The England National team thread

[Mandieta6]

Indeed, you have proven the point that exceptions exist in life. Nevertheless, given what we know of the England NT, I'm going to go on a limb and say that none of their players are gonna pull an Eusebio on us. At most, someone might Quaresma all over the place.

 

[ShiftyPowers]

We already know that experienced members of the "Golden Generation" will not succeed. Even if the kids fail in 2014 they will be all the better for it in 2018 by your own reckoning.

 

[Mandieta6]

Yes, they will. They won't have any success now, though. Rooneumy should start even off-form.

 

[ShiftyPowers]

They could, because I don't believe that stupid "general wisdom" bullshit.

 

[Mandieta6]

You mean logic?

 

[RobbieD_PL]

England is either too old or too young to ever challenge for anything except for 1966. There, I said it.

 

[ARIAGA II]

huh? explain please.

 

[Mus]

England is either too old or too young to ever challenge for anything except for 1966. There, I said it.

Too shit, overrated and often with a manager out of his depth

 

[RobbieD_PL]

Too shit, overrated and often with a manager out of his depth

+1

 

[Sir Didier Drogba]

Rumours are that Milner will start, to attempt to shut down Pirlo, not sure this is the right approach. Anyway, time to start getting excited....

 

[Mus]

Rumours are that Milner will start, to attempt to shut down Pirlo, not sure this is the right approach. Anyway, time to start getting excited....

I think that's what we want to happen, both Pirlo and Verratti are locks to start so when Pirlo is marked he will just drift wide and leave a big gap for Verratti

 

[Sir Didier Drogba]

Alright, well, lets talk about the first game and the team we put out. Fundamental problem was we just ran out of gas, fitness seems to be an issue and with all those runners, that gets exemplified. Rooney in particular looked absolute exhausted by 70 mins.

Sterling looked hot and Sturridge has shown he can score, Welbeck was fairly efficient but I would like to see a more exiting starter, and Henderson didnt get the chance to dictate (to be fair, we were never going to win the midfield). I wouldnt have brought on Lallana, didnt seem like the right time for him to make an impact, at that point with all the corners we were getting I think Lambert's aerial ability would have been more valuable. Defense was less shaky than I feared though I would like to see more dynamism from the fullbacks.

Costa Rica succeeded with pace against Uruguay so that should give us hope, I say start Lallana and Wilshere next match in place of Welbeck and Henderson, Suarez should know that Liverpool midfield duo too well anyway, and task Wilshere with tracking Suarez.

And we would have won that game if Gareth Bale was English.

 

[Mus]

Was actually surprised youse ran out of gas and cramped up, you'd think the slow Serie A players would struggle more but we had no cramps

 

[ShiftyPowers]

And we would have won that game if Gareth Bale was English.

Don't forget Ramsey

 

[RobbieD_PL]

Don't forget Ramsey

No Team GB!

 

[Sir Didier Drogba]

Was actually surprised youse ran out of gas and cramped up, you'd think the slow Serie A players would struggle more but we had no cramps

In recent times I am noticing increasing fitness issues with English players, I fear we are getting left behind a bit in terms of developments in physical training. If you look at the top players when the leave the EPL (eg Ronaldo), they just seem to get so much fitter within a couple of seasons. Rooney could have been up there with the best in the world (he was for a short while) if he could just raise and maintain his fitness levels. These young black kids (Sterling, Sturridge) etc are full of running but their age and relative lack of experience, and perhaps over-enthusiasm, wears them out.

 

[ShiftyPowers]

Actually I think the fitness stuff was a direct result of Prandelli's squad selection. He said before the World Cup that he would pick the fittest players, not the best players.

 

[Sir Didier Drogba]

I was surprised by some of the names on the Italy team sheet.

 

[Mus]

Actually I think the fitness stuff was a direct result of Prandelli's squad selection. He said before the World Cup that he would pick the fittest players, not the best players.

You'd think though that even Italian workhorses like Parolo, Marchisio and Candreva would pale in comparison to the industry of the Rooney's and Henderson's

 

[ShiftyPowers]

Rooney isn't really Rooney anymore, and Henderson had to be disciplined.