England Thoughts
I honestly don't feel England can win the World Cup with their current goalkeeping situation. Rob Green bottled it. He proved that he lacks experience in big matches having never played in a European competition & experiencing a lack of confidence in a struggling West Ham side. David James came on & did well but we all know there's a huge mistake in him every single match. Still, he probably did enough to grab his place back.
Glen Johnson continues to be outstanding going forward & shocking in defence. Ashley Cole was good in neither department yesterday.
I'm concerned about Rio Ferdinand. He seems to have lost some pace in the past 12 months - first it was Craig Bellamy destroying him at Old Trafford & last night he was passed all too easily by Milevskiy. I can only assume he's not fully fit. In contrast, John Terry was outstanding in every department.
Not sure why Carrick played over Gareth Barry but he did nothing to help his chances of earning a regular slot & his alarming drop in form over the past 6 months is a shame for England & Manchester United. Lampard is clearly struggling for goals - he had a few chances last night but seems to have have lost his clinical calmness in front of goal & it may explain why he's scored just once (from the penalty spot) for Chelsea this season.
Lennon & Gerrard were both withdrawn early, Lennon disappointingly due to the sending off & Gerrard with another groin strain.
Rooney did his best to try and make things happen but when you're trying to create for a player like Emile Heskey & an out of sorts Frank Lampard it's unlikely to end with a goal. I can't see how Heskey can justify his place if he's stuck on the bench at Villa, no matter how much he adds to the team.
I actually think England played very well in the 2nd half & were unlucky not to gain a point but it's not a big deal & the result seems to have brought the media down from the clouds which may be a good thing.
Anyway, we are now a week nearer to the next round of Premiership games so we'll begin the build up tomorrow with injury news, followed by player picks on Tuesday or Wednesday.
I know it's early, but how are your teams looking for Week 8?
Cheers,
AM
23 comments:
Yes, it was a completely 'OFF' night for England yesterday. Maybe the performance would have been better if they required the points to qualify? Sometimes the performance is psychological as they didn't need the points.
Bellamy, Berbatov, Fabregas, Anelka and Gallas all found the back of the net yesterday if anyone is interested in any of these players.
It's unlikely to be Anelka or Gallas who played the tiny Faroe Islands. Berbatov is interesting as a replacement for Rooney, and will free up about +4 to spend elsewhere.
This has proven to be a tough week for me to call. I had Fab last week, and his price has rocketed to make him a sure bet against B'ham at the Emirates.
At he moment I have
Robinson
Vermaelen - Heitinga - Bassong
Bilyaletdinov - Fabregas - Jarvis - K Boatend
Drogba - Rooney - Bent
I am not too happy with Robinson, but in the same price bracket you only have Myhill with a tricky away fixture. Given is out of my budget, and I am sure he will concede at Villa.
Bassong has been out of sorts, but the price is still alright.
I don't have the funds to upgrade Jarvis or Boateng to D Dunn unless I downgrade Rooney to Berbs.
Ideally I would like Giggs in the Midfield as he is guaranteed to play after the long break, and will create lots of openings against Bolton. Again, funds do not permit this.
Bent is a calculated risk against Liverpool, but it's a home game for a striker who has scored 8 in 8, and against a defence that has not worked it out yet.
I look forward to seeing more posts and analysis later today.
Good job AM from Manchester United in Blog 3.
My team is currently:
Given
Vermaelen Heitinga Richards
Bily Fabregas Walcott Geovanni
Saha Berbatov Drogba
I had a great week 7, and for week 8 I'm taking some risks. Bily and Walcott are not sure starters, though I believe they'll start and their places really depend on the teams' news closer to the weekend. Berbatov and Geovanni are hunches, and they're also risky, but they will stay.
The Richards pick concerns me, because he didn't feature in ManC's last 2 matches. Nothing was reported about it anywhere. But because of a lot of injuries in ManC's defence, I'll believe he'll start, though it scares me. I'm betting this week with a lot of players, but I hope it will turn out well.
Any advices about the team?
SF
yay.. almost forgot what it was to win with our national team.. 2-0 against the Turks.. nicely done. fwiw.. Verm played the full 90 at left back and seemed to feel bit uncomfy there.. he was captain but didnt have half as much influence as he seems to have at Arsenal atm. Fellaini seemed bit lost as well in the first half.. but second half he played well. Tuncay played for the Turks but except for the first 25 min or so.. Im not sure I've seen him much around the action. Definately not in form and might explain why he does not get any time at Stoke.
