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Post by saints19 on Aug 8, 2010 13:13:25 GMT
All change, by the looks of it. Very surprised to see the likes of Foster, Gibbs, Wilshere, Cahill, Jagielka, Bent and Zamora included - if these are the players England play in the qualifiers they may not find the group so easy?
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Post by Deleted on Aug 8, 2010 14:26:13 GMT
All change, by the looks of it. Very surprised to see the likes of Foster, Gibbs, Wilshere, Cahill, Jagielka, Bent and Zamora included - if these are the players England play in the qualifiers they may not find the group so easy? How many of them will actually play though? The spine of the team (Terry, Rooney, Lampard, Gerrard, Cole) remains the same and as long as they play England will top the group. Those 5 are good enough to qualify with ease but they just arent good enough when they have to play the top sides in the finals. |
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Post by Deleted on Aug 8, 2010 16:08:40 GMT
Paul Robinson waits until he gets his first call up in 18 months so he can use it as a platform to announce his retirement.
Thank god we arent the only ones to suffer from gutless, over paid prima-donnas.
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Post by saints19 on Aug 8, 2010 17:30:10 GMT
All change, by the looks of it. Very surprised to see the likes of Foster, Gibbs, Wilshere, Cahill, Jagielka, Bent and Zamora included - if these are the players England play in the qualifiers they may not find the group so easy? How many of them will actually play though? The spine of the team (Terry, Rooney, Lampard, Gerrard, Cole) remains the same and as long as they play England will top the group. Those 5 are good enough to qualify with ease but they just arent good enough when they have to play the top sides in the finals. Can't agree with that. Lampard and Gerrard are inconsistent at international level, for whatever reason. Terry will be playing alongside a possible weak link. Cole is great going forward but defensively not world class (as is sometimes claimed). Rooney was off-form at the World Cup, and although you'd still expect him to thrive in the qualifiers if he has a bad start the press will get on his back, he could struggle. All that of course assumes that none of them are injured. If one or two of those five do get injured, certainly not beyond the realms of possibility, then I forsee a real struggle for England if they're going to rely on Carlton Cole and Bobby Zamora to rescue them. It could be much closer at the top of the group than we had thought. Personally, I'd give the Swiss every chance of upsetting the odds if this is the side England play. I don't know why England appear to be dropping good quality players lke Crouch, Defoe, Wright-Phillips, Lennon, etc. for guys like Gibbs, Wilshere and Bent. It could well be a knee-jerk reaction, which is ridiculous because they've just got to the last 16 of the World Cup, losing to a very good side, and making it out of a tricky (despite the 'E-A-S-Y' headline) group. |
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Post by Deleted on Aug 8, 2010 19:27:25 GMT
How many of them will actually play though? The spine of the team (Terry, Rooney, Lampard, Gerrard, Cole) remains the same and as long as they play England will top the group. Those 5 are good enough to qualify with ease but they just arent good enough when they have to play the top sides in the finals. Can't agree with that. Lampard and Gerrard are inconsistent at international level, for whatever reason. Terry will be playing alongside a possible weak link. Cole is great going forward but defensively not world class (as is sometimes claimed). Rooney was off-form at the World Cup, and although you'd still expect him to thrive in the qualifiers if he has a bad start the press will get on his back, he could struggle. All that of course assumes that none of them are injured. If one or two of those five do get injured, certainly not beyond the realms of possibility, then I forsee a real struggle for England if they're going to rely on Carlton Cole and Bobby Zamora to rescue them. It could be much closer at the top of the group than we had thought. Personally, I'd give the Swiss every chance of upsetting the odds if this is the side England play. I don't know why England appear to be dropping good quality players lke Crouch, Defoe, Wright-Phillips, Lennon, etc. for guys like Gibbs, Wilshere and Bent. It could well be a knee-jerk reaction, which is ridiculous because they've just got to