Nothing about the football?

Bring back Paul Robinson....

(yeah.... we're shat!)

Geoffrey Trueman wrote:Just when I thought we couldn't get any worse Capello puts out a diabolically bad side that plays shatter than a shat thing that's shat. What I saw tonight sickened me to the pit of my stomach.

James-Elephant shat-3
Brown-Camel shat-4
Terry-Dog shat-5
Ferdinand-Cat shat-6
Cole-Dog shat-5
Gerrard-Mouse droppings-7
Barry-Cat shat-6
Lumpard-Tyrannosaurus Rex shat-2
Beckham-Tyrannosaurus Rex shat-2
Rooney-Dog shat-5
Defoe-Cat shat-6

Imo James, Fwank and Beckham aren't fit to wear the shirt and need putting out to pasture, NOW!

Christ, I'm angry.

Aye - didn't think I could possibly be so wound up by a mere 'international' / friendly nowadays.

I guess I'd kidded myself that in Fabio we finally had someone who had the tactical nouse to see through the glaringly obvious tactical blunders of the last few years.

Frankly (pun intended), I'm dumbfounded.

On a brighter note, that qunt Barwick is out on his ear in a couple of months.

taipan wrote:So Hargreaves must come in.

Plus a keeper.

And maybe a striker

Hargeaves is injured.

There really are no other keepers.

Ditto strikers.

Clamson wrote:Hargreaves is a proper bruising anchorman but he wont come forward at all. Barry is a good anchorman and he will link the rest of the midfield in better.

Barry doesn't tackle and is hella slow. He's the kind of namby-pamby anchor man that would slot right in at a namby-pamby club like Spurs.

He's a left-footed Michael Carrick.

Big_Bad_Bob wrote:
I guess I'd kidded myself that in Fabio we finally had someone who had the tactical nouse to see through the glaringly obvious tactical blunders of the last few years.

Different coach, same old shite.

Can't polish a turd.

Dello wrote:

Big_Bad_Bob wrote:
I guess I'd kidded myself that in Fabio we finally had someone who had the tactical nouse to see through the glaringly obvious tactical blunders of the last few years.

Different coach, same old shite.

Can't polish a turd.

Just can't agree with that.

Man-for-man we stand up pretty well to most teams in Euro 2008 bar Spain, and by extension so we would the rest of the world, as the World Cup is little more than the Euros + Brazil & Argentina.

We've got the players, but there's something horribly lacking both tactically and motivationally when some of the best club players in the world pull on an England shirt.

Big_Bad_Bob wrote:
We've got the players, but there's something horribly lacking both tactically and motivationally when some of the best club players in the world pull on an England shirt.

The players we have are good but overated in not only fans minds but their own too. For all the money gurgling around in football we still have an England team that can't pass the ball for sh!t.

Part of me is actually starting to think we've done well the last 30 years considering how we play our football.

Don't know what you're basing this "we've got the players" angle on.

Fabregas could only get on Spain's bench in Euro 2008.

Which English midfielders are better than him?

Which English strikers are better than Torres?

Don't know if you've seen Argentina in the Olympics, but who have England got that is even remotely in the same stratosphere as Messi or Sergio Aguero?

Man United are a one-man team. And that man isn't English.

Arsenal don't have any English players.

Liverpool have just one English player - a guy so awkward that, in spite of playing for them his whole career, they still don't know what position to play him in.

Joe Cole won't even be in Chelsea's starting XI when they sign Robinho.

I just don't see it. I see a whole bunch of massively over-blown reputations, but not much substance to back them up.

The one guy who does have some sort of substance - at least in the number of goals he scores - is Frank Lampard. And he'd be nothing more than a bog-standard midfielder in another era - he's no Robson, Hoddle or Gascoigne.

Big_Bad_Bob wrote:Aye - didn't think I could possibly be so wound up by a mere 'international' / friendly nowadays.

I guess I'd kidded myself that in Fabio we finally had someone who had the tactical nouse to see through the glaringly obvious tactical blunders of the last few years.

Frankly (pun intended), I'm dumbfounded.

I haven't been paying much attention and don't know who's fit and who isn't, but what on earth was there to gain by playing Beckham when we've got Bentley on the bench? Where's da yoof? Where's Ashley Young, Agbonthewhore, Richards. How many mistakes does Calamity have to make before he's shown the door? Why does our best player always have to play out of position to accomodate that useless turd from Chelsea?

For the moment I'll give Capello the benefit of the doubt because he hasn't had the benefit of seeing the clueless chumps under-performing with his own eyes. Hopefully once the penny's dropped he'll realise how poor this crop of over-rated 'stars' are and start wielding the axe. If he doesn't and we keep playing like that, given the huge salary and high expectation the backlash could see him out of a job inside 18 months.

Meh.

Champions League Final: -

Hargreaves
Ferdinand
Brown
Rooney
Carrick
Scholes
Ashley Cole
Lampard
Joe Cole
Terry

All in the starting lineups.

Add to that Gerrard, Carragher, Crouch and Pennant all being involved in a Semi-Final, that's evidence enough that the talent is there at club level.

Admittedly Scholes and Carragher are no longer available for England, but again, that's down to poor management.

You forgot to mention all the English Arsenal players.

Oh wait.... no you didnt.