Concerning Fellaini though.. Our new coach.. Mr Advocaat.. allowed him to go for his tooth surgery on wednesday.. which means.. Fellaini can Not play this weekend against the Wolves as he withdrew within 5 days before or after a game for medical reasons. Might mean a more sure starting spot for Billy..?
:S Take a look at this from Sky Sports News...
"Cesc Fabregas will miss Spain's final World Cup qualifier due to a 'serious family matter'.
The Arsenal midfielder left the international camp on Saturday night in order to fly to Barcelona.
He has been ruled out of action for Wednesday's clash with Bosnia, but it remains unclear as to whether the matter will affect his domestic commitments.
Arsenal are set to face Birmingham in the Premier League on Saturday, but may be forced to tackle the Blues without the services of their skipper."
Doesn't sound too good.
I might be picking up Rosicky after all.
How Heskey is keeping Bent out of the England team I do not know.
I agree that our goalkeeper position is our weakest and could mean the difference between winning the Final and reaching the Final.
as for carrick starting instead of barry, physioroom on the left says Barry is injured for the next 3 days
Carrick ahead of anyone bewilders me.
It might just have been the games i have seen, but the guy just can't seem to be able to pass the ball, and never stamps any sort of authority on a game. For England or Man U.
I'll probably get shot down for saying this.... but i think Beckham would have been a better choice. In my mind, there is still no other English player that can pass a ball like that man. Just watching Carrick's poor, off target and overhit attempts last night confirmed that for me.
Incidently for AM and other spurs fans on here.... What do you think of the possibility of Beckham joining Spurs in November? It been reported that there's been a glitch with the Milan deal, it would certainly be interesting.
guys,england seriously cant win WC..they just have "big names" but overall,they r still quite further than the other teams such as brazil,argentina (yes u heard it,argentina),holland n spain..spain is the best team to grab WC.
no offence england's supporter but ur team juz dont have wat it takes to win the WC.heskey juz has a big body,dats all he has.im prefer bent or OWEN more.come on capello,gv owen some chances..!!! gerard playing LM,u got to b kiding,put him at his favourite position,behind striker!juz bring in upson instead of ferdinand coz clearly he's not the same after the injury!
jus can't see england winning the WC and itz time for ferdinand to step down and give that spot to gary cahill or mathew upson. england is in serious trouble! lookin forward seeing their arse kicked in SA nxt year.
back to my team:
given
verm, bass, heitinga
billy, boateng, arshavin, dunn
nando (rooney), drogs, bellamy (ade)
-Kayoti from Marangu, slopes of Mt. Kilimanjaro, Tanzania.
Did you not see their performancfe with Gerrard being the LM vs Croatia? it is not a bad choice considering he and Rooney was swapping places.
England right now is actually better than Argentina and Holland if you actually look at the performance and playing style. Maradona is coaching the Arg by randomly picking cards, and Holland has a very open attacking play, mean their defense are left to be exploited. I love Holland, but just look at how Arshavin destroyed their team last Euro. England has the stability in the back four ( obviously not yesterday though).
Are you another DaveToffee or something? with just biased opinions?
Regarding winning WC or not, we wouldnt know. There are a lot more factors than just looking at the line up and performance. Who would have though Italy would won the last on eh? Luck is a good factor here too. We just never know.
of course im not another tfdave..prob wit argentina is the coach himself,not the player..ok,mayb arshavin "destroyed" holland,but do u alert that before that HOLLAND TRASHED FRANCE AND ITALY??do u even consider that RUKI?
and MOST important thing is,AT LEAST,holland qualified to euro mate cmpare to england;P
england have stability??r u sure coz wat i can see here is that,the team in their group is not considerably strong enuf to threaten their back four (n still they lost to ukraine)
wat im trying to say here is,england is not challenge by the big gun yet..they lost to spain right in friendly match if im not mistaken..
p/s:of course we wouldnt know who will win the world cup,but wat the point of gamble right?
France and Italy have not been themself, especially France. While I do know that Holland is very strong offense, but the way they play offense is way too similiar to Premier League, at least that what I saw until the last friendly with England.
Using stat from matches wont really help here because they both got different games considering they are in different group. England improved significantly in Capello time, especially in how they handle the games in various aspects compare to the last time they got disqualified into Euro. Holland stays the same for me.
If we just talk about contenders, Brazil and Spain are having the best chance. But I would never scratch off any big teams ( yes including Arg with Maradona, Francfe with Domenech) because of friendly results or line up, and I dare say England is one of the bigger team out there right now.
ruki:
"are you another toffeedave" is a classic line. i am gonna smile everytime i see that. thanks for cheering me up ruki, even though you a panning the dutch. i agree with you about holland's defense, but if brits don't solve their defensive weaknesses, they won't be able to outscore teams like the dutch can. just an opinion not trying to instigate you or anonymous. i am dutch-american!
