England Team Thread

[Baseley09]

It's time for a 'Your England XI' thread. I reckon a fair few of them players will surface.

Like Harry Redknapp was saying last night, its probably pretty true that maybe 9 of those players would be in most peoples England XI's!

[On The Edge of Insanity]

The thing is if Chelsea can - successfully on the basis of the opening weekend - fit Deco, Lampard and Ballack all into one midfield, then there is no reason why we shouldn't be able to accommodate Gerrard and Lampard together in the England side. Unless, that is, Lampard and Gerrard aren't really as good as some people seem to think they are and need players of the likes of the aforementioned and Mascherano and Alonso in order to perform as they do at club level.

[Number45]

I think they both are far more effective when they're relieved of any defensive duties. Mascherano as you say for Liverpool (Hamann to devastating effect in the CL final a few years back) and what would have been Makelele for Chelsea, probably Mikel/Essien now.

[On The Edge of Insanity]

True that. As we seem to reject any idea of width anyway we could always go with two defensive midfielders, with Gerrard and Lampard left to roam further forward. I'm sure we've probably tried it at some point over the years, but can't remember it myself.

[Kongster]

There's no doubt Gerrard along with many other players do not perform as good as they do for their clubs.

That's because they play with better players at their clubs

[toythatkills]

I think that's oversimplifying it. It's not about playing with better players - if Steven Gerrard started playing in the Conference he wouldn't instantly be reduced to a Conference level player, would he?

It's just different systems that are designed to get the best out of the players at club level, which we're lacking at international level.

[Kongster]

Nope but put him in a team with better players and you'll see the difference. Look at Rooney, he doesn't play all that for England but for Man United he plays better cos he has got the likes of Tevez and Ronaldo playing along side him.

England have tried different systems over the past couple of years and players haven't performed and the results have been disappointing.

[toythatkills]

I haven't seen Rooney play consistently well for anyone for years, now.

[abigsmurf]

There's no doubt Gerrard along with many other players do not perform as good as they do for their clubs.

My reaction was to Abigsmurf, who seemed to strangely just target Gerrard.

Because Gerrard has cemented his place for no good reason, he certainly hasn't earned a concrete position. He always plays when most players get dropped and shuffled around.

It seems a good portion of the tactics and formations revolve around him playing mostly the same way he has been (which hasn't exactly been effective). You can center the team around someone who's incredibly effective or a big goal scorer but not someone playing like Gerrard does, regularly giving the ball away helping the other team get clear runs to our goal.

Basically throughout McClaren's time at England and in this game, we've got ineffective tactics that rely too heavily on a player not performing.

[abigsmurf]

I haven't seen Rooney play consistently well for anyone for years, now.

I think we, as a nation have to accept that Rooney simply isn't a world class striker. The hype goggles are fading a bit now that he's 23 and at an age where he's gone past the "he can only get better!" stage and should really be putting in the performances (yes strikers often do improve but he at this stage you can't call him young and inexperienced).

[ezee ryder]

He is not a striker, this debate was had before in this thread.

[Baseley09]

What happened to his flair and ability to beat people?

[ezee ryder]

To be honest I don't thnk Rooney ever had flair. He has brute strength and the ability to just power past other players. He hasn't shown that for a while I must agree even though he did play well last season for United, he just didn't get loads of goals like Ronaldo. His work rate is always very high and sometimes that is detrimental to his overall game as it leads to him getting book or wound up. He still has that ability though, he just needs to let it out whether it be for England or United.

[hudson]

For me, bottom line is... if you're going to have an England team at the moment, you got to have your Stevie G. Don't be bitter coz he snubbed yers

He can skin players, he can play excellent through balls, he can ping them goal bound and he can tackle. Your Lampard takes a decent pen once in a while.

They need to play Gerrard in the centre just behind the forward/s. He didn't do too bad on the left.. coming inside onto his right, though.

Because Gerrard has cemented his place for no good reason, he certainly hasn't earned a concrete position. He always plays when most players get dropped and shuffled around.

It seems a good portion of the tactics and formations revolve around him playing mostly the same way he has been (which hasn't exactly been effective). You can center the team around someone who's incredibly effective or a big goal scorer but not someone playing like Gerrard does, regularly giving the ball away helping the other team get clear runs to our goal.

Basically throughout McClaren's time at England and in this game, we've got ineffective tactics that rely too heavily on a player not performing.

[ezee ryder]

For me the midfield should be Joe Cole (left), Hargreaves (defensive centre), Gerrard (attacking centre), Bentley (right). You got quality on the wings and overall balance in the midfield there. Some people might disagree though.