The Football Thread

[footstep]

Little match for Deschamps boys and 0 1 (Diaby man of the match) in Finland.3 points that's all.

[m100]

Anyone else think it's time england were brave and ditched rooney. I know it was only moldova but england look a far better side when he isn't there.

[Mal Hombre]

I agree entirely,His best contribution to the National side would be to retire from it....

[pierrelm]

Originally Posted by m100

Anyone else think it's time england were brave and ditched rooney. I know it was only moldova but england look a far better side when he isn't there.

Amen to that.
Rooney is an unfortunate example of the type of footballer which we seem to specialise in producing - bags of ability in his feet but lacking as a genuine team player or in the level of appreciation of the game and team discipline found in successful sides.

Looking (enviously) at Germany, Italy, Spain (and sometimes France & the Netherlands, when they're not sulking) they seem to listen to their coaches and appreciate that there's a game plan and can improvise and and adapt within it. The British footballer and I think especially the English somehow seem to think that talent is enough in itself for them to 'deserve' success and too many seem to think that Roy of the Rovers is a real model be emulated.

I also think Fergie's slowly coming to the same conclusion. I've always thought WR's best role would have been as an old fashioned deep lying centre-forward but sadly I don't think he's good enough. Maybe make that intelligent enough, in footballing terms and his appreciation of team play on the pitch. Instead we get underperformance, sulking and excusues and a media full of blinkered pundits scared of the truth.
I wrote some while ago that a spell in Spain or Italy would either turn him into the world class talent he has the potential to be or consign him to the 'never quite was's' at international level along with Wright, Fowler and a few others. I fear the latter. How many of the big european club sides are planning their strategy to lure him away from OT..?

What's disconcerting is that Hodgson stuck with him in the last competition when Rooney was patently not fit and out of form, rather than feature Carroll who was making defences worry about how they would deal with a genuine threat up front...

We need to go back to the Sir Alf Ramsey credo of picking the best team rather than grabbing the supposedly best eleven fit players and squeezing them into a team. We've had years of letdown with that approach and until the Euros I had hoped Roy H would avoid the obvious star name pitfall. Apparently not.

Anyone else remember a short period during Second Choice Steve's tenure when we played really well and won two or three consecutive games playing attractive team based football (Israel, Russia and ? were the opponents if memory serves) Now I think I'm right in recalling that WR was unfit and out of the side then as well...we simply don't learn and the media are partly to blame, but that's a whole seperate rant

[victor meldrew]

I only have one question, if Gerrard and Lampard cannot play in the same side, how did we beat Moldova 5-0?


Has Roy found the magic formula or were Moldova just whipping boys?


Ukraine should provide the answer on Tuesday.

[billynomates]

Have to agree on leaving Rooney out of the England team - to be honest he never looks fully fit to me - and maybe Roy has found a way to play Lamps and Gerrard; Lampard playing slightly deeper...

[pierrelm]

Originally Posted by victor meldrew

I only have one question, if Gerrard and Lampard cannot play in the same side, how did we beat Moldova 5-0?


Has Roy found the magic formula or were Moldova just whipping boys?


Ukraine should provide the answer on Tuesday.

Whipping Boys. They were about Div 1 level at a push but at least they were beaten without too many problems. I'm happy to give Roy time and plenty of it though...

[Mal Hombre]

Originally Posted by pierrelm

Whipping Boys. They were about Div 1 level at a push but at least they were beaten without too many problems. I'm happy to give Roy time and plenty of it though...

They were beaten convincingly,That's the main thing better than the usual narrow 1-0 ,Cautious optimism is raising it's battered head again..

[trugoythewhitedove]

Right, stop all your complaining now, you whinging English lads. You haven't got a fcuking clue about the travails of international football. I have just sat through the first game of a qualifying campaign which has already seen us out of the mix. At home. To Serbia.

At home to Serbia, we were less cavalier than Bowie at the Alamo. Craig Levien, our striker-hating manager, would no doubt have been delighted at yet another showing which might yet get football stopped. I turned my telly up with 10 minutes to go, in the hope of hearing a crowd. Yet all I could discern was the sound of the ball - weeping real tears of pain. There was not one player on the park who could trap a bag of sand.

Oh we have some decent players, alas not one of them turned up today. Not one. That (form) is not the fault of an international manager. But the grinding negativity at home, IS.

And on a slightly different point; Naismith, one of our best, most reliable performers, should've been sent off after about 16 minutes. I'm not slating him because he's a rangers man; he's one of our best, and (as Everton fans will find out) he is a prodigious grafter. He intentionally ran in to elbow a Serbian player in the face, with a clear fore-arm smash. At least an automatic three game ban. None of the officials was watching. Well...

On a brighter note, the three tickets for our Champions League home games dropped through my letter-box today. £28 a pop, not bad eh ? Well, unless we get skelped three on the bounce, that is.

[m100]

Originally Posted by pierrelm

Whipping Boys. They were about Div 1 level at a push but at least they were beaten without too many problems. I'm happy to give Roy time and plenty of it though...

They were poor but then again those are games where england have traditionally struggled to at best a 1-0 win and even at home it's often been no more than 3-0 with the third a late fluke.

We know we're not even going to come close to winning the world cup but the best thing is we've got to a second game at least before the scum and the daily hate-mail have started calling for redknapp.