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Russia v England

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Bit of an over reaction here. For pretty much the entire first hour we were in complete control of the game. 1-0 up, they could barely muster a shot and Gerrard should have made it 2-0 with his easy chance. I'll be honest and say that I didn't think they would score if they played for a week at that point.

The penalty was a needless one to give away by Rooney and after that we seemed to lose our shape completely. Joe Cole would go walk abouts, leaving Lescott often with two men to mark. Gerrard was anonymous and the game lost shape from there on. But even then we should have snatched a point late on when Campbell missed a free header from six yards out.

So I don't really get the OTT reactions. Lescott certainly wasn't [Poor language removed]. He wasn't involved going forward but then he wasn't asked to. Generally we had two very compact banks of four and in reality it was almost like having four centre backs at the back because they mainly stayed within the confines of the penalty box. Defensively he was fine and although he didn't look completely at ease with the ball he certainly wasn't alone in that regard.

As for McClaren, like I said for 60 minutes it was a very professional performance. The defence looked rock solid and it looked like a comfortable win away to Russia on a dodgy pitch. On the balance of play we certainly didn't deserve to lose the match. I'll admit that at times under McClaren we have been absolutely dire, but this afternoon wasn't one of those times.
 
Well under normal circumstances I would agree, but we really needed to get the win, and when your only 1-0 up anything can happen, and it did.

When you are not attacking looking for goals you are defending and inviting the opposition on. Just before the penalty I felt that we were not really using Owen as we should do. The pitch was fast, so why not look to make that killer pass and have him use some of his pace (he still has 80% of his natural pace) and get behind the Russian backs.

But we lacked ideas, SWP was getting swamped and I can't see any reason why Beckham wouldn't walk back into this side. Gerrard to be honest was just boring to watch. He never shows the dynamic side of his game that we all know he has. And Joe Cole vanished for 90% of the time he was on the pitch.

We are pretty much out of this tournament due to this result so I feel the reactions are pretty much justified. We were poor, we didn't close the game out.
 
There seems to be this perception that you can go to places like Russia and roll them over. They're ranked 20th in the world, on an away ground with alien conditions. This isn't to make excuses for not winning but I doubt any country would go to Russia and win 3 or 4 nil. Look at the problems Scotland are giving to the so called bigger nations, it isn't always easy.

If Gerrard had scored with his easy chance it would have been 2-0, game over and we'd all be sat here saying what a professional performance. Any winger is likely to suffer in such a match because, as I said before, we were playing a very compact game and keeping things tight. For the first hour it worked like a charm and they both did their bit defensively. To suggest Beckham should go straight into the side ignores the impact SWP had in the two matches recently at Wembley where he's played very well and scored both times. This blind reverance of Beckham is on a par with that given to Wilkinson, with both hyped up by the housewifes that want to mother them more than anyone that actually knows their respective sports.

Likewise Joe Cole didn't do much in attack, but I didn't really expect him to. When you're looking to keep things tight you have to play with discipline and it was when we lost that that we started to lose our grip on the game.

Gerrard was poor and it is frustrating that he can't boss games for England, but then he's been below par for Liverpool this season as well.
 
Bruce, my point about Beckham is that he is the only English player in the past ten years who can get a result by doing one key thing.

We have players who collectively play with the best players in the world, earn masses of money, train with state of the art equipment. I would expect them to go to Russia and turn them over with ease. The fact that we didn't perform upfront, in midfield and in defence concerns me, and is not something that I can shrug my shoulders and say c'est la vie.

It is clear to me though that SWP only has an impact when he has Richards supporting him. Without that crutch he just looks lightweight and dare I say it, his old self.

Barry seems to be making Gerrard look better than he is at the moment.

Rooney for all his supposed world beating quality and Nike-esque ability, he still fails to be able to get his feet off the ground when going for headers and has to had to rely on the linesman and Owen to win a header for him.

Now I hate Kevin Keegan, I think he is the lowest form of football management because he walks out on every job he has ever had, but...he knows that if you score more goals than the other side you win games.

