England National football team thread

[Dr. Pepper]

Brazil is a bit of an extreme case because Menezes and Dunga are so far apart in their style and philosophy.

I'm not overly bothered who England play, but I'd like to see a 4-5-1 variant. A 4-4-1-1 won't work with Rooney behind the striker because the midfield players available don't suit that system. England do have some very talented players, but as always it's about putting them together in a coherent system.

Btw, has anyone read Soccernomics: Why England Lose? Fantastic book, some really interesting points and analysis, from a different, more statistical perspective.

 

[War]

You seriously hadn't heard of Karl Henry? A bit hard to miss his name, given earlier in the season he got a bit of press coverage and gained a reputation for a couple of challenges he made.

Ha nope. I would hardly pay attention to low legaue teams regardless of what they are doing (unless a player i like is in it eg Connor Wickham @ Ipswich is involved.

I've never been convinced by Barry, nor Milner. Both are expensively, overhyped Englishmen and I didn't exactly quake in my boots when City paid stupid money for them.

Ye for sure Man City payed way too for them. But as i always say the premier league prices for players has been overhyped for the last couple years ever since United bought Carrick for 18 million - to now Carroll costing 35 mil ha. So these days i dont use how much a player cost in the EPL as basis on judging themm.

Milner is solid player. He is doing a very good job down the left vs England currently & is solid squad player @ city.

Barry however is benefiting @ City by playing with two top class DMs in mid-field in Toure & De Jong who aid in masking his decline.

I hope he does bench Lampard but then I expected him to do that at the World Cup and he ended up shoving Gerrard on the left. Honestly, I'll be pleased when either one of them retire from international football so we bury this stupidly long conundrum.

Well TBF to Capello lets not forget that tactic of shoving Gerrard on the left & pairing Lamps/Barry in mid-field was a very successful tactic throughout the WCQs & everyone was given Capello credit for finding away of utilizing both in the team. ENG just shocking & shamefully just lost the plot in the world cup.

Lamps could retire i have no problem with that. But not Stevie G, he is arguably most important player.

Portugal are well stocked in central midfield with or w/o Tiago, with the likes of Carlos Martins, Meireless, Moutinho and Veloso.

Ye i know & have seen all play except Martins.

 

[War]

Aston Villa 4 Blackburn 1: Downing stakes his claim for an England place in front of Capello | Mail Online

Admittedly he has been playing well of late. But his current form isn't too indifferent to what he used to do @ Middlesbrough & he always looked short of international quality.

Other players like Walcott, Milner, Young, Lennon are the main ENG wing options once fit & i cant see Downing getting ahead of them.

 

[War]

Celtic's Gary Hooper in line for England call-up as Fabio Capello looks to experiment against Ghana | Mail Online

No Capello the striker option in the premiership aren't that bleak that you have to look at some bloke playing in the SPL.

 

[JBlues08]

Tactical view: Milner's adaptability proving harmful at City - ITV Sport

I agree with what is being written in the article. Milner played in the central midfield position last season for Aston Villa and I thought he was great in there with his energetic, hardworking performances as well passing and crossing abilities. He also scored a couple of spectacular goals from the midfield position too.

Furthermore, he's only 25 which is like the prime age or period for any footballer to be playing first team football to enhance their career further and get better. He started like in almost every game for Villa last season but at City, he is hardly getting any consistent game time to be able emulate his success last season.

Mancini is just currently using him like a backup player in unimportant games or when someone else is out injured. He is too good and certainly still too young to be a second string player in a team. Maybe for the sake of his career, he should be probably look to move somewhere else IMO.

 

[Themer]

I would hardly pay attention to low legaue teams regardless of what they are doing

How can you be so scathing and opinionated by what Capello is doing if you don't pay any attention to teams in the Premiership?

 

[War]

How can you be so scathing and opinionated by what Capello is doing if you don't pay any attention to teams in the Premiership?

If you have read all 6 pages of this thread & has come to conclusion that the general consensus of my views to towards Capello has been "scathing" then you i dont know what you have been reading.

I have defended Capello decisions since i made this thread & have generally supported off most squad selection since this thread was made. The only Capello selection i have consistenly been harshly critical about (while other poster have been as well) - is the consistent selection still of Johnson @ right-back instead of Micah Richards or Martin Kelly.

Secondly where in that post did i say "i dont pay attention to teams in the premiership"???. I clearly said i dont play attention to "lower league/table" teams seriously unless they have a player that caught my attention.

