Comments on: 10 Rules to Being England’s Manager

By: Andrei

Andrei — Sat, 24 Nov 2007 17:45:27 +0000

Good points on Brown, Tom.

I know this is totaly useless, but this si how I see the England team in 2010:

GK: Foster
RB: Richards
DC: Taylor, Terry
LB: Cole (hopefully not Joe)
DM: Hargo
RW: Walcott
MC: Lampard
LW: Milner
FC: Rooney
S: Agbonlahor

Bench: Carson, Woodgate, Beckham, Baines, Owen, Bentley, Gerrard (gasp!).

By: tomsharp

tomsharp — Sat, 24 Nov 2007 11:12:18 +0000

Andrei, my point about Wes Brown is that in the two England games I have seen him play in, he has dropped some absolute clangers. Against Brazil, and then whichever qualifier followed straight after, he made bad mistakes. Yes, if he got more experience, he might improve, but so far, he’s done nothing to convince me that he should be in the team on merit.

I admit, Gary Neville has his good points, and I feel he worked very well with Beckham on the right wing, but in the new generation of England, I think Richards works better with SWP, and can run just that little bit more. Credit to him, he is one of the few players with passion.

By: fuzzy

fuzzy — Sat, 24 Nov 2007 07:03:01 +0000

I personally believe(reminds me of Caitlin Upton ) that age should not be considered while choosing a player(e.g. Zidane, Nedved, Larsson, Borgetti, Figo, Cafu were all 34+ at WC-2010).
Beckham is probably the best English player when it comes to providing crosses & handling dead ball situations. However he is slowing down. The problem is the age factor – he is thirty two and a half now & would be 35 by the time WC-2010 starts . England don’t have a great team (I consider them a quarter-final team .. nothing more than that) and the options available instead of Beckham aren’t that great – SWP, Lennon, Betnley have the pace but their crossing isn’t top notch . The other fact that will go against Beckham is the quality of opposition that he will be turning up against every week .. MLS is nothing compared to EPL or Serie A or La Liga

By: Ahmed Bilal

Ahmed Bilal — Sat, 24 Nov 2007 06:44:28 +0000

tom, you blind bastard

By: BeckhamUnited

BeckhamUnited — Sat, 24 Nov 2007 04:51:06 +0000

And here is my WC 2010 view of the line up..

4-4-2:GK-Carson or Foster(both could be better by then)
LB-A.Cole
CB-Terry
CB-Ferdinand(hopes he doesnt retire),Richards
RB-Bridge
CDM-Hargreaves
ML-J.Cole
MR-Gerrard
CAM-Lampard
ST-Rooney
ST-Walcott(I’m not really sure..)

Tactics: FreeKick-Gerrard
Penalty-Lampard
Corners-Gerrard
Captain-Gerrard or Lampard..(Your Vote)

By: BeckhamUnited

BeckhamUnited — Sat, 24 Nov 2007 04:42:28 +0000

Here is what i think about beckham in england future.. Beckham can play a few more matches untill about 120caps? then he retires from playing??Finally.. Become the manager of england?? thats cool..

By: Andrei

Andrei — Sat, 24 Nov 2007 03:55:08 +0000

Tom, I usually enjoy reading your articles, especially the one about McLaren getting sacked. That was class, this is just aimless ranting. Sorry. NB this opinion might have been formed by you attacks on Man Utd players

1.I do not see what your point is about Wes Brown, he is doing just fine for Man Utd. Just because Richards is better does not mean that Brown is rubbish;

2.Lay off Gary Neville!!! The guy is awesome! Yes, he may not be loved outside Old Trafford, but everyone has to appreciate the quality which he brings into a team. He will not be able to replace a brilliant Richards, but still… we cannot blame him for much. It is no wonder England players have no heart. Not after they are thrashed like this for very little reason;

3.Somebody mentioned Gerrard and Lampard played well in 2004. I think Scholes might have had something to do with it, but letting Lampard take care of issues in attack and Gerrard of the defensive part, we should be alright. Remeber that nobody could see Tevez and Rooney play well together…

4.We do not need a target man. Real Madird do not have one, neither does Milan or Barcelona. Man Utd, Roma and Lyon are also doing just fine without one. A quality team does not need to launch balls to the big man, it needs good build-up play. BRING SCHOLES BACK!! I am not going to say that England have he quality to beat any of the afrementioned teams, because they do not, but that should be the target if we want to win anything this century;

5.Cole is useless on that flank for England, but SWP can/could do a good job. He combines well with Richards and as long as the coach lets him do his think in peace and maybe gies him some tactical indications he could be brilliant. Better than Rooney? No. Mourinho was wrong.

That is about all I have to say.

By: tomsharp

tomsharp — Sat, 24 Nov 2007 01:17:43 +0000

fuzzy – No, I didn’t see any United players. Hence ruining all hopes of a ‘Its all Man Utd’s fault’. Sadly.

michael – Our best two strikers might be midgets, but I don’t think it works together. Its up to them to prove me wrong (if they’re ever fit!), but it failed to do the business in Russia for me. They both like to sit behind someone (Crouch, Heskey or Ashton), and so alongside each other, they just sit back and let the defence do their thing.

Gerrard… Well, he can play on the right, but he doesn’t suit it. And anyway, I’m becoming impressed by the whole SWP-Richards partnership forming out there.

By: michael

michael — Sat, 24 Nov 2007 00:08:20 +0000

good points but i’d disagree with a few
1. we need to be tactically versatile. playing 4-5-1 and 5-3-2 wasn’t the problem, it was the fact that the players clearly hadn’t trained together in those systems for more than a day and mcclaren clearly didn’t give them much instruction.
2. we shouldn’t NEED a target man. thinking that we do is part of the problem. they’re undoubtedly useful, and crouch has been great there, but our two best strikers are midgets, and it looks as if all the young talent up front is tiny too.
3. gerrard and lampard played pretty well together in 2004. gerrard is perfectly capable of playing on the right wing if he really has to be in the team, and someone like hargreaves can let lampard do his scavenging-around-the-penalty-area and working-hard-for-glory chelsea thing.

essentaiully we need a manager who’ll work out the best system for our players, no matter how strange and unconventional it looks in a sky sports graphic. look how well argentina have been doing with 4-2-1-3…and their three are all strikers, not two wingers and a diet drogba.

we clearly do have some great players capable of great things, but maybe some are overrated and others are undervalued. robinson’s not that bad. hargreaves deserves to start every game for england, based on 2006 alone. lampard can be fantastic, gerrard shouldn’t be vice captain, carragher is an arsehole for retiring.

phew. thats over. anyway, nice post.

By: fuzzy

fuzzy — Fri, 23 Nov 2007 23:50:17 +0000

Why play Gerrard + Lampard when Gerrard + Barry was working .. Hargreaves was fit(finally !) but didn’t play .. Steve Mclaren was in Germany with Sven when Hargreaves had an awesome tournament .. I haven’t seen a more stupid coach than this guy .. 2-2 with Croatia on the backfoot & he asks the team to go into a defensive mode .. Wayne Bridge was having a terrible match & his fit senior(Cole) is sitting out
PS – tomsharp, did you see any Man United player on the playing field in the match vs Croatia ?