World Cup 2014 Squads and Games

[Gunner Rob]

oh and Hodgson appears to be like Wenger - another dismal failure in an international tournament, but yet because he is media friendly he is under no pressure to resign.

look at the abuse that Sven got and he led us to 2 World Cup Quarter finals!

[kiwomya]

You would have thought we'd unleashed the next Zico to hear the commentator delight at Barkley getting 30 mins

Honestly, he's like a greedy little kid in the playground refusing to pass to anyone - the odd Cruyff turn and dribble in amongst another woeful performance, giving the ball away cheaply and catching the whole team up field. People think Wilshere's retention of the ball is poor - fuck me, Barkley is an absolute liability of the highest order

I'm with you on that. He might be able to open up the West Brom midfield with one of his runs but international football is a different game.

I know the bloke is about 20 but they still need more experience - why don't young English players ever go on loan (or permanently) outside England when they are young? Learn the game from a different perspective .... doesn't seem to harm other national teams.

[SteveO 35]

You would have thought we'd unleashed the next Zico to hear the commentator delight at Barkley getting 30 mins

Honestly, he's like a greedy little kid in the playground refusing to pass to anyone - the odd Cruyff turn and dribble in amongst another woeful performance, giving the ball away cheaply and catching the whole team up field. People think Wilshere's retention of the ball is poor - fuck me, Barkley is an absolute liability of the highest order

I'm with you on that. He might be able to open up the West Brom midfield with one of his runs but international football is a different game.

I know the bloke is about 20 but they still need more experience - why don't young English players ever go on loan (or permanently) outside England when they are young? Learn the game from a different perspective .... doesn't seem to harm other national teams.

The problem is that overhyped players like him are already earning far more in the PL than in any other league -foreign teams wouldn't stump up 50k per week to loan him when they already have far superior players in their own academies earning a quarter of the wages

[augie]

I actually thought Rooney did pretty well yesterday - too easy to blame him for the performances

The Leighton Baines myth revealed itself yesterday - Cole is a far superior defender in every way, whilst Jagielka and Cahill are just pure ordinary at top level. Johnson has never been a natural defender

Didn't think the midfield or forwards were too bad at all - the defending was simply comic book and when you look at that back four is it in the least bit surprising?

I do agree with most of that but I do think that, defensively, engerland s midfield exposes their defence big time - I have never bought into this Rodgers stroke of genius plan of moving Stevie me into a defensive role and I have yet to see any proof of it working despite the media *****-a-thon over it He doesn't win tackles (as shown with the first goal) and I never see him moping up around his back 4 - it seems that he is there purely to be a deep plying playmaker but then he needs a proper DM beside him and not the guy that won the "be a professional footballer for the day" competition winner
Personally I don't get the idea of playing a system that doesn't work for the players and I have continually said this about AFC too - there are teams out there playing 4-4-2 but engerland has the idea that it is an old fashioned system that doesn't work anymore and that nobody uses it For years it wasn't the formation that was screwing engerland but the lack of technical quality players - now they actually have the players to play that system and that can do ball retention, but they feel that moving to the fables 4-3-3 is progress. Johnson does nothing but bomb down the wing but then he gets slated for being out of position, whilst Baines plays more responsibly but gets slated for not being able to bring his Everton game to international level - play proper wingers (who will attack but also help out their full backs) in front of these guys and you will have a more balanced team. Play 2 up top because you don't have a striker that has pace and is still physically strong enough to do ball retention on his own. I really think that England need to stop over-thinking and just play the system that suits them the best and then tweak it only when it is required against certain opposition

[Theoperator]

Wheres the Hodgson views for and against thread

We just dont have the players that would do it internationally- Cole and Terry may have made a difference last night, but Gerrard is finitoed as an international- Hart looked a bit average as well, thought he could have done a bit better for both goals, accepting that the cannibal is super world class

No doubt the media will blame the demise of pubs on The WC exit next

[SteveO 35]

I actually thought Rooney did pretty well yesterday - too easy to blame him for the performances

The Leighton Baines myth revealed itself yesterday - Cole is a far superior defender in every way, whilst Jagielka and Cahill are just pure ordinary at top level. Johnson has never been a natural defender

Didn't think the midfield or forwards were too bad at all - the defending was simply comic book and when you look at that back four is it in the least bit surprising?

