[Football] England Squad
 

Someone had to start the thread.

:rolleyes:

Some terrible choices and some glaring emissions.

Discuss.

Re: [Football] England Squad
 

Still laughing at Walcott. Some really strange decisions all the way down to the standby players.

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paging scottish/irish/welsh to thread # 190814

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A truly bizarre squad.

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this will be a short WC for some us.

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Arsenal teenager Walcott is one of only four strikers in Sven-Goran Eriksson's 23-man squad, alongside injured pair Wayne Rooney and Michael Owen.

Worst. Manager. Ever.

PS Hyperbole :(

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I knew there'd be a thread on this.
I can't see why he's selected 4 strikers including Rooney who's injured and someone who didn't play first team football all season.
To me it looks like he's going to play Crouch either up front on his own or in a support role for Owen until Rooney is fit. Choosing 4 strikers, 2 of whom have injury worries (Owen obviously less than Rooney) and one who's not played first team football seems insane to me. I think he'll take a big gamble and is just hoping that Walcott will be another Owen / Rooney.

I'll be interested to see the starting lineup and formation of the first couple of matches, tbh.

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4 5 1 ftw!

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All I can think is that he's going to hope that on June 9th, Rooney has had a miracle recovery. If not, he'll take Defoe instead.

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But that's the thing, he's going to take rooney regardless, even if he can only play by the quarter final stage. It's madness.

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Tony Blair has forced Sven to pick this team to deflect attention away from his problems.

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So what role does Walcott play? A sort of Owen role?

We're obviously going to be playing quite defensively. He just needed to pick someone who could hit the target to cover for Owen ffs, I guess Walcott plays a very much centre forward role?

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don't forget about joe cole.


cole upfront with owen or crouch, downing and lennon on the flanks. every rooney-less formation i've drawn so far has lennon because we need pacy wingers who can keep the ball. Nothing stops a pacy winger who can keep the ball. For example, Ivan Sproule. So many weaknesses in his game; first touch is awful, can't tackle, doesn't track back, can't keep a cool head, always caught out of position. However, he can keep the ball at his feet and he's fast enough to skin Ashley Cole and even though neither his crossing nor his shooting are stellar, they don't need to be because every time he gets the ball he crosses or shoots.

Lennon, on the other hand, tracks back, tackles, crosses, has plenty of stamina and can shoot well enough. He's a perfect winger.



Oh, and if you put Cole out on the wing, you can have

.................................Owen...........................
...................................................................
....^........Gerrard....................Lampard.....^.....
....^.....................................................^......
..Cole................................................Lennon...
............................Carrick...............................
....................................................................
Cole..........Terry..............Ferdinand..........Neville
...................................................................
.............................Robinson...........................

which I consider to be tasty.

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Crouch would do much better than Owen, if you're using Lampard and Gerrard to their maximum effectiveness. Crouch can hold the ball up reasonably well, Owen can't.

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Where does he play? left wing or right wing? I'd love to see him replacing Beckham ;)

tbh, if he works the left flank while Beckham works the right flank...
we end up having about 8 midfielders, but other than that

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Owen can run on to all the nice long balls that most of the first choice midfield is known for producing. Crouch can't.

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Crouch is much more likely to win all those terrible long balls that our midfield produces most of the time.

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As T&F said, Owen can hit the back of the net much more easily than Crouch. Crouch is better in a support role

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Owen needs at least 10 matches (or so) to produce anything near his best form after coming back from injury.

We're not getting fast, sharp, Michael Owen, we're getting crocked Owen who may well still have a bad foot.

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He won't, but he should. Beckham is one of the most naturally talented players England have produced, but his preferred role doesn't fit into any formation cleanly and he has steadily been losing his pace and commitment in tackles which would allow him to be a half-decent winger still, or a holding midfielder come to that.

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I can't believe SWP isn't even on standby.
(if anyone says "it's because he hasn't played much this season" - ahem Walcott)

4 strikers isn't enough either.

I'm not displeased that Walcott is going, as Defoe, Bent, Johnson etc do not inspire any confidence at all. At least Walcott would make it interesting.
Still think one of the other strikers was needed as well though.

Jenas could easily be dropped for any of them.

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You work with what you're given.

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Fingers crossed this kid is as good as Wenger and Eriksson seem to think because he's going to have to fill Rooney's boots for a large part of the World Cup if we are going to get to the latter stages. Pele won the World Cup at 17 so you never know.

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don't panic.

it's only national pride at stake, nothing big.

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it's like when teams come out with "mascots" and "shake each others hands" before kick off. All entirely unnecessary, when quite frankly, I'd rather my side were doing quite the opposite. After the game is a different story.

When you have a side with Beckham as captain, what else do you expect?

