England Team Thread

[MarioMark]

Just one of the players who has never been good enough for England and never will. Time for McClaren to get ruthless IMO, I would get rid of:
Dyer
Brown
Robinson
Defoe
and maybe even Carrick

I agree!

Not sure who I'd play up front next match.

I think try Own again, I mean he did score against Andorra in our last Euro match and looked sharp last night at times.

We need to bring in some new players to try. I think we should try Matt Derbyshire up front, he's doing great for Blackburn and Eng U21 (and my dream team).

Because McClaren is a nice guy I think he's a bit emotionally involved, he's mates with the players so he's not got the bottle to drop the ones who need to be dropped. I think even Man Utd fans will agree that when Gary Neville is fit he needs to be dropped to the bench in favour of Richards, but will McClaren do it?

A bit off topic but you’ve gotta love the Match of the Day team, I thought it was well funny when they were talking about some of Wright-Phillips' good play, but to wind Ian Wright up they were calling Shaun Wright-Phillips "Phillipsy" to avoid saying the name Wright in his name.

[Extra Terrestrial]

Still gotta love those "even Heskey scored, 5-1" chants.

That was great! I'm glad you enjoyed yourself despite the score.

The players who I honestly thought played extremely well were Micah Richards and Joe Cole; they were the only players who always had the desire to get the ball and play with pride. I have no idea why J. Cole was substituted.

I am glad Wright-Phillips is getting back to his old self and bloody hell, can he run! Also his team mate Lampard certainly proved a point by scoring the goal and playing reasonably well although I'd still pick a weakened Gerrard over him any day.

Owen had two chances and got the minutes he needed; he really should have scored the rather close ranged shot - all he had to do was glance to his right and then kick the ball rather than panic-shoot the damn thing.

Beckham surprised me. He not only played the full 90 minutes, he created some good chances and gifted Dyer the equaliser as well as delivering that early free-kick that passed about three white shirts. Whilst he isn't 100% fit, he played very well.

Another surprise performance from Barry and Shorey especially considering they haven't played for England in a while and adapted to the match very quickly - they will make excellent substitutes in future games.

On the other hand, Robinson, Carrick, Brown and Dyer were dreadful. Why didn?t Defoe come on instead of Dyer who isn?t even a striker is beyond me especially when Crouch didn?t make an impact at all, the lanky bugger.

Still, that second goal from Germany was certainly a cracker and even had me applauding but Robinson was hardly in the best of positions as usual. I suggest that James bring forth his rather excellent league performances to the England side in the upcoming qualifiers.

Oh well, a disappointing night as usual but there were some positives out of the match and that is good enough for me despite the result.

[Jusatsushi]

How Kieron Dire still gets picked for England is one of lifes great mysteries. Woefull waste of tallent regardless of the injury excuse.

I thought Micah Richards was awesome, but he was a little over exuberant going forward. There were so many times when an easy through ball to Beckham was on but he kept hold of it and tried to do too much and ended up losing possesion, but still, he set up the goal fantastically and is totally deserving of his place.

[1P_King]

Just one of the players who has never been good enough for England and never will. Time for McClaren to get ruthless IMO, I would get rid of:
Dyer
Brown
Robinson
Defoe
and maybe even Carrick.

Out of those five only one would actually be in the starting eleven if everyone was fit. So I wouldn't describe getting rid of them as being ruthless, those five players may not be good enough but its the players in the starting eleven that have to improve.

[Big Seany]

Worrying times when even Rio and JT look shaky against Kevin Kuranyi.

I hate castigating goalies for the odd mistake, because even the greats made errors and all keepers do - but Robinson has looked terrible. His face when he has just dropped a clanger is priceless as well, makes me want to punch him repeatedly.

Beckham was a bit selfish too IMO. When there were changes made I would have liked to see Wrighty P on the right flank with Richards, but no - diamond Dave had to stay out there.

Inane comments from Alan Hansen last night too - one of them was "He's got two great feet. Left foot AND right foot". So that would be both of his feet then, Alan. What has happened to his face, too?

Bring back Heskey

[Baseley09]

Apparently it was some incident with a candle. **** knows what he was doing tho haha.

I dunno about all the Dyer hate, shouldve done better last night but I think he's good, at least the man has pace and some feet.

[Big Seany]

I agree with Baseley - I thought Dyer looked like our best and most sharpest forward last night. If he stays fit then I would always have him in the squad as he givesus something a bit different. He is a better player than Alan Smith, ffs

[Jebus]

If Dyer were any good he'd have scored his chance, sorry but he would.

He's wank, he's never gonna be as good as people think he is.

Defoe should do a Carragher and retire, no matter how quick and good he is or can be, when ***** like Dyer are ahead of you, it's time to call it a day.

[ezee ryder]

I think the media and even us supporters sometimes hype up the England team in our heads a bit too much. We have some average to good players and 2 or 3 world class players but are nowhere near as good as most people think we are. Most of the top teams would (and do) pass their way around us with ease at times. Our strength lies in our defense, attacking wise we have Gerrard and Rooney then Owen is just not the player he used to be, defenders have lost that "fear" they had when going up against him and he has lost the lightening pace he once had. I would play Dean Ashton upfront with Rooney playing just behind him if everyone was fit, would be a perfect combo I think. Bottom line, England are poorest of the top tier international teams.

[Myth]

Shaun Wright Phillips, Joe Cole off the top of my head.

[ezee ryder]

Joe Cole is and SWP are both examples of players who don't perform consistantly on the international scene, although Joe Cole has gotten better.

[Myth]

And SWP had been getting pretty much 0 play time at Chelsea. The lads come along leaps and bounds now hes getting regular playtime.

[MarioMark]

Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/internationals/6974969.stm

[Oh_Mutants]

Not much else out there at the moment though is there, certainly not fit...

[Jebus]

Sorry but has the world gone mad, everyone keeps talking about lack of English strikers to pick from...

Andy Johnson
Darren Bent
Jermaine Defoe
Leroy Lita
Kevin Davies
Alan Smith

Even players like Joe Cole and Kevin Nolan have played as strikers before!

...but we recall Heskey?