England Team Thread

[Oh_Mutants]

Saying that though it'd be nice to see Rooney actually given a run playing in his preferred position. He can look a bit of a headless chicken when he's forced to play wide, or copme to deep to try to get some of the ball. Stick the lad up front with another striker and i think we'd see a different Rooney. Even by Ferguson's admission Rooney's game has suffered due to him being unselfish and taking a hit for the team.

[toythatkills]

The sooner Rooney is dropped for good, the better. He doesn't have a preferred position. He likes to play everywhere, which means he's never where you need him to be. He's useless for the team.

[ezee ryder]

I wouldn't say he is useless for the team, infact the problem is that he works too hard for the team resulting in him being everywhere.

[toythatkills]

Which is exactly why he's useless for the team. We don't need him to work hard, we need him to be in his position when the ball is ready to go to him. If he never is, attacks break down, which is a massive problem with England's play. Can you imagine if all 10 outfield players just chased the play like Rooney with no regard for their position? It'd be like watching five year olds play football. He needs to be more disciplined or he's never going to work for England.

[Number45]

You mean... Association Football?

[abigsmurf]

Rooney will never be dropped, even if Scolari had the guts, the FA would probably step in. Dropping the England 'boy' wonder? It took years of consistantly awful performances from Beckham before he was dropped and I imagine that was only possible because he was inactive in English football.

He's back anyway so we've a player in our squad who will no way be in form when the world cup rolls around.

[ezee ryder]

Which is exactly why he's useless for the team. We don't need him to work hard, we need him to be in his position when the ball is ready to go to him. If he never is, attacks break down, which is a massive problem with England's play. Can you imagine if all 10 outfield players just chased the play like Rooney with no regard for their position? It'd be like watching five year olds play football. He needs to be more disciplined or he's never going to work for England.

I agree that he needs to be disiplined but he is not totally useless for the team. Wasn't him that played the lovely little pass for one of the goals on Saturday? He does have alot to give to the team, it is just frustrating that he is not playing aswell as he can.

[toythatkills]

Useless is maybe a strong word, then. He could definately be amazing for the team, but if he carries on playing like he does then there's no way he deserves to be picked.

[Number45]

http://www.thefa.com/TheFA/NewsFromTheFA/Postings/EnglandTVCoverage.htm

They must be getting some flak for the coverage to have posted an explanation of the bids process and who owns what rights.

[Leon Retro]

As much as it pains me to admit it, Rooney is not world class. He is good (maybe very good) but not up their with the elite. A few years ago him and Ronaldo were at the same level as they both had the potential to be world class. Ronaldo realised his potential whereas Rooney has been left behind. Don't even get me started on Lampard and Gerrard......

It's all to do with modern British culture. Footballers, like a lot of people, are more selfish these days, and focused on material comforts, rather than selfless devotion to any given cause.

The way football went down the American route - of excessive money and greed, has only made the top players highly egotistical, selfish, and lazy.

No one likes a spoilt whiney kid - and that's how most footballers come across as these days.

Of course, the likes of Ferdinand, Beckham, Gerrard etc... mumble rubbish about how they want to win, please the fans etc..... but it's all disingenuous.

I don't even bother with the national game anymore. I'm at a point where I don't even feel that positive about the Premiership. I'm a Chelsea fan - and the way Lampard manipulated his way to a ridiculous wage packet, only put me off football more; especially when he's painted as one of the nicer guys in football.

I see greed and negativity eating away at what remains of our national team. Football should go back to the way it was pre-90s, but that's not going to happen. Things can only get worse.

[vanpeebles]

Well said Leon you sum it all up nicely if only more fans could look beyond their own backyard and see the bigger picture.

[capcom_suicide]

Well said Leon you sum it all up nicely if only more fans could look beyond their own backyard and see the bigger picture.

Totally agree.

If we want to have a decent team, we need players who actually get to play and develop in big matches at home & in Europe.

As it stands our top flight clubs are hardly using any english players, and worse still buying up our decent players and leaving them on the bench.

Every premiership team should field at least 7 players from England, and there needs to be somekind of cull to the silly money being spent.

It's just not fun anymore and the players only seem interested in the cash.

[abigsmurf]

Club football > National football. I would far rather Chelsea win the Champions league than England win the world cup. The club level is where the true dedicated fans are.

The National level is where 1/3rd of the stadium is filled with corporate types who only make their way back to the seats 10 minutes into the second half, where you get those families who hang out St. Georges crosses of their house or put them on their cars despite having next to no knowledge of most of the team.

We're not producing talented players because of foreign players taking over at a club level? Rubbish. You look at the squad and for the most part it's filled with very talented players, excellent defence and when Gerrard isn't giving the ball away and exposing us, a decent holding mid field. We just lack a player with spark and invention in a pure goal scoring role.

If there was a striker in the premiereship with any real promise, the second this becomes apparent, a big club will go after him and he'll get wages far more than he's worth. Look at the way Man U have a history of putting heavy pressure on clubs to sign English talent. The burden of ability on an English player is much lower than that of a foriegn one for him to command astronimical wages.

We need to face facts that we've a big gap in our squad and we've just not had any talent rise through the youth system (which has had massive investment throughout the EPL) . Rooney isn't the striker everyone thought he'd be, Michael Owen has been chewed up and spit out by the English game at a far too young age and we've few real alternatives.

[Number45]

The National level is where 1/3rd of the stadium is filled with corporate types who only make their way back to the seats 10 minutes into the second half,

To be fair, you can blame Wembley for that. The entire project was a joke from start to finish and they need to recoup costs any way they can.

Other than that I can't find too much fault with what's being said. I really miss the atmosphere and buzz that surrounded England matches 10+ years ago, even if we knew we'd ultimately end up disappointed.

[vanpeebles]

Club football > National football. I would far rather Chelsea win the Champions league than England win the world cup. The club level is where the true dedicated fans are.

The National level is where 1/3rd of the stadium is filled with corporate types who only make their way back to the seats 10 minutes into the second half, where you get those families who hang out St. Georges crosses of their house or put them on their cars despite having next to no knowledge of most of the team.

We're not producing talented players because of foreign players taking over at a club level? Rubbish. You look at the squad and for the most part it's filled with very talented players, excellent defence and when Gerrard isn't giving the ball away and exposing us, a decent holding mid field. We just lack a player with spark and invention in a pure goal scoring role.

If there was a striker in the premiereship with any real promise, the second this becomes apparent, a big club will go after him and he'll get wages far more than he's worth. Look at the way Man U have a history of putting heavy pressure on clubs to sign English talent. The burden of ability on an English player is much lower than that of a foriegn one for him to command astronimical wages.

We need to face facts that we've a big gap in our squad and we've just not had any talent rise through the youth system (which has had massive investment throughout the EPL) . Rooney isn't the striker everyone thought he'd be, Michael Owen has been chewed up and spit out by the English game at a far too young age and we've few real alternatives.

Sigh your still putting a club stance on it. If they arn't playing for England and Chelsea then you don't want to know.

With the way Countries are going with all these none nationals playing in national games we might as well scrap internationals anyway.