chicago_shearer

The Swiss still have a reasonable chance of going through.  Beat Honduras by 2 and hope Spain beat Chile. 

Good, book the cunt.

FUUUUUUUUUCK

It's easier to be a nice tippy tappy attacking team when you are playing against 10 men for 70 minutes because one of your typically South American players went down holding his face.

Bah.

Almost certainly out of our league, but I'd like to sign Barnetta.  Good player.

Look at me, look at me, I'm the ref, I have a whistle, I'm important.

Unbelievable.  I want to punch this referee in the face.

7 different goal scorers as well.

 

Thiago got 2 didnt he?

 

correctomundo !

My mistake. 

7 different goal scorers as well.

It's almost as if Portugal want to get these poor Koreans sent to labour camps. 

It sounds like a tabloid excuse for not playing very good football. 

I swear one of the Univision girls just said 'Frank Lampard' before she started dancing. 

players do waste time by pretending they have cramp tbf to chicago shearer, but there's no way of knowing and it's harsh if nelsen actually does have it

I just hate seeing it. 

Anyway, brilliant from New Zealand.  Fantastic. 

I'm glad they booked Nelson for that.  Sets a good precedent.

That Shakira song.  Blahblahblah South Africa hey hey.  

Lads please stop, its not fair on the rest of us

Now, now, you do have James Corden to look forward to.

http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Football/Pix/pictures/2008/12/9/1228848054205/Sam-Allardyce-001.jpg

"We've been shit Phil."

http://i.thisislondon.co.uk/i/pix/2008/11/phil-brown-wetherby-415x275.jpg

"Yes we have Sam."

Allardyce / Phil Brown dream team.

Did you see her, Chicago?

Are we talking about this Argentina girl on the right?  I'm still not sure anyone beats Paraguay. 

Roy Hodgson I suppose, although I can't think of a single reason why he'd be any more successful than Capello. 

There should only be one of either Lampard or Gerrard out there.

If we are playing with two strikers then I agree.  But you can accommodate both of them if you have Carrick & Barry on defensive duty, and three attacking midfielders + Rooney.  On paper, that is the best England XI I think.  In reality, they will turn into five Nicky Butts so you might be better off sticking with a 4-4-2. 

Zonal Marking (http://www.zonalmarking.net/2010/06/19/england-0-0-algeria-tactics/) making a case for playing Carrick.

 

Disappointingly, Capello had a warning about this three months ago. England’s friendly against Egypt at Wembley saw them playing a North African side that used a 3-4-2-1 formation. They had less possession of the ball and were deservedly 0-1 down at half-time, when Michael Carrick came on and was by far the best player on the pitch. He transformed the game, resulting in a 3-1 England win – he would have been perfect tonight.

 

The case for Carrick’s inclusion has been argued on this site before and doesn’t need to be repeated, but some quotes from Xabi Alonso this week made for interesting reading:

 

“John Terry, Stevie Gerrard and Wayne Rooney are the obvious names when you think of the important players for England…if they are on top of their game and if Carrick plays, because for me he is a top player, then England will have a chance. If Carrick plays for the national team the way that he does for Manchester United, then it would be very good news for England. I think that he could easily fit in the Spanish system because I really like the way he plays. He reads the game so well, he is always ahead of what is going to happen and he is always in the right position. When he gets the ball, he plays it easy and he is available to his team-mates all the time. For me, he has the profile to play for Barcelona or any of the Spanish teams. He would also be very complimentary to Stevie.”

 

England plainly can’t even vaguely control a game with two central midfielders – so there’s a need for a third, and that third man is Carrick. He is alarmingly off-form at club level, but should that matter if the player is being brought in to play a specific role in the side to bring the best out of others? Capello clearly doesn’t think so, considering Heskey’s place in the side.

--------Rooney----------

J.Cole-Lampard-Gerrard

----Barry---Carrick------

A.Cole-Terry-Upson-Glen

---------James-----------

Either that or we throw in Milner as a Maradona/Jonas style wing back for laughs.

He's shit, obviously.  But we beat Slovenia 2-1 in a friendly and Croatia 5-1 at Wembley with him starting.  He is a problem, but he isn't the main problem.