England

[AyeDubbleYoo]

It's got to be Ashley Young on the left at this point surely. He might not be the best individual name, but he's definitely the most comfortable and effective in that role IMO.

 

not seen enough of young, but he's basically a winger right?

 

system i'm on about here the wider players wouldn't be wingers as such, has young got more to his game?

 

Yeah he's basically a winger but he does have a lot to his game in terms of creating and scoring goals, as well as counter-attacking with pace.

 

Basically I think we often complicate things with England, partly because we're trying to fit in the star players, and partly because everybody wants to be the playmaker.

 

We need less players that get the ball and look to play the killer pass, and more than are content just to pass and move neatly. Everyone wants to be the star, we need one or two of those but far more tidy players.

[mrmojorisin75]

I'm a bit concerned with Rooney as well, for club and country he's turned himself into the worker that sacrifices himself for the team. All well and good, but we've got less talented players that could do that.

 

I worry that in a year's time we'll be talking about whether Rooney should be an automatic choice or not, which would be a shame considering his potential.

 

obviously don't follow england as much as everyone here but is rooney not also suffering a little from the lack off a settled partner who scores goals?  what i'm getting at is when he came onto the scene owen was around as the main goal threat in the team and i specifically remember rooney getting space, coming in late onto balls and scoring

 

now what's the alternate threat up front?  as far as i can see there isn't one

 

granted his 'new role' at manu will be affecting things but i think we need to get owen (or choose another striker to stick with) as the FW and let rooney drop back a bit, if he's doing the dropping back and there is either noone ahead of him or that player offers no threat then it'll not get any better

 

typical of england really to not be able to get performances out of the most talented player for decades

[AyeDubbleYoo]

True, we don't have anyone to play the Alan Shearer role, playing nearly every game and getting the goals. Hopefully someone will prove themselves this season, hopefully Owen but maybe Ashton or even Bent.

 

If Rooney plays deep I still think he needs to curb his instincts for tracking back... we don't really need to see him tackling in the left-back position!

[mrmojorisin75]

It's got to be Ashley Young on the left at this point surely. He might not be the best individual name, but he's definitely the most comfortable and effective in that role IMO.

 

not seen enough of young, but he's basically a winger right?

 

system i'm on about here the wider players wouldn't be wingers as such, has young got more to his game?

 

Yeah he's basically a winger but he does have a lot to his game in terms of creating and scoring goals, as well as counter-attacking with pace.

 

Basically I think we often complicate things with England, partly because we're trying to fit in the star players, and partly because everybody wants to be the playmaker.

 

We need less players that get the ball and look to play the killer pass, and more than are content just to pass and move neatly. Everyone wants to be the star, we need one or two of those but far more tidy players.

 

strong back five plus this then!

 

----------hargreaves---------carrrick--------------

------bentley--------rooney----------young-----------

-----------------------ashton---------------------

 

could play barry ahead of the other two, even fwanky...no place for gerrard unless in the rooney role imo

[Guest quklaani]

Theres a lot of nonsense talked about Wayne Rooney because of his poor form for the national team and Ronaldo's ridiculous brilliance.  Rooney is still one of the best players in the league, and his goals and assists show that.  He has three problems which are leading to this asinine talk of him being written off.  Firstly, there is the nonsense talked about him in the past.  The idea that he's "not the explosive player blah blah blah euro 2004" is based on a bizarre nostalgia about how he performed as a kid.  Yes he ran around a lot doing exciting things (like kicking people off the pitch and um...yeah) but he scored and created far less.  He's a vastly superior players to what he was back then, hes just a different one.  Second, hes had a terrible time of it with injuries, never any massive ones, but an endless string of niggles, breaks and illnesses.  Last season was the worst example of this, he was stunning in preseason, then broke his foot before half time on the first day.  Then he came back, took awhile to find form (as he tends to) then scored in something like 12 games in a row, including actually scoring for England.  Then he fecked his ankle, missed a few games and of course the Croatia debacle, and when he came back he again took time to find form.  Then after that he got ill over christmas and missed several games, then there was his hip/hernia thing towards the end of the season and so on.  Third, he cant stop missing sitters.  Rooney scores a decent amount of goals, but he still tends to feck up what seem like relatively easy chances.  Its a confidence thing, its never a problem when hes in form but when he's not he can get really worked up over it and just make it worse for himself.  Hes a stunning finisher when he's in the right frame of mind, but he often isnt.  He could, and probably should, score 30 goals a season, which would be an absurd acheivement for someone who tends to play so deep.

 

In spite of all this he's scored 40 goals in the last two seasons and set up something like 30*, hes also remained the third name on the team sheet of a highly succesful team.  Getting the best out of him for England is a bloody riddle sure, but people really need to stop writing him off.

 

*assists can be a pretty pointless statistic, but for a player like Rooney it says a lot.

 

edit: Just to add, Ashley Young is brilliant.  I think hes slowly becoming the best british winger since Giggs (not all that much competition, but even so...)  I hope for the sake of the league he's not nicked by Liverpool or Chelsea (Arsenal wont spend that much and Manchester United don't need him, although obviously I wish we'd signed him fro, Watford.)  Why the hell Stewart Downing and Theo Walcott are in the England squad ahead of him I couldn't possibly fathom.

[Cronky]

Interesting observations by Cascarino in the Times. I agree 100%. This has been a problem with Beckham for some time -

 

Will someone have the balls to put “Goldenballs” in his place? David Beckham is hurting England and I can't believe Fabio Capello hasn't noticed - and that Beckham's team-mates aren't trying to sort out the problems he creates. It's in their interest because the way the former captain is playing is making the rest of the midfield look bad. He could cost them their places.

 

Against the Czech Republic, as usual, Beckham was indulgently wandering wherever he liked with no sense of positional discipline. It unbalanced the team. One moment he's where he should be, on the right; the next he's drifted over towards the centre, even the left wing. It's a recipe for confusion. Beckham is far from the only culprit for England's poor show at Wembley but I'm shocked that a manager of Capello's stature can't see the issues Beckham's tactical failings are causing.

 

Take the Czech Republic's first goal. Beckham gives away the ball on the right, moves towards the centre and ends up on the left, leaving Wes Brown exposed at right back. Do Frank Lampard, Steven Gerrard and Gareth Barry tell him to get back to his place? No, they let him wander into their territory and even get out of his way. Beckham is constantly demanding the ball. He's hungry, which is fine - but it's no wonder then that Barry and Lampard look anonymous when Beckham's jogging into their position and collecting the ball, or taking set-pieces he should leave to others. What does he do in possession? He's always looking for the 30 or 40-yard glory ball. But to whom? What's the use in finding a player who's isolated because his team-mates are out of position as a result of these ramblings?

 

Beckham's England reputation is founded on the World Cup qualifier against Greece in 2001 when he scored a crucial equaliser from a last-minute free kick. But watch the game again and you'll see him play like he did on Wednesday: roaming wherever he fancies, neglecting his defensive duties. It's all forgotten because of that superb free kick.

 

The difference between Beckham now and then is that his legs are betraying him. He's never been quick but he always had a fantastic engine. These days he's that fraction slower, that bit less energetic, and so he's not able to support the attack or protect the defence well enough. He's just sitting deep spraying passes.

 

Beckham's supporters will say that his set-piece expertise can win games. But there are too many negatives to justify his inclusion ahead of David Bentley or Gabriel Agbonlahor. Good teams will expose him. You can just see this scenario happening: Beckham plays against Andorra, scores a free kick and everybody's happy. Then Capello picks him in Zagreb and England lose looking disorganised, unimaginative and slow. Golden? I don't think so.