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IMO Townsend is a decent player but he needs to add variation to his game. I personally think hell get figured out pretty quickly, whether he has it in his locker to vary his game, perhaps cut down on his long range shooting he can be very useful

 

Disagree with the last bit. No-one was getting any shots away at all the other night. Absolutely riddled with fannying about. He just rocked up, shot and hit the post. Need more of it imo.

 

Maybe, but he looks to shoot far too often from long range imo. His hit ratio is low.

 

Hes either hit the woodwork or scored from long range in each of his last 3 starts for England?

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We need to start playing a typical Premier League game. Fast, direct, frenzied and end to end. Let Townsend run with the ball, cut inside and shoot. Let him pin back the full-back. Why not, that's what he is good and at what he does. He isn't going to play cute little one twos in little triangles or thread through amazing balls. So why ask him to. The same applies to all our players. What is Sturridge good at? What is Rooney good at? Get them playing their own game and at the kind of tempo and directness of our league.

 

I've said this for a while.

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Just a small comment about HTT's post. I'd say the vast majority, especially the media, overrated Bale rather than a handful of people on forums underrating him surely?

 

I don't even think the media really over-rated him. In the PL he, RVP & Suarez where the standout players. All 3 based on last season are in that bracket just below the top two.

 

Up until around Christmas I was saying Mata was better than Bale but around January-Feb Bale went full beast-mode. Some of the best play i've ever seen in the PL. Scoring winners damn near every week.

 

The only people that have over-rated him are Real Madrid.

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We need to start playing a typical Premier League game. Fast, direct, frenzied and end to end. Let Townsend run with the ball, cut inside and shoot. Let him pin back the full-back. Why not, that's what he is good and at what he does. He isn't going to play cute little one twos in little triangles or thread through amazing balls. So why ask him to. The same applies to all our players. What is Sturridge good at? What is Rooney good at? Get them playing their own game and at the kind of tempo and directness of our league.

 

Amen, bruv. This is exactly why Sven and Capello (especially) should never have been appointed.

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We need to start playing a typical Premier League game. Fast, direct, frenzied and end to end. Let Townsend run with the ball, cut inside and shoot. Let him pin back the full-back. Why not, that's what he is good and at what he does. He isn't going to play cute little one twos in little triangles or thread through amazing balls. So why ask him to. The same applies to all our players. What is Sturridge good at? What is Rooney good at? Get them playing their own game and at the kind of tempo and directness of our league.

 

I've said this for a while.

 

Probably ever since Hungary beat us 6-3 in 1953, this debate has been going back and forth. It seems clear to me that if we really want to be persistent challengers for the major tournaments, we need to develop a more technical style. And that is starting to happen, at long last.

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The thing is though, that frenzied style doesn't really work internationally, when most teams do a much better job of keeping possession, and so the game just isn't as open like it is in the premier league, where possession changes sides quite regularly against most of the teams outside of the top 4.

 

Secondly, most international teams will just sit deep and challenge you to break them down with good passing and movement, which is what Chile did last week. And so it is difficult to try to get in behind them, or run at them etc.

 

This is the issue England faces I think.

 

 

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Do the players in your team play for clubs that play in a "typical Premier league" style? The league in general, but especially the top clubs, have become more similar to their continental brethren since 2000.

 

Not really. English teams have become "more technical" but the game at the highest level still tends to be considerably faster, direct and strong than on the continent. If you look at the Golden Era of British teams in the CL especially Benitez L'pool, Chelsea & Man Utd. the teams where very strong, very quick, great on the backfoot/counter, relatively direct. Of course there where great technically too but they took full advantage of the English style

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Secondly, most international teams will just sit deep and challenge you to break them down with good passing and movement, which is what Chile did last week. And so it is difficult to try to get in behind them, or run at them etc.

 

was inferring the same thing when discussing townsend, but got slated for it :lol:

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Secondly, most international teams will just sit deep and challenge you to break them down with good passing and movement, which is what Chile did last week. And so it is difficult to try to get in behind them, or run at them etc.

 

was inferring the same thing when discussing townsend, but got slated for it :lol:

 

Because you were talking tripe son.

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I think England really need to have a think about how to produce better international quality players. It's too easy to say, they need to just do their own thing, and forget everyone else. The fact is that it's not going to lead to the results they want. The approach just doesn't work at that level.

 

It's not even a case of trying to play like Spain, Germany or Brazil either. It's just about improving the passing and ability to keep possession, to a decent standard, as the standard is currently way too low.

 

England really struggle to keep possession long enough, in order to work the opposition's defence and eventually create decent openings for their quality players, with the crucial pass or cross.

 

It definitely needs looking at. If Germany could transform their whole approach and setup to the level they did, England should be able to. Doing it to even half of the level Germany did would make a huge difference.

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It's not even a case of trying to play like Spain, Germany or Brazil either. It's just about improving the passing and ability to keep possession, to a decent standard, as the standard is currently way too low.

 

someone gets it then, great to see a person who doesn't think we should play to our strengths of kicking it and running fast as the way to a better future :thup:

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the culture in the UK is, and always has been, non-stop running, get rid of the ball as fast as you can anywhere

 

Until we can stop that we ain't going anywhere internationally

 

It was always seen as the strength of our game. Them English can't control a wet bag of cement but they run and harry all day.

 

I agree and nice to see you back too.

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the culture in the UK is, and always has been, non-stop running, get rid of the ball as fast as you can anywhere

 

Until we can stop that we ain't going anywhere internationally

Don't think it should be totally stopped. Culture is culture and it will change slowly. It's cold out here, running about loads keeps us warm. We also like to appear to be hard working, grafting, getting stuck in.

 

We need to highlight and focus on imposing our strengths. But we must also improve on our weaknesses.

 

Quick, fast paced football should be paramount to how the national side plays.

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I don't necessarily believe we need to "control" possession. When Man Utd. went to the final those 3 times back to back they hardly played everyone off the pitch in the latter rounds.

 

If I could use a boxing example. We won't ever be the type to dominate the centre of the ring against top opposition, sending the most punches. However, we've all seen PBF control bouts on the backfoot striking with pace and accuracy as the opponent tries to press.

 

But we have to be "good enough" at whatever we do fundamentally to make it work. Ball control, movement, intelligence, technique. Whatever style we can try and approach. At the moment we just aren't good enough footballers.

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I don't necessarily believe we need to "control" possession.

 

Agreed. However, being able to pass it well enough to create opportunities is something England need to be bale to do far more consistently. So many possessions end up with that hopeful long ball that ends up going through to the keeper.

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