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... Or is there no England thread.

We can't just slate them all the time.Another excellent result tonight,rooney was immense.12 goals in 3 games is very impressive and not just down to results but i'm very pleased with what i've seen of Mr Capello so far.Long may it continue,it's nice to have something to celebrate in football at the minute.WP ENGLAND

Cant praise Heskey .... cant praise Heskey .... cant praise Heskey ...

Heskey did well..

I know .... i fkin know .... cant praise Heskey, Cant praise Heskey, Cant praise Heskey.

heskey and rooney ftw. dropping owen was a huge call and looks like a good one at the moment. pretty much everyone is playing well, all is good

opponents were Belarus, I think its wise to keep some perspective tbh.

England are the best team in the world again!

a team who in the last year have beaten holland, drawn with germany, drawn with argentina, came within a minute of a point vs ukraine. they are not a bad team.

good effort kev but you really have to credit heskey

I know ... I know ... but it hurts so bad to admit that he did a good job.

+1,And yeah gatso's right,Belarus are decent side and it was a good result

With the amount of talented attacking midfielders Spurs have he'd be awesome for you guys right now bringing others into the game.

Better than Spent and Plastichenko.

Heskey & owen together in those two games last September brought equally if not more impressive results. Heskey is an ideal for either. I think a lot depends on the ref, seen a load of games where they just take heskeys presence off him completely and that makes him so much less worthwhile. I was going to be pleased owen wasn't picked so he didn't pick up an injury but....

the ref thing is very true. crouch also suffers in the same way with some refs outside of prem games

As an interesting aside, last night was exactly 8 years on from Liverpool's 0-4 win against Derby in the league, when one Emile Ivanhoe Heskey scored a hat-trick to silence the Derby fans who were singing "you're just a Leicester reject".

Very true.  They both still seem to be on the wrong end of a lot of decisions in the Premiership as well.  Saying that, I think Crouch made up for it with the hair incident against T&T.

Heskey was terrific in O'Neill's Leicester team. Created shed loads of goals for Cottee in his last hurrah. Watched him hundreds of times including his debut at QPR as a 17 year old.

When Liverpool paid £11m for him i think maybe they and their fans thought they were getting the "next big thing" but he's never been a 20 goals a season man, more a provider and a foil for others as say for Zaki at Wigan now

Top marks to Capello for going against conventional wisdom and picking such an unfashionable player and getting the likes of Rooney to play off him to such good effect.

Lets not get too carried away though - Rooney at best is a sporadic goal scorer, and tends to get them in bathes according to him and his club manager. That's all well and good if they are timed right but you could easily see him play 5 or 6 games without scoring. If that happened during a major tourn, with him and heskey up front, we'd be quarter finals at best.

Worrying thing is, Heskey's getting on and Crouch will never quite be good enough

The U21s have Agbonlahor and Mark Noble up front and Matt Derbyshire on the bench. None are the "hold up, back to the goal" type of CF that seems to be Capello's wish to play

I don't see too many good English target men around these days actually, in the top division anyway

Any?!!

Ashdon, a crock and hold up is probably one of his weaker attributes.
Cole, did show promise but havent seen enough of him for a while.
Ameobi, cack.

I can't think of any other decently sized youngish CFs in the PL.

Nugent for tthe physio table

Daniel Sturridge.FACT

PS Michael Owen should be in the squad everytime FACT

I hope Daniel Sturridge gets the chance to fulfill his potential, I just have a feeling now with all the city money that he will be a constant loanee to lesser teams and not get to play regular on the top stage

He will get his chance he's to good not to.

England are looking good going forward. Yes. 

We don't need Heskey to score as long as the goals are coming from somewhere else. True

But it's not all as rosey as some are making out.

Walcott is still not a winger.

I still don't see Lamps and Gerry as being able to play properly together.

Joe Cole is too effective to miss out when fit.

Defensively we've looked shakey for longish periods against average ( at best ) sides.

Our keeper WILL make a serious mistake pretty much every game.

I think Capello's still got a lot more work on his plate than some people are realising.

Good to see we are improving under Capello, though International football is a complete donkament, sample size?????

The whole slating of Heskey throughout his career has been unfair imo, mainly from people who seem to think that forwards need to be goalscorers. I bet Englands record with him in the team is a damn sight better than without, he is unselfish and is very very good at holding the ball up and bringing others into play. People remember great bits of skill or goals not the players who nit the system together.

