You are kidding? T.T Jesus christ you did not watch the same game. Gerrard on his day is the best midfielder in England by A LONG WAY. He has been playing fantastic, yet was played way out of position playing off Welbeck. He should of played instead of shitty Barry so England actually had a CM player on the pitch who can pass the ball more than 5 yards. Gerrard deserves to be Captain, in the world cup WAS OUR best player by a long way the only one who turned up. Scored our first goal and led from the front. He deserves to play, saying he is not in good form is stupid because HE IS in good form sinceh is injury and is fresh. The scholes situation is silly, scholes had a fit Lampard and Gerrard to fight it out with for a CM spot and at the point of them all in the England squad was at Euro 2004 when gerrard and lampard both 24/25 replaced him, and he retired at 30. He could of continued but he chose not to and focus on Man Utd and it done him good. The team was a bunch of kids playing out of there skin, the best they have played and still where beaten comfertably, Holland @ 2-0 up where not bad value for there lead, they had by far the better chances than England. Where always dangerous when going forward and England where VERY pedestrian going forward on the counter. We pass it across the back 4 into Barry/Parker fine but after that it goes to pot. Another thing i didnt bring up but will now, is how Ashley Young can start over the likes of Sturridge/Walcott, Studge and Theo both played well the last games they played in yet Young who has not been made a fuss about in a while scoring or playing really well started over them and didnt do much apart from taking his goal well when he eventualyl got into the box. Like i said Smalling doesnt play CB for man utd he plays RB normally, and he is out of position CB with Cahill, the only reason Pearce picks him cuz he played with him at U21 level in Euros last summer. Micah Richards isnt a new face in the Squad or a "young" player he was about under the McClaren days and Capello times but Capello left him out revently i dont know why but he did. He is fabolous right back and that was the only descion i agreed with last night is giving him the RB slot. Cahill also has been in the Squad and CB before for England alongside JT, who i might add is still the best CB England have and there is no replacement for his leadership skills or his organisation skills or his ability full stop in CB for England. Ferdinand killed his England for the 15th time ruling himself out of captaincy when he publically stood by his brother with this Racial claim... Ashley Cole again is just 30 years old not that old and yes the best England LB bare none and he sits on bench whilst a 25-28 year old Baines tries to get his international career off for the 15th time... Holland had most possesion more shots on goal, and more goals scored...Holland won comfertably, we just made them swear when they switched off for 5minutes in the LAST 10 MINUTES OF A GAME. Hardly worth shouting about in my opinion.
Holland have youth and experience in there team, VanBommel is skipper and is 34, Boularouhz is 30, Mathisjen 31, Kuyt is 31. Thats 4 players 2 which are Defenders all 30 or above in the Holland first 11 which is the 2nd best team in the world. World Cup runners up. England average age was like 24 when Gerrard went off after 30minutes (was 26 when he was on)
I don't think you should argue England's current form based on the fact that they did ok against Holland last night. Holland is faaar below the level they were on at the world cup imo. I have strong doubts that they'll do anything significant at the Eurocup. They need to do a lot of improving if they want to get far. And we need van der Wiel back. Bouhlarouz sucks. As for left back, we don't have anything better than Pieters, it's embarrassing.
Sneijder is constantly telling the media that he's fit and in shape, but I really can't see it. He was in my opinion together with Xavi/Iniesta the best midfielder in the world in 2010 (and maybe should've won the Ballon d'Or that year based on the treble with Inter Milan and the World Cup final) and he's nowhere NEAR that level.
I agree Twisted, i think u will turn up good in the Euros though, u have the fire power, even if ur back 4 is a bit weak, think Napoli esc vs Chelsea, ur front 3 alone in Robben RVP and Schnieder (all be it u dont play 4-3-3 but u know what i mean) can win games on there own and have proven to do so alot, Robbens turn yesterday.
Huntelaar and RVP both like 30 games this season and 30 goals or something crazy? Man id die for that in my team! Also the Schneider thing, he was still the best Midfielder on the pitch though? If u count Robben playing as a LW more than LM, was making nice passes.
Disappointing performance by Germany Neither Bayern nor the german national team ever perform well with Schweinsteiger missing. He's such an important player for both teams, it's amazing. The coach also put some questionable people in the lineup. I just don't understand why Löw continues to field Aogo. The guy has NEVER played a decent match for germany and his club performances also aren't exactly outstanding. He just continues to make one crucial mistake after another. Get rid of him already. Schürrle also disappointed, but he played a couple of really good games so I understand the decision to field him and wouldn't mind him playing in the euro cup.
