England and the World Cup

[Nem]

I agree Terry is 1st choice. On present form Campbell/Carragher/Woodgate.

LOL, Surely King is ahead of Woodgate and Carragher?

[The Baron]

I agree Terry is 1st choice. On present form Campbell/Carragher/Woodgate.

LOL, Surely King is ahead of Woodgate and Carragher?

On club form no one is ahead of Carragher!

[The Baron]

My last post was not to say Ferdinand isn't good. When he's on form he's the out and out number 1 for me. His form is an issue though. He's afraid to get stuck in. For me that makes JT number 1 and Campbell number 2.

I get Nemesis point though. On sheer talent alone Rio/Sol everytime but sometimes talent isn't enough.

Lets just hope Rio returns to form huh?

[TightEnd]

Hence my question


you have a squad of 22

3 keepers

4 full backs

5 centre backs

4/5 strikers

5/6 midfielders

robinson/Kirkland plus 1

neville/young/cole/bridge

terry/ferdinand/campbell/carragher/king

beckham/lamps/gerrard/cole/wright phillips/hargreaves or a n other

rooney/owen/defoe/crouch/


where's the room for Woodgate?

[Nem]

Before he was injured, I rated Woodgate behind Rio and Sol and ahead of Terry as 3rd choice England DC. He has it all, pace, great positioning, great in the air, flawless ground work, BUT he is always injured, therfore how can you pick him ahead of King or Terry. As for Carragher, LOL, the guy is just shit! Baron mate, I know you're a scouser and I support Spurs, but King and Woodgate are in a completley different league to Carragher.

My England squad:

GK: Robinson, Kirkland (another sicknote!) Green

FB: G.Neville, Young, Cole, Bridge

DC: Ferdinand, Campbell, Terry, king, Woodgate

MF: Beckham, Lampard, Gerrard, Cole, Carrick, SWP

ST: Rooney, Owen, Defoe, Bent

[TightEnd]

Carragher is an absolute certainty for the squad because he can play both full back positions/centre back and holding midfield

Ability or not, his flexibility is required in a 22 man squad

[ACE2M]

Personally i play gerrard down the middle as he is far better at breaking the play than lampard and beckham. Lampard is a brilliant link player and would work perfectly with ashley cole attacking down the left flank, lampard has partial use of his left foot which is a bonus. Combine this with the trusted beckham/neville combination down the right, there will be quality balls raining into the oposition box and then you've got rooney and gerrard attacking down the middle when they wish. Bringing on Joe cole and crouch against tired defenders i guarantee will win us a game or two from a tight position, joe cole is really beginning to fulfill his potential and mark my words he will be a star of the tournament.

my central defenders would be woodgate and ferdinand.

I am not ashamed to admit that i am already in a state of excitement whenever i think about it.

[Nem]

Carragher is an absolute certainty for the squad because he can play both full back positions/centre back and holding midfield

Ability or not, his flexibility is required in a 22 man squad

I think you'll find that King has taken his place as Englands utility defender (rightly so), he can play in any position at the back, MC and hes even played upfront for Spurs!

[TightEnd]

I think you'll find ( ) that someone like Carragher will follow the "Phillip Neville principle" of getting 126 (or seems like it) England caps merely by being able to "do a job" everywhere

It might not be right, it might not be clever, but each and every England manager picks these types of players in their squads

Carragher and King will go to Germany

possibly at the expense of a spare left back

[dan]

gread thread baron. the best bit about something like this is that we all think we would be the best england manager.

its not very often i agree with a spurs fan but i do believe nemisis is right there is big media hype surrounding john terry and i do believe he plays better for chelsea than he has ever done for england. saying that i think rio ferdinand is not as good as him. know you might think i am being bias but i believe sol campbell has got to be a starter. not only has he been superb in englands last 3 major tournaments he improves arsenals whole team massively when he plays. i think the strikers pick themselves. owen and rooney are possibly the best front 2 in europe. the midfield is the tricky bit and i think this is possibly where we might get turned over. i think the choice that we have is second to none its getting the right balance that is the problem. nobody can doubt the ability of gerrard, lampard beckham SWP, joe cole and more but what worries me is the left hand side. alot has been made that ashley cole gets "found out defensively" for england, well this is absolute rubbish. the reason he sometimes gets done is that thewre is never anyone playing in front of him. this leads me on to my ideal england team and it will be slightly different to many peoples.

                                                                                          ROBINSON

                                        CAMPBELL                                      TERRY                           FERDINAND

SWP/G NEVILLE                                                                                                                                                    A  COLE

 
                                        BECKHAM                                      GERRARD                          LAMPARD


                                                              OWEN                                          ROONEY

 the reason id go 352 is we have 3 great centre halves with the likes of carragher, king and woodgate as replacements, ashley cole  and SWP as wingbacks although against stronger opposition i would play neville. ashley cole has to play as he is the best left sided player we have defensively and offensively. 3 great playersin middle of the park and no need to worry who is playing on the left. again in the middle of the park you have good replacements to come in, joe cole etc and as i said before owen and rooney are starters in anybodys. book

well there you go dan blake for england.

[Nem]

Personally i play gerrard down the middle as he is far better at breaking the play than lampard and beckham. Lampard is a brilliant link player and would work perfectly with ashley cole attacking down the left flank, lampard has partial use of his left foot which is a bonus. Combine this with the trusted beckham/neville combination down the right, there will be quality balls raining into the oposition box and then you've got rooney and gerrard attacking down the middle when they wish. Bringing on Joe cole and crouch against tired defenders i guarantee will win us a game or two from a tight position, joe cole is really beginning to fulfill his potential and mark my words he will be a star of the tournament.

my central defenders would be woodgate and ferdinand.

I am not ashamed to admit that i am already in a state of excitement whenever i think about it.

Lampard is currently the most inform midfielder in the world, how could you even contemplate playing him on either flank? As for Gerrard, even his club manager has put him on the right flank. If Eriksson had some bottle he could pick the team on merit and not reputation. Can England fit Beckham, Lampard and Gerrard all in the same midfield? I personally think that Gerrard and Beckham are too similar, maybe Eriksson should consider dropping Beckham, Gerrard is the better player and could easily fit into the Beckham role, but how can you drop the England captain?

[Bongo]

I think your weakest point is your manager who really isn't up to the job.

[dan]

I think your weakest point is your manager who really isn't up to the job.

couldnt agree more. whenever we play big sides we are over careful and sometimes frightened of the opposition when with the players we have they should be frightened of us

[The Baron]

Carragher is waaaaay ahead of Woody or King in terms of form and has proved it at the highest levels, ie the latter stages of the Champions League unlike Ledley King! lol King does it vs Pompey and Fulham and Carragher does it vs Juve, Chelsea etc. No contest!


As for Gerrard he should be in the middle IMO. Again he's another big game player and has never disappeared unlike some others people label as "world class". Even Lampard has disappeared at times especially in the Champions League. I wouldn't move Lampard though. I would do everything possible to make these two click TOGETHER. This is the whole key for England IMO.

Liverpool bias? Nahhhhhhh! 

[Nem]

I know you might think i am being bias but i believe sol campbell has got to be a starter. not only has he been superb in englands last 3 major tournaments he improves arsenals whole team massively when he plays.

Although I hate what he did to my club, I think that Sol Campbell is the best defender in the world.