Sven has clearly said at half-time "keep it tight and don't take any risks." Well I'm sorry but if your attacking you are taking risks, and you can only score goals when your attacking. Its not rocket science, its just scoring more goals then the other side.

Why weren't our attacking players peppering the goal with long shots, dipping strikes just in front of the keeper may cause havoc on a plastic pitch.

Why was the best attacking player in midfield sitting back and defending. Why were our players jogging out when we were losing 2-1? And, why does a subsitute for England never ever make an impact. I honestly can't remember the last time we made a sub and the team were changed by it?
 
On the whole the game reminded of similar matches we have been involved in, we flatter to deceive. IMO the best side won. Joelon was, without doubt, overawed by the occasion, he looked well out of his depth. We will not qualify now nor do we deserve qualification. This match did not cost us, it was the piss poor earlier results for which McLaren must be brought to book. My feeling about this sycophant are well documented here and, in a perverse way, I'm glad we won't qualify as he will have no fortunate escape for his initial cock ups.:(
 

Well if we beat Croatia, then its the Macadonia result at home which will be the pivotal reason why we lost. And that is the game that should be the one that fires this smiling ****.
 
If you look at the evidence though it is rarely as simple as you make it sound. On paper there is no way Scotland should have beaten France and Italy. Likewise Scotland should have beaten Georgia tonight. Remember Northern Ireland managed to beat both us and Spain recently?

I remember back in 1997 we went to Italy and managed to scrape a draw to qualify for the 1998 World Cup and everyone said what a wonderful result it was. Playing away from home internationally isn't easy and we certainly don't have a right to turn up and roll over teams. Look at the way we struggled against Metalist.

We're not the most talented team in the world, our recent results have certainly dispelled the Golden Generation myth, but we are still capable of decent performances, and for large parts this was a decent performance. Where we have lacked, and have lacked for years, is the ability to change the tempo of a game. I don't really know why that is but, as Ghost said, our substitutions don't really work and the likes of Gerrard and Rooney very rarely grab the game by the scruff of the neck. Lets be honest here though, Beckham certainly isn't the answer as he hasn't done that either since the Greece game all those years ago. It's easy for your stock to rise when you don't play in a defeat.

On the subject of the manager, who exactly do you replace him with? How exactly do you gauge the suitability of a manager? If you look at the Premier League for guidance there aren't any English managers doing anything whatsoever. There's a certain Swede at Man City who's doing pretty well, which I guess shows something, be it the unsuitability of the PL as a gauge or that you can't polish a turd with our players.
 
what a bunch of jokers, led by the clown that is mcClaren. surprised? not a bit.

hopefully they dont make the euros and start at square one. shame the scots lost though.
 
Fickle thing isn't it, sport. Everyone hails the rugby team for scraping through to the final, kicking and screaming, yet if Mortlock kicked his last minute penalty in the quarters we'd have been knocked out, presumably Ashton would have been sacked, the team branded hopeless and so on.

If Gerrard scores with a sitter this afternoon we go 2-0 up and the game is over, everyone presumably says job well done, the murmerings for McClaren to resign die down and everyone is reasonably happy until the next match. Alas he fecks it up, Rooney plays silly buggers in his own box (or outside as the replays seemed to suggest) and suddenly the team is heading for the gallows with Mr McClaren heading the queue.
 
mcclarens fingerprints are on last summers world cup.

that is where his crime is, he should never been allowed to sully the england job, whatever happened to dynamic characters with their own ideas to implement? instead we have another yes man in charge.

ah well, no point slating him and them, because if the result had been different it wouldnt be apt. lets get to euro 2008 and get absolutely rutted.
 

Who would you have chosen instead of him though? Hiddink was in the frame but then we defeated his side 3-0 at Wembley recently.

Scolari was another and yet Portugal trail Poland currently in their Euro 2008 group and only scraped a 2-1 away win against Kazakhstan today.
 
martin o'neill

would be nice for villa to still be stuck with a no mark instead of a quite decent and experienced manager. didnt he play and therefor learn under clough?
 

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