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Walcott did play first team football last season, for Southampton against the likes Crewe and Luton Town, I imagine Robert Carlos and co are currently quaking in their boots.

I saw Walcott play against us on New Years Eve, it says it all that the dire Rhys Weston (Who we just gave a free transfer to) managed to dominate him for 70 minutes until he was substituted. He certainly has talent but he didn't look ready for the Championship five months ago unless he's improved beyond all recognition playing for Arsenal reserves then it could be an amusing World Cup.

I imagine Defoe is pretty annoyed, his opportunities have been limited this year but when he has played he's had an impact and bagged 10 goals, he must have thought he'd just about done enough with his performance yesterday. Also Bent (While maybe not International quality) is the second highest scorer in the Premiership in a second tier team yet is omitted in favour of an unplayed striker, it really does beg belief.

I think the side Phang posted is most likely although Beckham will play instead of Lennon despite all his deficiencies, Beckham with Sven in charge can't be dropped despite the fact he's not very good anymore. The side is still fairly solid, it has a good back five with two world class players, good centre midfielders even if they haven't played brilliantly together yet and a left winger who's been in fine form all year and finally living up to his hype. There are still the obvious problems at right wing and up front, hopefully Beckham and Walcott will both break their legs in a nasty training accident meaning Sven will call up Defoe and Bent, one of whom can start the first few games instead of Owen. We can all hope ! If that doesn't happen then England are going to have to rely on Frank "I don't do big games" Lampard wacking in a lot of goals.

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Im glad SWP got dropped that money grubbing short arse, he deserves to rot on the bench (or not)

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I think Chelsea bought SWP to stop other sides from buying him (and playing him)

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Blame Sven telling him to move to a bigger club to improve his international chances.

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I already blame svenn for everything wrong with England:(

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I don't think SWP banked on Cole having as a good season as he did, he probably assumed that he would be third in line at Chelsea and could force his way in when Duff or Robben were rested or injured. Poor lad.

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how eriksonn was ever rated as a manager i'll never know
a blind rubber duck has more technical expertise than him ,god help england at the world cup ur gonna need it

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Sven got the job because

"Lazio - Champions of Italy"

Alas, the fact they were doing a Chelsea and buying everyone in sight, before doing a Leeds and going out of business almost, escaped everyones notice.

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What I find hilarious is that for example when we beat Germany 5-1, everyone went on about how great he was. I can't understand his reasons why he's done what he has, but I'm willing to give him a chance to see how things pan out in Germany before I completely slag his ability off. We've not done too badly under him, although arguably we could have done better.

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sven is a great club manager, but his tactics simply dont work at national level (lol defend against france for 90 mins oops look they just scored 2 goals)

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This is where I'll disagree. Almost every International manager who fails in a major tournament either resigns or is sacked, Sven hasn't and he's now going for his third bite of the cherry after two dismal failures despite having a squad of players most countries would kill for.

I don't see how England have not done too badly ? They play dull, unimaginative, negative football, they've limped through the qualifying rounds for the last two major tournaments, I hardly call loosing to Northern Ireland, drawing with Macedonia and drawing with Austria not doing too badly. Both times they've been eliminated from major tournaments under Sven they've taken an early 1-0 lead only to sit back and try to defend it when there has been long periods left. Brazil were beatable, England were 1-0 they attempted to defend the lead for a short period, after half time they then found them 1-2 down but Ronaldiniho was sent off, Brazil are well known as a weak team defensively but England showed little to no imagination or plan to get back into the tie. Euro 2004 was the worst example though, with the side England had and the quality of the competition it was theirs for the taking. Again on two occasions (Against France and Portugal) England again took an early lead only to sit back absorb pressure and live by the skin of their teeth until finally giving in, then (Less so in the France game as there was very little time left) being unable to come up with any plan to get back into the game.

Sven did have a glittering career as a club manager, he didn’t just win the Italian championship with Lazio, he won a UEFA cup with IFK Göteborg and took Benfica to a European Cup final (As well as dominating both countries domestic competitions). When he came to England his reputation was as a great tactician, I'm not sure what's happened to this nor am I sure how his previous sides played, either he's doing what worked at club level in the 1980s and 1990s (Long balls till you take the lead then defending on mass coupled with frustrating football and more long balls) and it isn't applicable to modern International football or he's simply not up to the job and has got lucky in his old posistions. His bizzare tactics coupled with his inability to motivate the team and his faith in players who are either not in form or not up to the job while refusing to give those players in form a fair chance at International level gives a a fairly robust case on which to totally slag him off but we can wait until July 10th if you want.

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Hopefully Liverpool will buy SWP and allow him to fulfil his potential.

As for Owen bloody Hargreaves...