the last 16 of the World Cup, losing to a very good side, and making it out of a tricky (despite the 'E-A-S-Y' headline) group. With respect, I think you are overlooking the fact that england made mincemeat of their last qualifying group with Gerrard, Lampard etc and is this one really any harder for them? Once again a lack of a real stand out challenger to them, just a bunch of average and below average sides. I would contend that their last group was harder in fact. Croatia had the players to really test England and they got turned over big time. The Ukraine are also decent. This time the Swiss could be dangerous, but based on their showing at the world cup where they struggled to beat Honduras and were pretty fortunate against Spain can you really see them doing anything other than playing for two goalless draws when playing England? The Bulgarians will be tough for us, but England should have no problems with them. That leaves Montenegro, I think they could be Englands toughest opponent- but the absence of Jovetic will hamper their scoring opportunities. As for us I think we will struggle with the usual assortment of injuries and the battle of britain factor will mean England will be up for it, can see us getting a draw at home but should really be beaten at Wembley unfortunately. England usually do well in the qualifiers (when they arent being managed by someone not fit for the job!) its when it comes to the finals and the whole nation stops to watch them and the tabloids get their knives out that the pressure gets to them. |
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Post by saints19 on Aug 9, 2010 0:36:45 GMT
Valid point about the last qualifiers, but that won't necessarily be the case this time around. It's a smaller group, which is probably one thing to say in favour of a possible upset. The teams only play 8 games and anyone can nick a result against England in any given game. Look at Northern Ireland in the 2006 qualifiers for instance. If England are going to rely on unproven, untested players, they will be more likely to stuff up.
All imo of course....
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Post by idiot on Aug 9, 2010 11:42:57 GMT
How many of them will actually play though? The spine of the team (Terry, Rooney, Lampard, Gerrard, Cole) remains the same and as long as they play England will top the group. Those 5 are good enough to qualify with ease but they just arent good enough when they have to play the top sides in the finals. Can't agree with that. Lampard and Gerrard are inconsistent at international level, for whatever reason. Terry will be playing alongside a possible weak link. Cole is great going forward but defensively not world class (as is sometimes claimed). Rooney was off-form at the World Cup, and although you'd still expect him to thrive in the qualifiers if he has a bad start the press will get on his back, he could struggle. All that of course assumes that none of them are injured. If one or two of those five do get injured, certainly not beyond the realms of possibility, then I forsee a real struggle for England if they're going to rely on Carlton Cole and Bobby Zamora to rescue them. It could be much closer at the top of the group than we had thought. Personally, I'd give the Swiss every chance of upsetting the odds if this is the side England play. I don't know why England appear to be dropping good quality players lke Crouch, Defoe, Wright-Phillips, Lennon, etc. for guys like Gibbs, Wilshere and Bent. It could well be a knee-jerk reaction, which is ridiculous because they've just got to the last 16 of the World Cup, losing to a very good side, and making it out of a tricky (despite the 'E-A-S-Y' headline) group. i think defoe and crouch are injured?also spurs have champs league qualifiers on the horizon so he might have excused them for a friendly this is a knee jerk reaction to the world cup debacle,they're doing what the public/pundits/press expect of them i expect that once the serious stuff starts they will have a more familiar look to their squad |
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Post by llannerch on Aug 9, 2010 20:14:02 GMT
Look at Northern Ireland in the 2006 qualifiers for instance. Yeah but no-one in this forthcoming group has Lawrie 'The Professor' Sanchez in charge |
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Post by saints19 on Aug 10, 2010 0:27:12 GMT
Was that a sarcastic comment? Can't remember, llanerch, if you were one of the posters who argued against Sanchez when I suggested him as a potential name on our shortlist in future a while ago.