I hope everyone isn't forgetting, but Croatia knocked england out last euro. Don't you think they did this on prupose as kind of payback now that Croatia can't even qualify for South Africa? just a thought.
I actually support both England and Dutch, and I am an asian. And Dutch usually lacks the mentality to last in big competition too. Not like England has proved anything in the past years though.
ruki:
england has one world cup win and not so great football in recent cups. they now have the best coach for them in a long time.
the problem for me is i root for holland, first, and USA, second. the USA always gets one of the toughest groups, which can be an excuse for really average sides, not advancing. if donovan is your best player, you are not going to win anything.
the dutch usually get the group of deaths, but survive them. they usually, get people excited, but then meet tough, negative opponents in the later rounds. the whole world loves the dutch. down here in brasil, some of my friends think van persie is awesome and will be the next ballon de ore, after messi. they love watching robben play. if holland won, there wouldn't be one person rooting against them, except, whomever they are playing in the final. i always say, they don't have sharp enough elbows.
i was just like every other child in the whole world, growing up. when i was young i would watch,in awe of all of the other countries. i was the rare child, who didn't like or support the teams that did well. every other kid roots for whichever country is good at the time of their childhood. i never did. i hate all of those teams. i can't stand brasil, where i live now, romario and bebeto where thieves against the dutch. maradona made me so angry by winning with the hand of god. i hate argentina, as well. this incidentally, is the only reason i have not been kicked out of brasil. i loved every penalty that went sailing high for italian players, so i hate them too. france was never particularly good, when i was a kid, but they were so dirty. i hate them, as well. mexico would make the americans bloody, during each match, so i hate them. the only country i took to liking was the germans. i still root for them, after holland and usa, of course. they were the only team that could stop those horrible countries.
two countries that weren't good when i was a kid, were england and spain, so i don't have any ill feelings towards them. i would never root for them, but if they were playing against those horrible teams i might, i just might.
I rate England higher than Holland right now even though both are very similiar, talented team wo much success on recent year ( same for Spain until the recent Euro). Maybe I dont follow Holland that often , but England certainly shows very noticable improvement in Capello time. I dont know how to put it but by watching their game I can see the difference.
i noticed the difference too, for england. this is the first coach to get, both gerrard and lampard involved. the weakness, to me is the forwards and the goalies, tied for first. the defence is the second most problematic area. they have not dominated, a single team defensively, in a while. rooney alone won't win you anything. the other forwards are weak, when you compare them to villa and torres, or fabiano and pato, iaquinta and gilardino, podolski and klose, gignac and henry, van persie and any other dutch forward, palermo and hiquain, just kidding, but you get my point.
i can't, honestly say who is better, the dutch or the brits. my bias is going to sneak in, but i don't think you can not compare the two. they are two different teams. england has been underperforming in recent, times, while the dutch, have played better than their team. kinda like germany in the last world cup. so it is hard for me to shake, the recent results. i like the midfield for england, it just needs barry, as the defensive midfielder.
I agree with greginho. I just can't see England winning 2010, as much as I would like them to, due to the lack of a real world class striker. Yes I know, they have rooney, but after that how does Heskey or Bent qualify as truly world class? (I think owen is past it and plays for a paycheque). I am a Canadian first with polish heritage but do not like nor support Poland. That entire country is so f#cked when it comes to football. I remember watching 98 as a kid and seeing Davids with his hair and just falling in love with Holland as a team so they are just after England for whom I root for.
Yeah I agree with the GK and strikers weakness. I personally like Cole over Heskey but he might as well pass the ball back to other side forward under mental stress. Maybe if Bent can keep his form running and team him up with Rooney/Gerrard swapping place like in Croatia game.
Rio Ferdinand has been awful too, that doesnt help. He actually knows about his form, he talked about it to the press. He better get up in shape soon.
For GK, it has been awhile for England to have any decent GK. Even Seaman was floppy at the later half on his career. Right now James might be the best option, but thats because the rest are garbage.
here is an arsenal fan, who never really liked the pony-tailed goalie. when a free kick from some skinny bucked tooth brasilian sailed over, an out of position seaman, that cemented for me, my dislike for him. i actually was rooting for ingleterra that day!
Spain won the European Championships with Sergio Ramos in the back. He was great going forward and not so great defending. Not saying that Glen Johnson is an exact parallel, but I don't think he's England's biggest concern.
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