Post Mortem.

[Bill]

Too upset and drowning my sorrows to post last night, but thought i would pass on my thoughts about the whole World Cup Campaign after a good nights Kip.

 

First of all the Squad, IMO this was the first and possibly the biggest mistake the manager made.

Owen was coming back from a serious injury, and hadnt played in a league game since Xmas, Rooney also had not played for 8 weeks and didnt play until the last group game as a late Sub. Clearly both of those players were not fit enough for competitive World Cup Matches, and any one of Defoe, Bent, or Johnson should have been in the Squad, at the exclusion of Walcott who has never played for Arsenal, never played in the top flight at all, and was used once as a sub for 10 minutes. Disastrous Decisions.

 

Secondly the Tactics, Before the tourny started i said in a post somewhere that if we dont fook about with all these crap 4-1-4-1, 4-5-1, or that stupid diamond shape, and just went out and played the English way, we would win this Cup.

Neville hurt so Carragher fullback...thats fine, but why drop crouch to bring in Hargreaves as holding player..4-1-4-1.. next game all change, Carragher Dropped Hargreaves to fullback, Carrick brought in to midfield, again a 4-1-4-1. but with a ball player in, and an attacking feel about it.

Next game all Change, Neville back in, Hargreaves not dropped but moved to holding midfield in place of Carrick who was the best player on the pitch in previous game, 4-1-4-1 same system, but now with a defensive mode showing through. Again disastrous decisions by the manager should have had the System sorted before the Tourny Started.

 

Then we move onto THE game, we started off slow and got even slower felt sorry for Rooney, we all knew he was going to blow a fuse sometime, Lampard and Gerrard must have had orders not to cross the halfway line, cos every time time the ball was sent up to Rooney they where still in their own half, Joe Cole had a stinker, and Beckham was nowhere to be seen unless we got a corner or a free kick.

So we go down to 10 men and what happens, we play better with 10 than we played when we had eleven, cos then the old Bulldog spirit came out and we played the English way, a quicker tempo plenty of spirit and fight but why didnt we do it when we had a full team. Again i think its the way the manager tells his players to play. Allardice, or Pierce would have had them playing with fire in their belly's.

 

A this point i would like to say that certain players impressed me and didnt do their reputations any harm at all.

 

Carrick. for his man of the match performance when he played.

 

Hargreaves. for his performance yesterday, covered every inch of that pitch and has energy to burn, we obviously dont see enough of him in this Country to assess him properly.

 

Crouch, i thought he played great when he came on, it makes you think what might have been, if Sven had stuck to the 4-4-2 and played with some passion instead of altering the system, and slowing it down to play their way.

 

Lennon. Done more in half an hour when he came on, than Beckham has in the whole tourny.

 

One final point..cant see why lampard was chosen to take the 1st pen, his Stats shows he had more shots than any player in the competition, but none of them on target.

 

Having said that i would'nt blame any player who missed a pen, cos it should never have got to that stage, Like Alan Ball said before the game "AT THE MOMENT THEY ARE JUST GOOD PLAYERS, BUT THEY HAVE THE CHANCE TO BECOME LEGENDS IN ENGLISH FOOTBALL, AND IF THAT DOESNT MAKE THEM GO OUT AND WIN THIS GAME THEN NOTHING WILL." and they went out and played like a gang of old women. i cant believe their lack of passion.

 

Sorry it was long and drawn out post, but now that the Tournys over for us, we wont get much chance to talk about it again.

 

Licker.

[Ian]

Good post licker, I was going to write my own evalution but you've prity much nailed it.

 

For me it should have always been 4-4-2 for the portugal match, Crouch along side Rooney, Lennon on the right, Beckham inside with Lampard dropped to the bench. I thought Crouch was superb when he came on, hes really grown on me over the world cup (not literally though, fook me hes big enough! )

 

Still a real mistery why Walcott was taken, that has got to be one of the worst decisions that have been made by an England manager.

 

Fair play to everyone who steeped up for a penalty, got to have some bottle. Gerrard should have put it more into the corner but what happend happened.

 

It did look like it could have been our world cup this one, meself personally i didnt believe the hype but on paper we looked a good outfit, over the course of the tourniment though they just didnt perform.

[LeeTino8]

we aint got the bollocks to win thats all !

i feel we should have played 442 but still the talent we have at our disposal we should have been beating teams and beating teams well ... really hacked off with Svens "tactics" and i dont see it getting any better with the Mac man coming in !

40 years and counting !

[Mac]

Been avoiding this one for a while, all I can say is I am so pleased Erikson has gone, gutted about Beckham though, hope he makes it to 100 caps.

 

ATB

 

Mac

[Adams]

Been avoiding this one for a while, all I can say is I am so pleased Erikson has gone, gutted about Beckham though, hope he makes it to 100 caps.

 

ATB

 

Mac

35144[/snapback]

Yea same here now knowing we have mclarren

We should have played a 4-4-2 formation with Rooney and Crouch up front, with crouch holding it up and Rooney playing slightly off him to pick up looses balls etc, secondaly i would have droped lampard (1. He had been crap all tourney and (2) he cant play with gerrard) with Beckham and Gerrard in the centre and lennon on the wing, then if we play like we can then we would have won that match

[MikeO]

then if we play like we can then we would have won that match

35155[/snapback]

 

If they'd played like they can we could've won the world cup. We had the best players there (if not all the right ones!)IMHO and it took a "special" kind of manager to furk it up for us. He earnt more in a week than the Swedish manager does in a year and he was pathetic. I'm angry as hell and trying not to think about it, but I'm not sure McLaren's going to be any better...good post 'licker by the way.

