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come on get a goal





























 the english defence aint that good

Shame Andy Johnson is...

All those who slate Peter Crouch.  Boy did we miss him today...

we're missing a decent manager

That as well. 

good news folks

scotland won

Why always blame them manager?

He puts the players out there and they are crap! All the time pass back, pass sideways....negative! they kick the ball not him!

100k + players who we must realise now are vastly overrated, the media build them up to be amazing when they are not....look at the last world cup. Imagine this team playing the 1990 team of Lineker, Gascoigne, Pearce etc, I say 5-0 to the 1990 team.

He put Lennon on the left.  He didn't do 'too' badly there, but he's a right-winger!  It's his way of accommodating both Gerrard and Lampard.

Well, it can't be done.  They want to play a too similar game when they are both in the middle - and it's a waste to have Gerrard on the right (although yes he's played a lot there for Liverpool, but he is given a more free role and Rafa wants him to come in to the centre when he wants). 

Andy Johnson's not good enough - although it's unfair to just judge him on that performance as he wasn't always getting the best service - why lob a long, high ball to the two dwarves up front?  Especially when the commentary team were going on about the great playing surface.  Saying that, I don't remember Johnson or Rooney having any shots other than Rooney's header straight to the keeper.  Lampard should have scored, but wanted an eternity before shooting when England made their best move of the game.  Other than that Carragher looked the most likely to score!  Not good from a team full of 'talent'.

The players should feel proud to play for England, and to do their best.  But quite obviously they don't.  Whether it's because club football is now far more important to them than playing for their country (and it's the clubs that pay their wages), or if it's McClaren that 'doesn't do it for them' I don't know.  Whatever it is, it ain't good.

Andorra next.  We might score in that one...

Is it not about time the English football faithful wake up and realise the team just really isn't that good? It's like watching a moron run AK v QQ at evens.

I said at the time Sven was a good manager and maybe people will start to realise what he did with such a poor team was pretty impressive!

They're still amongst the top 15 countries in the world, and therefore, should be able to beat Israel.


Disagree with this.  Sven liked to play players out of position, tactically was inept - for example playing Rooney on his own up front against the Portugese, over-reliance on Beckham - even when he was injured, etc.  I think McClaren is too similar to him.  Stuart Pearce for England manager.  Don't think he's a brilliant manager or anything, but I don't think you necessarily need to be when you're an international coach.  Pick the best team from the player you have available, and then get them to play for pride - which is what Pearce could do.   Possibly.

The team has to many "stars" and is overrated, some named players need to be dropped.  Best bet would be to build the team around Gerard and Rooney and pick players that can best complement these two world class match winning players playing in their preferred roles.

Drop Lampard you mean?  With you there.

Yep - I would drop Lampard not because he is a bad player but he does not complement the strengths of Gerard and Rooney.

and bring back becks?

No.

Right midfield choices:

Lennon
Wright-Phillips
Bentley
Gerrard
...
...
..
.
Beckham.

so becks for centre midfield you could put him centre forward but i tink he is getting a little slow for that

or you could put him on the left

or as a partner to terry in defence

becks for england

He'd walk into the Scotland team...

we WON again yesterday

National holiday then is it in Scotland?  Lucky you weren't playing the Faeroe Islands.

To be fair, virtually everything Sven did well (run to the QF of the world cup where we led agaisnt brazil before being beaten, beating germany 5-1 away etc) came on the back of Michael Owen's goals.

Michael Owen is an outstanding goalscorer and any team in the world would badly miss a player of his calibre.

Having said that, Steve Mclaren is probably one of the worst appointments for England Manager there's ever been. Unispiring, unimaginative and most importantly with zero pedigree (getting to the final of the uefa cup against mediocre opposition with a premiership team is no great achievement).

At least Graham Taylor had a shot at the title with Aston Villa before he became england manager.

An evil part of me hopes we don't qualify so that he can be replaced quickly and not oversee what will be the a bland, insipid period of football for england.

I don't agree England have a poor team at heart.

Ferdinand, Terry,A Cole, J Cole, Gerrard, Lampard, (owen, if he recovers) are all players who deserve to play on the biggest stages and anyone who has watched Lennon play this season realises what a star this kid's going to be.

But you still need a very good manager to shape and get the best out of these talents in highly pressurised situations, and I don't think the banal platitudes of steve mclaren are going to do that.

Our current bunch of players are over hyped massively...with so much tv coverage and media attention they are made out to be gods, in reality most of them are made to look better than they are because of the foreign players who surround them in the premiership (Lampard at Chelsea prime example).

This was meant to be the golden generation...lol its the worst squad of players in my memory (I go back to the 1986 world cup). Mclaren is not ideal and should not have got the job after been part of the summer failure, but he cant be blamed for the disgraceful efforts seen in the last few games. The players are on 100k plus and know how to play the game!!! so what is with the efforts we keep suffering?

Another woeful game from England

McLaren's gotta go already I'm afraid.

Out of interest, when was the last decent game England played?  I'm not talking about the 5-0 result over Jamica, I'm talking a decent game.  I'm struggling to see one more recent than the friendly against Argentina a couple of years back and for a competitive game, possibly v Scotland or Holland in Euro 96?

Yeah Euro 96 the last great days

Just watched England v Holland on Espn classic, 4-1 to England brought it all back...great days

2001 - England Germany was the last decent game we had.

I have every faith in Owen getting back to his best, but his previous best has always been with a more physical strike partner, Shearer, Heskey (I can't believe they made the same sentence, but actually his most productive!) etc - He won't be getting that with Engalnd in the near future so there will be plenty more games to come of unfufilled expection, even once we have someone who can put the ball in the back of the net.

Damn, can't believe I forgot about that one.


So only 6 years since our last good game!  Better than 10 I guess.

McClaren's first game in charge?

They need to bring back the home internationals so England can win something.  Not sure which is worse - the England football or rugby team?

Not convinced by that one.  Not a bad result  though.

 ;cupcake;

Top of the group!! STILL!!

 ;popcorn;

but surely half the time wales would share the wooden spoon with you

Nail. Head. Hit.

No strength in depth up front.

Right footed players on the left.

Gerrard-Lampard dilemma.

Crap manager.

...and no Crouch to score the goals.

;whistle;