England v Austria

[mank!]

It seems as if Gerrard's out so Wright-Phillips will step into the breach instead. I think we'll miss Gerrard but having seen Beckham operate centrally for Real Madrid and his range of passing from that position is just as good as Gerrard's, I don't think it's a huge loss. I think Wright-Phillips will cause problems though.

I've heard rumours that Bridge will start on the left, which should be interesting as well; I think the starting lineup will be:


James
Neville King Terry A. Cole
SW-P Beckham Lampard Bridge
Owen Smith

 

[amodien]

Gerrard has passed a fitness test according to reports on talksport!

Shame really was looking forward to SWP playing.

 

[k9awya]

gerrards range of passing for england

ranges from overhit to well overhit!

"here chase this.. dog"

 

[mank!]

OK then, Gerrard is fit!
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/internationals/3613302.stm

Probably this then:

James
Neville King Terry A. Cole
Beckam Gerrard Lampard Bridge
Owen Smith

Not bad! I'd rather see Cole on the left but I'm interested to see how Bridge will do.

 

[Darthshearer]

Funny how Smith suddenly gets a game isnt it!

 

[Jonaldo]

Smiths form has probably earned him an England spot, as well as the obvious 'big club so automatic pick' scenario. I would say that going on current form, the strikers should be Defoe and Smith with Owen on the bench.

 

[mank!]

Current form? We've had 4 Premiership games and one La Liga game, so it's difficult to judge. Defoe's better than Smith but far too similar to Owen, you need somebody a bit bigger and stronger in the air to partner Owen and that's Smith.

 

[Jonaldo]

We've had 4 Premiership games and one La Liga game

This is exactly why Defoe will be sharper. Owen hasn't exactly been in great form for some months now, including Euro 2004.

 

[mank!]

Dunno, he did alright at Euro 2004 and he looked very sharp against Real Mallorca last week. Smith & Defoe would be a nice partnership, but you are a Spurs fan so you are a bit biased

 

[Wazzerphuk]

I'm hoping for a game that does not involve that lazy fat scouse **** Gerrard.

I'm sorry, I can see he's great at club level but international level he's been nothing but a waste of a player. He can barely even last 90 minutes without falling flat on his face exhausted from all the standing around he's done.

England's most useless player for years, excluding Heskey and P Neville of course.

 

[Ono]

Not on "normal" TV - not even highlights.

Sky can go fuck themselves.

 

[Jonaldo]

Smith & Defoe would be a nice partnership, but you are a Spurs fan so you are a bit biased

Hey! I resemble that remark!

It's a completely neutral and unbiased opinion of mine that we should have Robinson in goal, King at centre-half, Davis and Carrick in the middle and Defoe up front

Oh and was this morning the first time ever that a Swindon player was on Showboats on Soccer AM? Yeates doing some funky drag thing on right wing.

 

[Clown]

Resemble? Heh.

 

[mank!]

I'd agree with Robinson in goal at least! Less cheek as well, just because we're not in the Premiership (anymore) doesn't mean we don't play football! We're one of the better footballing sides in our division. We've got a few players as skillful as Yeates.

Anyway, back to England - Gerrard's been confirmed as fit and should start.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/internationals/3613302.stm

 

[k9awya]

how can saying carrick not be biased?

what the fuck has he done? he was shit for west ham, had about 1 good game at the end of season. he'll need to re-prove himself at club level.

as for owen, he has scored a lot of goals for england and i would stick with him for now.
probably have defoe over smith, smith is always so off target

 

[Jonaldo]

Sarcasm is wasted on some people

Didn't mean about the Showboating in a piss-taking way just it's not very often the lower leagues get represented on the show unless they're Lee Trundle.

I can't really see any other result tonight other than an England win, and I bloody hope so as they're part of an 11 game accumulator I put a fiver on for tonights internationals. I think we should do ok.

 

[Xtro]

goal for england

 

[mank!]

Absolutely terrible, James and Beckham ought to be crucified for that performance. If James continues to be our number one then he's either giving Sven blowjobs or...well, that's the only feasible explaination surely? Beckham was useless tonight, gave the ball away constantly even when we were cruising and just about the most notable contribution was that free kick from the back pass. The lad needs to sort his head out and remember he's a footballer not a clothes horse/husband to a pop star/world famous celebrity/ponce.

The game typified England's style under Sven, playing pretty football, good build up play but no end result. We created chances but didn't take them, aimless cross field balls and instantly caved in as soon as we were put under any pressure by the Austrians. Mostly anonymous performances from everybody tonight, King did alright, Cole was good but I felt he didn't combine well with Bridge, even Gary Neville looked good going forward.

Poland will be a much tougher game than tonight and unless something changes we're going to have to pull one hell of a performance out of the bag.

Sir Clive Woodward could teach the England players a thing or two about grit and determination.

 

[Turamber]

Didn't watch the game as I got in late, had hoped to watch highlights but I understand there aren't any! Doh!!