Also, Podolski transfering to Arsenal is a joke. With his recent form, I don't see how he's a good addition for such a strong (albeit weaker than they used to be) team like the gunners. I can't wait for his interviews in english, tho. Prepare for a very very good laugh. His interviews in german are highly entertaining already.
On March 01 2012 09:27 Timurid wrote: France is going to be Germany's main rival.
Don't say that, our main rival is now Italy or brazil (since we are there nemesis):
- we defeated italy in quarters in 98 - We won the final in 2000 vs them (draw at 94' and golden goal by trezegoal) - they injustly robbed us in 2006 with gay materazzi, playing horribly and hopping for luck (wich happened).
For christ sake t.t why does everyone pick up on the non important facts all the time lol.
Walcott has his 2nd best game of the season vs Spurs, and he didnt start of Young who was poor for past month. Sturridge should of played "off" the striker. Gerrard cant play off the striker no more, under benitez with torres when he was 28-30 yes thats his position, if you watched football you realise the older one gets the futher down the pitch they go, gerrard now plays as holding midfielder in barry/parker role last night. He sits there picks the ball up pings his 40 yarders to feet/heads which he is bloody good at. How u say fkn Scholes is best England midfielder is fkn beyond me. He came on pitch vs Man City and cost Man Utd the game! He has scored 1 tap in, and can pass it from a holding midfield role like gerrard does, but gerrard does it better AT THIS MOMENT due to beind younger than him...
Before the world cup, England looked amazing, we were very well drilled organised, and could score when needed too. At world cup we choke, never compare England to world cup performances not until its addressed properly. What im trying to get at is he did TOO MUCH change too soon, we all know England need to phase players out, im a Chelsea fan i know excatly what is needed with our squad to be phased out with RESPECT the players like Drogba Lampard Malouda JT Cole deserve, long surving membes who played and helped bring success to a club for so long (4/5 seasons) But what they dont need is a manager coming in not picking them because he doesnt think they be able to play in 4 years time at a world cup no one but Brazil will win in 2014. Cole Lampard Gerrard JT and possibly even Rio always need to be in / around the Squad for a season or 2 longer before they are phased out, maybe not start every game but they need to be there, experience is key when the going gets tough.
On ur rip at JT and Chelsea t.t...i wont go into the extremely awful biast opinion you have on him or "pretend" to know he is scum cuz of his drug running uncle or his dad that got beat up by 10 spurs fans for no reason at a train station. I will let you keep that opinion to yourself please.
JT and Cahill pairing i thought is a very good one, due to Cahill having the pace to catch the strikers like Carvalho used to do, to make JT look even better, thus i think its a great pairing. I'll also say, there has not been ONE manager at Chelsea who has ever taken the Armband off JT nor has there been any England manager since JT became in the 1st team who wanted to take the Captaincy of JT he only lost it due to our stupid goverment and politically correct idiots in charge of our Country who think, because he is being "investigated" by police for a "racist" comment made on a football pitch he doesn't deserve to lead the country on the football pitch? But anyway like i said please lets not discuss this or it gets ugly T.T
I think Arsenal will still finish above Tottenham, yes spurs are having a great season, an even better one than Arsenal infact, but no-one can hide the fact that Arsenal, even with their experience lacking squad are still the better team.
and no, I don't support Arsenal :D
Edit:
About the England v Netherlands, sadly the best team on the night lost, and unfortunatley it happens far too often in Football, but meeh that just the game.
As an England fan, I would say Netherlands are the better team currently, but they were not the best team on the night, which the result doesn't show :S
Cole Lampard Gerrard JT and possibly even Rio always need to be in / around the Squad for a season or 2 longer before they are phased out, maybe not start every game but they need to be there, experience is key when the going gets tough.
Why? This gang of chokers have achieved nothing. 2006 World Cup failure, 2008 couldn't even qualify for Euros, 2010 couldn't even beat Algeria, humiliated by a German team with 7 year younger squad. I'd rather have Pearce completely flip the switch than give the old boys club another chance to show why they're the most overrated footballers on the planet because of their nationality.
Sweden had one of the best performance ive seen.! So happy after our 3-1 win over Croatia on their homefield. Zlatan finally played as dominant as everyone expects. But the whole team played amazing, with great confidence.
