Paul scholes..... If only.

[turienzo's lovechild]

If he was genuinely the world class player that we are led to believe, do you think he might just have been able to still influence a game, out wide, or on the left hand side of a midfield three?

It not like he was asked to play f***ing centre back.

exactly

 

[Gritt23]

I was thinking last night watching pirlo play made me think of Paul scholes
He would have been perfect for us in thus kind of game/tournament, if only he had not internationally retired I feel in my opinion he would have made a great deal of difference. Shame........

I think you'd have needed a time machine as well.

Was a great player, retired too young (yes, selfish!), but no place for him now.

 

[Gritt23]

That. And Carragher. f*** them.

Oh don't get me started on that little shit!

If it wasn't bad enough that he couldn't be arsed to be a squad man, getting all flouncy about simply not being better than Rio or JT, but he then takes a holiday to South Africa on the FA. Je-sus man. he can't be bothered with traipsing around EARNING qualification, but once we get there, "y'know what, I will come out of International Retirement now! But just for the tournament, I'm not sodding around with those qualifiers on wet nights in Eastern Europe. I'm not THAT interest in playing for my country y'know."

No time for him at all.

 

[hans kraay fan club]

Oh don't get me started on that little shit!

If it wasn't bad enough that he couldn't be arsed to be a squad man, getting all flouncy about simply not being better than Rio or JT, but he then takes a holiday to South Africa on the FA. Je-sus man. he can't be bothered with traipsing around EARNING qualification, but once we get there, "y'know what, I will come out of International Retirement now! But just for the tournament, I'm not sodding around with those qualifiers on wet nights in Eastern Europe. I'm not THAT interest in playing for my country y'know."

No time for him at all.

That. And given his attitude regarding putting in the hard yards for his country, it was SHAMEFUL that ITV threw money at him, to sit and pontificate about those that did.

 

[CHAPPERS]

If he was genuinely the world class player that we are led to believe, do you think he might just have been able to still influence a game, out wide, or on the left hand side of a midfield three?

It not like he was asked to play f***ing centre back.

I bet you a million quid Pirlo has never been asked to play on the left side on the Italian midfield. Never. Scholes is a central midfielder and that is where he is brilliant. It must have been extremely frustrating not to be played there and then when you performance drops you get it both barrels from the idiot English press. I can see exactly why he retired.

 

[Gritt23]

That. And given his attitude regarding putting in the hard yards for his country, it was SHAMEFUL that ITV threw money at him, to sit and pontificate about those that did.

I honestly couldn't listen to him on ITV. He was about as incisive as Jamie Reknapp, but with a far more annoying voice.

ITV didn't choose well for me at all, because I can't take Roy Keane talking about how determined to succeed the Irish played should be, when he flounced home from a tournament because he didn't like the training methods of the manager. Yeah, if only the current squad had shown that much committment to the cause Roy!

 

[Twizzle]

What ANY MANAGER could do is simply have a player who will always take up a central role between the boxes, but barely ever venture inside either.
When forward, they ought to be on the edge of that 'D' and be ready to whack one at the goal with some sort of pro-player-who-has-practised accuracy, or else what are these players even there for.
We did miss Lampard's accuracy for pinging it from distance, and his midfield reliability too. Gerrard wasn't commanding enough for a captain either.

 

[BensGrandad]

We didn't need Scholes what we needed was Hodgeson to get his tactics right at half time seeing how much influence Pirlo had on the game without hardly moving, should have told Parker to sit on him and stop him playing. Yes we would have lost Parker but that would have freed up Gerrard to be more effective in pushing us forward and stopped Italy.

 

[the right footed denilson]

This is like some kind of Sky endorsed nighmare.
Yes he scored a few goals and yes he knocked the ball around nicely at times, but anyone suggesting he would have made an iota of difference in the Euros is utterly deluded. He gave the ball away so much this season, and more pertinently, we need more than one okayish ball player to fix our problems.

 

[Diego Napier]

All this is missing the point.

You can wring your hands about not having Scholes (great though he was) or Lampard or Carrick(!) etc. but the reality is that 1, 2, 3 or more of the other players available to England would not have changed the result.

The root of the problem is that teams like Spain, Italy, Portugal and Germany have players with better technical ability and more sophisticated tactics.

At least we can console ourselves with the Bloom/Poyet project!

 

[SeagullSongs]

This is like some kind of Sky endorsed nighmare.
Yes he scored a few goals and yes he knocked the ball around nicely at times, but anyone suggesting he would have made an iota of difference in the Euros is utterly deluded. He gave the ball away so much this season, and more pertinently, we need more than one okayish ball player to fix our problems.

EPL Opta Stats | Paul Scholes Midfield Maestro | Uniteds key man

"Scholes has also made 813 passes since his return with a pass completion rate of 92.37%. This coupled with the fact that he has only lost possession of the ball five times just goes to show why Scholes is such an important player for Manchester United."

 

[brunswick]

scholes was never world class......couldn't tackle at all, was always slow, and in centre midfield that is a liabity.

good reader of the game, nothing more.

 

[the right footed denilson]

EPL Opta Stats | Paul Scholes Midfield Maestro | Uniteds key man

"Scholes has also made 813 passes since his return with a pass completion rate of 92.37%. This coupled with the fact that he has only lost possession of the ball five times just goes to show why Scholes is such an important player for Manchester United."

I saw him give the ball away five times in one match.

This reminds me of that overrated dead people thread. Same, it seems, goes for footballers who retire early. He had chances and he should have been good enough to excel playing on the left- Joe Cole did for a while. But instead he retires early.
Yes, he was a great player, yes that was an amusing cameo last year, but let's be honest with ourselves- Scholes was never the answer to our prayers. We need a complete overhaul of our footballing system.

 

[SeagullSongs]

I saw him give the ball away five times in one match.

I'm not entirely sure on the definition of 'giving the ball away'. Is it misplaced passes that go to an opposing player? Being tackled? Both?