Croatia was just revenge, Capello clueless.

[Marshy]

When this headless chicken plays and Lampard doesn't, according to The Times, England gain more points than when Lampard plays and Gerrard doesn't. Also, when they play together England gain even more points.

Still, let's not facts get in the way of anything.

The facts are they play shit together though Nemesis, and that when we come up against decent opposition with them as a central pairing we get found out.

 

[Les Biehn]

When this headless chicken plays and Lampard doesn't, according to The Times, England gain more points than when Lampard plays and Gerrard doesn't. Also, when they play together England gain even more points.

Still, let's not facts get in the way of anything.

Pretty sure I referencingwas the hypothetical conversation regarding Gerrard playing at RB not CM. As far as I'm aware Gerrard has played no games for England at RB so what the feck are you on about?

 

[RonnieO'Sullivan]

Gerrard is not a right-back. End of.

 

[CHAPPERS]

I vaguely remember Gerrard playing at right back for England once.

 

[beorhthelm]

I always thought the trouble with Gerrard and Lampard playing together was when they were playing together in the centre of midfield without a holding player. If Gerrard is out on the wing then its less of a problem I think.

Might well be more of an issue when Cole is fit again. Gerrard and Lampard will be competing for the same spot.

partially, but they also play a similar game and Gerrard will drift inside and we will have little width. If, as its commonly accepted, Cole is seen as the first choic on the left wing, and we will employ a holding midfield (Barry, Hargreaves, Carrick in a crisis) then Gerrard and Lampard have to to get used to competing for the other central midfield spot. a "fit then you play, somwhere" policy will screw us.

 

[Les Biehn]

I vaguely remember Gerrard playing at right back for England once.

Pipe down Max.

 

[Pavilionaire]

We need to stretch the pitch by having a wide man on the left so plenty of space can be created for Rooney and Lampard to operate in, and decent crosses be provided for Heskey.

I'm not a Downing fan but even he should be able to piss on the Khazakstan full-back at home.

As has been mentioned before, Gerrard drifts inside and congests midfield, plus (my personal bugbear) he gives possession away too easily.

Downing to start, Gerrard on the bench.

 

[Easy 10]

Beckham at right-back against this shit team please. No question about it for me. In the absence of Young it has to be Gerrard on the left

You ARE kidding, I take it ? Beckham can barely shuffle 15 yards either side of the halfway line these days, and he can't tackle. Whats he supposed to do, "overlap" ? We'd get more attacking impetus from a deformed badger on valium. And its not ILLEGAL to leave Gerrard out is it. Sure he's a good player, but anyone who's not sussed that Gerrard+Lampard=SHITE by now really ought to start watching Baseball instead, or something.

Losing Joe Cole is a blow. For me, I'd keep Walcott on the right, Lampard/Barry in the middle, and put SWP down the left. His crossings not the best anyway, but he can cut inside for some potshots from there, and having that kind of pace down BOTH flanks will simply be too much for these mugs to cope with.

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

I thought Lampard came out with a quality quote during the week "we're not stupid or egotistical".

Yeah, right.

 

[Marshy]

Be interesting to see what Capello does with Terry injured also...

I would move Brown into centre half and play Johnson at right back.

Im not a fan of Lescott or Upson and Brown has played with Ferdinand on many occasions.

 

[Easy 10]

Be interesting to see what Capello does with Terry injured also...

I would move Brown into centre half and play Johnson at right back.

Im not a fan of Lescott or Upson and Brown has played with Ferdinand on many occasions.

I find myself concurring with this assertion.

 

[Uncle Buck]

Be interesting to see what Capello does with Terry injured also...

I would move Brown into centre half and play Johnson at right back.

Im not a fan of Lescott or Upson and Brown has played with Ferdinand on many occasions.

But then Glen Johnson is a liability waiting to happen.

 

[Mellotron]

"Capello is clueless..." you guys are hilarious, if a BIT annoying.

We're lucky such a good manager would decide to help a nation of morons like us.

Against a team like Kazakhstan Lampard & Gerrard will probably work fine. That doesn't mean Capello will stick with it for every game. It makes sense to play an attacking 4-3-3 against the Kazakhs because we simply need to score, nothing else.

Capello knows FAR BETTER than ANY of us.

I've always held strong on the view that Lampard and Gerrard cannot work together until now. Until now we've not had a manager with the balls to TELL them what to do and drop them if they don't do it.

So they will HAVE to work together or Capello will drop one of them. He will not just continue spinelessly to select both if it continues to clearly not work. I promise you that much.

As for Croatia was just revenge....that's just a stupid comment. We did not play blindly and emotionally and just bundle the ball in-vengeance style victory. We played patiently and brilliantly.

Wake up.

 

[Silent Bob]

But then Glen Johnson is a liability waiting to happen.

Against Kazakhstan?

 

[Uncle Buck]

Against Kazakhstan?

It shows how woefully short we are on right backs, which is something that has been done on this thread.

 

[sten_super]

Capello knows FAR BETTER than ANY of us.

That logic is probably completely true, but completely belies the point of having an internet discussion board based on a football team. Using that logic we can't debate any decision the manager of any club or team ever makes, because they know better than us.

Besides which, I would have assumed that McClaren and Sven knew better than us, but they still picked the useless idiots together in centre midfield year after year, didn't they?

 

[Silent Bob]

It shows how woefully short we are on right backs, which is something that has been done on this thread.

But this is a guy that plays week in week out in the Premiership, he should be able to cope against Borat and co at Wembley. In a game where we should dominate territorially and possession wise he's be a useful attacking outlet. Plus it would mean we don't have to play Lescott.

 

[Mellotron]

That logic is probably completely true, but completely belies the point of having an internet discussion board based on a football team. Using that logic we can't debate any decision the manager of any club or team ever makes, because they know better than us.

Besides which, I would have assumed that McClaren and Sven knew better than us, but they still picked the useless idiots together in centre midfield year after year, didn't they?

Of course we can debate it, and should. I'm just annoyed at people calling one of the most successful managers of the last 25 years clueless after TWO competitive games with us (Both comfortable wins).

Surely you can agree that that is a tad ridiculous and fickle?

 

[Mellotron]

The difference between Capello, Sven and McClaren is Fabio has a spine.

He's already told the club managers to shut up about trying to tell him who he can play and who he can't.

 

[simmo]

The Croatia game was about pure player revenge.

Capello if he selects Lampard and Gerrard is showing us that the formation and team chosen away against Croatia was a forced hand and not the tactical genius that people are saying.

Even I after a couple of years of believing Gerrard and Lampard could play together now admit it dosent work.

the worrying thing is that against poor opposition we will get away with it and Capello will believe it works......

You are worse than the worst tabloid journalist, every single manager England have, you complain about and want out virtually immediately. You shouted from the rooftops to get Eriksson out, it was on your message avatar. He went like you wanted, did that make us any better? At least we qualified for tournaments under him, unlike the bloke whom followed him!

Now Cappello wins his first meaningful game 4-1 away from home, blows the group wide open and still you complain! With 3 goals from a player whom didn't play in the earlier game, so much for player revenge, how about given Capello praise for choosing Walcott over other safer (Beckham) options!

Reality check for you, England whomever are in charge are not very good because our players are not as good as they are made out to be......give Cappelo a break he got us a great result I think he deserves a little more of a chance than you gave Eriksson, he might actually be good you know!