Subject: your england first 11

I always considered Ferdinand to be one of those who switches off at key moments, have you noticed much of that this season steelers ? I know he's been injured a fair bit, I'm just wondering if we're better off without carrying him ?

Be interesting to hear a fans point of view, but 4 (or was 6?) years ago, Rio was our best player in the tournament. He gets injured this season, comes back, has a few dodgy games and people don't seem too bothered. I personally think it's a big blow to our already fairly unrealistic chances.
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In form, imo, he is the best CB in England. However, every time he came back from injury this season he wasn't ready and was extremely rusty (and that's putting it kindly). He just didn't seem to be reading the play like he used to, so was getting caught out of position too often.

When in form, a lot of people criticise Rio because they perceive him as lazy, but to me he just has that knack of realising what is happening and doing just the right thing at the right moment to snuff it out. Whereas most CBs, e.g. Vidic or Terry, go all blood 'n' guts and chuck their body in the way, etc. So with Rio it never looks like he is trying.
I think this is where the 'switiching off' comment comes from - when he reads it wrong it looks like he wasn't paying attention.

I'd have still played him on the basis that even 80% of what he's capable of he's still there or thereabouts. And in my book you have to play yourself in to form or find the right stage to rediscover it ...like a WC.

Here's hoping King's knee holds up and Stevie G steps up to the mark!

I'm kind of glad that Dawson gets a chance now.
I just worry that Terry-Ferdinand have played a lot of games together for England, so whoever is in with Terry now makes it all a bit less comfortable. Still, Rio's loss is someone else's gain, and if I'm being optimistic I'd say that perhaps it'll turn out for the best and whoever comes in will do an amazing job - remember when Nicky Butt suddenly got a run in the England team in 2002 and somehow played a string of blinders... (I had thought that was a couple of years ago and looked it up, and 8 years! I thought it was only 4 years or so back...)

I'd compare Rio - Terry/Vidic to another similar pair, Cannavaro - Chiellini. It's the same thing, Chiellini runs all the time, throws himself into tackles, looks like a dog who's been on a diet for 2 years and suddenly sees a little electric car carrying a roast with a chicken on ;-) While Cannavaro seems to simply know what will happen, and steps in exactly when he needs to.

i hope gerrard steps up too, h has been below par for the past 1/2 years, he needs to step up now, especially as captain, he can sod off to madrid at a later date.

Ok this is a fact Terry was awful when he came back after injury and has looked shakey all season. He lacks pace and often can be found out, Saha tore him to shreads this season when Everton beat them. Ferdinand is an d always will be our best defender when on form....whether he was on form I don't know. However with these tournaments and the training beforehand you always hope and expect them to be very alert from the off. Trust me this is a big big blow as terry needs a pacey thoughtful defender next to him like Carvalho.

Heskey - wow what a suprise, what odds on a Heskey missed penalty in a shoot out costing us our place?

not too bad a loss, I wasn't conviced he had done enough this season to even get a place. Maybe Capello will actually earn his money now...

same and i think having gerrard as captain will bring the best out of him. I'd rather see pictures of him lifting the WC than ferdinand

To be fair to Rio, CDs are a bit like keepers, in that when they make a mistake, are out of position or lose control of the ball, the worst case scenario is a goal, and that then gets shown on match of the day with replays from 12 angles, so they're more likely to be shown as mistake makers.

You want your best 11 on the pitch though, and Capello has always talked about picking by form, not reputation. For that reason alone I think this might work out for the best.

Then all we need now is Lampard, Gerrard, Terry & Barry and a few others out because they were certainly not in great form.

And SWP.

I couldn't think of everybody. lol......but there are a lot of our squad not playing their best football. Rooney, King, Dawson, Parker have been in the form of their lives however....with Parker not even given a minutes playing time....even though as Redknapp said - the other players thought he was outstanding in training everyday.

How has Parker and Bent not gone? I just don't understand, instead he takes players like J.Cole, SWP and Heskey who haven't played a 90 minutes for their club all season!? Lamps is plaing good football, Gerrard shouldn't even be there never mind captaining England, his worst season ever!

If that were true, then why are the top 4 teams in the Prem still in the top 4 ?

Actually they aren't as Liverpool flunked. :p

Oh and also they have top foreign players in their teams.
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