English Football Thread 2012/2013

[King Pietersen]

Agree about Upson. Jagielka should definitely take his place once fit. Such an awesome defender, better than Lescott. Disagree about Bridge though, there's definitely a spot for him in the squad as a back-up to Cole. He obviously wouldn't be in my XI, but he'd be a good squad member.

Hibbert, Osman, Vaughan and Neville should all blatently be in the England squad as well.

 

[treva]

I still believe that when fit Ledley King is the best defender in England. Thing is he is never fit and most likely won't be fit for more than a year without injuring himself in the rest of his career.

What's the feeling about Glen Johnson? I personally think he's a great presence going forward, but that's more what a right midfielder should do. Although it's the same with other candidates such as Micah Richards. I think with the two full backs we have we're going to have to play a very attacking style of football at the World Cup and hope we do just enough to keep most attacks from the wings out. The problem with that is that when we play teams like Spain and Brazil we just won't be able to handle them on the counter attack at all.

 

[evertonfan]

Glen Johnson is a liability defensively. If England seriously want to challenge for the World Cup next year they need a proper right back. Not a flair player who looks good going forward but isn't all that good at his actual trade.

evertonfan added 4 Minutes and 31 Seconds later...

Oh and behind Terry and Ferdinand Jagielka is the best CB in the country. A lot of people have written him off because England got owned by Spain when he was playing and people naturally use the debutant from outside the Big 4 as the scapegoat. Of course they ignore that he had Torres and Villa in his pocket all night until the entire back 4 was put under pressure by the midfield refusing to play for the last 5 minutes of the half leading to Villa's goal.

But yeah, Lescott is the best defender in the country because he scores teh goals innit? That's why Mark Hughes is such a brilliant manager. It takes a real bargain hunter to pay over the odds for someone who isn't even the best defender in their team.

And even furthermore, Baines is better than Bridge. Call me biased all you want, he's miles better. But even so, Cole is still the main man and rightly so. Speaking of Coles, Joey Cole is still our most important player behind Rooney.

end/

 

[treva]

I was going to mention Baines. I think Baines is better than Bridge also, but then again I don't rate bridge that highly. Apart from those 3 are there really any other good quality English left back's?

 

[evertonfan]

There's none that spring to mind really. England are really like in the full back department.

 

[Will_NA]

Gibbs might have been worth a go. He kept Ronaldo quiet in the first leg of the CL. Though I'm speaking as an Arsenal fan with a distinct lack of representation, he is a more than capable back-up. Thing is, you probably couldn't trust him in a Semi or Final if we somehow reached that stage.

 

[MasterBlaster76]

Gibbs might have been worth a go. He kept Ronaldo quiet in the first leg of the CL. Though I'm speaking as an Arsenal fan with a distinct lack of representation, he is a more than capable back-up. Thing is, you probably couldn't trust him in a Semi or Final if we somehow reached that stage.

He definitely looks to be one for the future, but I think next year might be a bit too soon for him.

 

[MasterBlaster76]

Very nice performance today against Spurs! Utd are really beginning to purr now. Annoying that Chelsea got a late goal - again! This is a very nasty little habit they're developing!

 

[m_vaughan]

Its called grinding out results. Something that you need to win the title. You should know.

 

[Hooper]

Adebayor!!

 

[Skater]

Adebayor should be punished as much as possible for the stamp. It was clearly deliberate and I think he set out to put himself about against his old club.

However, I think he should be dealt with more lightly for the celebration. True, it incited crowd trouble, but he apologised afterwards and was in the heat of the moment. He should be fined but not made an example of.

 

[Will_NA]

I would have commented on the match had the site been up yesterday but now I've calmed down, I can't be arsed. I was devastated when Bellamy made it 2-1. At 1-1, Adebayor should have been sent off, he goes on to score and clear Diaby's shot off the line. We couldn't handle the counters at all. Clichy was abysmal. He kept getting caught in their half so we had no-one to track SWP. Wenger took Denilson off who would have stopped the breaks.

In starting Diaby, putting Bendtner on the win and subbing Denilson, Wenger's making serious errors. Oh, and Van Persie's hit the post again. He did it 17 times last season and already twice this one. He took a great goal though.

And Rosicky's back. Showed straight away why he is miles better than Abou-Diaby-Doo.

 

[m_vaughan]

I know he said sorry afterwards but it was pretty sad what he did. I understand it was a heat of the moment thing, but it was a pretty long moment.

It was a more disgusting version of Wayne Rooney kissing his united badge in front of Everton fans. Lack of respect for the team that made you. Who was Adebayor before joining Arsenal?

 

[Will_NA]

I also wanna mention how shockingly poor Almunia has been this season. He was outjumped by Kaboul for Pompey's goal, he gave away a needless pen at OT and now he's scored an own goal. Sure, it was unfortunate but he should have done better with the original save. Not to mention, he didn't get near any of City's goal attempts.

He's offering absolutely no stability at the moment. If we had bought Given, we wouldn't need another defender.

 

[Leicester Fox]

Surely as Adebayor was booked the FA can't do anything or do they just pick and choose which bookings this applies too.

We were class yesterday. It made me chuckle seeing Giggs celebration straight after Adebayors.