Milner decides to take a quick short corner that resulted in a shit cross. What chance does Carroll have with dickheads like that in the team?

Can anyone tell me what the fuck is wrong with a standard 4-4-2 formation? It seems fashionable these days to play 4-5-1 or 4-3-3 or 4-1-1-1-2-fucking 1. 4-4-2 is has been the cornerstone of world football for decades and it still works now, so why do managers insist on fucking around with diamonds and christmas trees? ................................Foster Richards.....Ferdinand.....Terry......Cole Walcott.......Gerrard.......?.......Johnson ..................Rooney.........Carroll Perfect! Now stop fucking about

The sooner we can get a genuine defensive midfielder into the England side, the better. You only have to look at how Tiote has transformed our first team to realise how important a role it is. Barry is neither a defensive midfielder or an attacking midfielder, he's just a gap filler. when Capello first brought him into the first team he looked excellent and for a year or so he was up there with our best players, but now he's more of a hindrance than anything else.

This is SHIT! Carroll seems to be getting into the game though so I'll carry on watching for a bit.

Ashley is probably telling them to play him so he can claim compensation when he gets injured

Saha Distin Goma Domi Robert Bernard Guivarch Sibierski N’zogbia Boumsong Ginola Ben Arfa Beye That's 13. Can't get any more

Tiote’s hunger and determination to succeed at Newcastle was underlined when he said: “When I’m not playing I feel like a caged tiger.” I love this man!

FYP

Reckon it'll be Carroll if fit, Crouch if not. Capello has confirmed that Carroll will start tomorrow

Would rather take a chance on Bentley regaining his form tbh Dos Santos looked quality at the World Cup though, he was actually one of the standout players. Maybe it's just the style of football, climate, language etc. that he can't deal with.

http://www.sporcle.com/games/BicycleStipe/newcastle Name Newcastle United's top 31 Premier League goalscorers

Fucking prick.

Despite our past, we are a new Premier League team. We deteriorated over a period of years, steadily getting worse and worse until we got relegated. We are now back in the Premier League having spent less than £5m in the summer and we are half way to where we need to be in terms of points. How anyone can say Hughton is doing anything less than a brilliant job is beyond me. All the talk of expectations being reset and Newcastle fans having a new realistic outlook on things seems to have gone out of the window. Forget who we have played, who we've beaten and who we have lost against. The only thing that matters is our points tally because there is only one goal this season - to stay up - and we're almost half way there already. We are a newly promoted Premier League team. The only result you can look at and say we shouldn't have lost is Blackpool at home because we proved last year that we are better than they are. Stoke, Blackburn and Wigan are established Premier League teams who by rights should beat us, yet we got a draw against Wigan so that has to be viewed as a success. To suggest we SHOULD be winning our home games in our first season back in the Premier League is both arrogant and niaive.

Like Blackpool, Stoke and Wigan ruined it? It's such an excuse like. It stops people from acknowledging and saying 'we werent' good enough' by saying 'the opposition stopped us playing football - it was impossible'. At the end of the day, Stoke, Blackpool and Blackburn all got three points. We didn't - that's what the focus needs to be on. But plenty of teams will go to Arsenal and come away with f*** all. We came away with 3 points Another excuse. 'We didn't win against Stoke, but we beat Arsenal so that's good' - except beating Arsenal has got absolutely nothing to do with performing poorly at home. It seems most will do/say anything to ignore our woeful home form. All I am saying is that although the home form is both worrying and frustrating, there are a lot of positives to be taken from other results. It seems we play better football against teams that play proper football rather than anti-football. Hughton and the players will have to learn a lot of lessons this season, like how to play against teams like Stoke and Blackburn, but we're on course to stay up and that's the most important thing.

Like Blackpool, Stoke and Wigan ruined it? It's such an excuse like. It stops people from acknowledging and saying 'we werent' good enough' by saying 'the opposition stopped us playing football - it was impossible'. At the end of the day, Stoke, Blackpool and Blackburn all got three points. We didn't - that's what the focus needs to be on. But plenty of teams will go to Arsenal and come away with fuck all. We came away with 3 points

Or the ear. That always hurts like a bitch

Should have punched him in the nose IMO

The English FA are just a fucking embarrassment