ElDiablo

Definately Mickey. Only one of our players we can really rely on to get goals.

Nobby if he's still here. A good incentive for him to learn the language if noone can speak it anyhow.

Too young to remember the 5-0 vividly. Probs Feyenoord.

Not a bad shout. We really need a player who can carry the ball further than a few steps in midfield, Zog would do well there. Butt ----- Geremi ------Zog------ As the midfield 3 looks good to me.

Bit disappointed with that in the end. Owen, awwww so close Suppose a point isn't too bad. Still unbeaten! Fucking Mido, what a bellend.

I actually had to turn over when he went on about that lad that died. Just too cringe-worthy for words, could see he couldn't think what to say and just come out with some cliché.

A player I like very much.

Top five: 1. Newcastle - yep. 2. Liverpool - Gerrard, Torres. 3. Man Utd - Would love to see how Fergie works day in day out. 4. Arsenal - What James said, apart from fans!?!!? In London. 5. Chels - Probably get loads of £. In London also.

I wouldn't swap, but La Liga is better to watch in my opinion. Much more open feel to the games.

Nothing can beat a good smiley for that.

Haha yeah, and when people say 'arksed' instead of asked. That does grind my gears a bit. Also when English people pronounce foreign words in an English way. Like MaLLorca instead of Majorca. (as in actually say the L's)

Only like the away blue one out of ours this season. Which is good cos it means I'll only be forking out for one.

Second half subs always ruin friendlies. Decent watch in the first half I thought. Always the same though, starts of OK, the fact that it's England gets me through the first half hour. Then I realise what a pile of shite im actually watching and lose interest. Every single time. The lack of ideas is shocking.

Can't be arsed to watch anymore of this shit. Same old, same old.

Same here. just ughh at Lampard and Carrick, why is Carrick incapable of travelling further than two steps with the ball without passing it.

Wise and Boothroyd are on Sky sports new. Jeff Stelling asked wise, "What are your targets for this season?". Which Wise replys, "Well obviously we'll be looking for promotion whether it be the via Play offs of Winning the league" Stelling asks Boothroyd what his targets are, in which he replys, "We'll my targets are to win the league by at least 20 points, dont let in any more that 5 goals all season and Win The F.A & Carling Cup with our reserves this season" Stelling replys "Don't you think thats being a bit optimistic?" Which boothroyd replys "Well Denis started it!"

Martins is thick. But can be taught and will be if someone is given the chance, Common problem for most sports people in this day and age. Players like wor Jackie might not of been over educated but having to do something other than playing sport all their life meant they actually had to use their minds instead of just listening to their manager/club/agent/hangers on for every instruction/thought/action. Agreed, I think playing other sports where you have to use your brain can help you with certain things in football. And sharpens your mind.

Martins is thick. But can be taught and will be if someone is given the chance,

What does Martins offer to that then?

Anelka's also used to playing in a 433 and knows how Sam want him to operate. Would rather sell Owen than Martins though. Martins-----Viduka-----Anelka.

