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England Players Will Do Everything To Win
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England : Rotton With Nowhere To Go.
22nd November 2007
A quite bafflingly bad performance all round by England. From Coach through to the goalkeeper. I like 451 but seriously why switch between matches when he could have used a perfectly good friendly the other day to try it out.
Actually we switched not for any reason but Michael Owen got injured.... That makes no sense. Owen was always a poacher and has not been a top top player for quite a while now. Less baffling than going 352 because Downing was low on confidence but still Bilic must be thinking McClaren is a gurning moron.
Seriously why should a player on the decline no longer able to play for a top 4 team's injury change everything in your selection? Unless you are a complete clown.
So we changed formation for no good reason other than McClaren would not have to drop Barry to bring back Lampard. Brilliant, such cretinous thinking gets what it deserves sometimes, unfortunately for the England fan.
I also took it one played 433 as Chelsea did 04 to 06 as it allows a deep line. Nope England played a high line, which I normally scream for 442, and frankly if any of our backs knew how to play a high line they kept it a secret from the others. They just did full scale retreat and as we saw a 2nd goal came from 2 v 5! Seriously what team uses 4321 to really go 415 and go light in midfield. It beggared belief but Barry was left back to become a 5th defender.
2nd half some might credit the 442 for the come back but that would ignore the fact we played more like: 415 with Lampard spraying long balls forward from just in front of the defence 505 if you like!: A daft penalty which was lightweight's only contribution: Croatia did sit back for a bit and allowed us on: They are not that good: It was at home at Wembley with 88,000...
Of course England sat back once the score was 2-2 and they only had something to lose and naturally were utterly unable to last 15 minutes with a "winning" position. Anyway.... some more structured insults follow.
Positives
There were a few or maybe not as the players listed were all backs to the wallers with nothing to lose.
Crouchy Wouchy
As hard as it is for me to say Crouch may be the best of the lousy bunch of forwards we have. Indeed Rafa and I may be wrong about his ability on his own.
After all as I feared on the Blog the formation was not a tactical innovation but an abortion based on playing certain players. He is not ideal but Bent, Owen, Davies maybe Heskey it is not a packed field for England strikers.
Lampard
Another with little popularity to lose. He played for the team and unlike Stevie and the Little Big Man Rooney can risk taking a penalty because he will not be turned into a gibbering wreck if he misses.
Beckham and Defoe
They were rubbish but superficially we did come back and they got the assists. Again coming on at half time 2-0 nothing to lose.
Player Negatives
Wow so many players so many poor poor performances.
Bridge Too Far For Carson
Tell me how many times Carson and Bridge have played this year and how many times have they been watched by McClown?
I asked on the blog today (21st Nov) why Carson jumped James and Green? A classic case of shiny new under 21 with no negatives in the press (because people are not looking to critique youth players hence they never develop and get upset at 25 when the press turns). James is the best keeper but he should have stuck by Robinson unless he felt Robinson had gone backwards - which would be hard as he has not been a good keeper since I started watching him.
The reason picking James would be risky is fear of the press and the reaction, the guys nickname is 'Calamity' after all. Green has been around long enough not to be considered a top player and is not attached to a top club (a system that works so well with Bridge, C'Ash, Carson, Phil Neville, Smithy eh eh).
How has Carson usurped a prime form Green and James? There is no reason. Added to that Carson started shaking and made an early howler that killed England to half time.
Wayne Bridge has barely played for a long time and yet in a squad with 5 left backs he played. Why? He plays for Chelsea and was once considered good? He played everyone on side after failing to challenge Eduardo for the 2nd goal
Micah Buffoon - The New Rio
If you want to be an arse but popular in sports have a unique first name. Players with these enjoy popularity whatever their personality or whatever rape and drug accusuations. Rio has been assumed to be a top class player and defender and yet I talk to United fans and they just hate him. Like Terry what bizarre cult has them, centre halves and not even the best at their own club, the best paid players at their clubs? Other examples are the surly baseball ex-star Nomar [Garciaparra] and another surl master Kobe [Bryant] the 2nd rate husband and basketball player. Sol anyone? Another vapid self centred guy with little outstanding personality gifted a huge reputation on nothing. Now we have Micah.
