England Team Thread

[MarioMark]

Mclaren lacks guts. It took him a long time to realise that you can't play Gerrard and lampard in the same line up but the problem is Gerrard seems to have earned himself an undeserved automatic place for a contested position. Mclaren seems to think it's Gerrard or Gerrard and Lampard.

He should've used the friendlies and the 'easy' games to sort it out but it's still unresolved,

Yeah, and by the looks of things the issue will never get sorted as they are in their late 20s now. Too many years have been wasted on this and now it looks like it's too late.

Gerrard is a good player and when Liverpool are in a state of a match where they NEED a goal or two, he turns it up a gear, but he doesn't seem to be able to do this for England, like against Russia in the last 10 minutes.

[Baseley09]

Couldve done with Beckham instead of the inept SWP. Fact is SWP cant play, he gets lucky with some goals, hes fast but he cant cross or pass.

Lescott was a bad move, P.NEV i wouldnt fancy either tho, or Shorey to be fair.

[toythatkills]

I'm sure SWP can pass, it's just that he refuses to most of the time. Is it just me that yells "PASS THE ****ING BALL" at him every time he plays?

[SharkSkin-Man]

Gerrard is a good player and when Liverpool are in a state of a match where they NEED a goal or two, he turns it up a gear

Unfortunately, he's not been doing anything of the sort - poor season so far.

[EJG1980]

I'm sure SWP can pass, it's just that he refuses to most of the time. Is it just me that yells "PASS THE ****ING BALL" at him every time he plays?

Nah, SWP is overrated. He can be good on his day but "his day" seems to be a rare occasion when there's a full moon and the stars align. Only then do his crosses actually go anywhere dangerous.

[prinnysquad]

that BBC pundits on England article on bbcsport is like reading a love letter to failure. Pathetic.

[abigsmurf]

Nah, SWP is overrated. He can be good on his day but "his day" seems to be a rare occasion when there's a full moon and the stars align. Only then do his crosses actually go anywhere dangerous.

SWP does one fundamental basic error: He doesn't look up when passing or crossing. As a result his balls never go anywhere. He's an incredibly fast player but until he breaks that habit he's never going to reach his potential

[vanpeebles]

Same old England for me and its only going to get worse. People spend far too much time arguing about who the manager is rather than what all these mega millionaire players are doing. The vast majority of our players are vastly overpaid compared to their talents. Half of them cant even trap a ball.

Also because of the inept FA the England job now is a right poisoned chalice. I've never seen such a bunch of over rated players. All talk and nothing, no bottle, no guts, no pride. Never all this petty club talk picking out rival individual players. Gerrard has rarly had a good game for England (5-1 v Germany is his only stand out game) and Lampard is so over rated its untrue.

That team full of smug, gobby london boys will win us nothing ever. Its always the same seeing them in the press: we are gonna do this, we are gonna do that.

Drop the lot, you could pick a prouder more professional team from the lower leagues.

[EJG1980]

Our players are definitely overpaid and overrated. I've said it before but I truly think that our players look better than they really are at club level because they've got a lot of great foreign talent around them helping them out.

It's the only way I can explain players who can be part of a team that plays decent passing football at club level, yet so often can barely seem to pass the ball at all when they're all together at international level. Either that or they have so little mental strength that the pressure of playing for their country completely drains away their skill and ability.

[eastyy]

well havent really watched football for ages but when i did many years ago but what i noticed back then was

if england scored and were head they would be put on the defensive for the rest of the match.....and usually results in the opposing team scoring

also when perhaps people say england are playing well in the first half.....do they really mean that russia were actually playing poor in the first half ?

i think just for a larf they ought to do a experiment and take some of the best english players from the first and second division and just see how they would do

[prinnysquad]

Well they wouldn't be gob****es for a start. You'd get a bit of pride and humility for pulling on the national jersey.

[abigsmurf]

They would also lose 8-0

Blaming players for a lack of passion is rubbish. It's the manager's job to install this passion. When players have been on a 6 hour flight, have had a week of back pages saying how rubbish they are, you feel like crap, they don't think "hey I'm getting XXX thousands this week" and get burning with passion. When you're in front of 60,000 fans supporting the opposition and maybe a few thousand supporting you, it can be tough.

The manager is the one who has to make players put all this to the side and make them thirst for the football.

[saif]

I think it can be difficult for a fair number of the players when they have been booed too. And, for the mates of that player, it must be difficult too - especially at clubs where you do not boo your own. The players should have some passion anyway, but that is clearly not the problem. The two coaches that have tried to play with "passion" in recent years: Keegan and McLaren. Enough said methinks.

[vanpeebles]

They would also lose 8-0

Blaming players for a lack of passion is rubbish. It's the manager's job to install this passion. When players have been on a 6 hour flight, have had a week of back pages saying how rubbish they are, you feel like crap, they don't think "hey I'm getting XXX thousands this week" and get burning with passion. When you're in front of 60,000 fans supporting the opposition and maybe a few thousand supporting you, it can be tough.

The manager is the one who has to make players put all this to the side and make them thirst for the football.

Im sorry but thats tosh, players should play for themselves first out of professional pride. If they cant do that while playing for the national side and getting paid a fortune then they should be dropped instantly. A manager might have to motivate some players but not hand hold all of them.

As for a 6 hour flight dont make me laugh do you think they sat cramped up in the cheap seats?

And the crowd comments are what players will put up with all their playing lives. All the big premier sides have huge crowds. Its when the big players should come out and play when it matters.

I've never seen such soft as muck clap trap.

[Malavon]

They would also lose 8-0

That part is accurate though.