Anyway ... Don't know what Sven should do really. He has to play an English goalkeeper that plays at the top level regularly. But how many are there? Nigel Martyn has been playing well for Everton but he hardly covered himself in glory when wearing an England shirt. But who else is there?

James can be either completely brilliant or completely trash, and you often see those different sides of the same coin within minutes of each other. I still remember his howler against Chelsea in the FA Cup Final a few years back ... I'm sure Liverpool fans have their own memories of his genius.

But, like I said, what can Sven do? He can't really pick English goalkeepers who don't even get games for their clubs and the number of English goalkeepers in the Premiership is very low.

EDIT: Oh and can we pick a left footed player to play on the left flank please? Gareth Barry ideally or even Alan Thompson would do.

 

[mank!]

Didn't watch the game as I got in late, had hoped to watch highlights but I understand there aren't any! Doh!!

Anyway ... Don't know what Sven should do really. He has to play an English goalkeeper that plays at the top level regularly. But how many are there? Nigel Martyn has been playing well for Everton but he hardly covered himself in glory when wearing an England shirt. But who else is there?

James can be either completely brilliant or completely trash, and you often see those different sides of the same coin within minutes of each other. I still remember his howler against Chelsea in the FA Cup Final a few years back ... I'm sure Liverpool fans have their own memories of his genius.

But, like I said, what can Sven do? He can't really pick English goalkeepers who don't even get games for their clubs and the number of English goalkeepers in the Premiership is very low.

PAUL ROBINSON

He even scored last year.
(against us)

EDIT: Oh and can we pick a left footed player to play on the left flank please? Gareth Barry ideally or even Alan Thompson would do.

Tried that tonight with Bridge but I don't think it'll work. Thompson's not as good as people think, the standard of football in the SPL is on a par with Swindon, although not at Celtic, Rangers and a couple of the better clubs admittedly. Barry might be worth a shot but I do think he's looked average in the Premiership when I've seen him.

 

[Turamber]

Can't really comment on the match as the only facts I've gleaned about it come from football365 and the minute-by-minute commentary on the Guardian website.

Thompson was far from a success at Villa and Scottish league football is hardly a cauldron of skill But Barry could well do a job for England. Villa fans find it a little confusing that Sven picked him for England when he was playing badly for Villa and then dropped by Gregory -- but since he has refound his touch and form he won't go near him.

Robinson is a good goalkeeper but inexperienced. Bring back Seaman!!

 

[mank!]

I think it's a difficult choice really, whether to play your best eleven players and fit the tactics around them or focus on tactics and choose the players to fit that. With the talent England have got, Sven has obviously focused on the former. However, Greece winning Euro 2004 throws up an interesting question - are tactics more important than talent?

We've got two options, create a solid system like Greece had and play boring, stifling football and field some mediocre and average players to fit that system or continue to play with the best eleven players in the country and make a tactic to suit them and play good football but struggle sometimes. Tough choice as I hate teams who play defensively and score few goals!

 

[Jonaldo]

Robinson is a good goalkeeper but inexperienced. Bring back Seaman!!

Robinson has played first team football for the last 5 years, either as number 2 or for the last 3 years as a regular #1 keeper, and last year he got more practice at shot stopping than he'd have really liked to.

Beckham is now just becoming an embarrasing story, he has clearly under-achieved for so long now that the mere thought that Sven Eriksson might drop him is now a farce. I mean just HOW badly does any one player have to perform in order to warranty dropping from the side and a more consistent and better player brought in his place?

Tactics? Does Eriksson have any? 2-0 up and it's in the bag.. tighten it up and we've got 3 points away from hom without being amazing... But er.. no, let's leave it, continue pinging long balls to their fullbacks and back off from any forwards we don't push in the back on the edge of the area. Wait till we've conceded 2 and brought the game level then.. being on Carragher? um? hello? 15 minutes earlier yes maybe, but now we need to chase the game and he puts a fucking centre-half in midfield? Please!
Joe Cole brought nothing to the game but in his defence it's hard when we're just pinging direct balls upfield, even though both centre-forwards at this stage have the aerial presence of the Time Bandits.. Defoe and Cole both had little or no chance to affect the game with the way Sven insists on playing the second half of EVERY FUCKING GAME WE PLAY!

James MUST be replaced, Beckham needs to be dropped for his own good to get him out of that fucking comfort zone he's in and the sooner we replace Spam Goran Eriksspam the better as he's clearly as tactically astute as Keegan, but at least Keegan went blindly forward instead of the negative shit Sven plays.

 

[Mobius]

Bring Seaman out of retirement.

 

[GekuL]

I don't think you can blame Sven for this to be honest. First goal was a decent free kick, second should have been saved. England gave them far too much space in the run up to that second goal, but it still shouldn't have gone in.

 

[Jonaldo]

You can blame Sven for the poor tactics and the way England play.