Magic Lamps

2006 and 2010 England had teams of worldbeaters. Terry, Ferdinand, Cole in defense, Lampard, Rooney scoring for fun for their clubs but at the tournament the expectations are so high and the players so tired, they get extremely shy in front of goal. They were so slow due to their fatigue, the whole German team which is not exactly fast looked like motorcycles against them. England usually have the quality but as long as there is a Carling Cup, replay rule in the FA Cup and 20 teams in the league, England will never win a tournament. Also I'd love to see a real world class coach in charge for England. Hodgson, Capello were ok, but they are rather taciticians. England needs a motivator, who unites the team with his spirit and actually instill some belief in them. When Germany exited the 2004 EM in the group stages, the NT was down. Only 2 years later, Jürgen Klinsmann almost won the World Cup (admittedly in the own country) with a side that was good but individually not remotedly close to what England or Italy had in their ranks at that time. It would be brilliant to have a strong England team again. They deserve it. The premier league has produced some of the best football ever seen and brought the whole sport on a compeltely new level. English players have been a massive part of that. The Golden Generation has been one of the most impressive collection of players ever. Their international medal cabinet does not reflect that, but their club medal cabinet surely does. Btw couldn't the English and the Welsh FA just merge? The best Welsh clubs play in the EPL anyway and the relationship with Wales has never been as strained as the one with the Scottish (which Scottish player would even get in the England squad?). England + Bale and Ramsey would rock.

welbeck so wasteful

This is why I don't understand why u rather play Gerrard-Carrick than Lampard-Carrick. I understand the defensive component carrick offers but lamps would never have those sorts of miscontrols and bad corners like Gerrard

Are you kiddin? England would easily beat all of them over 2 legs.

England might never be heroic at a tournament, but they at least got a habit of qualifying heroically. I am convinced they will thrash Poland. I think this match is hyped too much anyway. If England don't win they go to the play-offs. This is not exactly do or die. I see no team there except France that is better than England. Of course automatic qualification will be better, but it would not be the end of the world to be in the play-offs

even though Mirror and even though martin Lipton is a douche, the article is a decent read.

Baines is still a good deal better than Alaba. His passing and crossing is far superior and he also has the more reliable defensive qualites. Alaba often lets the winger run away from him, which is also why Schürrle had so much joy against him in the Super cup. Alaba is amazing, but Baines is the best LB in the world.

How come Eto'o has an injury scare that turns out to be nothing but though is substituted in every Cameroon match he has played sicne joining us?

He can forget about it. Why should we give them KDB when he did not give Roo. Even though he might have a point cos we are no direct rivals haha.

We will most definitely rest a few. The program we got in the next 4 weeks is cruel and will test our squad depth to the limit. I'd even give KDB a start in this game.

Unplayable for Caulker. Same applies for that Archie Thompson performance. Some of his 13 goals were absolute belters, taking great physical and technical skill. He obviously was also unplayable that day. Anelka once scored 4 goals vs AC MIlan in a friendly. Even though all those goals were nicely taken and he obviously was "unplayable", I would not think of including that here, just because it was a friendly and their goalie was Kalac. Thing is, the quality of the opposition and the importance of the game SHOULD play a part. If not you could include any fluke vs any shit team in a nothing game and the whole collection of great performances would be ridiculed. I once scored 7 goals in the final of a Luxembourgish football academy tournament (the game ended 10:6 ) including a 40 metres piledriver and a backheel-volley-lob (which was a complete fluke, I had not even seen the ball) and completely owned the shit out of the defenders of Fc Düdelingen. Mainly because they were 15,16 year old kids half my size. Personally this performance was probably more remarkable than Ibra's vs an England C-Team with Steven fuckin Caulker. Still I would never dream of including that performance into our list here, cos it was not really competitive and not high-level. Just as Ibra vs England C.

Yeah, also thought about including him. he was so good, he made Ribery look like a schoolboy. Sadly it's very much the other way round now. meh only a friendly against an england side with Caulker in defense. It's like including Archie Thompson's 13 goals performance in that match vs American Samoa. Just too easy.

Yes. Funny stuff from Löw. I actually rather have Schürrle or Kruse in striking role than Özil. He often drops deep to create play and needs a striker to finish his chanes. You see, it is not all bright with Germany either. We might have an abundance of midfield talent, but when Klose and Gomez, who are not exactly worldclass themselves, are unavailable we got no even half decent striker apart from Reus who is rather a second striker. Even England has more depth in that position than us. Also Schürrle is the only German player with pace. It hurts, but that is probably why we won't win the world cup, even though we got everything else that is needed.

yup. You have to give to England that they got real athleticism and desire to their play, but lack any kind of cohesion in attack. Welbeck is so selfish and wasteful, he should only be used for counter attacking football IMO. I gotta feeling Lampard will save England's ass once again tonight

selfish by Welbeck, there were various england player free. Montenegro's counter attacks let them look vulnerable at times

Englands attempts to play posession football with a medieval 442 is quite funny. Lamps and Gerrard are controlling the midfield nicely though, who said they can't play together? Montenegro are shitting themselves as soon as sturridge starts sprinting.

Ramires-Pogba would be extremely powerful but not very creative. We lack that player who can provide the transition and can play between the lines to break up defenses from midfield. That is neither Ramires's nor Pogba's style. Look at Schweinsteiger-Martinez or Alonso-Khedira. All four players are not exactly dynamic but still cover all the necessary attributes for a pivot

And we got no recall option, cos Mou is too proud to admit a mistake

Is it? I have not seen any people killed in bid to host EPL games, but in Brazil this happens every day. Doesn't help denying that. There are millions of pieces of evidence of the brutality the Brazilian government applies towards their own people to force through this tournament.

Harry really must be bitter. IMO he did a good job at Portsmouth and at Tottenham. But when he tried to collect the fruits of his engagement he pokered too high and lost. The England manager job would have meant a lot to him. No wonder it has given him a bit of satisfaction by giving vent to his anger in public. Blaming players for his failure at QPR of course is inadequate and very un-gentleman-like. On account of that, Bosingwa's response is even cooler. This guy never was the best footballer or defender. Often we got frustrated with him. But his attitude was spot on all the time. His more than impressive trophy cabinet is testament to that. 11 major titles. He kept Messi quiet for 360 minutes. Two hours, he had Ribery in his pocket. I think if we had signed him a year earlier, we would have won the CL in 2008 already. Surely he can't be fired up like in his early Barcelona days, but also when he came to Inter, he had already won the CL twice, scoring in both finals and still worked his ass off for Mou, playing left back half the time. He is a professional and Mou is one of the best motivators in the game. That is why he got Torres, who has won everything himself, to give a shit again, so will Eto'o.

Nice vid, but OMG FIFA 14 graphic looks so shit and the play is so non-fluent. This is 2013 FFS. Shame pes does not have the licenses.

He only got two years left on his contract next summer, we won't get full price for him. Atm Cech is only marginally better than Courtois. When Cech has 5 years to give, Courtois has 15. No difficult choice then. Thing is rather Courtois seems not very inclined to come back to us. Real shame he will be the best goalie in the world within the next two years.

Probably because "being fired" as a manager is always hyped by the media. It is not too bad for s.o. to get a multi-million paycheck. It is all professional and does usually not get personal. It is not like your life is hit by being fired like normal people's would.

I'd rather waive football in summer when further human rights abuse is committed to provide it.

Love it how everyone and his dog thinks he should reveal some ominous "i was first choice before Mourinho but I turned down Chelsea job" BS. I'm waiting for Lothar Matthäus and Peter Neururer to bring themselves into discussion.