Guest BillyRay Valentine Posted June 7, 2007 Share Posted June 7, 2007 totally nails everything wrong with our hopelessly dull national team http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/sport/2007/06/06/scottys_blog_on_england.html Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Knightrider Posted June 7, 2007 Share Posted June 7, 2007 I thought England did a good job in Estonia, a professional job. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest BillyRay Valentine Posted June 7, 2007 Share Posted June 7, 2007 I thought England did a good job in Estonia, a professional job. i know i know, but we remain such an ordinary side with far too many players playing on reputation. we're not going to win the euro's and we sure as hell aren't going to win the world cup if we continue in this run-of-the-mill vain. i lost count of the amount of times we resorted to a 50 yard punt after stringing together 3 or so passes and running completely out of ideas Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yorkie Posted June 7, 2007 Share Posted June 7, 2007 I thought England did a good job in Estonia, a professional job. Struggled for a hefty percentage of the match to break them down, and simply won the game by 'tiring them out'. Usually the criteria for any England victory nowadays. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest BillyRay Valentine Posted June 7, 2007 Share Posted June 7, 2007 I thought England did a good job in Estonia, a professional job. Struggled for a hefty percentage of the match to break them down, and simply won the game by 'tiring them out'. Usually the criteria for any England victory nowadays. exactly. not only is there no joy on the pitch when england play but they even manage to suck the fun out of watching them nowadays. sadly it has come to the point where i actually hope they lose as this generally tends to be more exciting then the depressing monotony of an england win Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
tmonkey Posted June 7, 2007 Share Posted June 7, 2007 Its nailed on now that well be going into Euro 2008 with that uber successful trio of Gerrard, Lampard and Beckham in our midfield. Worth putting a fiver on England flopping in the next championship? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest BillyRay Valentine Posted June 7, 2007 Share Posted June 7, 2007 Its nailed on now that well be going into Euro 2008 with that uber successful trio of Gerrard, Lampard and Beckham in our midfield. Worth putting a fiver on England flopping in the next championship? probably get some half resonable odds due to all the lobotomised patriots sticking their dole cheques on emgland to win it Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cronky Posted June 7, 2007 Share Posted June 7, 2007 totally nails everything wrong with our hopelessly dull national team http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/sport/2007/06/06/scottys_blog_on_england.html All credit to the Guardian for looking beneath the scoreline to the performance. But I don't think wholesale changes are the answer. Some of the players they named - Lita, Parker, Jaglielka, Taylor - definitely wouldn't be an improvement. I'd question whether Owen now contributes enough. Given the way top level international football has developed, I don't think we can afford a specialist poacher who contributes absolutely nothing creatively outside the penalty box. When both are available, I'd play Crouch and Rooney. I also think we can only play two of Beckham, Lampard and Gerrard. Otherwise we become slow and predictable. Beckham isn't really a wide player and he tends to drift inside, cramping the other two. He also plays too many long balls which may be effective against the likes of Estonia, but won't work against better opposition. With Gerrard and Lampard, we should be playing it on the deck, but most of the time Beckham is just banging it over their heads. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Alan Shearer 9 Posted June 7, 2007 Share Posted June 7, 2007 52% possession against Estonia. Acceptable? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yorkie Posted June 7, 2007 Share Posted June 7, 2007 52% possession against Estonia. Acceptable? When there's also 3 goals and none conceded, i'd say so aye. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
chicago_shearer Posted June 7, 2007 Share Posted June 7, 2007 I don't think England are the only ones putting in poor performances and getting unconvincing results. If you look at the group standings, there are a number of "top" teams that are in a battle to qualify. Portugal, Spain & Holland for example. Euro 2004 proved that you can not only qualify but win the tournament by being organized, boring and defensive. So "tiring them out" is basically a job well done. Italy didn't win the World Cup by impressing early on, but by grinding out the difficult results and showing the quality when it mattered. Against Estonia or Andorra, it just doesn't matter. Teams like Macedonia & Estonia aren't full of great players, but they are professionals. I don't think you are going to see many 6-0 or 7-0 results away from home anymore against anyone with serious players and a decent manager. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Knightrider Posted June 7, 2007 Share Posted June 7, 2007 No team at international level is setting the world alight. People need to accept this. They asked for a convincing win and they got it. Or do they expect us to win 5-0 and play like Arsenal? Actually scratch that out... some do! Like I said I thought England put in a good performance and won pretty convincingly without ever stretching themselves. Estonia are not a very good team, but that doesn't mean they will be a walkover or that England or any team will tear them to shreds. Very rarely happens in club football these days never mind international football. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yorkie Posted June 7, 2007 Share Posted June 7, 2007 We will not win the European Championships with Steve McClaren. Bottom line. People can have a go at me for "oh, another one of Yorkie's know-it-all presumptions", but that, above, is absolutely nailed on. Not a cat in hell's chance. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
BlufPurdi Posted June 7, 2007 Share Posted June 7, 2007 Agree with HTT on principle, but the article BillyRay put up is on the button. Also, everyone can knock McClaren for dropping Beckham, and whilst this might not have been the intention of that move, it's worked out better. Beckham is working for his spot now, which is a plus. Time to drop some of the others, completely, and start again. I'm just kind of against Beckham cause we should be moving on. He's not our future, and I'll be damned if he's still the best right side of option in a years time. It's debatable whether he is just now, I can't take anything away from his crossing, but there's so much more to a team that that position should be offering, which he hasn't for the past 5 years. 5 years of which we've been dreadful. He was part of that team as much as anyone, and played just as bad as most of them during that period. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Knightrider Posted June 7, 2007 Share Posted June 7, 2007 I don't rate McLaren but international football is getting less competitive and England will always somehow scrape their way to the quarters, and after that, it's anyone's game. It would be very ironic of he were to bring long awaited success to England and shut a few people up. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yorkie Posted June 7, 2007 Share Posted June 7, 2007 I don't rate McLaren but international football is getting less competitive and England will always somehow scrape their way to the quarters, and after that, it's anyone's game. It would be very ironic of he were to bring long awaited success to England and shut a few people up. I shan't worry. He won't. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest BillyRay Valentine Posted June 7, 2007 Share Posted June 7, 2007 i think englands biggest problem is the national team is essentially a closed shop. once established in the side it seems you can quite happily produce endless bouts of mediocrity with zero comeback, rolling back to your club knowing your place is secure with another cap in hand. particularly for england who, of the top footballing nations, are arguably the least naturally skillful this has resulted in an equally endless stream of mediocre performances. using beckham as an example, i wonder how many of our established 'big guns' would be able to raise their games significantly enough to reproduce their club form for england if they were suddenly dropped? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cronky Posted June 7, 2007 Share Posted June 7, 2007 The way I see it, all the top teams, in the Premiership or an International level, have the option of playing the ball on the deck through the middle to the strikers. They aren't tied to long balls or crosses from wide, as we were on Wednesday. This lack of variety or guile to our play was what depressed me, partly because it was dull to watch and partly because it won't get us anywhere against top teams. Rooney makes a big difference because the sort of positions he gets into offers the midfield that option of interpassing through the middle. We miss him badly when he's not there. The presence of Owen and Beckham tends to hold us back. Beckham can certainly cross, but there's not much variety to his passing. He tends to bang it long to the wings, or over the midfield to the strikers. It's no wonder Gerrard and Lampard tend to look poor when he's playing. Owen hardly ever gets involved in the build-up, and doesn't create chances for his team-mates. We'd be better off with someone with more range to their skills rather than have a specialist finisher. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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