England Team Thread

[rmoxon]

I totally agree. Rooney never scores and usually gets booked or gives away a penalty but nope, the press ignore that. What makes it worse is when (by sheer luck) someone else gets a chance, scores consistently and the press go hyper critical on them - So it’s one rule for Rooney and another for just about everyone else?

For a world class footballer Rooney is very young, and even if he dosent score in a match he always plays well in one way or another becuase hes such a good all round player so its hard to critisize someone when you consider all that. Crouch is first and foremost a striker and and its his goals people will judge him by, so having said that while I think youre wrong about Rooney I also think Crouch should play tomorrow (with Dafoe probabaly though thats just me hoping they dont just have one upfront) as at least he can score goals even if hes yet to do so against a big international team.

[Herbalizer]

The BBC report that Robinson and Beckham have been dropped. If England are playing with a target man in Crouch then I don't see the logic in dropping the best crosser of the ball you have.

[toythatkills]

Apparently Lampard and Gerrard in midfield, Crouch on his own up front. How many times do England have to play this way before they realise it hasn't once produced anything like a good performance?

[Big Seany]

Sky Sports this morning were reporting the team will be:

Carson, Richards, Bridge, Campbell, Lescott, Barry, Lampard, Gerrard, Cole, Wright Phillips & Crouch.

The last time Mclaren tinkered with our formation to this extent we got jacksie-shagged - by Croatia, ironically. I am going to stay positive though and think that we should get at least a draw out of this game. The atmosphere will be the twelfth man and will hopefully lift the boys.

As a mod I should ban all Crouch hating in this thread. The guy has done enough to earn his shirt - leave him alone!!

[Red Hogg]

I'm relatively optimistic. The formation is about as good as can be managed considering the absentees. There's plenty of goals in the team (apart from Crouch lol woot omg) and there should be enough quality in defence to stop the Croats scoring, "bobbles" notwithstanding. At least we've finally canned that dickhead Robinson.

[JU!]

I'm a Chelsea fan and while SWP (Shaun Wright Phillips) can be impressive it takes him about 8 games and his crossing is very erratic. He can go round people though which is good. Again though I'm sure Crouch would like the ball on his head and for the most part SWP won't do that. I don't understand really surely J.Cole and SWP = Defoe/Bent up front?!?! I also don't understand why play Beckham in a friendly then drop him?? Why not play SWP in the friendly so he can get into his rhythem?

Let's hope Big Mac knows what he is doing eh

[Kongster]

England are very, very lucky to go into tonight's game against Croatia with qualification in their own hands thanks to Israel.

Surely England won't screw up but if they do, then at least Steve McClaren can expect to be shown the door sooner rather than later.

[EJG1980]

I find the timing of Robinson being dropped a bit strange. After every calamity McClaren still backed him and kept on picking him, saying he had total faith in him, etc.. Yet now that Robinson has kept 3 clean sheets in 4 games for Spurs, maybe getting him a bit of confidence back... he gets dropped!

I actually did want to see Robinson dropped earlier (for England and Spurs) but like I said, the timing of doing it now just seems a little strange to me. But hey, if Carson pulls off a ton of great saves, I'll have to doff my cap to McClaren for making a great decision.

[toythatkills]

I was just reading some similar thoughts on the BBC, and it does seem like a weird time to drop him. Maybe he's not fully fit?

Or maybe McClaren realises that this could well be his last game in charge and he's just doing what people have wanted him to do for months, so that even if we lose people have a slightly better memory of him going out or the press can't blame him for any goalkeeping blunders. Robinson screws up: McClarens fault; Carson screws up: the press can't say anything since they've been calling for Robinson to be dropped since the last Croatia game.

[EJG1980]

I doubt the press will worry about that. If Carson makes a mistake they'll still crucify him. They'd probably say something like if he was going to drop Robinson, he should have replaced him with the experience of James for such a big match, rather than someone with only one cap under their belt. Which wouldn't be a bad point actually

[Red Hogg]

I've never known what the fuss about Robinson was anyway. He seemed relatively promising when he came through at Leeds but I can't think of any decent performances for England. Carson seems pretty good for Villa, and I've had Green in my Fantasy Football team for a while because he seems to be very good...

[Kieran76]

Carson is a quality keeper, a real shot stopper with a safe pair of hands. I don't think he will be too busy tonight as I can't see Croatia pushing all out for a victory. A draw will see them top the group.

[toythatkills]

Bloody hell, that pitch looks like it belongs in League Two.

[EJG1980]

If only it was a plastic pitch, then there'd be no problem It is laughable though, after spending £750 million plus on the stadium and the pitch is already in tatters.

[Malavon]

Sweet, forgot Eduardo was playing - wonder how he'll play (arsenal fan btw, hence why I'm interested :P)