I do agree with most of that but I do think that, defensively, engerland s midfield exposes their defence big time - I have never bought into this Rodgers stroke of genius plan of moving Stevie me into a defensive role and I have yet to see any proof of it working despite the media *****-a-thon over it He doesn't win tackles (as shown with the first goal) and I never see him moping up around his back 4 - it seems that he is there purely to be a deep plying playmaker but then he needs a proper DM beside him and not the guy that won the "be a professional footballer for the day" competition winner
Personally I don't get the idea of playing a system that doesn't work for the players and I have continually said this about AFC too - there are teams out there playing 4-4-2 but engerland has the idea that it is an old fashioned system that doesn't work anymore and that nobody uses it For years it wasn't the formation that was screwing engerland but the lack of technical quality players - now they actually have the players to play that system and that can do ball retention, but they feel that moving to the fables 4-3-3 is progress. Johnson does nothing but bomb down the wing but then he gets slated for being out of position, whilst Baines plays more responsibly but gets slated for not being able to bring his Everton game to international level - play proper wingers (who will attack but also help out their full backs) in front of these guys and you will have a more balanced team. Play 2 up top because you don't have a striker that has pace and is still physically strong enough to do ball retention on his own. I really think that England need to stop over-thinking and just play the system that suits them the best and then tweak it only when it is required against certain opposition

I agree and before Wenger's lobotomy I didn't see many people saying 4-4-2 was old fashioned when Overmars, Petit, Vieira and Parlour were playing behind Anelka / IW8 and Dennis. It requires box to box midfielders and full backs that first of all see their priority as defending. Who fucking cares if they can't cross a ball when they have someone like Overmars in front of them?

In the modern game, and with the modern England and Arsenal, we are so worried about having 'an insurance policy' (Grrrrr.....hate that fucking term) midfield man playing out wide and the reason for that is that there are too many Johnson / Walker type full backs that are wannabe right wingers. England took one RB to the World Cup in Johnson with the other options in that position being so called 'utility men' like Milner and Jones.

All completely inevitable I'm afraid. The longer people sneer at old fashioned full backs like Dixon and Winterburn (and the way the 2 Uruguyans played there yesterday), the more defensive problems we'll have

[SteveO 35]

ONE WOY HODGSON.....THERE'S ONLY ONE WOY HODGSON

[DB10GOONER]

Chippy Brady nailed it on RTE last night. He said watch Germany, Italy, Argentina etc and they have a system and every player knows their role in that system and will very seldom deviate from it. England don't have a system as such, and what they do have, the players don't know, or aren't comfortable in, their roles. Watching Baines and Johnson bomb down the wings ineffectively and Gerrard and Henderson jog all over the central areas it was very obvious to see this.

But I think this is inherited from the PL which is far faster and more open than other leagues and (let's be honest) is why most of us like it so much. But if England are to progress at interlull level something really does need to change and they need to get in a manager that won't let the media pick the team and will install an effective system and actually coach the players on how to play in that system.

Seriously, players like Henderson, Wellbeck(!!), Gerrard, Johnson, Jagielka and Cahill should not be playing at this level for varying reasons including being poor to average and/or past it.

[Arsenal Till I Die]

How Welbeck plays for England I'll never know.

Ahead of the Ox? Ooookay then.

[clockender1]

Hodgson has bottled it by playing rooney again...Baines has been dreadful.

yup. i said before the start, Rooney, Cahill, Lampard and Gerrard should be nowhere near the England Team - and that they'd come home pointless. my money is on a Joel Campbell winner

Klinsmann dropped US's Landon Donovan from the squad even though he was their top WC scorer of all time. Woy didn't have the guts to do it with Wooney.

[clockender1]

costa rica 1-0 up. LOL.

FA have already confirmed Woy til 2016....

[Yankee_Gooner_Dandee]

costa rica legit team. and joel looks like a player.

[OneBardGooner]

costa rica 1-0 up. LOL.

FA have already confirmed Woy til 2016....

And then he takes over from Wonka

[OneBardGooner]

costa rica legit team. and joel looks like a player.

Come on Costa Rica - beat the cheating Itey bastards !

[Top Londoner]

Well done Costa Rica. Well deserved.



England. It's all too funny for words really.





Edit. Wasn't Lineker wearing an Italy footy shirt during the presenting, then changed to a collared shirt after the defeat?
Uber crunt.

WENGER OUT