England at World Cup 2014

Red Dreams said:
Wilshire, Gerrard and Jones in midfield is pretty solid.
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Do you think Roy will start Jones in mid instead of an actual midfielder who's had a great season in Henderson?

Leave club loyalty at the door, this is England and I can admit that Henderson should start ahead of Jones.

But then who knows with Roy, for me its just a question of what root vegetable we'll see Roy's face superimposed on in the rags.
 
Henderson/Gerrard are simply not good enough.England has no player in the central midfield area who can control the tempo of a game. They will struggle to keep possession like last time in the Euro's where they only had an abysmal 30% of the possession with Gerrard in midfield. As good as player he is(and hey he might help us with an odd assist from a set piece) he cannot keep possession and control the midfield and Henderson is no Scholes either.England don't have a creative midfielder that can keep the ball or with great technical ability. Made a big mistake by leaving out Carrick .Barkley should start to add that spark.Wilshere would've been perfect but he seems to have lost his touch recently.

I reckon Welbeck will be marking Pirlo so unless he does a good job I can see England struggling against any decent midfield and Italy bossing the possession.England's central midfield department is rubbish for a top team.Wheres' England version of pirlo or Xavi? I'm not expecting them to have anything as good these players but since Gazza, England have not had a truly world class creative midfielder that has the ability to control the game.There was Scholes but typical England shunted him to the left of midfield to accommodate the 'world class' partnership of Lamp/Gerard ofcourse.
 
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SarahUtd said:
Henderson/Gerrard are simply not good enough.England has no player in the central midfield area who can control the tempo of a game. They will struggle to keep possession like last time in the Euro's where they only had an abysmal 30% of the possession with Gerrard in midfield. As good as player he is(and hey he might help us with an odd assist from a set piece) he cannot keep possession and control the midfield and Henderson is no Scholes either.England don't have a creative midfielder that can keep the ball or with great technical ability. Made a big mistake by leaving out Carrick .Barkley should start to add that spark.Wilshere would've been perfect but he seems to have lost his touch recently.

I reckon Welbeck will be marking Pirlo so unless he does a good job I can see England struggling against any decent midfield and Italy bossing the possession.England's central midfield department is rubbish for a top team.Wheres' England version of pirlo or Xavi? I'm not expecting them to have anything as good these players but since Gazza, England have not had a truly world class creative midfielder that has the ability to control the game.There was Scholes but typical England shunted him to the left of midfield to accommodate the 'world class' partnership of Lamp/Gerard ofcourse.
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I am in full agreement with you except that even though Barkley does add thata bit of a spark, he is too irresponsible and often elects to run with the ball when a pass is on. England needs a player akin to a Cesc fabregas who knows how to control a game.
 
Stack said:
England havent got anywhere near as decent a chance as Holland or Spain. England simply dont have the quality of players to have a decent chance. England arent even on the same page as Holland or France with the player quality, not even close. Also which manager would you prefer, Roy or LVG?, there is another layer of quality where England are behind....
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Holland's team is awful. Robben, RVP are the only two players that would start for us. Like someone else said, they have Ron Vlaar starting for them.
 
dbs235 said:
Holland's team is awful. Robben, RVP are the only two players that would start for us. Like someone else said, they have Ron Vlaar starting for them.
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Shows how much you know about the Dutch team. They were devastating in qualifiers. England would struggle against them. You must be one of the people who don't rate players like Blind, Clasie and Depay because they don't play in top leagues. Just because they don't have 'big' names doesn't mean they won't cause damage. Holland will outperform England at the WC. They are more cohesive as a unit.
 
Loublaze said:
Shows how much you know about the Dutch team. They were devastating in qualifiers. England would struggle against them. You must be one of the people who don't rate players like Blind, Clasie and Depay because they don't play in top leagues. Just because they don't have 'big' names doesn't mean they won't cause damage. Holland will outperform England at the WC. They are more cohesive as a unit.
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They were devastating in qualifiers but who scored most of their goals? Van Persie and Robben who I admitted would walk into our team. And van der Vaart, who is injured. Plus they had Strootman who is missing the world cup. Depay is no better than Sterling or Chamberlain. And I wouldn't be so sure that they will outperform us, their group is similar to ours in that Spain are the favourites (like Italy) then there is Holland (like England) and Chile (like Uruguay) could easily put them out. And besides they will lose to Brazil in the last 16 anyway.
 
Blodssvik said:
Am I the only one more optimistic about this England team compared to the one of 2010?
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Much harder group, if we can get out of it then we should/could make it to the Quarters.

2010 was the worst England team at a tournament practically ever
 
dbs235 said:
They were devastating in qualifiers but who scored most of their goals? Van Persie and Robben who I admitted would walk into our team. And van der Vaart, who is injured. Plus they had Strootman who is missing the world cup. Depay is no better than Sterling or Chamberlain. And I wouldn't be so sure that they will outperform us, their group is similar to ours in that Spain are the favourites (like Italy) then there is Holland (like England) and Chile (like Uruguay) could easily put them out. And besides they will lose to Brazil in the last 16 anyway.
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I bet they'll go further than England will.
 
