Estonia v England

[roverthtaeh]

                           Rooney
Rooney     Rooney             Rooney     Rooney
Rooney     Rooney             Rooney     Rooney
         Rooney                           Rooney


Downing

[roverthtaeh]

dont get the critisism of crouch. yes hes not pretty to watch but he offers us something different, he scored one with a great header and as good a quality of ball it was from beckham he still took the header well. he also played a major part in the bulid up for coles goal.

It wasn't really criticism, just a touch of sarcasm.
I don't rate Crouch as an International but he has scored goals so fair play to him. I do think he's a bit one-dimensional though and spends too much of the game with his back to goal. Plus, we play too many long balls up to him when he's in the team, but I guess that's not his fault.
There is a distinct lack of English world-class strikers at the moment but the next 17-year-old wonderkid will be along soon enough.
Theo?

[kinboshi]

dont get the critisism of crouch. yes hes not pretty to watch but he offers us something different, he scored one with a great header and as good a quality of ball it was from beckham he still took the header well. he also played a major part in the bulid up for coles goal.

It wasn't really criticism, just a touch of sarcasm.
I don't rate Crouch as an International but he has scored goals so fair play to him. I do think he's a bit one-dimensional though and spends too much of the game with his back to goal. Plus, we play too many long balls up to him when he's in the team, but I guess that's not his fault.
There is a distinct lack of English world-class strikers at the moment but the next 17-year-old wonderkid will be along soon enough.
Theo?

You need to watch Crouch week-in, week-out.  There's far more to his game than holding the ball up and making nice lay-offs - but he does this better than most.

His work-rate is phenomenal - and he runs further than any other Liverpool player in a game (I'd guess the same would be true for England as well, but I haven't seen those stats).  He can score - with his head, or either foot.  He has the height to be used as an outlet, so is very useful in the team when you need to hold on to a lead.  He has great skill and control with the ball at his feet, and is a right pain in the arse for defenders to mark. 

He just looks a little unorthodox.  As a player, he is very, very under-rated.


That was a party political party on behalf of the Peter Crouch Appreciation Party.

[kinboshi]

                       green

neville    ferdinand     terry     cole


beckam     gerard      hargreaves     cole

 
               rooney     owen

robinson
woodgate
carragher
lampard
parker
bent
dyer
carrick
johnson


agree / disagree

As you might guess from my previous post, I'd include Crouch in the squad.

[roverthtaeh]

dont get the critisism of crouch. yes hes not pretty to watch but he offers us something different, he scored one with a great header and as good a quality of ball it was from beckham he still took the header well. he also played a major part in the bulid up for coles goal.

It wasn't really criticism, just a touch of sarcasm.
I don't rate Crouch as an International but he has scored goals so fair play to him. I do think he's a bit one-dimensional though and spends too much of the game with his back to goal. Plus, we play too many long balls up to him when he's in the team, but I guess that's not his fault.
There is a distinct lack of English world-class strikers at the moment but the next 17-year-old wonderkid will be along soon enough.
Theo?

You need to watch Crouch week-in, week-out.  There's far more to his game than holding the ball up and making nice lay-offs - but he does this better than most.

His work-rate is phenomenal - and he runs further than any other Liverpool player in a game (I'd guess the same would be true for England as well, but I haven't seen those stats).  He can score - with his head, or either foot.  He has the height to be used as an outlet, so is very useful in the team when you need to hold on to a lead.  He has great skill and control with the ball at his feet, and is a right pain in the arse for defenders to mark. 

He just looks a little unorthodox.  As a player, he is very, very under-rated.


That was a party political party on behalf of the Peter Crouch Appreciation Party.

Nice post (Peter Crouch's Dad).
He may well run further than any other Liverpool player, but a percentage of it is back towards his own goal.
He scores a variety of goals, I'll give you that.
He is used as an outlet far too often because of his height.
Useful when holding on to a lead.... you sound like Eriksson....
His control is not of International standard.
Defenders are getting wise to him and he gives away too many free kicks because of this.
That said, he is worthy of his place due to lack of anything better.

[kinboshi]

dont get the critisism of crouch. yes hes not pretty to watch but he offers us something different, he scored one with a great header and as good a quality of ball it was from beckham he still took the header well. he also played a major part in the bulid up for coles goal.

