• Check out the relaunch of our general collection, with classic designs and new ones by our very own Pissog!

2011-12 Football/Soccer Thread

Status
Not open for further replies.
Yeah Dan haha. We go away to a more hostile atmosphere on a shocking pitch, with an arguably weakened team and win 0-3, while we beat them on a perfect pitch in front of our own fans, 4-0. Were people really expecting more? This was just a 'get the job done' game. It should be the same against Wales and then we might be able to tinker more in the final matches if we've won the group by then.

For so long, England have had somewhat of a reputation for having a good selection of right-sided players, and no one on the left. Now we have Young and Downing finally living up to their potential so we have two good enough left wingers, but the right wing is now a bit more unsure. Lennon, Walcott, or Johnson will have to nail it down and maybe one of them will have to be left out of the squad completely in future.

I think people are starting to like Parker and I don't mind him. But Gareth Barry is fucking awful, he needs to be dropped before the likes of Lampard are IMO.

I agree that the England team should be built around Wayne Rooney. Everyone knows he's basically the heartbeat of our offensive threat and he'll always give 100%. He has to be the first name on the team sheet and we need to create formations that will bring the best out of him.

When fit, I still think Ferdinand, Terry, and Ashley Cole are our best defenders, despite them all ageing and Rio's questionable fitness. The Right Back slot is out of Johnson and Richards for me, despite Chris Smalling's good displays there and me wanting him in the side because he's a United player.

What would be your chosen England team if every player was fully fit and not in terrible form?

Hart, Green, Foster

Johnson, Ferdinand, Terry, Cole
Smalling, Cahill, Lescott, Baines

Lennon, Gerrard, Wilshere, Young
Milner, Lampard, Carrick, Downing
Parker

Rooney, Bent, Crouch, Walcott

It's really difficult. I obviously want players like Phil Jones, Tom Cleverley, Danny Welbeck in there, Andy Carroll might end up being the different type of striker over Crouch in the near future if we're going for a more youthful approach, but Crouch's scoring record for England is very good. Adam Johnson might deserve to be there but it depends how much he gets into the Man City team. Micah Richards is probably someone I'd personally choose but the form of Chris Smalling questions his placement in the squad. There's also the potential revitalisation of Owen Hargreaves if he plays enough for Manchester City, which we have to doubt, but it's a possibility. Dawson has a good shout, as does Jaigielka, but with the emergence of Smalling and Jones playing for Man Utd I think they have slightly less of a shot. If Hargreaves gets back to his Bayern Munich / 2008 Man Utd form, he's better than a lot of the current midfielders we have. But everyone I just mentioned in this paragraph is fighting for one slot and I bet it'd go to a midfield player. Probably end up being Gareth fucking Barry, too.

Maybe my reluctance to drop the likes of Ferdinand, Terry, Cole, Gerrard, Lampard, Carrick, and Crouch is hindering the youth too much, but I really think these guys deserve to be in the Euro's at least and they are very good players. If they're really proving that they're either overrated or not the right mold to be in a team together, then the younger guys will at least have more experience and the World Cup to look forward to.

Whoever takes over England will have a hard time, but hopefully they'll bring the youth in if we perform badly in the Euro's.

Arsene Wenger, anyone?
 
^ Carroll over Crouch. Also, I like it when England plays with inverted wingers, coming inside and the attacking full-backs (there are excellent ones like Cole / Baines down the Left and Johnson / Richars on the right) overlap. Ashley Young has been sensational on the left but Capello doesn't play him there because he doesn't consider him a ''winger'' (but Walcott is a winger to him ...). On the left, Downing does a decent job but Adam Johnson should also be considered. While Downing has a better cross on him and is much more consistent, Adam Johnson has much more pace and trickery.

I'm going to be really honest, I don't like the idea of 'Arry taking over as England manager... He's tactically inept and that's something you really need in Cup competitions. I'm not even going to comment on Hodgson.

People might call me crazy and I might be a bit biased over this choice but I think the man for the job is Rafa Benitez.

Everybody knows how good he is in Cup competition. He won the CL with Valencia, a year later he won it with Liverpool in the dramatic 3-3 with Milan and got to the final the year after. He also got Liverpool consistently to the Semi-Finals each year.

If he got the England job, he would get a very big group of players to choose from (from a league he's very experience with) and this is what he wants (If it wasn't for the terrible Cow-boy owners Liverpool had, you would be watching David Villa, David Silva, Tevez, Aguero, Vidic ... playing at Anfield. Yes, he had targeted those players but the money wasn't there).

Bottom line is that he knows which players to select and he's one of the most tactically astute managers in the world. His only weakness is probably his man management and the media's hate towards him...

EDIT: Don't slaughter me please.
 
I think the main problem with Benitez would be his defensive approach. A lot of people complain about Capello in this regard, and as you can see from this thread, even when England win it isn't good enough apparently. I don't see it as a bad thing because if people think England are going to be able to play 442 or no defensive midfield players against Spain, Brazil, Holland etc and out-football them, they're obviously retarded.