Micah Richards looks great going forward but basically to have this great clown in attack you end up, if he is dedicated, with your right winger at right back. Indeed so contemptuous is Micah of anything but having a good time he even at one point ran off the pitch at the wrong end to show off. Never in the right place and when England face better teams than Russia and Croatia an open sore - come to think of it he was against them. Then again we'll have to wait for the 2010 qualifying to face some one good now (not that that is guaranteed after this Group of Dreck).
As with assessment of Carson before his mistake a young player is teflon. He has one good game in a trot of poor and all people see is promise. Lampard is England player of the year for 2 years and a few games later a pariah. This honey moon period wears off but surely a professional manager should not be so dumb.
Retreat...... Campbell and Lescott
Another centre half pairing that had me scratching my head if they knew anything about football. As usual they want the whole game in front of them. Nominally we had a high line but as soon as Croatia got the ball they just started retreating. So why bother! As I said it made no sense anyway as one reason for 4321 is to allow our defence to have 2 covering players central and a 5 in front when defending. Yet when we play 442 with remote strikers we never have a high line.
I just don't think they chose to play this way for any tactical reason and to further meddle with the back 4 makes no sense - bit late now. The high line was clearly not working as it should v Austria so why use it in a big game. Sol has played a long career deep so if you want a high line you don't pick him.
Was that Sol neatly blind siding his keeper for the 3rd goal with no pressure on the ball from the midfield. Nice dummy Sol fooled Carson all the way.
Steven Gerrard!
Oh how he must have hated a game like this. Everything to lose nothing to gain. Surely he would be better off the bench when he can come in playing house money when we are behind. Sorry at some point you must play when favoured to win. Unless you think the lightening of Turkey can strike again.
Beckham
Beckham got his assist as Crouch managed to display great skill, under no pressure, to turn a chest high nothing ball into a goal. The problem was sure Beckham had an effect as a ball was turned over and as he was not tracking back he was there to play it in under no pressure.
However that is the problem he had an effect when England were all in - one on one at the back. His inability to get up and back anymore, especially paired with a clown like Richards would kill us against any team with pace. Also given he can only play in a 4 he takes away any chance of pace being injected into the team - Lennon and SWP make way.
When we get the ball centrally he starts retreating to the sideline meaning it requires a threaded ball to get to him - he provides no short passing outlet in a crowded midfield. Indeed he is playing for himself as he only wants the ball in acres of space so he can trap and throw in a junk cross - a great way against good teams to give the ball away and if we play Rooney and Owen no threat to anyone.
Bring him on for 5 minutes in a friendly and then say 100 caps go away.
Jermain to nothing...
Defoe produced other than being tugged back for no reason a classic case for why Bent was a better bet. He has no weapons to hurt a team defending in depth. His runs and general intelligence are poor and his lack of stature and power make him a donation of the ball to the opposition.
A player best at 1-0 up is not much use against good opponents. No idea given the clear smoke signals from Spurs why he is even selected. He offers nothing tactically and if he has pace it seems not to threaten opponents.
McClown
Abject irrational selection: Failing to qualify from what Declan Murphy would have called a penalty kick without a goal keeper group: Always wittering about experience yet England bottled every game where a win would have made life easy: The run of 3-0 wins merely illustrates what his meddling led to.
He just has no ideas and everything is ad hoc and knee jerk. He mutters cliches and truisms so much that even Andrew Flintoff is concerned at losing his crown as the blandest speaker in sports.
The fact is changes are piecemeal not part of a bigger plan. They are not even decided on by the available players abilities but by their name recognition! Bad management.
Worse he will not resign and hangs on for a payout.
Quite how anyone could employ him after an interview process is beyond me. A limited man with nothing exceptional except his limitations.
FA
Don't just appoint another clown. Have some criteria and interview the candidate. Criteria is not what a manager has won but how he would adapt to international football. Someone who will play only 1 or 2 star players and let others know they are not stars would be a start.
Time for a Long Summer Holiday.
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