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Because Liverpool are lacking in midfielders....

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Only a genius could win Serie A with £210M and Crespo, Veron and Nesta. It must be really hard.

England now play tepid, passionless football and quite frankly, I'm put off. Add on to it the hype and hysterical press and fan reaction and really it's not worth worrying about.

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Similarly, only a genius could win the Premiership with £250M and Lampard and Terry.

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Having read that:


Fine, if you want to take Walcott to a major championship then do so. The lad can only get better with the experience and there's no reason why he can't make a name for himself if he's brought on with us leading with 20 minutes to go.

However. When we're only sending a half-fit Owen, a crocked Rooney, Peter "I'm 6'7 but can't head a ball" Crouch as additional strikers, then gentlemen we have a problem. We need a fit natural goalscorer in the squad, and if Walcott is the English version of Henry then we don't have a fit one there. Both Bent and Defoe would have fitted the bill fine and we'd have all been happy.

My alternative squad:

Goalkeepers: Robinson (Tottenham), James (Manchester City), Green (Norwich);

Defenders: G Neville (Manchester United), Ferdinand (Manchester United), Terry (Chelsea), Cole (Arsenal), Campbell (Arsenal), Carragher (Liverpool), Bridge (Chelsea),

Midfielders: Beckham (Real Madrid), Carrick (Tottenham), Lampard (Chelsea), Gerrard (Liverpool), Parker (Newcastle), Downing (Middlesbrough), J Cole (Chelsea), Wright-Phillips (Chelsea)

Strikers: Rooney (Manchester United), Owen (Newcastle), Crouch (Liverpool), Defoe (Tottenham), Bent (Charlton)


Dropped: Lennon, Jenas, Hargreaves, Walcott.

And if we had to take Walcott, I wouldn't have taken Wright-Phillips.

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England should play 4-1-3-1-1 .
I think with the team as so:

------------------------------Owen------------------------------------

-------------------Gerrard---------------------------------------------

--J.Cole------------------D.Beckham---------------------SWP/Lennon--

----------------------------Carrick------------------------------------

--A.Cole-------------Terry-----------Carragher--------------G.Neville--

-----------------------------Robinson---------------------------------


How Owen Hargeaves and Jenas get into the Squad everytime i'll never understand.

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i'm amused

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how DARE you question the inclusion of Owen 'I play in europe lolcakes' Hargreaves !?

Can you not SEE the amazing talent and skils he has !?










nope, me either.

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No Lampard? Are you crazy or just a tottenham fan?

Wallcott is an impact player is how Svens described him. He's the type of player who can come on and make something happen with 20minutes to go in a game. This isnt neccessarily then a bad idea. He has pace in abundance and can strip most defenders in the world easily. Read Kolo Toure speaking about him and how he skins him in training. Toures not a slow guy and by the sounds of it Wallcott was really sliding past him with ease. Some of this goals for Southampton were also top class. I dont agree with him being picked, but i do understand why he has been.

Next point... no Scott Carson but Rob Green and David James? Simply wrong in my opinion. If only Chris Kirkland had had more of an injury free season (again) and we could have a really decent 2nd choice goalie.

Owen Hargreaves.... Hasnt even been playing well for Bayern. He has been playing regularly though and against Germans so is this anything to do with it? Seeing as were scheduled to get germany in quarters or semi's i think it is?

Jermaine Jenas? Has been playing okay(ish) at Tottenham without ever really setting the world a-light. I would have been much happier to see someone like Kevin Nolan come in. He is then a cover for the strikers if things go badly wrong whilst being a superb midfielder if (god forbid) Crouch can learn to head the ball properly within a month.

Formation wise its going to be a 4-5-1 for at least the start of the competition with the first choice team being:

------------------Robinson--------------------------
Neville------- Rio-------------Terry----------A.Cole---
------------------M.Carrick--------------------------
Beckham-----------------------------J.Cole-----------
---------Gerrard------------Lampard------------------
---------------------Owen----------------------------

Dont be surprised to see beckham flirting with the holding midfield role and either moving Joe Cole up the field and giving stewart downing a show on the left, or Gerard and Beckham swapping possibly quite regurlarly during the match.

On a side not: wheres Kieran Richardson? Should have been a spot in at the very least the reserves for him. Got to be a real real dent in his confidence.

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as a liverpool supporter would rather get damien duff than swp

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Ditch Jenas, bring in Parker.
Defoe instead of Walcott.
Nolan instead of Hargreaves.

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His ability to skin Toure clinches it for me, even if Sven's cocked up the rest of the squad. Toure is as fast as Henry, no-one apart from Arsenal's coaches realised it when he first came to England but the guy is so so quick.

Just a shame that Hargreaves goes instead of another fit striker.

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