England vs Eqypt - **Spoilers**

.........................Green?............................

Brown/Johnson Terry Upson Cole


Wright-Philips/Milner Carrick Barry Young/Downing?


.........................Rooney Crouch.....................................


I just dunno about Lampard and Gerrard, they never have really stood out for England, I would be tempted to have them as super subs along with Joe Cole. It's a brave man that leaves them out but they never seem to do much for England.

As for Crouch, at least he scores for England! Who else does????? We have him and a few goals from midfield, we need him to start...


It's a real shame Hargreaves is a cripple, he was awesome in 2006, a proper DM but alas his international career seems over, has he retired? So I guess it's upto Barry/Carrick to be DM.
 
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There's no denying it, Crouch does score goals in an England shirt, how can he not go to the world cup? Man of the match as a sub too :cool:

I was very impressed with Milner, he's starting to look like a top player.
 
shoot1st said:
There's no denying it, Crouch does score goals in an England shirt, how can he not go to the world cup? Man of the match as a sub too :cool:

I was very impressed with Milner, he's starting to look like a top player.
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yeh true that. Gerrard did assist in the first goal but was pretty useless before and after.

Either we keep the way we are and bring on Milner/Young/Carrick/Wright-philips et al when we are getting spanked and prey they turn it around or we stick with the "best midfielders in europe on paper" Gerrard/Lampard as starters.

I dunno really tough call, carrick, Milner and Crouch were a breath of fresh air. I want to see more of Lennon for England, curse the injuries!
 
drunkenmaster said:
Crouch, scored a couple easy finishes, meh, good on him, he's still fairly poor.

We need to drop Gerrard, play Lampard in his best role and get a real DM in to play alongside him, playing Lampard and Barry, and Barry being the one to get in the box more(in a 4-4-2, like the second half) happens because Barry is so poor at tracking runs into our box. A

Almost every African team got spanked, mostly by very poor opposition, Bosnia, Serbia, South Korea.
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whether you like it or not, crouch offers that ariel target man for us. he won headers, flicks, caused problems that 2 small men up front did not for the entire of the first half. and as for easy finishes, the first one was pretty good, sure he made it look easy...but really it wasnt as the ball was behind him and he had to shift his position and claw it back, whilst retaining some power and accuracy...

as for dropping gerrard and playing lampard? what have you been smoking? remove lampard from the action and suddenly we look like a new team. forget the easy chance that lampard blew - he is slow, doesnt get stuck in, stood 10 yards off the man he was 'marking' giving egypt lots of time and space in our half when they did push up...

SWP was good because he made chances out of nothing, he seemed to have more spark than walcott, better movement, better delivery...forget the goal, he just did loads better.
 
imo Lampard was much worse than Gerrard. Gerrard hardly ever plays well but he always puts himself about and always tries the final ball or the hard ball. Hardly EVER hear Lampard's name when he plays for England and when you do it's generally because he's done something disappointing.

Sounds extreme but I'd definitely be considering starting Milner instead of Lampard, or anybody. He's useless.

On SWP, he was an improvement on Walcott but only because Crouch finished his chance where Lampard couldn't. SWP gave the ball away just as much as Walcott if you watched closely and also had loads more room, Walcott was always followed by two or three Egyptians and while it's no excuse, he was given absolutely no room and when he was taken off there were suddenly bags of space on the right which SWP used quite well.
 
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I suspect the extra space on the right may have been due to Milner coming on and offering some width on the left - it's pretty easy to double-up on one side when there is absolutely no threat from the other after all :p

Out of interest is Joe Cole injured or just not in the squad?
 
Cole is just out of the squad, Capello thinks he looks like a different player (think he used those words). Another player who would be much, much better than Lampard though
 
drunkenmaster said:
I love how people think SWP was great because a daft keeper let his awful shot in and he made a poor choice to cross to someone who was so obviously offside, apart from that he lost the ball constantly, made no good high crosses to anyone in the box, wing play was abysmal, got caught on the ball constantly and showed how being so small he simply couldn't stand up to any pressure what so ever.

Crouch, scored a couple easy finishes, meh, good on him, he's still fairly poor. The defence was very poor and it wasn't Crouch's ability that changed the game, neither SWP's, but a switch to having rather than Defoe on his own against 4 defenders with Gerrard failing to get in to support the strikers really even once in the first half. TO a 4-4-2, with the 4 defenders now marking two strikers, finally a midfield run deep into the box by Barry and Gerrard getting almost the furthest forward he'd been all night. I'd take Crouch over Heskey, without question, but thats not saying much. Carlton Cole is a better, stronger player than both who'll win more headers, score more goals, and set up more chances for others, he's simply a better player.

Is it that surprising that a ickle Defoe on his own with no service, didn't work as well as 3-4 England players in the box on the break.

Both those goals would have been slotted in by the majority of our strikers, Heskey would even have got the second one, it was the formation and style of play that changed it, not the individual players. Milner offered hugely more movement, accurate passing, willingness to get foward and run the wing than Gerrard though, he was an instant improvement.