Loublaze said:
I bet they'll go further than England will.
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They won't make it past Brazil if they make it out of the group. Neither would England but fortunately they'd have an easier game in the last 16.
 
rcoobc said:
Much harder group, if we can get out of it then we should/could make it to the Quarters.

2010 was the worst England team at a tournament practically ever
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Agreed

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dbs235 said:
England have as much chance as teams like Holland and France who everyone says have a chance. England will most likely go out in the quarters to either Brazil/Spain. I would expect Brazil or Spain to beat pretty much every other team in the tournament, and Holland might not make it out of their group.
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And what make
dbs235 said:
They were devastating in qualifiers but who scored most of their goals? Van Persie and Robben who I admitted would walk into our team. And van der Vaart, who is injured. Plus they had Strootman who is missing the world cup. Depay is no better than Sterling or Chamberlain. And I wouldn't be so sure that they will outperform us, their group is similar to ours in that Spain are the favourites (like Italy) then there is Holland (like England) and Chile (like Uruguay) could easily put them out. And besides they will lose to Brazil in the last 16 anyway.
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WC 1974 Semi finals Netherlands - Brazil 2-0
WC 1994 Quarter finals Brazil - Netherlands 3-2
WC 1996 Semi finals Brazil - Netherlands 1-1 Brazil after penaltys
WC 2010 Quarter finals Brazil - Netherlands 1-2


I wonder why you so convinced Brazil will beat the Netherlands ??
 
Sonny1972 said:
And what make




WC 1974 Semi finals Netherlands - Brazil 2-0
WC 1994 Quarter finals Brazil - Netherlands 3-2
WC 1996 Semi finals Brazil - Netherlands 1-1 Brazil after penaltys
WC 2010 Quarter finals Brazil - Netherlands 1-2


I wonder why you so convinced Brazil will beat the Netherlands ??
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96 wasn't a world cup year. That was 98. Yes, the Dutch are no easy customers and they are easily a better WC team than Engerland
 
England are average. They have players who have been professionally trained all their lives pretty much and still zilch on the international stage. Im watching the Honduras friendly.
 
Loublaze said:
England are average. They have players who have been professionally trained all their lives pretty much and still zilch on the international stage. Im watching the Honduras friendly.
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We dont even have the quality england has yet we are more optimistic then you guys.
 
imagine if we played Barkley in behind Rooney? would be immense imo.

my team to play Italy would be like this:

GK: Joe Hart

RB: Phil Jones (better defensively than Johnson)
CB: Phil Jagielka
CB: Gary Cahill
LB: Leighton Baines

CM: Steven Gerrard
CM: Jordan Henderson

AMR: Adam Lallana
AMC: Ross Barkley
AML: Raheem Sterling (better wide player than Wellbeck imo)

ST: Wayne Rooney (all round play and work ethic is better than Sturridge's)

then you can have Wellbeck/Sturridge as impact subs as well.
 
LoiusVanGaal said:
imagine if we played Barkley in behind Rooney? would be immense imo.

my team to play Italy would be like this:

GK: Joe Hart

RB: Phil Jones (better defensively than Johnson)
CB: Phil Jagielka
CB: Gary Cahill
LB: Leighton Baines

CM: Steven Gerrard
CM: Jordan Henderson

AMR: Adam Lallana
AMC: Ross Barkley
AML: Raheem Sterling (better wide player than Wellbeck imo)

ST: Wayne Rooney (all round play and work ethic is better than Sturridge's)

then you can have Wellbeck/Sturridge as impact subs as well.
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That line up will get absolutely hammered. No pace at all with the exception of Sterling
 
Goalfather said:
That line up will get absolutely hammered. No pace at all with the exception of Sterling
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they aren't slow either, more to the game than just pace...

but yeah play Sturridge up front to miss lots of sitters, Wellbeck to run and do nothing on the left and Johnson to get caught short at RB all the time by all means, see how great that does for us...
 
We won't get very far with this speech impediment inflicted feck pig at the helm.
 
Lallana shouldn't start any of our matches, he hasn't proved to be good enough in any of the games he's played for England. Even Young made more of an impression on the England team than Lallana despite what the media tell us on how good Lallana has been. He's essentially being praised for not being Wayne Rooney.

I'd have hoped Rooney, Sterling, Welbeck and Barkley are ahead of him in the pecking order and should start ahead of him as they've shown they can affect the game somewhat when they're bothered, certainly more than anything Lallana has shown. Lallana could be a option of the bench but I don't get how people like Hoddle see him as our talisman. It's a joke, is what it is.
 
