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

Loki said:
A holding midfielder doesnt have to be some kind of bruiser though. Its someone who needs tidys up in front of the back four and sets the tempo and pace of the team. At the moment we have nobody who dictates play like this. I think against Sweeden it would be worthwhile trying Carrick there as he can do that job.
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True, but they have to actually be able to tackle, Carrick can't tackle to save his life.
 
England player Peter Crouch has shocked World Cup viewers by displaying a Nazi symbol. Due to strict German laws displaying Nazi symbols is illegal. German football fans avoid this by standing in formations representing Nazi symbols or using numbers to represent Nazi slogans. Perhapse inspired by this the England striker, known for his "robot" dance, formed a human swastika during last nights match against Trinidad and Tobago.
The English FA have yet to comment.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/world_cup_2006/teams/england/5085922.stm
 
Gooner14 said:
True, but they have to actually be able to tackle, Carrick can't tackle to save his life.
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He may not be the best at tackling, but what he excells at is reading the play and intercepting passes. He also harrases (not in the RVP way) the opposition into making mistakes by closing them down quickly. :)
 
Loki said:
A holding midfielder doesnt have to be some kind of bruiser though. Its someone who needs tidys up in front of the back four and sets the tempo and pace of the team. At the moment we have nobody who dictates play like this.
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We do, actually :)

He plays his club football in pink.
 
Gilly said:
We do, actually :)

He plays his club football in pink.
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Do we really need a holding midfield like Carrick/King or Butt? I think Gerrard passess at center midfield was brilliant. England needs to improve their game like shooting on target. They had so many shot but most of them were off target. If they want to win the trophy, they have to improve and play like high tempo game like they do in premiership games.
 
Stag said:
He may not be the best at tackling, but what he excells at is reading the play and intercepting passes. He also harrases (not in the RVP way) the opposition into making mistakes by closing them down quickly. :)
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I didn't say he couldn't do those things. In my eyes a DMC needs to be able to win the ball in a tackle, something Carrick can't do.

What has an INNOCENT DUTCH footballer got to do with it anyway.
 
OCdt Stringy said:
In my opinion Crouch was playing much worse than Owen before the Rooney substitution, at least when the ball was played to Owen's feet he looked like he knew what he was doing, unlike Crouch who looks awkward and doesn't seem to want to use his size to his advantage. I'm just worried that after the Crouch goal, it will be some sort of justification for keeping him in the starting 11.
Seeing as we're already in the second round I'd give Owen a chance to win his place back, give him balls on the ground, not stupid brainless long balls, and let him try and do what he's good at.

Was anyone else pleased when we got the first goal, but disappointed that it was Crouch?
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Dont agree at all, owen did nowt all game apart from lose the ball, at least crouch kept hold of the ball and made some runs to get himself into goal scoring positions, owen is reliying on his reputation to keep him in the side, his lack of effort is worrying and his interview last night was poor and full of excuses.

Dont get me wrong i dont actually think crouch is anygood, but at this moment in time he is at least putting some effort in, owen still looks really rusty, and i bet sven is wishing he had taken defoe along now.

The other problem yesterday was down to gerrard and his long balls, we seemed to be bypassing the bulk of the midfield all the time, we need gerrard to put his foot on the ball and get some calm pass and move football into midfield, we need some bloody movement not static flat footed players.
 
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wohoo said:
Dont agree at all, owen did nowt all game apart from lose the ball, at least crouch kept hold of the ball and made some runs to get himself into goal scoring positions, owen is reliying on his reputation to keep him in the side, his lack of effort is worrying and his interview last night was poor and full of excuses.

Dont get me wrong i dont actually think crouch is anygood, but at this moment in time he is at least putting some effort in, owen still looks really rusty, and i bet sven is wishing he had taken defoe along now.
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Don't think we watched the same game :confused: All Crouch did was try Rivaldo-esque overhead kicks in the box (twice) which made him look stupid and just wastes a chance when it's 0-0. Missed the best chance of the game trying a sliding volley, why? :confused: He even had time to control it and score. He tried scissor kick passes in midfield which didn't work and had no point to them. And to top it all off, he pulls a defender's hair to score a header, which, from a neutral point of view, should have been a free-kick.

Owen didn't have a great game but did a darn sight better. He had a header go inches wide (should have scored) was unlucky after a Lampard shot and his perfect touch in the box set Lampard up for what should have been 1-0. He skinned 2 defenders in the box and got a free-kick which Beckham ****** up. All this, while playing the stupid long-ball game for 60 mins which doesn't suit him.