Doesn't matter, anyway. Switzerland have Hitzfeld, and the Montenegrins have a Croatian manager who's apparently pretty good.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 10, 2010 2:02:45 GMT
Was that a sarcastic comment? Can't remember, llanerch, if you were one of the posters who argued against Sanchez when I suggested him as a potential name on our shortlist in future a while ago. Doesn't matter, anyway. Switzerland have Hitzfeld, and the Montenegrins have a Croatian manager who's apparently pretty good. Llanerch is Lawries number one fan dont you know?  He wouldnt be my number one choice, but lets be fair- given who we are likely able to attract we could do a lot worse. We can take the michael but at the end of the day he has gotten results with NI and made them respectable after inheriting an absolute shambles from McIlroy. Given the players they had that was no mean feat. I think he would get results with us, although it would not be pretty. Also worth bearing in mind that NI's current ranking is largely based on his efforts and look where they are compared to ours, which is all Toshs doing. |
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Post by flynnfan on Aug 10, 2010 13:57:39 GMT
www.football365.com/john_nicholson/0,17033,8746,00.html It's interesting to finally read an English football journalist actually acknowledge that we could be threat to England, even if it is just a brief mention in regards to motivation and Bellamy. He's right though- Bellars made Ferdinand and Terry look like right twats in games last season. And if the English press continue to ignore the possible threat posed by Bale and Ramsey, well, I think that's fine because they could be in for a nasty suprise. This group is not a walkover for England by any stretch of the imagination.
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Post by llannerch on Aug 10, 2010 15:24:31 GMT
Sarcastic? Moi? I'm Honorary President of the 'Lawrie Sanchez Fan Club (Fulham branch)' I now reserve my ire and pity for the person/people who reckoned Brian Kerr, currently Faeroes coach, would be a good appointment  |
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Post by Deleted on Aug 10, 2010 15:50:17 GMT
www.football365.com/john_nicholson/0,17033,8746,00.html It's interesting to finally read an English football journalist actually acknowledge that we could be threat to England, even if it is just a brief mention in regards to motivation and Bellamy. He's right though- Bellars made Ferdinand and Terry look like right twats in games last season. And if the English press continue to ignore the possible threat posed by Bale and Ramsey, well, I think that's fine because they could be in for a nasty suprise. This group is not a walkover for England by any stretch of the imagination. Agreed on Bellamy, but we have heard all this "wales will be motivated" crap before when we played them at OT and England were coming off the back of a media backlash. We barely had a kick all game and looked very sorry for ourselves. It was actually England who looked the more motivated. Same for the game in Cardiff. In terms of attitude we were much better but England still turned up looking determined and won (admittedly thanks to a cruel deflection). What I am trying to say is that we need concrete reasons for making a case for being confident we can spring an upset, rather than just assuming that we will be the side most up for it and England will play in 2nd gear because they expect it to be easy. Sarcastic? Moi? I'm Honorary President of the 'Lawrie Sanchez Fan Club (Fulham branch)' I now reserve my ire and pity for the person/people who reckoned Brian Kerr, currently Faeroes coach, would be a good appointment Even Im not that crazy! Who would suggest that?!?! Name names! ;D |
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Post by llannerch on Aug 10, 2010 16:25:58 GMT
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Post by flynnfan on Aug 10, 2010 19:45:04 GMT
There's no way I'm going to go in for any of that 'we'll be more motivated' crap RD. It was John Nicholson who said that, not me. I was more interested in his comment about Bellamy having made fools of England defenders- which is entirely true. I just hope he hasn't retired by then...
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Post by Deleted on Aug 10, 2010 20:14:18 GMT
There's no way I'm going to go in for any of that 'we'll be more motivated' crap RD. It was John Nicholson who said that, not me. I was more interested in his comment about Bellamy having made fools of England defenders- which is entirely true. I just hope he hasn't retired by then... Just to clarify I didnt mean you- I was referring to the article. Its the usual fall back of the lazy and naive journo. Make no mistake, England will be up for it too so we need more than just 90 minutes of national pride to get us through. We need top performances from every player. |
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Post by saints19 on Aug 10, 2010 20:21:09 GMT
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