Any national manager simply doesn't have enough time to get to know each individual player and work out how they can help them to adapt/develop. Most of it comes from club football. Which is why with next to no englishmen playing abroad we're still lacking in that department imo. i don't really buy that. even a knowledgable fan could watch a player enough to know what elements of his game need working on to adapt to international football and the u21 coach has a full time job to watch his players and learn about them. the under 21 boss gets them for a few days training every international break as well as a match, i think that is more than enough time to give them the pointers and directions needed. if he doesn't have enough time to do this, then he doesn't have enough time to tell them what formation to play in, what the game plan is, what the individual player's jobs are. which would be a ridiculous suggesiton. if he has enough time to do this, then he has enough time to prepare them for what is different about international footy, as the two overlap. as for the clubs teaching them that, why would they? there's little benefit for a club manager to teach his lads how to play in a team exclusively made up of englishmen where everyone else has similar weaknesses of technique, movement, tempo and passing. the only players who will get any sort of similar advice will be those whose clubs are playing in europe and since that is such an international arena the football on offer is a hybrid style that is much easier for an english player to adapt to - not least cos their own team will likely have foreigners compensating for their weaknesses and vice versa. a perfect example of this would be gerrard, who is not asked to tone down his aggressive, attacking style in europe for liverpool, as the club has other players to keep possession and do the water carrying job, while he is compensating for their inability to play powerfully. at international level however he usually looks out of his depth because it is then up to him to perform other tasks and he's never been trained or prepared for this. and it is naive to expect englsh players to move abroad, the domestic league is aflush with cash so there is no real incentive to move abroad. it's time we started dealing with the problems at the youth levels (under 21 being the last youth level) rather than hope for a blood and guts up and at them manager like Pearce instilling "pride" into the players. that attitude has done fuck all for us. Can see what you're saying, but you're basically saying that we need an international standard manager (foreigner seeing as there's no englishman to do the job for the senior team let alone the youth set ups) to bring our young talent through. Bit unrealistic. we had Sven and he was the full time manager! I know! For the under 21's though, it would be hard to find someone who would be willing to take the job & teach them about the international game in Europe. SO we're left with the Stuart Pearce's, David Platt's etc.

Any national manager simply doesn't have enough time to get to know each individual player and work out how they can help them to adapt/develop. Most of it comes from club football. Which is why with next to no englishmen playing abroad we're still lacking in that department imo. This is one of the reasons Allardyce probably isn't suitable for the England job, his strength seeming to be his management of the individual on a full time basis Think Sven aswell is like that.

Any national manager simply doesn't have enough time to get to know each individual player and work out how they can help them to adapt/develop. Most of it comes from club football. Which is why with next to no englishmen playing abroad we're still lacking in that department imo. i don't really buy that. even a knowledgable fan could watch a player enough to know what elements of his game need working on to adapt to international football and the u21 coach has a full time job to watch his players and learn about them. the under 21 boss gets them for a few days training every international break as well as a match, i think that is more than enough time to give them the pointers and directions needed. if he doesn't have enough time to do this, then he doesn't have enough time to tell them what formation to play in, what the game plan is, what the individual player's jobs are. which would be a ridiculous suggesiton. if he has enough time to do this, then he has enough time to prepare them for what is different about international footy, as the two overlap. as for the clubs teaching them that, why would they? there's little benefit for a club manager to teach his lads how to play in a team exclusively made up of englishmen where everyone else has similar weaknesses of technique, movement, tempo and passing. the only players who will get any sort of similar advice will be those whose clubs are playing in europe and since that is such an international arena the football on offer is a hybrid style that is much easier for an english player to adapt to - not least cos their own team will likely have foreigners compensating for their weaknesses and vice versa. a perfect example of this would be gerrard, who is not asked to tone down his aggressive, attacking style in europe for liverpool, as the club has other players to keep possession and do the water carrying job, while he is compensating for their inability to play powerfully. at international level however he usually looks out of his depth because it is then up to him to perform other tasks and he's never been trained or prepared for this. and it is naive to expect englsh players to move abroad, the domestic league is aflush with cash so there is no real incentive to move abroad. it's time we started dealing with the problems at the youth levels (under 21 being the last youth level) rather than hope for a blood and guts up and at them manager like Pearce instilling "pride" into the players. that attitude has done fuck all for us. Can see what you're saying, but you're basically saying that we need an international standard manager (foreigner seeing as there's no englishman to do the job for the senior team let alone the youth set ups) to bring our young talent through. Bit unrealistic.

Any national manager simply doesn't have enough time to get to know each individual player and work out how they can help them to adapt/develop. Most of it comes from club football. Which is why with next to no englishmen playing abroad we're still lacking in that department imo.

Always enjoy watching the u21's. M johnson in the middle has looked good as has Noble at times. Also like the look of that Romanian left winger, number 11, has produced some decent bits of play.