England Team Thread

[Kongster]

Wenger is not gonna be happy about Walcott's injury.

[abigsmurf]

I foresee headlines saying this is a new and improved side that have left the WC team behind, that Lampard should be dropped etc.

They'll ignore the fact this is the exact form England had in the WC qualifiers, beating lowish profile teams. We had almost all the same problems too, England were far far too vulnerable when pressure was applied. The second Hart's confidence took a knock, he was a shambles. A team with a strong counter attacking style would demolish that side again.

[toythatkills]

Maybe you should just knit or something, rather than watching England, since it pains you so much?

[abigsmurf]

I don't knit any more.
Not since the accident.

Thank god they missed my major organs...

[Kieran76]

Lets be honest, the fall of the Soviet Union has harmed European football. Look at all these these small countries we have to play against in our Euro and World Cup Qualifiers. Surely it would make more sense if all these lower ranked teams played each other in their own comp to see who qualified to play in the big tournament qualifiers. They could hold their comps while the World Cup or Euros took place. Also, while we are it, let us also get rid of Israel, Azerbaijan etc from UEFA, these countries are not in Europe so why do they get to enter our federation?
How many top class teams do England face in a year?

[toythatkills]

And deprive them of the money they'd get from facing England, Spain, Germany? They're not good to start with but that'd cripple them entirely.

[abigsmurf]

I think it's a good point about the general lack of challenge for larger teams in the qualifiers. Switzerland are the best team we can hope to play in a competative game before the tournament and they're 10 ranks below us (and you could argue even then they're rated too highly).

Is it any wonder that so many big teams underperformed or played lifeless football in the world cup when they played so many teams that didn't really push them in the run up.

Perhaps fewer friendlies, more competative matches? Rather than the current seeding system, ensure that there are two teams ranked in the top 10 for that continent in every group?

[Kieran76]

And deprive them of the money they'd get from facing England, Spain, Germany? They're not good to start with but that'd cripple them entirely.

How are these teams going to get better though? Surely by playing teams of a similiar strength and actually winning games they will improve a lot more than getting battered by the top nations all the times. Look back at how many games we used to have to play to qualify for tournaments, this current system isn't helping anyone.

[toythatkills]

It's kind of an arrogant way of looking at it, though. "We're better than them, why should we have to waste our time playing them?"

They're in Europe, why shouldn't they be treated equally?

[Kieran76]

Because we have too play too many games now to qualify for tournaments.
What will help the up and coming nations in their own development is that they play nations of a similiar level. teams like San Marino, Andorra etc will never improve in the current seeding set up. I know it sounds arrogant, but when you set up a football team you start at the bottom and work your way up, only in international football do you start playing on a equal level right from the start.

[toythatkills]

That's like saying if League Two teams play each other long enough, eventually they'll be good enough to play in the Premiership.

Or to continue the analogy, why don't we just start the FA Cup at the last 32 and have all the rubbish teams not take part?

[cavalcade]

Lets be honest, the fall of the Soviet Union has harmed European football. Look at all these these small countries we have to play against in our Euro and World Cup Qualifiers.

I'm sure places like Germany and France look on in wonder at the Scottish, Welsh, English and Northern Irish teams that clutter up the qualification leagues. Seeing as Wales have lost to Montenegro and Scotland are struggling to beat Lithuania, perhaps the home nation teams should be eliminated as well.

[Jebus]

Lescott over Cahill? Capello is a absolute clown. I can't stand him.

Also, I'm utterly sick of seeing him scream at the players all the time for everything and sit like a statue when we score. C***.

[Baseley09]

Lescott over Cahill? Capello is a absolute clown. I can't stand him.

Also, I'm utterly sick of seeing him scream at the players all the time for everything and sit like a statue when we score. C***.

Jagielka & Lescott played together at Everton, it makes perfect sense.

[abigsmurf]

I'm fairly convinced that Capello is utterly clueless when it comes to getting to know players and to work them up in the right way. The World Cup squad just didn't want to be there.

I believe the majority of it could be explained by 'overpaid spoilt footballers'. Spain are the biggest prima donnas in world football and are paid as much as the England players were.

Back onto the subject of qualifications as preparation. Here are the results England had for the WC:

Andorra 0 – 2 England
Croatia 1 – 4 England
England 5 – 1 Kazakhstan
Belarus 1 – 3 England
England 2 – 1 Ukraine
Kazakhstan 0 – 4 England
England 5 – 1 Croatia
Ukraine 1 – 0 England
England 3 – 0 Belarus

Of those teams only Ukraine and Croatia ranked highly but I'd rate Ukraine far higher. I'd say Croatia are/were a vastly over-rated team to begin with (125 > 3 in 5 years?). Realistically, England had two competative matches at the level we needed to be prepared for the WC over two years, other than that I'd say none of the matches really required England to go all out.

Is it any wonder there was such a performance gap between some of the no-hopers in qualification and the incredibly driven teams you play against at the world cup?