The England thread

[brenchill]

Absolutely.

The pitch is awful, lets get that ball air borne!

[therockbox]

It would make more sense than floating high balls up to Defoe.

[brenchill]

Who is this plumb commentating?

"He can't speak Polish but he can understand it well enough!"

What the fuck...

[Dan]

Plumb?

[Jimmy]

Can someone explain to me why the commentator wants to bring on Welbeck for Defoe when he's talking about wanting to change our shape?

[brenchill]

Is this what it has come to?

Sitting as deep as possible and defending a 1-0 lead over Poland?

[Dan]

1-1.

[MJB]

Oh Joe Hart, what have you done?

[brenchill]

If there's any justice, Poland will get a second. We have been dire.

[Starvinho]

Take a draw any day after a performance like that. Disappointing to concede a goal like we did though.

[Dingle]

Bad performance. I know San Marino suck ass, but some of the worst passing in that game trumped England's play this game. It was just boring and dull and I wish I'd just checked a text report of the game, but I did onlky have it on in the background thankfully. Should've played Ox from the start, some pace on the wings. Carrick was abnormally bad at passing, and Lescott and Jags made quite a lot of mistakes. Qualification is still highly likely, so the overall goal is under way, but I really hope that when we play our next match after San Marino away (is it Montenegro?) that we are FAR better than we were tonight. Especially since we need to rob Monte of all the points.

[Starvinho]

I think the team Hodgson picked originally for Tuesday should've been changed once they'd seen the state of the pitch on Wednesday. We were set up very central and pass oriented, and the pitch was never gonna allow us to play like that. We needed more width and more pace down the flanks. In a way, the team against San Marino would've done better against Poland, and the team against Poland probably would've done better against San Marino.

But oh well, no point worrying about it now. We're still in a strong position in the group, and if anything it's dropping points at home to Ukraine that is hurting us. 6 points from our games in March is a must mind.

[Baddar]

England will piss the group comfortably - the only reason you should be worried about the poor performances is because it'll be the same old story when you come up against the bigger nations.

[therockbox]

The problem is Hodgson doesn't really seem to know how he wants us to play. He said in his post match interview that the game was suited to long balls rather than short passing because of the pitch, but then plays 5'5 Jermain Defoe up front. Of the six players that started in midfield/attack yesterday, I'd say you've got three who want to play a 'passing game' in Rooney, Cleverly and Carrick, and the other three (Gerrard, Defoe, Milner) want to play a counter-punching, hit them on the break type of game.

Rooney playing off the striker means he just ends up dropping back into midfield, wanting to do exactly the same role that is already oversubscribed with Gerrard and Carrick trying to do the same thing, so the midfield just gets congested with those three getting in each other's way, and with Milner/Cleverly playing on the wings there's no natural width or pace there at all. I can sort of see what we're trying to do with playing the Man United players, hoping the familiarity they have at club level will transfer, but at United Rooney, Cleverly and Carrick are used to having to quick, skilful wingers stretching the play, whereas for us everything's so narrow. It doesn't help that both our fullbacks seem to be being curtailed in getting forward, so we don't even have them providing much width.

The England team is going to be in a state of transition for the next few years at least, so for the time being we need to pick a style of play and pick players from wherever to fit that - even if it means some big names missing out, and players from unfashionable clubs getting called up. If we want to play like West Ham, fine, but is there any place in that case for the likes of Carrick/Cleverly/Wilshere/Rooney? And if we want to try and keep possession, play a high line and press teams is there a place for Gerrard/Milner/Defoe? At the moment Roy appears to be trying to serve two masters - our best chance probably is playing like West Ham, sticking Carroll up top and making him the focal point, but at the same time people don't really want that and would rather see us trying to play 'like Spain', even though we don't really have the players all over the pitch at the moment to do it. So we just end up in this weird situation where half the players want to play one way, and the other half another. It's a bit like Liverpool last season where there's no real strategy or direction, just a mish-mash of players thrown together.

[Dingle]

England aren't great, but they aren't as bad as 'pool.

[MJB]

Adrian Chiles: "When does heavy rain become a downpour?"

Roy Keane's face was priceless

[Hobo]

England aren't great, but they aren't as bad as 'pool.

[Lineker]

England manager Roy Hodgson has indicated that Raheem Sterling is in line to make his international debut in November.

The Three Lions face Sweden on November 15th and Hodgson is keen to take a look at the 17-year-old Liverpool winger, who scored his first Premier League goal against Reading on Saturday.

Sterling was in Stuart Pearce's England Under 21 squad for the European Championship play-offs against Serbia but is expected to join the likes of Chris Smalling and Steven Caulker in a youthful senior squad.

"I will use the November game in Sweden to look at a few players," said the England boss, quoted in The People.

"Sterling is one. We allowed him to go with the Under 21s last time when we might well have taken him into our squad had they not had such an important game.

"I'd like to think Smalling will come into the squad too, and the same applies to Phil Jones.

"I hope Smalling and Jones - and Caulker if you want a third one - can start to put a few people under pressure."

Hodgson also expects to keep checking on his potential squad members despite the next competitive game being five months away.

"I'll try to get round to the clubs and speak to the managers," he added.

"I want to get to the clubs' training grounds and keep that contact going with the players."

[Adam]

Good, the way he's been playing he deserves it. Phenomenal talent at such a young age, he took his goal on Saturday like someone like Aguero or Tevez would.

[Jimmy]

I'm very excited about the future with him and Ox on opposite wings. It will give England some real pace, which will be a huge change from years ago when we were playing Gerrard or someone on the left side. Sterling's going to be really good, I'm not sure he's ready for England quite yet - while he did score a fantastic goal on saturday, he probably should've had one or two more and maybe got himself an assist too. But he's only 17, I'm really hoping he develops into a world beater, we could do with a class winger.