Parky

No I'm just saying with the nature of this club, and accepting that Viduka is our only other real goalscorer and is going to be injured fairly often as well, if those two dont score this year we are going to lose a lot of games and I think a bottom half finish will be the end of Sam. So Sam better delve into his much vaunted expertise in getting old crocks running again cus he has two in his forward line that will make or break his newcastle career (unless he buys a class striker in January but how often does that happen?) Or maybe he could just build around the rarely injured Martins, who will guarantee 15+ goals a season if given the games, and partner him with someone who can make up for Martin's deficiencies? No that would just be too simple.

It would take about 3 years for Capello to get it into the thick celebrity addled skulls of the England players how football works.

If I knew that I'd be dusting off my CV. It could be combination of factors;- - Poor selection from McClaren - Poor/Rigid formation - Poor communication from the coaching side on how they wanted the formation to work - Poor club form - Ego's - Too confident To be honest there's loads of possible reasons why they've failed but I don't see them as shit players. Look at Gerrard. How many of you truthfully wouldn't put him the top 5 midfielders in Europe? He hasn't played well for England for ages but that doesn't make him a shit player. He has dozens of moments when he misplaces passes or gives the ball away or plays the wrong pass or shoots for no reason. At club level against muppets you can get away with that stuff but most goodish int sides (Croatia) these days have half a dozen good players who will make you pay. Lampard must be the most over-hyped player in this galaxy. No shred of a clue at int level I'm afraid but part of that must be how the team is set up.

An important difference I've seen when living in England is English boys hardly play football in their free time, and when they play it's institutionalised and on full size grass pitches. In the cities in Holland the culture is completely different. I live in Rotterdam, where there is hardly any space for full size football pitches in the city centre, so youngsters very often play football every day after school and in their free time on small, concrete pitches.. The objectives are completely different too, as it´s not about scoring goals, but about trickery. A goal without beautiful passing, movement and/or skill will be laughed at and possibly not even counted. It´s not until these boys are in their early to mid teens that they get picked up by scouts and start to work on the tactical and physical aspects of the game. In this way in Rotterdam alone in recent years talents such as Van Persie and Drenthe have surfaced. If a player is intelligent and motivated enough playing more effective football, tactics and physical strength can be learned/trained. The extraordinary levels of skill that many players possess are self-thought, and often these players will say they actually played with far more talented players out on the concrete pitches, but these other youngster didn´t have the desire to make it out in the professional world of football.. so why is the dutch league, outside the top 4 or 5 horrible and of a very poor standard ? what happened to the likes of ajax picking up kids at about 8yrs and schooling them ? It does go in spells as well...Portugal has been producing the good young players the last few years..

One thing for sure Enrique even as he is only getting going looks better than Bridge.

An important difference I've seen when living in England is English boys hardly play football in their free time, and when they play it's institutionalised and on full size grass pitches. In the cities in Holland the culture is completely different. I live in Rotterdam, where there is hardly any space for full size football pitches in the city centre, so youngsters very often play football every day after school and in their free time on small, concrete pitches.. The objectives are completely different too, as it´s not about scoring goals, but about trickery. A goal without beautiful passing, movement and/or skill will be laughed at and possibly not even counted. It´s not until these boys are in their early to mid teens that they get picked up by scouts and start to work on the tactical and physical aspects of the game. In this way in Rotterdam alone in recent years talents such as Van Persie and Drenthe have surfaced. If a player is intelligent and motivated enough playing more effective football, tactics and physical strength can be learned/trained. The extraordinary levels of skill that many players possess are self-thought, and often these players will say they actually played with far more talented players out on the concrete pitches, but these other youngster didn´t have the desire to make it out in the professional world of football.. so why is the dutch league, outside the top 4 or 5 horrible and of a very poor standard ? what happened to the likes of ajax picking up kids at about 8yrs and schooling them ? Who were those two shit Dutch players Barca or Real signed in the summer? lol

An important difference I've seen when living in England is English boys hardly play football in their free time, and when they play it's institutionalised and on full size grass pitches. In the cities in Holland the culture is completely different. I live in Rotterdam, where there is hardly any space for full size football pitches in the city centre, so youngsters very often play football every day after school and in their free time on small, concrete pitches.. The objectives are completely different too, as it´s not about scoring goals, but about trickery. A goal without beautiful passing, movement and/or skill will be laughed at and possibly not even counted. It´s not until these boys are in their early to mid teens that they get picked up by scouts and start to work on the tactical and physical aspects of the game. In this way in Rotterdam alone in recent years talents such as Van Persie and Drenthe have surfaced. If a player is intelligent and motivated enough playing more effective football, tactics and physical strength can be learned/trained. The extraordinary levels of skill that many players possess are self-thought, and often these players will say they actually played with far more talented players out on the concrete pitches, but these other youngster didn´t have the desire to make it out in the professional world of football.. Good post. I really do believe English players don't really understand football outside the context of 'giving it all', 'going in hard' and 'being brave'...None of which win you anything. The England side scuttle around and just try and get it into the box, for them that is job done.

What those hoofs and little floaters down the middle? and the crosses not getting past the first man, the defence playing like strangers,the feeling that you have a squad good enough bit everything you see screams "not". To be quite honest how many of those out there would get in the Barca or Real or Milan sides? if richards,gerrard,lampard became available barca and real would be interested. Not sure about Lampard tbh.

What those hoofs and little floaters down the middle? and the crosses not getting past the first man, the defence playing like strangers,the feeling that you have a squad good enough bit everything you see screams "not". To be quite honest how many of those out there would get in the Barca or Real or Milan sides?

That is part of the picture and also I suspect there just isn't enough tactical coaching and sometimes the positional sense looks non-existant..Gerrard the worse culprit.

What those hoofs and little floaters down the middle?

Na. Germany. Easily. Spain. Spain are always talked up before major tournaments, would be nice to see them actually challenging in the latter stages. Agree about the Jormans though, they're usually there or thereabouts. German highlights show saying England don't have enough top class players, also some mention of Arsenal and foreign players...Didn't catch it all.

Looking on the bright side we can get ginge out the way sharpish now and there will be no hanging on for another 2 years.

I was just thinking that.

You realise on nights like this that they are a fairly average bunch of players...Missing Rooney and Owen badly.

But it's close.

Can really see Churchill coming out of Mcnugget. He'll be shouting like this: Permasmug cunt. The only thing he every does is hoy on 4 strikers.

Shouldn't that be the other way round? :giggle:

German commentators giggling while passing on the England score.

Yes come on the Finns!! Ukraine playing out of their skins against France. Schev missed volley for 3-2....

Schev 2-2. French keeper drops a looping header into the net trying to show off. mackems.gif

Silly game to play a def looking side and one striker.

Watching France v Ukraine fantastic game.