Road to UEFA Euro

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Well, Holland played their best game under v. Basten's rule, too bad it wasn't rewarded with a win, but with just a 1-1 draw in sofia. Maybe things will come together after all.

 

Croatia deserved the win, they were a very good team that had leadership, desire and a game plan. England on the otherhand were nothing short of woeful and thats being kind.

Employing 3-5-2 was a disastrous decision, everybody knew it apart from McClaren and most probably El Tel. So why do it?

Once again our lack of pace in attack combined with neither striker playing off the shoulder of the last man proved to be costly. We never threatened all game, England are a defenders dream at the moment, so easy to defend against. Hurry up and get fit Michael Owen, we need you desperately! Come and save our qualifying campaign.

The midfield were awful, all three of them, Carrick, Parker and the under-performing Lampard who promised us a special performance for his 50th cap. So where was it Frank?

Our defence struggled, I put this down to the chang of formation in which none of the five were are familiar with employing the system.

Robbo had a decent game, memories of Villa v Brum came flooding back when the second goal went in.

McClaren OUT!

 

Dear God! What was that second goal for Croatia?

 

It was a freak incident. But Gary Neville, what's happening mate. The first thing I learnt as a young defender is never to pass the back to your keeper in line with your net. You pass it to the side ma. Schoolboy error that one. Robinson was pretty faultless and to be honest, it could have been an embrassing scoreline without Robbo...

 

We pretty much made fools of ourselves too, by only winning 2-1 against Albania. They were even robbed from a clear penalty in the second half. I'm not very optimistic about the future with this team.

 

We won Bosnia 0-4 but our performance was awful and the referee was crap as well. He gave us and penalty that IMO wasn't because the bosnian defender tried to protect his face from the ball and not intentionaly hit it and in the second half he sent out the wrong Bosnian player, the poor guy was at least 40 meters away from the area where the foul took place.

 

the problem england face is that they arent top players.

in the permier league, if you want a top player, you go international, english players are never being played to that level, theyre not experiencing enough of the game.

 

Nah, that's rubbish mate

 

I'm sorry BA, but I laughed and I laughed out loud when I heard England fall. Even though I want to see them in 2008, I always get a kick when the Titans that are not Germany or Italy loose.

 

I cried out loud mate!

McClaren needs to go.

 

He's had the job for three months and you already want him gone?

Hint: It's not always the manager's fault. For example, his decision to can Beckham was one of gold.

 

Why was it? We've got no width now at all. Beckham has a good cross and can create a goal out of nothing. The only player good enough to replace Beckham is Aaron Lennon and he is injured at the moment. So Beckham should be in until Lennon is back. We have no other right wingers (he played Neville there last game!!). The man has no technical nouse, nor any passion or ideas.

He did NOTHING as a club manager, except make a slightly good team a bit worse over a period of years. He's not a good manager at all.

I'd have O'Neill or Hiddink, personally. McClaren is not good enough and he needs getting rid of now before he does even more damage.

Experimenting with the formation at Croatia away (where they have NEVER lost a competitive game) was just stupid. McClaren is clueless and he's never done anything, at any managerial level to show he's good enough to manage a top team at the top level. It's like Alex Ferguson leaving Man Utd, then someone from Sunday League football taking over. Just silly. The FA needs a good shake up if you ask me.

 

ill keep my opinion, after all, the manager has little to do with the game, its up to the players to win.

didnt he manage the portugese team which knocked england out of the world cup?

 

No, that was Phil Scolari.

A manager has everything to do with the game tbh. He picks the team, the formation and the tactics. It's also up to him to get the players up for the match. Get them geared up and prepared. A team with a poor manager will go nowhere, regardless of the players.

 

of course, got names mixed up

i dunno, man utd have been doing alright

 

Agree; one example? Real Madrid. Last 2 or 3 years they won nothing and they supposed to have very good players: Becks, Ronaldo, Raul, Robinho, Roberto Carlos, and a long list. But coaches couldn't make play them properly for some reason.

 

and youve highlighted the problem, some players no matter how good they are, do not play well together, no matter how good the managers are.

 

A good manager make players do what HE wants to players do.
I'm laughing every time I hear players complaing about them have to play two times at week...
I've been in many of their training seasons and let me tell you that I wish I could do their job with the money they make. They 'work' about 3 hours at day and their training is a joke.
What can you espect from a player that does what he likes, whenever he likes whitout anybody telling him anything? They are super stars, they have the money in their pockets and is too heavy to make them run a bit. But the problem is that the coach, has no balls to cut the crap out of them.