In a selfish way I don't care if he doesn't play; it's better for Newcastle.

And who said he's been in a rut for 3 years. I think that's a bit unfair. He had the best goals to game ratio at Real Madrid; better than Ronaldo and scored 7 in 10 starts at Newcastle. He is, in my opinion, one of the best strikers in the country and to play Crouch instead in ludicrous.
 
Gilly said:
Behave.

If anyone is getting new captaincy its Terry.
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why, both captain their teams equally well, terry leads the back line anyway, gerrard does a lot more to inspire, and really drives the pace of the game. Set him free, he is one of the best players in the world, and IMO pretty equal to rooney and terry in being Englands joint 3 best players, so much more usefull than lampard in that position.
 
Oakesy2001uk said:
why, both captain their teams equally well, terry leads the back line anyway, gerrard does a lot more to inspire, and really drives the pace of the game. Set him free, he is one of the best players in the world, and IMO pretty equal to rooney and terry in being Englands joint 3 best players, so much more usefull than lampard in that position.
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Cos Terry's a better captain. IMO obviously...
 
Jet said:
And who said he's been in a rut for 3 years. I think that's a bit unfair. He had the best goals to game ratio at Real Madrid; better than Ronaldo and scored 7 in 10 starts at Newcastle. He is, in my opinion, one of the best strikers in the country and to play Crouch instead in ludicrous.
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That was me, been watching the lad since he was 16, and if saw him play then and watch him, its not the same player, he has been in a rut, yes injuries have taken their toll, but he just doesnt seem to have it anymore, take pace out of his game and you dont have much of a player, also he forces a team to play in one way, his game cannot adapt to differing styles of football, he always needs the ball over the top imho.

But i stand by my point he didnt do a lot, he pulled out wide once or twice, he didnt come inside for the ball,he is in a rut and it shows.Oh and if he was such a great player at madrid, why were they prepared to part with him, and why were newcastle the only team to come up with the readies (no disrespect but a top class owen should noway be playing for a club like newcastle or liverpool for that matter).
 
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I don't think Owen works too well on the ball over the top. He wants them slid through along the floor really.
 
Good point Gilly.

Don't think Owen has the best first touch and he plays better with the ball in the channel to run onto
 
Gilly said:
I don't think Owen works too well on the ball over the top. He wants them slid through along the floor really.
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Dunno he scored a fair few for us with balls over the top, at that time his pace made up for his touch.But still it shows a team has to play to his strengths otherwise he cant do much in a game.
 
wohoo said:
That was me, been watching the lad since he was 16, and if saw him play then and watch him, its not the same player, he has been in a rut, yes injuries have taken their toll, but he just doesnt seem to have it anymore, take pace out of his game and you dont have much of a player, also he forces a team to play in one way, his game cannot adapt to differing styles of football, he always needs the ball over the top imho.

But i stand by my point he didnt do a lot, he pulled out wide once or twice, he didnt come inside for the ball,he is in a rut and it shows.Oh and if he was such a great player at madrid, why were they prepared to part with him, and why were newcastle the only team to come up with the readies (no disrespect but a top class owen should noway be playing for a club like newcastle or liverpool for that matter).
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Well i disagree, Owen needs the ball threaded through for him to run on to. Not that that's all he can do mind. That's the same opinion everyone else has on TV and in the papers too. Roeder spoke out against Sven which his rubbish long-ball tactics and so did Shearer. I have already outlined what he did in just 60 minutes of yesterday's game. More than Crouch and Rooney in any case.

There are many reasons why we got Owen. For one, £17 million is an awful lot of money and not many clubs can stump up that sort of cash. Especially for a substitute (at the time). His wages are huge also and a lot of people were writing him off.

I disagree about his form. If you look at league goals since 1997 he has been consistent all the way through to now. He had a rubbish time at Real Madrid, being substitute all the time, confidence probably plummeted but still scored 13 goals and came out with the second best goal to game ratio (i was wrong earlier). Then at Newcastle he scored 7 goals in 11 games. That's a fantastic record.

If I was Owen i would be incredibly frustrated with the media and everyone's opinions. And now it doesn't look like he will start next game. I just hope he gets back home to Newcastle safely where everybody loves him :D
 
Jet said:
Well i disagree, Owen needs the ball threaded through for him to run on to. Not that that's all he can do mind. That's the same opinion everyone else has on TV and in the papers too. Roeder spoke out against Sven which his rubbish long-ball tactics and so did Shearer. I have already outlined what he did in just 60 minutes of yesterday's game. More than Crouch and Rooney in any case.
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Crouch scored and Rooney changed the game :/
 
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