England National football team thread

[Auwais]

A midfield three of:

Cleverley-Carrick-Wilshere

is the way forward. Obviously this being England, we'll have Gerrard-Lampard in Brazil 2014.

 

[shravi]

Carrick is 31 and Gerrard is 32...

Gerrard has been great for Liverpool after a shaky start to the season. He also single-handedly carried England through the Euros. He can't play as a #10 anymore but he is an automatic pick in when played deeper.

 

[War]

A midfield three of:

Cleverley-Carrick-Wilshere

is the way forward. Obviously this being England, we'll have Gerrard-Lampard in Brazil 2014.

Gerrard is still better than Cleverley. And although Carrick is playing brilliantly for united now & i certainly rate him higher these days, he still has to produce the goods for england. His last competitive game in Poland was awful & it was Gerrard who was the only good mid-fielder on the night for us.

Lamps is still playing well enough to be in the squad & they could be place in 23 man squad to brazil 2014 for all of these guys i'd say.

But now that Wilshire is back & Cleverley doing well, i think Hodgson has already realized that Lamps is no longer a starting xi player.

 

[Lee1981]

i think Hodgson has already realized that Lamps is no longer a starting xi player.

He should be in any England line up ahead of Gerrard right now going on form

Lamps has been awesome recently,

 

[MasterBlaster76]

Hoddle should have a high placed position in the England setup - he's constantly pushing the idea of smaller, yet highly technical players ahead of those built like brick ---- houses. The other day he pointed out that a player doesn't need as much power these days, due to the excellent condition of the average pitch: they don't generally have to run through mud for ninety minutes.

You've only got to look at Spain: how many of their attacking players are relatively short guys?

 

[StinkyBoHoon]

why do england need a number 10 anyway? do any actually exist these days?

ok, because I know someone will say "modric, isco..." and miss what I'm saying, and that's that number 10 style players are a bit of a rarity tactically, so a reliance on them just shows an outdated view. do england have strikers that can play as a false 9? yep (rooney). do they have wingers that can start out wide and look to cut in to score? yep (walcott). do they have deep lying midfielders that can dictate the play and pass it about? yep (carrick, gerard)

so I think england have the tools there for a decent team. they don't have a core of incredibly gifted world beaters which is one thing all teams that do well in world cups have. no one's beating spain without some rivals to xavi, iniesta and silva. no one was beating france when they had trezeguet, thuram and zidane. england don't have these players, they punch their weight as a quarter final team, I think freaking out about tactics the whole time is a bit unnecessary.

 

[War]

He should be in any England line up ahead of Gerrard right now going on form

Lamps has been awesome recently,

Well while that's true, given that Gerrard is captain that won't happen. Plus a national manager would wager international form into the his selections too over current club form & since Hodgson has been manager, Gerrard has been immense.

----------

why do england need a number 10 anyway? do any actually exist these days?

ok, because I know someone will say "modric, isco..." and miss what I'm saying, and that's that number 10 style players are a bit of a rarity tactically, so a reliance on them just shows an outdated view. do england have strikers that can play as a false 9? yep (rooney). do they have wingers that can start out wide and look to cut in to score? yep (walcott). do they have deep lying midfielders that can dictate the play and pass it about? yep (carrick, gerard)

so I think england have the tools there for a decent team. they don't have a core of incredibly gifted world beaters which is one thing all teams that do well in world cups have. no one's beating spain without some rivals to xavi, iniesta and silva. no one was beating france when they had trezeguet, thuram and zidane. england don't have these players, they punch their weight as a quarter final team, I think freaking out about tactics the whole time is a bit unnecessary.

Ye basically. The basis of ENG team is essentially lightning quick wingers walcott, lennon, young, sterling, a johnson etc) and aggressive box-to-box mid-fielders (gerrard, wilshire, osman etc). The short super technically spanish players aren't what eng have at the moment.

The set-up & style in the premiership of the Man Utd & Spurs which these days has a lot of english players starting on weekends - is probably the best blueprint of how England should play on the national level.

 

[MasterBlaster76]

Well while that's true, given that Gerrard is captain that won't happen. Plus a national manager would wager international form into the his selections too over current club form & since Hodgson has been manager, Gerrard has been immense.

----------



Ye basically. The basis of ENG team is essentially lightning quick wingers walcott, lennon, young, sterling, a johnson etc) and aggressive box-to-box mid-fielders (gerrard, wilshire, osman etc). The short super technically spanish players aren't what eng have at the moment.

The set-up & style in the premiership of the Man Utd & Spurs which these days has a lot of english players starting on weekends - is probably the best blueprint of how England should play on the national level.

We haven't got the short technical players right now, but my point is we should be pushing them more than the 'athletic' types.

 

[War]

Well yea for sure we should. This is where we hope St.George's Park can help in the coming years.

 

[ste_mc_efc]

We haven't got the short technical players right now, but my point is we should be pushing them more than the 'athletic' types.

No we shouldn't. We should be looking to develop players to their full potential regardless of physical stature.

 

[War]

England v Brazil: world football's unique relationship - Telegraph

 

[MasterBlaster76]

No we shouldn't. We should be looking to develop players to their full potential regardless of physical stature.

The majority of the best players of all time have been relatively short guys: Maradona, Pele, Best, Zola, Scholes, Iniesta, Xavi, Messi, Romario - need I go on?

I'm not saying we should throw out those athletically built players but what we shouldn't be doing is shunning shorter, but technically superior players, in favour of bigger guys - simply because they are bigger. Hoddle knows what he's talking about.

 

[StinkyBoHoon]

england trying to play like england would probably be a lot better than an england team doing a bad spain impression.

 

[ste_mc_efc]

The majority of the best players of all time have been relatively short guys: Maradona, Pele, Best, Zola, Scholes, Iniesta, Xavi, Messi, Romario - need I go on?

I'm not saying we should throw out those athletically built players but what we shouldn't be doing is shunning shorter, but technically superior players, in favour of bigger guys - simply because they are bigger. Hoddle knows what he's talking about.

Not really because you're being a bit silly.

 

[MasterBlaster76]

england trying to play like england would probably be a lot better than an england team doing a bad spain impression.

Well, it hasn't worked out too well in recent matches against the bigger teams...

If we carry on the way we're going, we won't win a damn thing in any of our lifetimes and personally, I want to see England win something at some point! And Ste, what's silly about that list of players? They're all world class, they're all relatively short. Point made, I think.