Steve McLaren is LETTING this England disaster happen...

[Easy 10]

I'll be waiting for you with open arms at the end of it all Chappers, to clutch you to my breast, dry your tears, calm your sobs and soothingly tell you that everything will be alright.

 

[Richard Whiteley]

Well I suppose we can all start pulling various random unpracticed formations out of our arses (such as the Christmas Tree), with uncapped strikers/midfielders scattered to the wind, throw it all on the pitch, and basically hope it all works out somehow. Maybe all the other teams will have an "off day" when they play us too, lets hope so. Thats largely what Sven will be doing anyway.

£4.5m a year eh. Worth EVERY penny.
Genius.

Easy, you seem such a well balanced, sound bloke normally but when you talk about England you sound deranged.
I'm not saying I disagree with everything you say but chill out.

England will f*** up. Not cos of Sven but because we're England and THAT'S WHAT WE DO. And this time we've lost the best player we've had in years. early exit I reckon but personally I've enjoyed the Sven years. We haven't done half bad and I'm not going to believe we can win anything until I see it.

 

[Easy 10]

Easy, you seem such a well balanced, sound bloke normally but when you talk about England you sound deranged.

I'm sorry. I think I just CARE too much.
I've been in an evil mood since that squad was announced, and have royally thrown my toys out of the pram. You're right to draw my attention to this. I'm going to try to wind my neck in, there's really nothing more I can add to the rants I've had on this thread.

 

[Richard Whiteley]

I'm sorry. I think I just CARE too much.
I've been in an evil mood since that squad was announced, and have royally thrown my toys out of the pram. You're right to draw my attention to this. I'm going to try to wind my neck in, there's really nothing more I can add to the rants I've had on this thread.

Believe me, when I'm watching the games I care far too much too, it really isn't healthy.

I couldn't believe how hard my heart was thumping during last years CL final. Surely it's not healthy when all you're doing is sitting down. I'm not even a Liverpool fan.

Football eh?

 

[Garry Nelson's Left Foot]

Yes, it is unfortunate. But Svens job is to come up with some VIABLE options to accomodate this. There's never going to be an ideal solution to this problem, because Rooney and Owen are pretty much irreplacable. So in that case, you go to the next best thing. You at least take the Premierships top english goalscorer. You take along a couple of extra strikers with pace, who will fll Owens boots as best they can. You take players who give you OPTIONS, toc cover the (high probability) that we'll be without our two main forwards.

Playing Crouch as a lone forward will mean we have absolutely NO PACE in our attack whatsoever. None. Alternatively, playing him alongside Walcott in a 4-4-2 is nothing more than pissing in the wind and hoping to christ it comes off. But THATS the choice we're left with if Owen is still nursing that injury. And anyone who thinks that really is the best England can come up with in this situation is either completely deluded, or just isn't looking hard enough.

Easy, you do realise that if Rooney and owen are unfit we can replace them, don't you?

So, if Rooney is unfit(and we all know he will be) he'll be replaced by Defoe (or god forbid Johnson). Thus England will have the extra option that you want. If Owen is unfit, he'll be replaced too.

 

[Easy 10]

And I was leaping around like a MONG in my front room when Middlesbrough came back from 0-3 on aggregate against Steaua Bucherest the other night to win 4-3.

MIDDLESBROUGH !
I couldn't give a SHIT about Middlesbrough !
What makes me behave like this ?

 

[Easy 10]

Easy, you do realise that if Rooney and owen are unfit we can replace them, don't you?

So, if Rooney is unfit(and we all know he will be) he'll be replaced by Defoe (or god forbid Johnson). Thus England will have the extra option that you want. If Owen is unfit, he'll be replaced too.

We can indeed, right up to the eve of the tournament.
But I don't think Eriksson will replace either of them - if there's the slightest chance of Rooney or Owen playing in the latter stages a few weeks down the line, he'll keep them in the squad, even if they're nowhere near 100%. Just like he did with Beckham four years ago.

The backup is only Johnson / Defoe anyway, so we'll still be in deep trouble with only 4 strikers whatever happens.

 

[Garry Nelson's Left Foot]

The backup is only Johnson / Defoe anyway, so we'll still be in deep trouble with only 4 strikers whatever happens.

I'm not so sure. It seems blatently obvious to me that Rooney will not be even near fit at anytime during the tournament. I really don't think he's gonna take them both. Owen is not such a worry as I'm sure he'll be o.k, maybe lacking match sharpness but he can get that in the group stages. Rooney however is f***ed.

 

[Easy 10]

I'm not so sure. It seems blatently obvious to me that Rooney will not be even near fit at anytime during the tournament. I really don't think he's gonna take them both. Owen is not such a worry as I'm sure he'll be o.k, maybe lacking match sharpness but he can get that in the group stages. Rooney however is f***ed.

But if Sven isn't confident that he can take them both, then why has he only named 4 strikers, with only Andy Johnson and Jermaine Defoe in reserve ? It does leave us dreadfully exposed.

 

[Garry Nelson's Left Foot]

But if Sven isn't confident that he can take them both, then why has he only named 4 strikers, with only Andy Johnson and Jermaine Defoe in reserve ? It does leave us dreadfully exposed.

I reckon Sven is confident on Owen, hopeful on Rooney. Presumably he thinks Owen, Defoe, Crouch, Walcott, Cole, Gerrard, Lampard and maybe Lennon and Downing offer us enough attacking options.

We'll just have to wait and see.

God knows why he chose Andy Johnson as a standby, though.

 

[Stevie Boy]

i cant beileve what the stupid swedish twat has picked for the world cup, 2 strikers who are out of action, one who he has never seen play, as he hasnt played for arsenal yet and only 3 resevres games, a guy on radio 2 today was saying he had seen walcot play for saints against millwall and he was ripping the millwall defence apart, somehow i think millwall defence isnt like the dutch or brazilans, i havent a problem with crouch, but he should have picked bent, owen, beattie, crouch and defoe,