England vs Spain - completely unacceptable
I’m not going be posting too much in the next few days - I just moved to a new city and I’m still trying to get the bloody broadband installed.
Team England is always under huge pressure, and it’s not as if defeat is not acceptable (really - England has been beaten by better teams, and I for one accept those defeats, such as the 2002 WC quarterfinal).
But what IS unacceptable is that the manager does not deliver on his promises.
What is unacceptable is that instead of seeing something that works, we only see the same old, same old nonfunctioning midfield.
What is unacceptable is that we see nothing of the promised fluency in attack.
What is unacceptable is that we see the team abandoning basic tactics and get outplayed all over the park because the opposition.
I’m a fan of Phil Neville but his place is not at left-back, nor is Lampard a left-midfield player. A 4-3-3 leaves your left-back exposed unless it turns into a 4-5-1 when chasing the ball, but Carrick is never going to be a midfield hardman (you might as well push Ferdinand up as a holding midfielder) and Dyer and SWP never looked good when helping out in defence.
England need to get the basics right. They need to use the right people in the right positions. The England management needs to make some hard choices, and the England team needs a heavy dose of motivation (Lampard and Terry for England vs L and T for Chelsea is a case of motivation, nothing else).
Stevo has not done anything to suggest that he is the man who can give England all this. England do not have the luxury of ‘letting the man learn’ while on the job.
I doubt we would have lost this friendly under Eriksson, and I especially doubt that we would have done so poorly.
Going backwards? Definitely unacceptable.
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Discussion - 5 Responses
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England! Who cares! Man U is where it’s at. To paraphrase the OT crowd “You can stick your f***in’ England up your….” You get the picture. Club before country in my house.
England should go with a 4-4-2 and i feel they really need to choose between lampard OR gerrard caz they both simply can’t get together. Play either dyer or SWP on the right, the left-midfield for joe cole when he’s back. And then more things to point out…why put phil neville at left-back, why not gareth barry?? and on right-back why not give micah richards another shot at it since it’s only a friendly and McClaren is putting on his “Experimental” side. England should have really gone for Big Phil when he’s available.
NO question , Man United > England
However I just think as everyone has been saying , lampard and gerrard cannot play together in midfield ! It is just not working and will not simply beacuse both have the same style and that neutralizes them both. The Mid should be when all players are fit : Joe Cole Gerrard/Lampard Carrick/Barton And lennon.
Its not entirely McClaren fault .. I think the players give much more to their club than for their country , they seem more motivated. I just hope England can get a grip and start playing more like a great team rather than a team with great players..
No doubts, it has been whole-heartedly proven that Gerrard and Lampard simply can’t co-exist in the same England team. So Steve McClaren, please make the easy decision (which I hope he will as he’s already made Stevie G vice skipper) and drop Lampard and let Gerrard run the midfield, as he does for Liverpool. He and Wayne Rooney are the class of this England generation and the team should undoubtedly be focussed around their world-class talents.
Granted, we had injuries on Wednesday, but what was proven was that SWP, Crouch, Dyer and Lampard aren’t up to the task.
Here’s who I would pick if everyone were fit:
Robinson
Neville Ferdinand Terry Cole
Lennon Hargreaves Gerrard Cole
Rooney Owen