It wasn't really criticism, just a touch of sarcasm.
I don't rate Crouch as an International but he has scored goals so fair play to him. I do think he's a bit one-dimensional though and spends too much of the game with his back to goal. Plus, we play too many long balls up to him when he's in the team, but I guess that's not his fault.
There is a distinct lack of English world-class strikers at the moment but the next 17-year-old wonderkid will be along soon enough.
Theo?

You need to watch Crouch week-in, week-out.  There's far more to his game than holding the ball up and making nice lay-offs - but he does this better than most.

His work-rate is phenomenal - and he runs further than any other Liverpool player in a game (I'd guess the same would be true for England as well, but I haven't seen those stats).  He can score - with his head, or either foot.  He has the height to be used as an outlet, so is very useful in the team when you need to hold on to a lead.  He has great skill and control with the ball at his feet, and is a right pain in the arse for defenders to mark. 

He just looks a little unorthodox.  As a player, he is very, very under-rated.


That was a party political party on behalf of the Peter Crouch Appreciation Party.

Nice post (Peter Crouch's Dad).

He may well run further than any other Liverpool player, but a percentage of it is back towards his own goal.

No, the intelligent running off the ball that he does is excellent.  He also harries and pressurises the opposition defence relentlessly.  If he's playing with his back to goal, that's because the ball has come to him too straight from too deep.  Hardly his fault.  He works best around the edge of the area, and getting into the area to crosses from wide. 

He scores a variety of goals, I'll give you that.

Top scorer for Liverpool and England in the past 12 months.  Can't be all that bad.  The game against Arsenal showed what he can do with the right service.  As well as all the other stuff he does, surely his goals should have something to do with him being considered?

He is used as an outlet far too often because of his height.

Yes, again though, hardly his fault.

Useful when holding on to a lead.... you sound like Eriksson....

..or Benitez or Maureen.  We could have done with him a few times in the past when we were ahead against decent opposition and couldn't retain the ball for any decent period.  If you can retain a lead, you can then also look to extend it.  If you can't hold on to a lead when the other team are pressing, you lose.  Look at the games we've gone out with in the last two World Cups.

His control is not of International standard.

Disagree 100%. 

Defenders are getting wise to him and he gives away too many free kicks because of this.

He wins a fair few too.  His goal record would suggest that defenders are still very much struggling with him.  I used to hear the same argument about Owen as well.  A 'one-trick' pony.  Still seems to work (when he's not broken).

That said, he is worthy of his place due to lack of anything better.

He's good enough, therefore should be included.  The game against Portugal in the World Cup.  It would have been very different if we'd had Crouch and Rooney on up front.  Rooney wouldn't have been so frustrated, and we'd have been able to work the ball out and retain it far more effectively.  Alas, the manager had different ideas...

[The Baron]

I was never Crouch's biggest fan but must admit since seeing him play a lot at Liverpool he has won me over. He's never going to be anyone's number 1 striker but he's nothing short of excellent at what he can do. He's so much more than people think he is.

[kinboshi]

I was never Crouch's biggest fan but must admit since seeing him play a lot at Liverpool he has won me over. He's never going to be anyone's number 1 striker but he's nothing short of excellent at what he can do. He's so much more than people think he is.

Saw him play live a few times before we signed him and saw what he could do.  In the Albert after a match we had a discussion about him and if we'd like to see him at Anfield.  The split was 50/50, but now everyone in that group is impressed with him.

He needs a pacy, more orthodox striker to play alongside him - someone like Henry would do very nicely (no chance of that though unfortunately).

[ACE2M]

I am the only one who sat there cringing when estonia played rather easily through our midfield and got some good chances but didn't have the ability to finish?
 If it was against a proper team i guarantee we would have been lucky to win even if we had scored 3 goals.

[The Baron]

I am the only one who sat there cringing when estonia played rather easily through our midfield and got some good chances but didn't have the ability to finish?
 If it was against a proper team i guarantee we would have been lucky to win even if we had scored 3 goals.

No - I'm not convinced by this "we've turned the corner" stuff either TBH. The real test will come against real opposition where I don't believe you can play without a holding midfielder and where Beckham will really be put to the test.

[kinboshi]

We did reasonably well against very poor opposition.  An improvement from the Andorra game for sure.

Can't really discover a lot - "you can only beat what's in front of you" and other such clichés. It'll be very interesting to see how we play against a team ranked in the top 100.

[booder]

flibbertygibbert