World Cup Group B (England, Paraguay, Trinidad and Tobago, Sweden) **SPOILERS**

also...

at least we have sent a warning of what we can do to the rest of the world now...

am glad we didnt just get goals from set pieces of headers...

another wonder goal from gerrard
 
crouchtwister27en.jpg



hehe i made a funny:)
 
YAY!!!!!! Go on England!!!!!!

Bloody last minute goals..sheesh.

So let's hope Roo and the lads get a match off against Sweden to get some much needed rest. At least the subs will get a chance to play a match against Sweden (unless Sven goes nuts again [like what he did with the substitutions on the first match] and puts on the first team players). :)

(nice pics chronic lol :) )
 
Fairly rubbish performance.

Owen shouldn't have been taken off. In hindsight it's easy to say it was the right choice because Crouch scored; but he was shocking all game. Missed the easiest chance of the game and did stupid acrobatics every time he had the ball. Should have put Rooney on for him.

Owen made a few good chances and he really should have scored his header. But then they played a silly long-ball game that doesn't suit him. His touch to set Lampard up was perfect.

Beckham was crap except for the goal cross. He managed to hit a players knee in the wall ffs. Rooney did nothing physically. Robinson looked shaky. Terry did very well.
 
ballistic said:
carrick behind lampard and gerrard, start lennon instead of beckham on the right. ENGLAND DON'T NEED BECKHAM, he's cack and has been past it for 4 years and makes the team play hoofball with good players.
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The fact he's set up 90% of our goals in the past few games from "hoof" balls aint needed then
 
Not going to read too much into that performance to be honest.

Pretty bored of hearing people complaining about England not blasting a ton of goals past T&T, but its not easy when a team of professional footballers stick 11 players behind the ball. Look at Brazil against Croatia. Croatia aren't a particularly good team anymore. Everyone hyped up Brazil. They could easily have lost. They barely had any ideas for how to break Croatia down.

6 points out of 6. What is the problem? If they performed like that against Sweden or in the next stages, then worry. However, against better teams the games will be more open, and the attacking players will have more room to express themselves.

At least wait until the group stages are finished before writing them off ffs. Sweden didn't even score against them, and can't even score against Paraguay now!

Personally though, I'd swap Gerrard with Lampard and let Lampard play the more defensive role. Gerrard has more to his game in my opinion and is wasted playing defensively.

Since Lampard was booked today, I'd try Carrick since yellow cards are wiped out that were picked up in the group stages. However, Gerrard was booked too so he might not play in the next game either :(

Oh and you can't drop Beckham for Lennon. Lennon is being judged on what, one and a half games? And all of a sudden he's the man to replace Beckham? Give over. If you want Beckham to stop hitting long balls then speak to Sven, cos Beckham doesn't hit them like that all the time for Real Madrid. Sven clearly thinks that it is a threat.
 
It's got to be good that we're playing so pee-poor and yet still winning games (I think we would have all taken 1-0 and 2-0 in the first two games before the cup started...) but it's becoming clear that the 11 best players on paper just don't work well together. We all know Gerrard and Lamps are world-class, but maybe playing them together isn't the way to go, as many have been saying all along. I wouldn't like to have to leave one of them out tho...tough call.

I've been a big defender of Becks in the past, but his attitude seems to have gone walk about since he went to Madrid. Old Becks would have been shouting and motivating in a game like this - you could always count on him to step up when needed and dig in, hence him being captain. Now he seems to be just cruising.

Joe Cole has been great so far - really lively and getting stuck in.

Owen seems to be in one of those nightmare ruts that forwards get themselves into from time to time, and that's compounded by being, quite obviously, not match fit.

Crouch is pretty good. He's always going to look a bit donkey-like, but he's actually pretty good on the ball. Personally I wouldn't play him from the start tho.

The defence hasn't really been tested much at all. Their time will come in the next round.

All-in-all I'm still hopeful - we 're playing miles, miles below our ability and still winning. Rooney gives us a spark and he should be match fit for the next round. And the next round is where the WC really starts.
 
mightynimrod said:
What on earth was he thinking taking off Owen????
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That maybe Crouch would score with a header due to his height? ;)

T&T got a draw against a good Swedish side so 2-0 for England looks like a good result to me, especially with the way people were saying how badly England were playing against Paraguay.
 
Someone mentioned life is never easy supporting england, never a truer word said!

We always struggle when we have to make all the running, i think we are better side when we hit teams on the break, t&t had 10 behind the ball for much of the game and we did struggle to break them down.

In terms of personell, Crouch will prob get slated in the press for missing them chances but i thought lampard was far worse, he missed some sitters, he hasnt done anything for me so far in the tournament, this system helps neither lamps or gerarrd to play their natural game, one of them needs to be dropped.

Rooney looked quite rusty to me tbh, i wouldnt start him at all in the next game, give owen another shout, he might just come out of this rut, although i wasnt too impressed with the excuses in his post match interview.

Dunno if anyone has noticed that A Cole keeps to slipping quite a bit, he did it a few times in the last game and i spotted it a few times in this game, he must have crap studs or summat???

Becks, gotta keep him in, his dead ball delivery is vital to the way we play, theres nobody in the world close to him in what he can do, defensively we were spot on, but robinson did worry me a little today seem to come and miss a few times.

All in all 6 points and life is good, only spanner in the works will be if ecuador finish above the krauts! and to all the whiners England have never been the team that you all think we are, we have never been a team which has steamrolled over all teams in our way tbh, life has always been this difficult, its the english way!
 
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