LoiusVanGaal said:
imagine if we played Barkley in behind Rooney? would be immense imo.

my team to play Italy would be like this:

GK: Joe Hart

RB: Phil Jones (better defensively than Johnson)
CB: Phil Jagielka
CB: Gary Cahill
LB: Leighton Baines

CM: Steven Gerrard
CM: Jordan Henderson

AMR: Adam Lallana
AMC: Ross Barkley
AML: Raheem Sterling (better wide player than Wellbeck imo)

ST: Wayne Rooney (all round play and work ethic is better than Sturridge's)

then you can have Wellbeck/Sturridge as impact subs as well.
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That's probably about as close to our best line up.
Rooney is our best striker, get some pace and running around him to open up some space we will look a whole lot better.
I'd probably drop Henderson and actually go with Milner instead, he's terrible outside, but not bad in the middle.
 
To be honest, I don't really see much of what Gerrard brings to the table. He's not really great in the position he's deployed and he is very loose with the ball. Plus, he's really quite slow, and that will get worse in the heat.
 
Cloudface said:
To be honest, I don't really see much of what Gerrard brings to the table. He's not really great in the position he's deployed and he is very loose with the ball. Plus, he's really quite slow, and that will get worse in the heat.
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You are right, he doesn't bring a great deal playing there, but what he does bring, is more than anyone else Roy has taken who would be likely to play there instead.
 
Ducklegs said:
You are right, he doesn't bring a great deal playing there, but what he does bring, is more than anyone else Roy has taken who would be likely to play there instead.
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Yeah, we haven't exactly got an embarrassment of midfield riches. I'd think Jones could perhaps take up a midfield role because he can at least run (and I rate him generally aside from his athleticism), but I imagine it's a forlorn hope that I'd see Gerrard sidelined at this World Cup.
 
Ducklegs said:
That's probably about as close to our best line up.
Rooney is our best striker, get some pace and running around him to open up some space we will look a whole lot better.
I'd probably drop Henderson and actually go with Milner instead, he's terrible outside, but not bad in the middle.
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I figure Henderson will work better with Gerrard than anyone else, Rooney is definitely who I would want up front, Barkley's energy behind him, Sterlings pace out wide, would work a treat, sadly Woy Hodgson is our manager though...
 
LoiusVanGaal said:
they aren't slow either, more to the game than just pace...

but yeah play Sturridge up front to miss lots of sitters, Wellbeck to run and do nothing on the left and Johnson to get caught short at RB all the time by all means, see how great that does for us...
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Firstly you are going to get very little going forward from Jones . This combined with the lack of pace from Baines means England will have little thrust from the full back positions.

Ross Barkley will likely develop into a superb player but at present he still has a lot to learn and loses the ball a bit too often in dangerous parts of the field. He can be a superb impact player though

Lallana is very skilled but he is not physically strong and has zero acceleration and whilst he is somewhat of a novelty in English football in terms of his style of play, his type is a dime a dozen in Italy.

The combination of Gerrard and Henderson is a big problem because neither are defensive midfielders and neither are very good on the ball.

I think Wilshere for all his failings would be a better pick because he is more comfortable on the ball and gives u that attacking thrust.

Italy is a very well drilled side, they know how to play tournament football. With that line up England will be playing into their hands.

Rooney vs Sturridge

People are real quick to get on Sturridge's back.

They act as if Rooney does not miss chances!
 
The Italians are stinking just now anyway so I don't even think there's that much to worry about.
 
Goalfather said:
Firstly you are going to get very little going forward from Jones . This combined with the lack of pace from Baines means England will have little thrust from the full back positions.

Ross Barkley will likely develop into a superb player but at present he still has a lot to learn and loses the ball a bit too often in dangerous parts of the field. He can be a superb impact player though

Lallana is very skilled but he is not physically strong and has zero acceleration and whilst he is somewhat of a novelty in English football in terms of his style of play, his type is a dime a dozen in Italy.

The combination of Gerrard and Henderson is a big problem because neither are defensive midfielders and neither are very good on the ball.

I think Wilshere for all his failings would be a better pick because he is more comfortable on the ball and gives u that attacking thrust.

Italy is a very well drilled side, they know how to play tournament football. With that line up England will be playing into their hands.

Rooney vs Sturridge

People are real quick to get on Sturridge's back.

They act as if Rooney does not miss chances!
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to be frank if England are relying on our defenders to get forward then we are already in trouble, we need defensive ability from them much more imo.

he lost the ball far far less than Wilshere...

who else then? Wellbeck is poor out wide...

please do tell me what DM's England do have then?

Wilshere is awful for England ffs, he gave the ball away so often tonight, his passing is inconsistent as they come, any pressure on him and he falls like a waffle as well.

with the team we had tonight Italy need not worry about anything much, just wait for Wilshere to give them the ball, play it to the right flank where Johnson won't be, cross it in and nick a goal or two.

Rooney is at least capable when on form of doing the job, not convinced Sturridge will at all, pretty sure Rooney would have scored at least one of Sturridges chances too, remember Rooney's only chance to shoot was that free-kick and it was as close as we came all night, Sturridge had countless chances, some were almost sitters and missed them all.
 
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Snake Plissken said:
The Italians are stinking just now anyway so I don't even think there's that much to worry about.
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be a very poor game to watch I expect, but if England are like they were tonight then Italy will nick it 1-0 imo, Balotelli is twice the player Sturridge is.
 
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