1) No, I disagree. I dislike Macca but don’t push him out unless a replacement is found. Push Venables out though, I don’t mind that. And no, Venables is not a replacement for Macca, with him we’ll be going sideways.

2) Rio? Disagree again. Our backline is fine, it needs an attitude adjustment and probably a new keeper.

3) Lamps is too good to be dropped. He shouldn’t be in the first-team, perhaps, but you can’t drop him.

4) Agreed.

5) Ashley Cole gets along quite well with his England teammates.

Neville–Ferdinand–Terry—Cole

———-Hargreaves———

—–Gerrard——Lampard——

Lennon/Dyer——-Rooney———Cole

4-3-1-2:

——————-Robinson——————

—-Neville—Ferdinand—Terry—–Cole—–

—–Lennon/Dyer—–Hargreaves—Cole

———————Gerrard————

—————-Owen———Rooney———————

I’m not sure if you are spot in all places. But then again, I don’t think we know what is actually going on behind the scenes. I think, though, that biggest problem is the lack of respect for McLaren. Players know that they won’t be dropped and that might sometimes affect to their games.

Also – I don’t think there’s much between Gerrard and Rooney going on, but Lampard and Terry are different story. They have gone quite gung-ho to support Jose for instance. And it seems to me that they could have “grown apart” from rest of the team. And they, with Rio and Hargreaves, create the backbone of the team at the moment…

Well.. I just hope I get to see England in EURO2008 – I don’t really care how, as long as ‘we’ get to the tournament.

————-[ In Form Striker ] ——-
J. Cole——————————– Lennon
———————–Lampard——————
——-Gerrad————————————
—————Owen Hargreaves———–

Try playing Lampard as AMC and Gerrad right after him as Creative midfielder. Its better then having Steve out wide on the right. I wish the English FA would give me all that money, i’m sure i could do a better job then MAC.

1. Looking at the wealth of talent we’ve got, we should cruise games like Israel – even with certain players playing out of position. The is a real sign of lack of confidence from the players – too much passing the ball around square and not enough going forward. The two explanations I can think of is either they don’t practice & play enough together as a team, or they don’t understand/trust the managers tactics. On balance I’d say it’s the former – more England training sessions needed then.

2. Nobody should be undroppable – getting shot of Becks, whether tactically a right or wrong desicion should have shown the other ‘undroppable’ players that their England berth is by no means guaranteed. This hasn’t worked and now those that called for Beckhams head (including myself) are starting to think we were too hasty – although Lennon on the right seems the obvious choice to anyone that has watched him terrorise defences all season.

3.Gerrard and Lampard in the middle doesn’t work: Hargreaves or Carrick plus Gerrard OR Lampard is the tough decision Steve should have taken months ago.

4.Joe Cole on the left for me, I honestly can’t think of anyone else that is good enough – even if he’s not a naturally left sided player.

5.We have a striker problem – Rooney isn’t doing the business, neither is Defoe although he only gets on when it’s too late to do anything. Martin Jol had the same problem early this season when there were 50 chances a game but no goals. He stuck with his strikers and the goals came. Anyone of our strikers is good enough on his day – we just need to stick with them. Crouch & Rooney as first choice, but bring on Defoe earlier if it’s not happening.

In all I don’t see that England has that big a problem, but if Steve ignores a few fundamentals that are staring him in the face then frankly it’s curtains for him and our qualifying hopes because as you rightly point out – our media will have him and the team on a spit if things continue as they are.

2. The English press and fans cant accept the simple truth. Their players are not as good as they think they are.

3. England need a manger who can drop all the under performing big names. From the captain, to Rio, to Lampard, Rooney and yes even Gerrard. There is all this talk about Gerard replacing Lampard in the middle but when did he last play well in the middle for England? It is clear the big name players are so sure of their starting positions they no longer bother. However if they were all dropped en masse and results changed. They’d realise that their is competetion genuine for their places and they’d perform. Remember how well Rio performed at the world cup? He wouldn’t have done so if Erikson had never dropped him for sloppy form.

4. The time has come for England to think about the players first and the fans later. England simply don’t have the players for a 4-4-2 system. They lack exceptionally good left wingers and they really lack strikers (Please Defoe is NOT international class. Even Crouch is better than him at international level).
They should uses a system that suits the players. Like 4-3-3. A system Lampard plays best in, a system that can also accomodate Gerrard in the middle and Lennon on the right. With Joe Cole/Barry/Dyer attacking down the left.

that is my take on things…