Tiresias

So that's what happened to the Carroll money

wow incredible

Oh god, can just see him watching the world cup final and shouting GET IN as Holland tried hacking spain into oblivion, he'd show it to our team in prep for euros

We'd have got further a long time ago if Capello had been willing to leave out media favourite players who weren't pulling their weight a long time ago, but I suspect as much due to FA politicking etc as anything that's never going to happen. For friendlies should have happened a long time ago anyway, give everyone else a chance, everyone knows Rooney's good when he wants to be. (not for England though).

Pretty much agree, I think he has sadly failed to develop a great crop which has led to this drop, and with City's muscle forcing way in there's some inevitability to the small spenders eventually losing out to clubs with big money, and particulaly since the massive influx of money hasn't really lead to the best league in the world, and one has to suspect the bubble will burst sometime. TV revenues are going to fall sometime due to the recession limiting peoples ability to pay for Sky, and what happens when Sheik Mansour gets bored with it?

after all the exciting formations you know pardew is going to do this against totenham, everyones jinxed it with their aggressive 4-2-3-1s and such krul Simpson Saylor Colo Raylor Obertan Tiote Cabaye Gosling Guti (shola)

I don't think we'd be thaaaat fucked without him for a bit. Not saying anything about him, he's quality, I just think we have more cover in midfield than anywhere else on pitch, and Tiote is a beast. I think sometime this season we do want to be giving Abeid, Gosling etc some gametime anyway.

Still don't like redknapp, i maintain Ian Holloway for england manager, it'd be a right laugh

Just wait till they replace him with John Terry

God can see it Beckham appointed and the press would fawn and we would never win a game

Pretty much spot on, though I do wonder how successful any manager would be, just don't think we have the players, or at least players willing to give a good shift. The FA however is terrified of ditching players the press would whinge about not being in squad I suspect. Genuinely feel if a player 'doesn't enjoy' playing for england as they put it, probably shouldn't be playing.

pessimism can be healthy, it softens the blow when proved right and makes anything above that a pleasant surprise. Having said that I don't think i'm being that pessimistic with 9th as a prediction, i would have bitten your hand off for that at start of season

Good news, and now let him be left out the squad just to be safe

Will Gerrard really be fit for next year? Or even good? I think we have to plan for not taking him to the tournament. I'd hope Cleverly even if it is very early for him. I think Capello's thinking is that we have no incisive ability in midfield so we might as well try and be solid defensively there and hope Rooney and co can generate goals.

I've gone for 9th, which I think would be a pretty solid result to build upon and a compromise between the great start and the optimism of that and the nagging worry it can't go on forever and we're going to have a slump.

As I said in the post, I think HBA is likely to run forward and attack and not contribute to keeping possession and defensively, with HBA then it's a like for like replacement of Cabaye with Abeid/Gosling who probably isn't quite ready. More people sitting in the midfield would help them with confidence, and HBA can play on wing and probably have a fairly free role anyway. With Cabaye and Tiote behind him HBA can attack and play in the hole with more confidence.

he's entitled to, he should just say so, not hide from a phone call doubt coach should have gone public with it though, now probably won't ever be able to convince him

To compensate lack of Cabaye (if he is out) I'd cram midfield, so go with Krul Raylor Saylor Colo Santon Abeid Tiote Gosling HBA/Guti Marveaux Ba Know HBA is sort of wanted in gosling position but my thinking is that HBA is likely to play further up pitch off striker and i'd want third man in midfield to do plenty of defensive work, Gosling and Abeid are inexperienced but both there with Tiote backing up should stop them being overwhelmed. Guti is switched to the right if he's playing to counteract Bale and marveaux getting in behind lennon or VdV could give us some love. Dunno if to prefer guthrie to either gosling or abeid really

Oh I agree that the main problem is that we just don't have the players trained and developed suited to the game internationally at the moment. Capello is only limited to blame, but he has to take some of the flack for how little our team seems to gel, and how pathetic our midfield seems frequently. TBH being able to tear into defences at all would be a bonus...

I actually think we have reasonable prospects in long term, some good players coming through, nowhere near enough really but with a little luck we'll be stronger in future. At the moment we're tactically naive, have little mental strength, and players who are decent enough in league can't keep the ball. Well done on successful qualifying campaign, but no where near close to exorcising the problems the world cup demonstrated.

Without Cabaye tough time, I'll downgrade my 3-1 loss prediction to a 3-0 loss.

bollocks

Pathetic from Rooney. Again has precisely the wrong attitude. Pathetic display to draw from 2-0 up, not even close to the level of any of the good teams in the competition. Pretty much everyone to blame as well.

damnit.

Spain game is making england look like a non league team, that pass for first goal from xavi was incredible. Still woo ahead.