It's hard to know what our squad will be like in 2 years time. New youngsters will come through, players will come into form, others will go stale. If someone asked 2 years ago what squad we'd have now, Rooney and Terry wouldn't even get a mention, yet now they are in the first team.

Hargreaves has apparently had a poor season at Bayern Munich and at the moment looks like a decent squad player at best for England. He has a lot of ability but at the moment is not worth a first team place IMO. Certain players need to be binned, P.Neville and Heskey need to leave the squad straight away.

England have been unlucky defensively with injuries. John Terry has flourished this season into a top class defender but Woodgate and Ferdinand are both better, and Southgate has much more experience. Sadly we missed all three through injury and couldn't bring them to the tournament. Campbell and Terry don't work as a defensive partnership because they're very similar style of defenders. As a result our defending has been very deep, lacking a defender who can bring the ball out of defence (like Woodgate). Also, for two players who are excellent in the air, Terry and Campbell have conceded sloppy goals in this tournament from aerial situations, although some blame can be directed at James for not managing his box properly.

The good thing about the English squad is there are no crucial players nearing retirement. If you look at Portugal or France they have to worry about the age of some of their best players, but we don't.

Didn't know anywhere to post this...

_Swiss referee Urs Meier defended his decision to disallow England's goal in the 90th minute of its quarterfinal loss to Portugal, saying it followed an "obvious" foul on the goalkeeper. Meier said he has received 16,000 e-mails — some threatening — after an English newspaper published his Internet (news - web sites) address.

___________________
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Dusky - Love Taking Over

quote:

Originally posted by djdust Didn't know anywhere to post this... _Swiss referee Urs Meier defended his decision to disallow England's goal in the 90th minute of its quarterfinal loss to Portugal, saying it followed an "obvious" foul on the goalkeeper. Meier said he has received 16,000 e-mails — some threatening — after an English newspaper published his Internet (news - web sites) address.

LOL

quote:

Originally posted by djdust Didn't know anywhere to post this... _Swiss referee Urs Meier defended his decision to disallow England's goal in the 90th minute of its quarterfinal loss to Portugal, saying it followed an "obvious" foul on the goalkeeper. Meier said he has received 16,000 e-mails — some threatening — after an English newspaper published his Internet (news - web sites) address.

They also had it on the main news on ITV who urged people to leave messages

I think the England team in World Cup 2006 will be extremely similar, but the squad will be different. There will be new faces appearing i think.

Both full backs have been excellent this tournament. They both (Neville and Cole) need to work on stop giving away silly free kicks but par that they have been great. Rio should step back into central defence. Terry did ok, but he just doesnt have a prescence like Rio. Can anyone remember them at JapanWC2002? They were both phenominal, and i think a great partnership.

Rooney and Owen. I think we got a good partnership going there if it can be built on tactically. Owen by the end of the tournament (in relation to how far we got) was starting to really play well. The fact i think he has most assists in English team says it all really. Rooney, if he moves this year, will also benifit him too because that means he will be surrounded by better players.

If all else fails, i think Defoe is an excellent prospect. He came to a very poor spurs team, yet still banged in the goals! he will be in the next squad, Svens already stated that.

Hargreeves wants to move to England and play here i heard, which i think will help him develop. When i watched Becks play earlier for England this year i thought that Spain was helping him lots in his technical ability, but this never showed in this tourney. I think Hargreeves needs to come to England and learn how we play here, at a faster pace than any other country in the world. Thats why every player in the world wants to play here at one time or another. Id like to see how he would play if he did come here, maybe in a team like liverpool or something.

We also need a good load of coaching staff, as Stevie is going back to Boro obviously and we need a coach. Any thoughts? Bryan Kidd is wank imo.

Defoe is a good prospect but I think Shola Ameobi is more likely to edge his way into the squad by the summer of 2006.

Then again, Defoe does play in London...

I think England have a healthy future in attack what with the likes of Owen, Rooney, Vassel, Dafoe and Alan Smith. The midfield is going to peak around the Wc2006 and even afterwards there is a healthy future team with Gerrard, Lampard, Parker, and Joe Cole.

I think what England lacks is a world class goalkeeper in the league of Buffon, Van Der Sar and Kahn. Also, Ferdinand is the only English centre back who has the ability to confidently carry the ball out of defence and spread out the play in the middle.

Also, I think England should show a little more self confidence instead of defending measly 1 goal leads the entire game. It is no coincidence that all 3 of England's competitive losses (Brazil, France, and Portugal) came when they were defending early one goal leads. And is it not strange that their most important victories came when they were up against the wall: conceding an early goal in Munich to Germany only to go all out guns blazing and win 5-1, conceding a very early goal versus a fired up Croatian side only to come out 4-2 winners.

Think about it Sven!

quote:

Originally posted by razmataz Also, Ferdinand is the only English centre back who has the ability to confidently carry the ball out of defence and spread out the play in the middle.

You're forgetting Woodgate who plays in exactly that style. He missed Euro 2004 because of injury but he's an absolutely awesome centre back and still only 24.

England do have a problem when we go a goal up, it is not the English psyche to defend the whole game on a 1-0 lead which is why we're not very good at it. It looks like it stems from the manager, his defensive tactics don't best suit English players, most of whom come from the English league which is the fastest and most physical league, not a league where you're brought up on patient build up or defensive football.

Last edited by evil_bastard on Jun-29-2004 at 00:12

If you guys play more aggressively it will help you on both ends of the field because you'll be putting more pressure on the other team. England should play a more attacking game.

quote:

Originally posted by Psiweaver If you guys play more aggressively it will help you on both ends of the field because you'll be putting more pressure on the other team. England should play a more attacking game.

We need to get rid of Eriksson first.

We have only lost three games under Eriksson (Brazil, France, Portugal), and in all of them we had a 1-0 lead.

My future england team

--------Kirkland-------best english goalkeeping prospect since banks


Mills--Campbell-Ferdinand(terry)-Wayne Bridge

(Captain)
Gerrard-Scholes-Lampard-Cole(Joe Cole,that is)


(defoe)
---Owen------ROONEY-------

At the rate owen's declining...defoe may just take over his place by next season.No beckham here.As I said, this is the team for 2006 probably.Hes just lost it.He cant lead the team.He cant do shit except for his long balls.

What d'ya think?!