We shouldn't be going over the top about our prospect at the next World cup but at least looks at the moment it looks like we might be there competing for it. While a qf will be seen as a disappointment in this country that is about where we are at in international football if we play competently. What basically Sven achieved for us, who got slated for reasons that are slightly beyond me.

There's only one Emile Heskey,
one Emile Heskey,
He used to be shite,
But now he's alright,
Walking in a Heskey wonderland.

In Heskey's first season for us he scored 23 goals, we won 3 cups and two legends, Owen and Fowler were fighting to start alongside him. Houllier then made him play with his back to goal to suit Owen and ruined him. When he runs at defences he can be unstoppable.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/eng_prem/7676694.stm

Come on. Any decent striker can have a good season and grab a fair amount goals. He has never been a finisher, thats the main reason he doesnt score more goals.

The Liverpool manager probably realised that he his partnerships would get more by changing Heskey's game (if indeed he did). If I was playig against Heskey I'd be more than willing to let him run at me all day rather than take me on physically (I think I could take him both ways to be hnest but one would be easier than the other!)

I disagree with all of that.

Firstly his lack of goals is not only down to his finishing. He's been asked to perform another role to the one he used to. With his back to goal he's a team player and a useful link up guy - nothing more. His best parts on Wednesday were going at people where he's far more threatening and he draws more than one defender away from danger areas to make holes.

The Liverpool manager at the time got it wrong though didn't he. Heskey scored less and the team scored less when he changed Hesey's game.

I like hearing what people would do against Heskey lol. As Heskey said before Wednesday's game "people who comment on how easy it is to play against me are usually people who've never played against me".

Erm, best English player with back to goal in last 10 years scored plenty of goals in that role. Not only down to lack of finishing quality - but surely a massive part no?! He belted a lot of those 23 goals in whilst he was high on confidence.

As for the team results I'd be interested in those. Surely so many factors to striaght compare. Did Houiler overnight, after winning three comps, change Heskeys role?! All pretty difficult to substantiate. I'm pretty sure that out of the 13 season Emile Heskey has had he at top level he hasn't actually only had one season showing his true class and goals and the other 12 curbing his natural goal scorering to be a team player.

The people who do comment always say that he is difficult. But he is difficult because of his presence. 90% of PL defender can live if not surpass his pace. PL defenders rarely get skinned alive by anyone for pace these days, and when they do its by the quickest 4 or 5 around. If I was a PL player I wouldnt be commenting on how easy it is either. There would be absolutely no sense in that.

   [  ]  england have ever been the best team in the world at football

Must have been at some point, we invented the sodding game.

Eh?


The biggest part is not being in a position or being given a role whnereby he's facing the net a large part of the time. Finishing is secondary if he's not taking shots. Cisse at Sunderland cant finish but when you look at how much he shoots every game he'll score you quite a few.


Not really as it's what happened. He did the same with Hamann (AM to DM), Carragher (CB/RB to LB), Murphy (CM to RM), Gerrard (CM to DM), Riise (LB to LM) and several others.


This I agree with to an extent. However playing for Birmingham and Wigan who've been in relegation scraps haven't allowed him to play the role he once did for Liverpool and Leicester where he can be more offensive, selfish and destructive rather than construtive and hard working.


I'd love to see someone try to stop a guy that size in full flight no matter how quick they are. Especially the pundits. The only guy I've seen do it successfully when he's on the front foot and playing how he can is Sol Campbell. When he's got his back to goal he's far easier to defend against because his control is average and his turn isn't very quick. All he can do is bring it down and lay it off.

Quote 1 - Alan Shearer. Massive back to goal player for basically every season at SJP, still got himself in positions to shoot and get on the end of crosses. Heskey doesn't do that either because he can't (because he isn't as good a footballer) or doesn't have the confidence to do it. there is no way his manager is stopping him from getting the same sort of opportunities.

On the otherones we're either agreeing or agreeing to differ!

Yes but Shearer was a ridiculously good exception. You may never see a big man as good as him ever again. He's the best I've ever seen by light years. That's like comparing Bebeto to Benayoun as they're both link up players.

IMO Heskey vs Carew is a better comparison and look which one has been on the front foot for most of his career and had the greater success. Interesting now that Carew is getting older that O'Niell wants Heskey.