Edited July 3, 2006 by mikeo

[Romey 1878]

Too upset and drowning my sorrows to post last night, but thought i would pass on my thoughts about the whole World Cup Campaign after a good nights Kip.

 

First of all the Squad, IMO this was the first and possibly the biggest mistake the manager made.

Owen was coming back from a serious injury, and hadnt played in a league game since Xmas, Rooney also had not played for 8 weeks and didnt play until the last group game as a late Sub. Clearly both of those players were not fit enough for competitive World Cup Matches, and any one of  Defoe, Bent, or Johnson should have been in the Squad, at the exclusion of Walcott who has never played for Arsenal, never played in the top flight at all, and was used once as a sub for 10 minutes.  Disastrous Decisions.

 

Secondly the Tactics, Before the tourny started i said in a post somewhere that if we dont fook about with all these crap 4-1-4-1, 4-5-1, or that stupid diamond shape, and just went out and played the English way, we would win this Cup.

Neville hurt so Carragher fullback...thats fine, but why drop crouch to bring in Hargreaves as holding player..4-1-4-1..  next game all change, Carragher Dropped Hargreaves to fullback, Carrick brought in to midfield,  again a  4-1-4-1. but with a ball player in, and an attacking feel about it.

Next game all Change, Neville back in, Hargreaves not dropped but moved to holding midfield in place of Carrick who was the best player on the pitch in previous game, 4-1-4-1 same system, but now with a defensive mode showing through. Again disastrous decisions by the manager should have had the System sorted before the Tourny Started.

 

Then we move onto THE game, we started off slow and got even slower felt sorry for Rooney, we all knew he was going to blow a fuse sometime,  Lampard and Gerrard must have had orders not to cross the halfway line, cos every time time the ball was sent up to Rooney they where still in their own half, Joe Cole had a stinker, and Beckham was nowhere to be seen unless we got a corner or a free kick.

  So we go down to 10 men and what happens, we play better with 10 than we played when we had eleven, cos then the old Bulldog spirit came out and we played the English way, a quicker tempo  plenty of spirit and fight but why didnt we do it when we had  a full team. Again i think its the way the manager tells his players to play.  Allardice, or Pierce would have had them playing with fire in their belly's.

 

A this point i would like to say that certain players impressed me and didnt do their reputations any harm at all.

 

Carrick. for his man of the match performance when he played.

 

Hargreaves. for his performance yesterday, covered every inch of that pitch and has energy to burn, we obviously dont see enough of him in this Country to assess him properly.

 

Crouch, i thought he played great when he came on, it makes you think what might have been, if Sven had stuck to the 4-4-2 and played with some passion instead of altering the system, and slowing it down to play their way.

 

Lennon. Done more in half an hour when he came on, than Beckham has in the whole tourny.

 

One final point..cant see why lampard was chosen to take the 1st pen, his Stats shows he had more shots than any player in the competition, but none of them on target.

 

Having said that i would'nt blame any player who missed a pen, cos it should never have got to that stage, Like Alan Ball said before the game "AT THE MOMENT THEY ARE JUST GOOD PLAYERS, BUT THEY HAVE THE CHANCE TO BECOME LEGENDS IN ENGLISH FOOTBALL, AND IF THAT DOESNT MAKE THEM GO OUT AND WIN THIS GAME THEN NOTHING WILL."  and they went out and played like a gang of old women. i cant believe their lack of passion.

 

Sorry it was long and drawn out post, but now that the Tournys over for us, we wont get much chance to talk about it again.

 

Licker.

35041[/snapback]

 

Thats a perfect assessment of our world cup. If we had played the right way the cup would have been us because i dont think there is a better squad of players in the world cup.

 

Mike i agree with you about McClaren, hes just going to be another version of Sven so im not too confident about the Euro's in 2008. england will not win anything for a very very long time now, this was our best chance with these players. The future doesnt look too clever with no sign of quality players like Gerrard and Lampard coming through, Lennon and Rooney will be playing in poo teams in the future with no chance of success.

[Ola]

Thats a perfect assessment of our world cup. If we had played the right way the cup would have been us because i dont think there is a better squad of players in the world cup.

 

Mike i agree with you about McClaren, hes just going to be another version of Sven so im not too confident about the Euro's in 2008. england will not win anything for a very very long time now, this was our best chance with these players. The future doesnt look too clever with no sign of quality players like Gerrard and Lampard coming through, Lennon and Rooney will be playing in poo teams in the future with no chance of success.

35308[/snapback]

we where poo to be frank ,why ho why its not 4 4 2 i dont know

[thebluenose]

who dya think will start in the first game of euro 2008. jus making this thread go longer.

 

id say probably

 

--------------robinson-----------

young------ferdinand---terry----cole

lennon-----gerrard---lampard----cole

-----------rooney----id say walcott knowing mclaren

 

however id replace lampard with either carrick or hargreaves (if he can carry on with his form) and i hope that aj or hibbo is in the squad coz thatl be ace

[Adams]

Walcott? Surly it will be owen

[Romey 1878]

I doubt Owen will be fit

[Adams]

for the euro 2008? Course he will be fit by then

[Romey 1878]

I thought bluenose meant for the qualifiers

[thebluenose]

aye i did. sorry for confusion.

[Adams]

ok mate, well if you ment the qualifiers then he wont be fit for them! but he will be fit for the euro providing he dosnt get another injury...

Edited July 5, 2006 by Adams