England Team Thread

[rmoxon]

Thing is, if Johnson and young were our best players then that speaks volumes. Both of them, Johnson especially, were able to beat their defenders with ease most of the match, which is why Montenegro doubled up on them. Regardless of left or right preference the only quality that went into the box came from a solitary Davies cross at the end, oh and the crouch header. It makes no difference once you've beaten the man which foot you use, you should have enough time to get that sorted and get that cross on target.

On a more worrying note, as soon as Montenegro doubled up on the wingers it must have created space somewhere on the pitch. Utilising that new space is and has always been the problem with English players. The movement is atrocious.

That's why I don't blame capello.

I still disagree, for example amongst many other things England needed to do better when counter attacking yesterday, when you counter attack you need to be quick and you will generaly make good use of your wingers, however thats impossible if it takes them half an hour to get the ball onto their proper foot.

In the premier league the teams play at real speed, we never see any of that from england, and playing players on the wrong side of the pitch certainly dosent help that.

I dont belive its all the manager, the team is crap too, but the manager aint good either.

[Adrock]

How can you counter attack a team that has 10 men behind the ball at near every single opportunity? Montenegro were so rigid in their midfield and defence that they never gambled on attacking.

England needed a player who could unlock stubborn teams and last night none of those were on the bench or in the team.

Also, as a final note, Adam Johnson has been gettin quite the rep as a goalscoring winger when he cuts in from the flank. I think Man City play him on the 'wrong side' dont they?

[rmoxon]

I'm not sure where Man City play Johnson actualy, All i know was that the england team was set up in a way that they needed someone to be able to cross the ball.

Anyway as i said the poor counter attacking wasnt the only bad thing about englands performance, but they did have some moments when they could have counter attacked and just ballsed it up.

Its always going to be hard for them to break down defenses through the middle of the pitch, England have very few players who have that killer pass in them. Gerrard ocasionaly producers it but he plays like such a manic most of the time, running about like a headless chicken and smashing balls forward, hes never going to be a very consistant player.

A team needs to play to their strengths, England just dont have many creative players, and I just think Capello got the tactics way wrong for the players that were on the pitch.

[mr_sockochris]

City play Johnson on the right. But against the Montenegro bus there wasn't the space to be cutting very often so at the very least I'd have like to have seen the wingers swap positions every 10 mins or so. With Crouch on the pitch it seemed silly that we didn't have right footed players on the right wing putting crosses in and vice versa.

On a side note, the ref was appalling. Even ignoring the most blatent handball decision I've seen in a long while I've never seen so many tackles from behind go unpunished

[abigsmurf]

What I don't get is why Capello doesn't experiment with some more youngsters.

Sturridge is getting games at the moment, would he really have been a worse option than the proven-mediocre SWP? Jack Wiltshire too.

England need to refresh the squad and to build for the future, these qualifiers are a perfect time to experiment. Competitive games against teams that are less likely to punish a side that doesn't gel.

England have 3-4 players edging towards retirement based on how often they get injured. Some of these could even be forced to retire before 2012.

[abigsmurf]

This game is the type of experimenting that Capello should've done.

However it's ultimately a bit pointless as some of these players could play out of their skin, have an amazing game and they'll still be replaced when injured players come back

[Kongster]

1-0 to France, well deserved.

[hudson]

My goodness, Valbuena is a midget! Looks at him

[Flabio]

This is painfully one sided. Get Blackpool out there, at least they'd have a go...

[Matt]

**** me, as usual, all the commentators are talking about is Andy Carroll, like he's the best player in the country now and will single handedly make England a good team. He's the latest Hype Of The Month - don't get me wrong, he's looking good at Newcastle right now, I simply hate the way the media hypes any player who shows a modicum of talent.

[Herbalizer]

England look so disjointed, I shouldn't be surprised, its been the same for over a decade. Ive never understood why they play at such a laboured pedestrian pace. Play at a Premier league tempo and they would start to threaten teams. Secondly, if you are going to have a striker excels on crosses, then get the ball wide and cross the pissing ball in.

They are a sham of a team. A collection of individuals who look like they met for the first time five mins before kick off.


To quote Football Manager "where is the passion lads"

[TonyDA]

**** me, as usual, all the commentators are talking about is Andy Carroll, like he's the best player in the country now and will single handedly make England a good team. He's the latest Hype Of The Month - don't get me wrong, he's looking good at Newcastle right now, I simply hate the way the media hypes any player who shows a modicum of talent.

From a Spurs fan's point of view, this is a good thing - at least it stops ITV pimping Gareth Bale to any "big" club in Europe for a while....

As already said, England really lack shape or structure - long balls to Carroll/Crouch etc won't win many international matches....

[ShadowDancer]

Got the darts on. Waste of time. ****ing waste of time.

[abigsmurf]

What was with the gushing over Gerrard by ITV? You'd think he'd scored a hat trick rather than trying to be superman and leaving England horribly exposed mid field.

[hudson]

Stevie G. Total footballer. Gush unlimited.