We need to drop Gerrard, play Lampard in his best role and get a real DM in to play alongside him, playing Lampard and Barry, and Barry being the one to get in the box more(in a 4-4-2, like the second half) happens because Barry is so poor at tracking runs into our box. A real DM there and Lampard could do what he does best, added with some real wingers, over 5'5, who aren't woeful, and we could have a pretty decent chance. Young and Milner on the wings would give us pace, defensive cover(Young and Milner work incredibly hard defensively). Without Beckham on the field Young would be a very good corner/freekick man.

Baines looked a lot less nervous second half, but also was under far less pressure, Egypt were clearly very tired from 35mins in onwards, it was criminal how Egypt put no effort down their right wing against Baines on his own for the majority of the 2nd half, but really speaks to quite how crap they actually are.

Almost every African team got spanked, mostly by very poor opposition, Bosnia, Serbia, South Korea.
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u guys dont like to listen to this guy???

he knows more than the lot of you seriously.

Great post.
 
After watching last nights game, the reality sunk in that that this England squad needs to move on and transistion in the next phase of English talent.

It seems that the younger England fringe players seem to be performing better this season than the the established england internationals. The likes of Milner, Young and Lennon when fit should be in the England starting eleven.

And I do question whether the likes of Lampard and Gerrard are now deserving of a starting place in the squad for the WC. Gerrard on the left of midfield just fails.

I worry about the forward line for England as we just don't have anyone good enough to partner Rooney upfront that can also score goals. I am pleased that Crouch scored a couple last night, but as a Spurs fan I can tell you that the guy is no more than an impact sub to be used if things are not going well with 25 minutes remaining.

This is my WC starting eleven should everyone be fit for the tourny.

GK Hart

RB Johnson
CB Ferdinand
CB Terry
LB Cole

RW Lennon
CM Gerrard
DM Barry
LW Young

AM Milner

ST Rooney
 
Get Lennon on the wing and smash Walcott up front with Rooney, will give defenders something to think about and Walcott can actually play in his position for the first time since he left Southampton.
 
I'll stick up for DM, I never have any problems with his posts and I read most of them. I think he gets a bad rap tbh, and for no real reason I can see either. It's just people might not agree with him, simple as that really, no need to put him on ignore.

He's just not bothered about airing his opinions and views, nowt wrong with that in my book. :cool:
 
Crouch isn't good enough for England, he didn't turn the game around on his own like DM said, It was the change of system that worked.

SWP isn't good at football, Lennon, Milner, Young are all far better at it then he is. I wouldn't take him or Crouch to the World Cup.

I thought Gerrard was awful, I thought he was supposed to be playing on the left? He was playing in the center, giving England no chance of going wide and putting balls in to the box (funnily enough Rooney has being scoring from crosses recently)

That England side won't do much at the World Cup.

Lampard + Barry in the middle, unless Hargreaves comes back from the dead with some form. Two wingers, not a striker and a center midfielder on the wings, Wingers! Milner and Lennon please.

Defence was fine, Upson was unlucky to slip but it was a great touch and finish from Zidan. I thought Brown did quite well, he's not being playing right back much this season either.

Baines looked fine in the second half, I thought Terry looked nervous at times as well with the "Engerland" fans on his back.

Edit, DM does talk some utter **** about Arsenal sometimes, but he does raise good points as well.

Eboue for England!
 
jagga said:
u guys dont like to listen to this guy???

he knows more than the lot of you seriously.

Great post.
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no i stopped reading at "Crouch, scored a couple easy finishes, meh, good on him, he's still fairly poor. The defence was very poor and it wasn't Crouch's ability that changed the game"

because ths is completely wrong.

Crouch isn't good enough for England, he didn't turn the game around on his own like DM said, It was the change of system that worked.
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what system change?

we remained with the same midfield setup just changed some personnel...banged in 2-3 quick goals, and won...what was this huge change? it was a man for man change, Defoe->Crouch...Walcott -> SWP... Lampard->Carrick...
 
The move from having just Defoe up top and Gerrard doing basically what the **** he feels like.

We had two wide men, we had two central midfielders and Rooney and Crouch up top :)
It's not what we had in the first place, "man for man" no, we swapped 2 strikers and a central midfielder for 2 wingers and striker.

Two wide men that actually played the wings, stretching the Egypt defence, which is something we didn't do in the first half. Walcott, void of any real international quailty was trying to cut inside, and Gerrard was just playing down the center. We couldn't play down the middle. It wasn't working.

We then started playing the wings and putting a few crosses in, and scored. The two winning goals both came from crosses didn't they? Infact all three goals came from crosses from wide postitions?
 
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Tummy said:
The move from having just Defoe up top and Gerrard doing basically what the **** he feels like.

We had two wide men, we had two central midfielders and Rooney and Crouch up top :)
It's not what we had in the first place, "man for man" no, we swapped 2 strikers and a central midfielder for 2 wingers and striker.
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Apart from the fact that the first goal came after striker-for-striker and central midfielder-for-central midfielder changes.

It was the same system.
 
Tummy said:
Crouch isn't good enough for England!
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How can you say that when he does score goals? I think I heard the commentator last night say that Crouch gets a goal better than one in every two games. That's good going surely?

You mention having good wingers in the squad and currently the two strikers I'd want in the box, on the end of crosses supplied by said wingers, would be Rooney and Crouchie.
 
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