The England thread

[Crybaby Bunting]

It's crazy, we actually have a manager who's got the ability to turn things around in a half time talk.

I was half expecting the England team to come out for the second half shaking in fear ¬_¬

We're not going to win the World Cup, but we do stand a wonderful chance at slaying a giant along the way.

[Adam]

Missed the game last night as I went out, but how did Leighton Baines play?

[Liam]

Didn't start off greatly, but looked fairly solid, I'd say. Delivery was pretty poor though.

[TCO]

We're not going to win the World Cup, but we do stand a wonderful chance at slaying a giant along the way.

Um, when you're a team as a good as England, it's not giant slaying, it's called winning. Why won't you lot win the World Cup? Any team that has Rooney, Gerrard, Terry, Ferdinand and Ashley Cole if he goes, all arguably the world's best in their positions, should be winning it. The only team that might be stronger than England is Spain and they're beatable as the Yanks showed.

There's absolutely no excuses anymor.

Edited March 4, 2010 by The Cool One

[therockbox]

Brazil and Spain are miles ahead of us.

The chances of both of them fucking up are slim.

[9 to 5]

Yeah, Spain and Brazil are the best teams going. Then you have a bunch who are fairly equal like England, Germany, Holland etc.

[Crybaby Bunting]

England generally fucks up whenever they attempt to play another team in the same 'band' as them, whether Capello will change them or not is the sticking point.

England in the past had an idea where if they let the big teams play each other then they'd have a nice easy run in until about the Semi finals... that's usually where other teams go in with miles of confidence (having already played similarish teams) and England collectively shit themselves.

There are only a few big teams that I think that we could exploit: Argentina, Portugal and Italy (depending on if they pick Balotelli or not ¬_¬) being the key ones. We'd still get smashed if we met Holland, Brazil or Germany

[Sir Alan LCSugar]

I think you've messed up the order of teams we should be worried about in this world cup, i'd say it looks more like ....

1) Spain

2) Brazil (because we've never really played well against them)

3) Argentina

4) Italy

5) Holland

6) Germany

7) Portugal

Thats my opinion.

I do think Capello is making us into a Unit, which is important, and we have decent cover in alot of positions. I reckon semis is a decent expectation to have.

[Pesci]

I'd probably say Brazil and Spain are worlds better than anybody else at the moment. Spain have been playing better but Brazil are Brazil and have the biggest winning mentality in the world. Then there's teams like Argentina, Germany, Italy, France and us. We've looked bad against any decent team we've played so I'm not holding out much hope of us pulling a result off against any of them. I think people seem to rate our best players too highly. Rooney is phenomenal, fair enough. Gerrard can have flashes of brilliance that drive teams on to win but they're not consistent, especially at international level. Terry isn't one of the best centre backs in the world any more, he's still class but not part of the elite. Ferdinand has been ravaged with injuries and looks shit whenever he plays, which is understandable but hardly encouraging. Ashley Cole is immense but who knows how good he'll be, just coming back from a massive lay-off? We don't really have anybody that great in goal, our central midfield is solid but not exceptional and one of our strikers is only there to facilitate the rest of the team, so it's unlikely we'll see much from him.

If Rooney is firing on all cylinders, we have a chance. But Lampard and Gerrard will need to perform better than they have done and Lennon needs to play as well for England as he has been for Spurs. Our defence can be fantastic as a unit and Barry is fairly dependable sitting in front of them so if our creative players are on song, we will be as well. We're discplined but we usually are at tournaments. What we struggle at is finding inspiration to break down the bigger teams and I haven't really seen anything that suggests we're much better than we normally are at that. I'm not holding out much hope that we'll get past the quarters but nobody is brilliant outside of the two favourites so we stand every chance if we draw one of those, I guess. Especially because France still haven't replaced Zidane, Maradona has played a billion different players in the qualifiers and Germany and Italy don't even know who their best team is. We have that, I guess.

[The Future]

I am calling it now, something insane is going to happen like the 2002 World Cup and we are going to end up with North Korea or Algeria or someone like that in the latter stages of the tourney.

I can't wait for the World Cup, A-Levels end on June 11th just as it starts..great timing!.

[ChrisSteeleAteMyHamster]

The only teams I fear for England are Spain and Brazil.

