England vs. Croatia - Official Thread

[cannedheat]

All round near perfect performance. Went asleep beginning of second half. Plenty of time to sort out samll errors.O Is it me, or am I the only one that thinks Rooney is the weak link up front?

Croatia had no option other than to go for it in the second and we dealt with them, believe.

 

[Pantani]

All round near perfect performance. Went asleep beginning of second half. Plenty of time to sort out samll errors.O Is it me, or am I the only one that thinks Rooney is the weak link up front?

Definitely, top scorer in Euro World Cup qualifiers. Weakest link.

 

[The Wizard]

All round near perfect performance. Went asleep beginning of second half. Plenty of time to sort out samll errors.O Is it me, or am I the only one that thinks Rooney is the weak link up front?

 

[saafend_seagull]

if defoe started, or a FIT IN FORM owen, we are world champions

 

[sod1]

in Capello we believe !

 

[Skaville]

if defoe started, or a FIT IN FORM owen, we are world champions

Add to that list a decent goalkeeper, fullbacks that can defend, a better holding midfielder than Barry, a left sided midfielder, more strength in depth, plus someone to knock out Spain ('cos we won't) and I wholeheartedly agree.

 

[saafend_seagull]

? and Spains defence??

Ashley Cole has improved defensively by a long way. More strength in depth, that will be Beckham, J Cole, M Owen (he will be back to 75% of what he was, SWP, Walcott, etc). Spain have NO strength in depth except for Fabregas.

Decent goalkeeper i sort of agree with, but there is no one who is better than green, and we are doing well enough with him there.

 

[SirDouglasLoft]

Put in Micah Richards instead of Glen Johnson, and play Joe Hart between the sticks, and an in form Jermaine Defoe, then I think we'll go very far in the WC.

 

[withdeanwombat]

Will FDM qualify for England by next year?

 

[Safe.]

I didn't think Glen Johnson done that bad defensively tonight.

 

[The Wizard]

? and Spains defence??

Ashley Cole has improved defensively by a long way. More strength in depth, that will be Beckham, J Cole, M Owen (he will be back to 75% of what he was, SWP, Walcott, etc). Spain have NO strength in depth except for Fabregas.

Decent goalkeeper i sort of agree with, but there is no one who is better than green, and we are doing well enough with him there.

What rubbish.

Spain have...

Casillas
Reina

Puyol
Ramos
Capdevila
Pique
Arbeloa
Albiol
Marchena

Xavi
Iniesta
Alonso
Fabregas
Senna
Silva
Navas
Carzorla
Mata
Capel
Raul Garcia
Busquets

Villa
Torres
Guiza
Raul
Bojan
Llorente
Negredo


No strength in depth eh?

 

[Skaville]

? and Spains defence??

Ashley Cole has improved defensively by a long way. More strength in depth, that will be Beckham, J Cole, M Owen (he will be back to 75% of what he was, SWP, Walcott, etc). Spain have NO strength in depth except for Fabregas.

Decent goalkeeper i sort of agree with, but there is no one who is better than green, and we are doing well enough with him there.

Wes Brown was on the bench tonight. Macienne has been in this squad. Our best eleven is there or thereabouts but we always get f***ed up by an injury to a vital player. We have umpteen flair wingers, but if who would play if Barry was injured, or Ashley Cole? Are you convinced by Lescott?

Tonight's win was great, but let's not get carried away just yet eh?

 

[saafend_seagull]

maybe a little carried away, but why can't i be, this is like the first decent manager in YEARS. LB position is v weak, wayne bridge is mediocre.

is Bojan ready for the world stage though? has he represented spain yet? 1000 goals in reserve/youth football is pretty sick.

if we can keep a regular 11 who are flying in confidence, i can only see us being the main threat to Spain...

 

[saafend_seagull]

Wes Brown was on the bench tonight. Macienne has been in this squad. Our best eleven is there or thereabouts but we always get f***ed up by an injury to a vital player. We have umpteen flair wingers, but if who would play if Barry was injured, or Ashley Cole? Are you convinced by Lescott?

Tonight's win was great, but let's not get carried away just yet eh?

Macinenee...there are many better options, Woodgate a replica of terry, although capello hates him from his madrid days, obviously rio to come in, carragher is solid, nothing special but does a solid job, upson has been faultless imo, but yet to be tested, where i think he will come up short, but step up ferdinand. also you obviously have ledley king, who is f***ing class, shame about his bones, him and ferdinand would be a rock.

IMO reg. the gk situation, i think james has to be played until the end of this world cup, and start afresh after that. Foster? no, hes like 27 and played about 20 prem games, no thanks..

 

[Skaville]

if we can keep a regular 11 who are flying in confidence, i can only see us being the main threat to Spain...

I admire you're optimism, but let's not rule out Italy, Germany, Brazil, Holland etc just yet. Loving the manager though. McLaren had pretty much all of tonight's eleven at his disposal. It just goes to show what a difference a manager can make.

 

[saafend_seagull]

Germans on their day beat anyone for some strange reason, i really think this is the yr for us. any idea what the climate is for the WC?

 

[The Wizard]

1. England 8 8 0 0 31 5 26 24


Who'd have thought that after that fateful night in 2007.:yahoo::yahoo::yahoo:

 

[Kinky Gerbil]

That thing with John Terry really irks me, especially when people go on about what a fantastic defender he is. When close to his own goal he becomes far too preoccupied with standing on the line trying to defend the actual goal rather than picking up his man. It's precisely because Terry wasn't bothering to mark Eduardo that he was able to stick home the rebound. I've tried telling this to people in the past but I get rebuttal after rebuttal. Maybe after such an obvious case tonight people may actually listen!

Spot on.

But he is always caught out like this

 

[JJ McClure]

Superb performane and superb atmosphere at the game last night, absolutely loved it.
Lennon and Johnson played really well doen the right hand side, Rooney seemed to be everywhere at times and the second goal was immense - gerrard cross field to Lennon, lennon to the back stick, gerrard arriving late to head it in.