Subject: England or Germany?

Hmmm enough said my man!

Just saw an interview on Sky with Roy Keane, that man speaks sense! Really good interview for me, said that we all blame the manager but we were unrealistic as the only man to be World Class this last season was Wayne Rooney. He is right the rest have not been great this season imo.

We did take too many injured or just returned to fitness players imo and that was his fault.

it was also passion as well, bucause with 30 minutes to go we looked lie a beaten side and we just didnt want it, upson and johnson were SHOCKING at the back, garath barry was feckin AWFUL and gave away the ball far too many times ad at least one time led to one of their goals..... having said that i do have klose as my top goalscorer! :)

Rooney sulked because he wasn't allowed to play up front on his own. Gerrard just played wherever hre wanted to play instead of on the left. But Passion finished us off !!!!! It was Terrys' "passion" to win the game that left him in their penalty box when Germany broke - he shouldn't have been that far up the pitch with half an hour left, he should have been marking his man !

i agree, also tactics come into it, gerrard never likes playing on the left, i remember him sulking about it a few years ago, gerrard just behind rooney has been the best way to go, with joe cole on the left and lampard and carrick in the middle and lennon on the right.

and i dont know why he persists with that useless lump of lard heskey, he has no threat whatsoever.
barry needs dropping too he was a bloody disgrace.
where was crouchy? he is always a threat and would have obviously been more of a threat than rooney.
i feckin hate how capello loves rooney when the fat sausage hasnt scored a goal for england for 2 years, he would be dropped if it was me in charge.

The problem is that there is no formation that allows for Gerrard, Lampard, Barry and Rooney to work effectively. Gerrard and Lampard don't work in the middle together, too similar. But egos ensure that you can't drop one of them. So you move one of them either to the wing, or supporting the striker. So you either annoy your captain Gerrard, who won't listen anyway and will drift to the middle if he plays left, or you annoy Rooney, who doesn't really like people and fancies a scrap on his own against 4 defenders.

Personally, I'd drop the lot of them and start from scratch with mid-table Premiership players, who don't consider themselves "above" the team.
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i agree, that would be the best thing to do, as you say there are too many ego's in that team, yesterday i did not see a team, i saw 11 individuals all to big for their boots. the thing with cappelo, he would never ever drop 4 players ; rooney, gerrard, Terry and Lampard, i honestly think dropping them would do them the world of good, being in the england team is a privaladge and an honour, but they just see it as a formality imo.

so a team that competes with the teams that 'deserve' to win shouldnt expect their team to do well? numerous knock outs on penalties, hand of god, dodgy reffing decisions have put us out in recent tournaments, there was only really the Brazil game in japan/korea that we really deserved to lose. Argentina only just qualified losing to Bolivia i think it was and Spain have never reached the last 4 at a WC, why should they expect to win/do well and not us?

I'm going to carry on expecting England to perform at major championships as we should be competing for the titles, whether or not I believe this will happen is a different matter.
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you go for it mate.

p.s. can i have the drugs your taking please

that's erm, well funny.

Well I had 4-1 Germany in my work predictor, nice 3 points for correct score and thats about the level of my interest. Unfortunately still 8 points behind and 6th out of 18. Top 3 get a wee prize.

We seen this all before. Lampard should be picked, Gerrard should be his back up for attacking central mid. Rooney isn't on form. If he was then yeah he's well good enough to play. Why Crouch and Defoe can't start (do a good job for Tottenham) is a problem with certain Mr Rooney basically picking himself or he's nae playing, takin his ba hame. I think I grew out of that attitude at about 8.

Too many big Charlies in the team who cannot rise to the challenge of the biggest tournament in the world. These problems aren't new. I think England have had the players to challenge for a World Cup but it would mean hurting some Ego's along the way and nobody has had the balls or been allowed to do it for some reason. The mental toughness doesn't seem to be there, decisions wise and attitude when on the pitch wise.

For what its worth Lampard is by far the best English player, the team should have built around him. The manager didn't get his tactics or squad picked correctly, not bad for £6M a year.

PS I ken Scotland have a bit to go before we can get back to World Cup finals, maybe we never will, but just maybe I think we are building a decent team ephic again, If only we could produce a better forward than Kenny Miller!
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I agree with just about everything you've just said.

ken Scotland have a bit to go before we can get back to World Cup finals, maybe we never will, but just maybe I think we are building a decent team ephic again, If only we could produce a better forward than Kenny Miller!

Provided you keep your hands off Paul Lambert I wish Scotland the best of luck :)
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we need more than luck mate thats for sure. Maybe in 10 years time our grass roots developments will start to shine through but who knows.

Well, looking at the Euro 2012 qualifying draw :

GROUP I: Liechtenstein, Lithuania, SCOTLAND, Czech Republic, Spain

If you can beat the Czech Republic, you could get to a play-off ?
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