If all our players are fit then I think we have a real chance. Of course people don't like to say that because it puts pressure on England and on our own expectations, and years of perceived failure darken our beliefs.

However we're 8th in the world rankings and FOURTH in the ELO rankings (behind Spain, Brazil and Netherlands) which rates teams based on the quality of opponents they play.

In qualification we rolled through it more impressively than I've seen us in 20-odd years of qualifications. The understrength loss to Ukraine isn't an issue. We beat a very good Croatia team who did us under McLaren.

Capello has the best win ratio of ANY England manager in history at 71.4% (Ramsay only had 61.1%).

I'm gonna set myself up for a huge disappointment in the summer and I don't care. This batch of players IS the best we've had in yeeeears. Ashley Cole (if fit and not chasing Scouse hotel workers) is arguably the best left back in the world. Rooney is awesome. The depth of choice in midfield is fantastic (compare that to some of our past squads). Lennon is terrifying down the right nowadays (again if fit). Our only worries are goal and defence. We don't have a world class keeper but then barely any countries do.

If Terry's on form then he's solid and same with Rio. Right back is a little worrying but still, not a huge problem.

I feel most other teams will be placing England in their top four "to worry about" teams. I think we'll beat the US comfortably. If we win group C (which we should do with at least 7 points) then the likelihood is that we'll get a little tester in the second round of Australia, Ghana or Serbia and then in the quarters it should be Argentina or France which again will be a step up but nothing at all to fear. Then take whoever in the semis, it doesn't matter.

So again, I'm gonna go into this believing we can win it, and I haven't felt that before. Hell, the German fans and players will believe they can win it, so will the Portuguese, Argentinians and French so have some belief for once.

Sheesh.

[Pesci]

I'm still not holding out much hope until I see us against a big team. I think we'll steam-roll to the quarters, definitely, and if we do end up facing France or Argentina, we've probably looked more impressive than both of them put together so we can take them, no doubt. And if we do, I'll start to believe a lot more.

As I said, I think a lot of it's down to Rooney. If he's on form anything's possible. I haven't gone from hating somebody to loving them as quickly as I have with him, and I can't think of many better in the world right now but I still don't know how good he is against the elite.

Eh, by the time the World Cup's here I'll be caught up in the hysteria anyway.

Edited March 10, 2010 by Pesci

[GA!]

Beckham has a torn achilles tendon and is out of the World Cup apparently.

[Crybaby Bunting]

The media are bigging it up as if he stood a chance of making the squad in the first place.

See also: Owen, Michael.

[GA!]

The media are bigging it up as if he stood a chance of making the squad in the first place.

See also: Owen, Michael.

Of course Beckham was going. He's the perfect substitute for the second half.

[Asuka's Gonna Kill You]

Absolutely gutted. Just really hope for the best for the guy

[Crybaby Bunting]

It's a shame that his injury has been so widely reported all over the media. I was hoping for a Daily Mail headline of "THOSE DIRTY DAGOS DONE BECKS IN"

[Hobo]

While it's not so great for Owen or Beckham, I think it's better for other players to get a chance to play in the World Cup.

I really think Beckham at least should retire from international duty or maybe should've already.

[GA!]

While it's not so great for Owen or Beckham, I think it's better for other players to get a chance to play in the World Cup.

I really think Beckham at least should retire from international duty or maybe should've already.

He will now, there's no doubt of that. There's no reason for Beckham to stick around for Poland/Ukraine 2012, and he'll be way too old for Brazil 2014.

[Asuka's Gonna Kill You]

I don't see Beckham retiring from International football what so ever. He's worked his ass off to try to make it to SA and after the freak injury last night, he's going to be absolutley gutted. It'll all depend on the surgery, how long he's out for and what he does once he does return. I think it's highly doubtful that he'll play at the Euro or as far as the next World Cup, but I certainly wouldn't say he's played his last game for England.

The plus side is he's with Milan, which is probably the only plus he can take from this. Granted he comes out of this okay, he's expected to be back there next season. They'll certainly help get him through it all and give him every chance possible of playing again in the future for England. Either way it's going to effect England for the WC. Whether people want to deny it or not, if he was fit he was going to make it to SA and certainly play a part. His experience and all around game was important to the squad. It hasn't exactly destroyed England's chances that's for sure, but it's still a blow to the squad.

Edited March 15, 2010 by JohnnyPerfect