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Tactical view: Milner's adaptability proving harmful at City - ITV Sport

I agree with what is being written in the article. Milner played in the central midfield position last season for Aston Villa and I thought he was great in there with his energetic, hardworking performances as well passing and crossing abilities. He also scored a couple of spectacular goals from the midfield position too.

Furthermore, he's only 25 which is like the prime age or period for any footballer to be playing first team football to enhance their career further and get better. He started like in almost every game for Villa last season but at City, he is hardly getting any consistent game time to be able emulate his success last season.

Mancini is just currently using him like a backup player in unimportant games or when someone else is out injured. He is too good and certainly still too young to be a second string player in a team. Maybe for the sake of his career, he should be probably look to move somewhere else IMO.

Indeed Milner is being wasted as sub player @ City sadly, especially now they have bought Dzeko.

Only thing id say although he was superb playing centrally @ Villa last season. I think the reason he isn't used their & primarily just as a wing option for club & country - was how poor he looked in that friendly for England vs Mexico just before the world cup. I see him as versatile wing option mainly TBF.

 

[Bevab]

Milner has very good dribbling skills on the wings, that is the reason why he is often played on the wings rather than in the centre.

Also most players who go to City only waste their career.

In my FM11, they bought Walter Samuel for 35.5 Million$ and after 2 years his value decreased to 2.5 M$ and he was transfer-listed for 1.1 M$.

Just an example of City.

 

[Auwais]

Milner has very good dribbling skills on the wings, that is the reason why he is often played on the wings rather than in the centre.

Also most players who go to City only waste their career.

In my FM11, they bought Walter Samuel for 35.5 Million$ and after 2 years his value decreased to 2.5 M$ and he was transfer-listed for 1.1 M$.

Just an example of City.

Yes because FM is such a fantastically realistic simulation of real life football.

You know the FM generation's a bit tipsy when someone justifies a real-life viewpoint with evidence from a computer game rather than the hundreds of real-life examples he could have used.

Sorry if that comes across as a rant aimed at you. It's a bit broader than that.

 

[JBlues08]

Only thing id say although he was superb playing centrally @ Villa last season. I think the reason he isn't used their & primarily just as a wing option for club & country - was how poor he looked in that friendly for England vs Mexico just before the world cup. I see him as versatile wing option mainly TBF.

To be fair to Milner, wasn't that the only game where he actually played in the middle for England? And considering that Mancini likes to use 3 CDM and England have other options in the midfield area are perhaps the reasons why now Milner finds himself playing more on the wings rather than in midfield.

 

[War]

To be fair to Milner, wasn't that the only game where he actually played in the middle for England? And considering that Mancini likes to use 3 CDM and England have other options in the midfield area are perhaps the reasons why now Milner finds himself playing more on the wings rather than in midfield.

Ye i believe it was his only game for ENG. But damn he looked so awful, that memory has probably stuck with both Mancini & Capello. Since for Capello he was tried out a potential DM replacement for Barry who was out injured at the time.

But for City given Mancini uses 3 Defensive-midfielders, i reckon at times he could try Milner since he would have more support. Since one failure shouldn't define a career TBF.

 

[JBlues08]

The problem with Capello and Mancini is that they are Italians. Sometimes they can become to fixated with a certain idea or outcome when it works successfully or not. If it works nicely for them, they'll continue with the same thing. If not, they'll probably won't even bother trying it again.

 

[Dr. Pepper]

Lol that's a bit of a baseless generalisation.

Capello used a 3-4-3 at Roma, a 4-3-3 (with 3 proper forwards) at Madrid and has used diamonds and 4-5-1s as well. He can be flexible, although tbh he hasn't been as manager of England.

Still saying he's inflexible because he's Italian is crazy.

 

[JBlues08]

Lol that's a bit of a baseless generalisation.

Capello used a 3-4-3 at Roma, a 4-3-3 (with 3 proper forwards) at Madrid and has used diamonds and 4-5-1s as well. He can be flexible, although tbh he hasn't been as manager of England.

Still saying he's inflexible because he's Italian is crazy.

Well, I'm just pointing that out based on how he managed England so far. I did mention earlier too that England have other options for the midfield positions anyway.

 

[Auwais]

Lol that's a bit of a baseless generalisation.

Capello used a 3-4-3 at Roma, a 4-3-3 (with 3 proper forwards) at Madrid and has used diamonds and 4-5-1s as well. He can be flexible, although tbh he hasn't been as manager of England.

Still saying he's inflexible because he's Italian is crazy.

More of a 3-4-1-2 with Totti as the trequartista. What a side that was!