Oh dear.
Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear.
England lost 2-0 to Croatia last night. Scotland lost 2-0 to Ukraine.
Not good. You're quite possibly feeling a bit down in the dumps about it all, but let me just say this as I try and raise your spirits.
Some things in life are bad, they can really make you mad. Other things just make you swear and curse. When you're chewing on life's gristle, don't grumble - give a whistle, and this'll help things turn out for the best...
and...
Always look on the bright side of life (do-doo, do-do do-do do-do), always look on the light side of life (do-doo, do-do do-do do-do)...
I knew I should have placed money on my 2-0 prediction.
ReplyDelete12 to 1 that was...
Really? 12-1? Blimey...
ReplyDeleteAs soon as you said that, I thought "Yeah - 2-0. That sounds just about spot on." And now I wished I'D put a bet on it too...
A shrewd and insightfull diagnosis of our teams current failings Flicktokick.
ReplyDelete3-5-2 will only work if the 2 wingbacks (Cole and Nevville) can get forward, with the ball, and take on defenders. Cole is probably better at that than Neville, although Neville probably crosses better. Then you need the 3 midfielders to be more central, with 1 holding (Hargreaves/Carrick) and the others supporting the strikers, which is where Lampard & Gerrard come in. Our problem seems to be that Cole/Lampard/Gerrard/Rooney all get sucked into the same area of the pitch and they do not have the close control/ball skill of, say, the South Americans. This means they bang short passes to each other in static positions, rather than a fluid forward movement, and that makes it easier for the opposition to close them down, apply the pressure and force mistakes.
It McClaren wants 3-5-2 then he only requires the 1 centreback, keeping Neville and Cole in a more traditional full back role, 3 central midfielders as above, with 2 genuine wide men used to the role.
As Flicktokick says, Crouch is probably not he best suited to the current long ball pumped forward from midfield. He seems uncomfortable with his back to goal, lacks direction with the lay offs/flick ons, and does not have the pace to get in behind defenders.
Rooney spends so much time taking the ball in midfield that there is no-one around to pick up the odd flick on that Crouch does get right.
(We seemed to play more of a 3-6-1 formation against Croatia).
Granted Crouch has proved he can score goals, but he needs the right sort of service, balls crossed in from wide areas, or if the space is made, balls played to feet while he's facing the goal.
Basically England need to get back to the basics. Concentrate on ball control, passing, both long and short, pushing the midfied forward so that the opposition are given no room to play in rather than having most of our players back in our 3rd of the pitch.
And why oh why did Mcclaren pick our toughest game to start experimenting in? I thought only Ericsson did that!
Fabulous post FlicktoKick.
ReplyDeleteFirst of all, RE:Beckham - well to me, it was a case of McLaren making a statement to the players and public that HE is the boss and he has his own ideas for a team, not just Sven's.
If the excuse was that he cant run past players, then I would have tried him in the middle.
As for the rest of the shambles, its the age old problem with England, where we pick possibly the best 11 players around.
The problem is that we have to play some of those players out of position to get them all in to the starting 11.
Square pegs in round holes.
Looking back in history, the best teams arent full of 11 match winning players, they are full of 11 players that worked as a match winning team.
I can only guess that McLaren decided to drop Beckham as he'll be 33 by the time Euro 2008 comes around, but he could still be used for large chunks of games while newer players are being bedded in.
ReplyDeleteAs for the process of picking players that aren't necessarily among the best in England but are good in their respective positions, you have to spare a thought for the manager. If he leaves out a top name in favour of someone whose star is yet to rise and the team go on to lose, what chance has he got of retaining any respect among the fans?