As long as he wasn't consistently picking two from Parker, Barry, or Carrick then I think Benitez could be successful. I think the future of the England midfield could be Wilshere, Cleverley, and probably still Gerrard. Gerrard is the driving force, goal-getter, and leader that an English midfield demands. Wilshere is a good holding player, can pass the ball and isn't afraid of a challenge. Cleverley could be the most technically gifted in regards to passing and vision (but all three players would be good at this). Young needs to play on the left with Cole / Baines overlapping, Rooney up front, and then we have a choice of three pacey players on the right who would thrive on the passing ability of Wilshere, Cleverley, Gerrard, Rooney. The movement of the team would definitely improve. We'll have to see how everything progresses.
 
it is fine having defensive midfield players, it isnt fine knocking the ball about between defenders and midfielders then giving the ball away, then hoofing it out of play, which is what brought on 5-10 minutes worth of pressure, if we did that against better teams we would be beaten. look at englands clean sheet record. its poor
 
i don't see what you're complaining about, we had to win that game and we went out and played in a manner that saw us win the game easily. there is no need to play risky and expansive football when, quite simply, the need to do that is not there. the best bet is to just ensure we stay top of our qualifying group, then we can worry about the style of football we play.
 
Barry wouldn't have played if Wilshere was fit. Lampard could have played but he's terrible in a 2 man midfield because he's not athletic enough to make his trademark late runs without leaving Parker exposed and if he doesn't, Capello might as well just play Barry who has a good range of passing (He provided the assist for Cahill's goal).

Idk why, but I expect Gerrard to retire from international football. He should focus on Liverpool after his horrific injury and I don't think he's going to win anything with England.
 
Capello obviously has an inflated opinion of Barry but we have to remember that he was only filling in for Wilshere who was injured. Wilshere and Parker in the middle would give England much more creativity, flair and attacking potential as well as being very good defensively as both are solid in their tackling and resilient attitude. I think Capello has finally got it right by dropping Lampard and Rio and using young players to give the side energy and pace.

I think he actually started building the side around Wilshere after his post-match fap about Wilshere being future England captain and world player of the year after the Arsenal-Barcelona match last year. Whether that is the right thing to do is debatable since Rooney would be a natural player to shape the side around right now but I think Capello lost a lot of faith in Rooney after the WC and he experimented with a lot of different strikers before settling on Rooney again. Otherwise he should be playing a pacey, Hernandez type goal poacher up front (Sturridge, Walcott, Bent, Defoe...) with Rooney sitting deeper and Ashley Young on the wing (where both players would rather be).

But whatever Capello chooses, he looks to have made up his mind and is building up a decent defence with good midfield cover and pacey players up front. I'm happy with that.
 
Lee said:
our owner is worse than your owner
Click to expand...

our former texas cowboy owners would probably beat ashley in that department. both thick as a brick

George-Gillett-and-Tom-Hicks.jpg

Im gonna go puke
 
city like blue moons... it is the time beriod between trophys
everyone hates city already something to do with success buying
 
literally, phalanx, you are so obnoxious you've made me actively dislike utd (and my mother is an obnoxious man utd fan who knows nothing about football, so its not like i'm not used to it). i like city now, sort of. they're playing pretty football, theyre scoring lots of goals, they've got lots of awesome players. and if people don't see them as a serious threat for the title theyre idiots.

newcastle have a terrible owner :( probably the worst in the prem. al fayed isn't a basic incompetent a la ashley but i always thought telling fulham's fans to 'fuck off and support chelsea' if they didn't like a statue of jacko was pretty bad on the 'alienating club supporters' scale.

edit: also hahaha that thread is class. what absolutely stunning retards
 
claiming we have the worst owner

leeds vs man utd in the cup, tickets: £38
england vs wales in the euro qualifying, tickets: £35

:(
 
Vermaelen looks like he's out for 2 months now. Add this to Wilshere and suddenly all that optimism is gone. Man if this ends up like last season Wenger had better free Cahill in January.
 
West Ham are charging something like £32 for a ticket in the Championship, easily 5-10 quid more than they need to be... hey you just got relegated, reality check:YOU ARE NOT A BIG CLUB. Ok thanks.

Prediction tonight, 2-0 England, at least. Hart to keep a clean sheet is the main 'predict'
 
Holland to win with -1 handicap is evens, chucked £20 on it, easy money.

Looking forward to England Wales tonight, was gonna put a few quid on -2 handicap for England, but couldn't bring myself to...

Thinking 3-0 England with 2 from Rooney and (hopefully) a rocket from 25 yards from Downing (like the one that hit the bar vs Sunderland).
 
We all saw that guy who smashed capello in his autobiography for being a terrible guy...i think ashley cole?

None of us saw that capello hate coming, right? *rolls eyes*
 
I hope Carroll starts or is at least on the bench. I'm afraid it might affect his confidence since he lost his place in the Liverpool first XI right now.

I think all the criticism Andy is receiving is unjustified. I mean he started 2 games and there were 2 disallowed goals that could easily have been given on another day. He scored a rocket in the Carling Cup too.

Capello criticizing for his drinking also annoyed me. I just think that the criticism is just there because of the £35m price-tag. If Suarez cost £35m and Andy £22m, I'm sure people would put less pressure on them.

He can be unplayable when he's fit and confident (see Man City at Anfield), if he scores today or put at least a decent performance, he might get his confidence back.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top