Re: The Football Chat Thread : Fri Oct 07, 2011 8:55 pm  

tiger2000 wrote:

What an abysmal second half from England, continually giving away posession, a better team would have destroyed England tonight

You seem surprised.

Re: The Football Chat Thread : Fri Oct 07, 2011 9:05 pm  

Anyone know why Wayne Rooney still plays for England?!

Re: The Football Chat Thread : Fri Oct 07, 2011 9:16 pm  

Roofs wrote:

Anyone know why Wayne Rooney still plays for England?!

Because he's considerably better than our other options?

Re: The Football Chat Thread : Fri Oct 07, 2011 9:36 pm  

Ndamukong wrote:

Because he's considerably better than our other options?

But is he?
Since Euro 2004, his good England performances can be counted on the fingers of one hand. In my book, that's not many good performances in 7 years. Not exactly a great return, is it.

Re: The Football Chat Thread : Fri Oct 07, 2011 9:39 pm  

lefty goldblatt wrote:

But is he?
Since Euro 2004, his good England performances can be counted on the fingers of one hand. In my book, that's not many good performances in 7 years. Not exactly a great return, is it.

Well who would you pick instead of him?

Re: The Football Chat Thread : Fri Oct 07, 2011 9:40 pm  

The problem for England isn't goalscoring, it's defending.

Quite simply. We can't do it.

Capello has never been able to turn us into a solid defensive unit.

Unfortunatley this is the reason that as soon as we come up against a half decent team at the Euros (Spain / Germany etc) we will get anhiliated.

Re: The Football Chat Thread : Fri Oct 07, 2011 9:50 pm  

Ndamukong wrote:

Well who would you pick instead of him?

anyone really.

Consistantly playing badly for your country, should result in you being dropped, no matter what your name is

But hang on, he plays for a big club, domestically, and the FA (and Cappello) wouldn't have the balls to stand up to the backlash from all corners of the media, come the day he was (hypothetically) dropped.

Re: The Football Chat Thread : Fri Oct 07, 2011 10:04 pm  

Despite apparently stinking the place out he has got 28 goals in 72 games for England which isn't exactly terrible. I'm not saying he's been brilliant but there is nobody to take his place. He is a top class talent despite his ridiculous sending off tonight. Whole load of players I'd drop from the England squad before Rooney.

Re: The Football Chat Thread : Fri Oct 07, 2011 11:04 pm  

Just watched the highlights of the Northern Ireland v Estonia game. I must say the commentators are absolute idiots, whoever they are. There was a goal (Cracking goal too) from Estonia where they had possession at the edge of the box. A Northern Ireland defender tackled him, pushing the ball into his own box where a player coming back from a previous passage of play was stood in an offside position. The linesman flagged and the NI team stopped. The Estonia player then passed it on and they scored. The commentators had the benefit of several replays and concluded the officials had it wrong and it was a clear offside. None of them spotting the fact that the ball was never passed forward, it was kicked by the NI player.

As for England, the less said the better. Still picking on reputation and not ability. Can someone tell me what Gareth Barry does to deserve that shirt? Ashley Cole? Utter rubbish tonight from Cole, he got skinned everytime they went down his side of the pitch. Something is also very wrong with the defense. I'm not sure if it's Hart's organisation, Terry and Cahill not working as a partnership or just individual errors. But for a side like Montenegro to find it so easy to put forward and force them so deep it has to be worrying. At the end England were so deep they were in danger of tripping over the advertising hoardings.

Re: The Football Chat Thread : Sat Oct 08, 2011 7:13 am  

I'm with you on the England bits, Saddenned.
Barry, I shudder slightly when he's chosen at domestic level
Cole. Now there is a player who's living on reputation. Playing like his mopsing around, still pining for Cheryl
Terry, another one on reputation. And not a very nice person either.
Rooney, as I said above, simply doesn't justify his inclusion, but as Ndamukong points out, we've no-one better. Perhaps a dropping (after his ban runs out) may 'shake him up' up a bit. Just wait for the pundits this weekend, trying to defend him...oohh he's got things on his mind, it's just his competative streak...he wouldn't be the same player without it, well it's Wayne, isnt it, what you see is what you get..... what is it with footballers? Are they a protected species?
Hart, I've no REAL problem with. OK his distribution could be better. BUT, who did we have on the bench? Scott Carson. I'd rather have Frank or Willie Carson in nets.

After these, the rest of the England side is similar to our own national RL side. Good players in their own league, but when it comes to internationals, they're well short of the mark.