See for me you can name all those players as stars but we've got no pattern of play whatsoever. And haven't had for donkeys years...

Two things to point out:

1. It was a friendly - so it is of no value

2. It's August - I know the weather is like November, BUT IT'S STILL THE FECKING CRICKET SEASON - SO WTFG A SHITE ANYWAY?

Big_Bad_Bob wrote:

Dello wrote:Different coach, same old shite.

Can't polish a turd.

Just can't agree with that.

Man-for-man we stand up pretty well to most teams in Euro 2008 bar Spain, and by extension so we would the rest of the world, as the World Cup is little more than the Euros + Brazil & Argentina.

We've got the players, but there's something horribly lacking both tactically and motivationally when some of the best club players in the world pull on an England shirt.

I don't think we have got the players, I said to the nipper at HT that English players are made to look better than they are at club level by the foreigners that surround them. Lampard and Rooney being prime examples.

Yeah we do, direct and/or down the wings. Boring as hell though.

We dont have the dribbling or passing technique necessary these days.

Basil wrote:Two things to point out:

1. It was a friendly - so it is of no value

2. It's August - I know the weather is like November, BUT IT'S STILL THE FECKING CRICKET SEASON - SO WTFG A SHITE ANYWAY?

Take your point, the flaw in it being that in precisely 3 weeks we have what will probably be the most crucial game of the WCQ's and lose that and the next 4 years are pretty much over internationally before they've even begun.

Geoffrey Trueman wrote:

Big_Bad_Bob wrote:

Dello wrote:Different coach, same old shite.

Can't polish a turd.

Just can't agree with that.

Man-for-man we stand up pretty well to most teams in Euro 2008 bar Spain, and by extension so we would the rest of the world, as the World Cup is little more than the Euros + Brazil & Argentina.

We've got the players, but there's something horribly lacking both tactically and motivationally when some of the best club players in the world pull on an England shirt.

I don't think we have got the players, I said to the nipper at HT that English players are made to look better than they are at club level by the foreigners that surround them. Lampard and Rooney being prime examples.

Again, I just don't buy it.

English players made up exactly 50% of the outfield starting players in the CL Final.

That's a feck of a lot of passengers.

Big_Bad_Bob wrote:Meh.

Champions League Final: -

Hargreaves
Ferdinand
Brown
Rooney
Carrick
Scholes
Ashley Cole
Lampard
Joe Cole
Terry

All in the starting lineups.

But what does that mean, in real terms? John Arne Riise and Djimi Traore have Champions League winner medals. Doesn't make them any good.

Hargreaves - good player. Defensive midfielder, England's best in that position.
Ferdinand - good player. Centre back. Over-rated: he's no Cannavaro or Nesta - doesn't much fancy the rough and tumble of defending. He's kind of a fair-weather stopper - as long as he doesn't have to go in where it hurts.
Brown - shambles. Not good enough to hold down a place anywhere at centre back, merely filling in at right back for United until Gary Neville returns (or that Brazilian kid matures).
Rooney - overrated like you wouldn't believe. Doesn't score enough goals to be considered a striker. Might be the best English forward, but when his rivals are Darren Bent and Emile Heskey, it's not saying much.
Carrick - average. Average. Average.
Ashley Cole - good left-back. Not great. Not terrible. Just good. And a total c*nt.
Lampard - mentioned him already.
Joe Cole - hasn't become the player he looked like becoming as a precocious teen. The kind of tricksy yet lightweight midfielder that most top sides will have at least one of.
Terry - good defender. Though a little slow and clumsy.

See, we dont like our English players here at Arsenal. We like to try to stab them...

Carrick should be in England's midfield. He's a class above Barry.

Big_Bad_Bob wrote:

Basil wrote:Two things to point out:

1. It was a friendly - so it is of no value

2. It's August - I know the weather is like November, BUT IT'S STILL THE FECKING CRICKET SEASON - SO WTFG A SHITE ANYWAY?

Take your point, the flaw in it being that in precisely 3 weeks we have what will probably be the most crucial game of the WCQ's and lose that and the next 4 years are pretty much over internationally before they've even begun.

On top of which...

'Football, the game as we now know it, has become the world’s largest participant and spectator sport. The World Cup Finals is the world’s biggest singular sporting event. The game is now defined as ‘an industry’, one, which is closely aligned to significant developments in modern culture, consumption, and specifically, the development of the television and telecommunications industries. Football has come an extremely long way, since it’s humble beginnings as a Victorian pastime, to the global phenomenon it is today.'

Billy Smith

PearlJ wrote:Carrick should be in England's midfield. He's a class above Barry.

Meh. Both much of a muchness. Decent sideways passers, lightweight tacklers. They're Jermaine Jenas.

Dello wrote:

PearlJ wrote:Carrick should be in England's midfield. He's a class above Barry.

Meh. Both much of a muchness. Decent sideways passers, lightweight tacklers. They're Jermaine Jenas.

Nah, Carrick is all class. I reckon he would great with that stupid scouser.

Which one? Theres hundreds of thousands of them...

It's not always about who is the better player.

It's about who will gel together most effectively in the same side.

England's few decent performances over recent times have come with Barry and Gerrard together in the centre of midfield.

This is why Benitez has been falling over himself all summer to try to secure the former's signature to try to repeat and build on their fledgling partnership at club level.