On March 02 2012 00:15 Loooui wrote: Sweden had one of the best performance ive seen.! So happy after our 3-1 win over Croatia on their homefield. Zlatan finally played as dominant as everyone expects. But the whole team played amazing, with great confidence.
Look out for Sweden this summer!
100% agree. Sweden, Poland and maybe Denmark will surprise in the EM.
To Germany vs France: Aogo was just plain bad and i personally don't think very high about Boateng or Schweinsteiger. Schweinsteiger is good at Bayern Muinchs team, but he plays way to static in my opinion. I would love to see that match with a completely different version of the german team.
Especially the both Benders (Sven at Borussia Dortmund and Lars at Bayer Leverkusen) don't get enough credit. They're playing incredible good and give every game 100%.
Ok i can just about understand your opinions on everything but the Gerrard vs Scholes stuff, it is beyond me. I would physically pay you, £10 if you rang up talk sport and said excatly what you did then about scholes vs gerrard and see the reasction you get T.T I don't know where you base your Gerrard vs Scholes stuff on, but it is not reality my friend. 19apps 5 goals considering he has been injured for like 6 months? Thats good. Scholes has never been out of the Man Utd training group i beleive. He had always had the fitness ready to go straight back into the team thus his apperances where always at his best, i would say Gerrard now is the best he would have been feeling in a long time, but after 30minutes last night had to come off due to tight hamstring. He has not the pace to play alongside a striker no more is the point im trying to make, every midfielder goes deeper and deeper as they get older its only natural. Gerrard plays it fantastically well with the 2 holding mids @ liverpool, just like Alonso does at Madrid and did do with Masch @ Liverpool. 1 tackles the other gets ball from back 4 and pings it forward or gets the pace going. He is better than Scholes, especially right now.
I know its youtube clip and all that blah blah, but seriously im not even a fan of Gerrards either T.T
On the subject of "Chokers shouldnt be aroudn the squad" They should always be around the Squad, why don't you think the older players are still playing for all these International teams, even if they havent always been successful they have the experience to tell the players and how to deal with it. They need to be around, for a player never to be at a world cup to play a first game bad needs to have a Lamps/Gezza/Rio/JT/Cole in his ear saying come on 1 game another 2 to go etcetc. Not just the manager can do this specially internationally.
On March 01 2012 22:15 Mandalor wrote: Disappointing performance by Germany Neither Bayern nor the german national team ever perform well with Schweinsteiger missing. He's such an important player for both teams, it's amazing. The coach also put some questionable people in the lineup. I just don't understand why Löw continues to field Aogo. The guy has NEVER played a decent match for germany and his club performances also aren't exactly outstanding. He just continues to make one crucial mistake after another. Get rid of him already. Schürrle also disappointed, but he played a couple of really good games so I understand the decision to field him and wouldn't mind him playing in the euro cup.
Also, Podolski transfering to Arsenal is a joke. With his recent form, I don't see how he's a good addition for such a strong (albeit weaker than they used to be) team like the gunners. I can't wait for his interviews in english, tho. Prepare for a very very good laugh. His interviews in german are highly entertaining already.
It's a test game, nothing more.. without lahm he has the choice between aogo and schmelzer, too late to give castro a shot, thats all we got, on the right side we have boateng and hoewedes which is even worse for this position.
podolski is in a very good form, his injury put him back ofc but i realy think he will be sooo good in london with wenger watching out for him.. you have to remember, he NEVER played in a good team with a decent coach, hitzfeld 2.0 had too much pressure up his sleeve to bring him instead of klose/ribery/toni after the horrible performance the year before. im saying that as a bavarian and bayern supporter.
On March 02 2012 00:15 Loooui wrote: Sweden had one of the best performance ive seen.! So happy after our 3-1 win over Croatia on their homefield. Zlatan finally played as dominant as everyone expects. But the whole team played amazing, with great confidence.
Look out for Sweden this summer!
100% agree. Sweden, Poland and maybe Denmark will surprise in the EM.
To Germany vs France: Aogo was just plain bad and i personally don't think very high about Boateng or Schweinsteiger. Schweinsteiger is good at Bayern Muinchs team, but he plays way to static in my opinion. I would love to see that match with a completely different version of the german team.
Especially the both Benders (Sven at Borussia Dortmund and Lars at Bayer Leverkusen) don't get enough credit. They're playing incredible good and give every game 100%.
I love the benders too, but they are almost the same player type, along with khedira who gets no credit either. imho its the choice between khedira/bender/bender beside schweinsteiger. kroos is the one playing sooo static, his game without the ball is horrible. if schweinsteiger finds his form from early season, doesnt even has be so good , i think we have the best shot for the cup.
On March 02 2012 00:53 Pandemona wrote: Ok i can just about understand your opinions on everything but the Gerrard vs Scholes stuff, it is beyond me. I would physically pay you, £10 if you rang up talk sport and said excatly what you did then about scholes vs gerrard and see the reasction you get T.T
Ask Xavi and Iniesta (they'd pick Scholes every time). For some reason Scholes has never had the recognition he deserves; I think it's because traditionally that type of player hasn't been what English football is about.
The trouble is the type of football that is played week in week out in the Premier League isn't good in knockout competitions.
If there's something we should have learned after YEARS of Gerrard/Lampard for England it's that they just aren't effective. You need patient, intelligent midfield play; you can't just run at the opponent constantly and play high tempo. If you do that against the top nations you just lose the ball and don't get it back for 5 minutes. Works great in the premier league; but not at higher levels.
Scholes is exactly the type of intelligent patient player you need to break down world class defense. The performance last night was an impressively patient performance from England but we really lacked any spark going forward. The team was good at winning the ball back and holding it, we just didn't have the quality upfront. Now of course Rooney brings some of that and our wingers show flashes. It's just a case of being patient and believing in these young players. There's no point looking back to old failure.
On March 02 2012 00:15 Loooui wrote: Sweden had one of the best performance ive seen.! So happy after our 3-1 win over Croatia on their homefield. Zlatan finally played as dominant as everyone expects. But the whole team played amazing, with great confidence.
Look out for Sweden this summer!
100% agree. Sweden, Poland and maybe Denmark will surprise in the EM.
To Germany vs France: Aogo was just plain bad and i personally don't think very high about Boateng or Schweinsteiger. Schweinsteiger is good at Bayern Muinchs team, but he plays way to static in my opinion. I would love to see that match with a completely different version of the german team.
Especially the both Benders (Sven at Borussia Dortmund and Lars at Bayer Leverkusen) don't get enough credit. They're playing incredible good and give every game 100%.
As a fan of 1860 I saw them live playing together back in the days and frankly that doesn't work out too well. Of course they have further improved since they went to Leverkusen/Dortmund, but they are too similar as players. They are great at gaining the ball from the opposing team and are a pain in the ass for every opponent because they both run 13 km+ per game, but they don't contribute very much to the offense. In a way they are a lot like Khedira, one of those players is great for a team, 2 not so much. As for the match vs France the result wasn't totally unexpected as our defence is quite bad at the moment. Especially at right back there is just no player that has really a decent level. Boateng sucks there, Aogo and Träsch are mediocre at best and I'm not too confinced in Schmelzer either. I dislike Badstuber (ok i dislike all Bayern players :p) and Hummels seems to play two levels worse than in Dortmund when he puts on the German jersey. Lahm... well I think he is overrated anyways.
I dont see anything glaringly wrong with the team Pearce picked tbh. I sincerely doubt the JT's and Ferdinands would have spelled a better performance. The lineup is alot more promising than it has been in years and infact the lack of stars is probably the best thing that couldve happened. And yeah Sturridge should be starting. Walcott shouldnt be allowed on the pitch till he developes a first touch. Frankly Ive never seen him be a factor until your team is alread ahead. There may ofcourse be exceptions but that is the general trend. All in all I saw alot of positives and frankly Scholes should be in that squad at the very least. Parker has been shafted far to long, if you have a good working organized midfield hes the equivalent of practically putting a wall infront of your defense.
Honeslty all teams wont play as pragmatically as the dutch have been (even during the world cup tbh) so I dont mind playing at a high tempo against most teams. The current England lineup feels more suited to that. England never have nor do they appear in the near future to produce the kind of play that will pick up apart defenses based on technical ability. High pace would certainly suit them and I dont think there is any reason for that to not work. Working class defense or otherwise.
I know absolutely nothing about soccer, but with the mens USA team beating Italy does this mean that the USA is "good"? Basically, when the world cup comes around, do they have a chance?
EPT
, i think we have the best shot for the cup.
