England vs. Norway (3rd Sept) & Switzerland (8th Sept)

[uwe rosler 28]

He's definitely hanging on at the moment. I was surprised he was given such a smooth ride over the World Cup debacle. Now, the majority of the fans and crucially the Sun newspaper (who seem to have more say than the actual FA when it comes to hiring and firing England managers) seem to have run out of patience. A decent win tomorrow will buy him more time but I reckon it'll be an uninspiring draw that'll give him the chance to spout how Switzerland is a tough place to come to and we are now in control of the group.

His mistakes so far for me;

The complete misery of the Euros where (apart from the Sweden match) we looked thoroughly miserable and failed to realise that Pirlo was running the show against the Italians.

Going completely overboard about qualifying for the World Cup. We should qualify every time and the Germans laugh at us carrying on like it's a major achievement.

Discarding John Ruddy because Norwich had been relegated and calling up Fraser Forster who looked out of place when he played for England.

Not taking an experienced Ashley Cole (and to a lesser extent John Terry) to the World Cup, preferring to take Luke Shaw who he then announced to be unfit and out of condition after the tournament.

Going on a seemingly endless quest to find a partner for Wayne Rooney who is quite literally the white elephant in the room. Sturridge is a given as a starter, Welbeck can't hit a cow's arse with a banjo most of the time but fits the style of play we seem to be looking at.

He then compounds the above by making Rooney his permanent captain and therefore virtually undroppable despite the fact that most of the pundits, journalists and fans around the country openly question what exactly he is currently bringing to the team.

Failing to see that Steve Gerrard was England's worst player by a country mile in all three World Cup matches and asking him to stay available for selection.

Finally, getting all defensive about the turgid performance against Norway when two shots on target was mentioned. He started mentioning blocked shots and bizarrely, Sturridge's lob that landed on the roof of the net. "Erm yes Roy, the roof of the net is classed as off target!"

The fact that the only point we managed in the World Cup was against Costa Rica should have seen him given the bullet before the plane left the Brazilian tarmac.

Hard to argue with most of that.

If it weren't for the ineptitude of the FA, which ensures that you do expect such things, I'd be baffled as to how he is still in the job. Too old, too old-fashioned, a tactical dinosaur. We need someone who can actually galvanise the team and make it better than the sum of it's parts.

I expect us to lose tonight, or else to squeak a (probably undeserved) draw. Switzerland's change of manager might make a bit of a difference, but they've still got very much the core of the same team (minus Benaglio, but Sommer is a decent keeper). FWIW I'd probably go with:

------------------Hart------------------
Stones---Cahill--Jones---Baines
-----------------Delph----------------
------Milner-----------Wilshere---
-Sterling----Rooney----Welbeck-

Otherwise: Sterling in behind Rooney and Welbeck, in which case I'd be tempted to play Chambers to give us a bit more going forward down the right.

The cupboard is definitely bare in certain key areas.

Take sterling out of that team and it looks like a team that would finish in the bottom half of the prem!

 

[supercity88]

He's definitely hanging on at the moment. I was surprised he was given such a smooth ride over the World Cup debacle. Now, the majority of the fans and crucially the Sun newspaper (who seem to have more say than the actual FA when it comes to hiring and firing England managers) seem to have run out of patience. A decent win tomorrow will buy him more time but I reckon it'll be an uninspiring draw that'll give him the chance to spout how Switzerland is a tough place to come to and we are now in control of the group.

His mistakes so far for me;

The complete misery of the Euros where (apart from the Sweden match) we looked thoroughly miserable and failed to realise that Pirlo was running the show against the Italians.

Going completely overboard about qualifying for the World Cup. We should qualify every time and the Germans laugh at us carrying on like it's a major achievement.

Discarding John Ruddy because Norwich had been relegated and calling up Fraser Forster who looked out of place when he played for England.

Not taking an experienced Ashley Cole (and to a lesser extent John Terry) to the World Cup, preferring to take Luke Shaw who he then announced to be unfit and out of condition after the tournament.

Going on a seemingly endless quest to find a partner for Wayne Rooney who is quite literally the white elephant in the room. Sturridge is a given as a starter, Welbeck can't hit a cow's arse with a banjo most of the time but fits the style of play we seem to be looking at.

He then compounds the above by making Rooney his permanent captain and therefore virtually undroppable despite the fact that most of the pundits, journalists and fans around the country openly question what exactly he is currently bringing to the team.

Failing to see that Steve Gerrard was England's worst player by a country mile in all three World Cup matches and asking him to stay available for selection.

Finally, getting all defensive about the turgid performance against Norway when two shots on target was mentioned. He started mentioning blocked shots and bizarrely, Sturridge's lob that landed on the roof of the net. "Erm yes Roy, the roof of the net is classed as off target!"

The fact that the only point we managed in the World Cup was against Costa Rica should have seen him given the bullet before the plane left the Brazilian tarmac.

Hard to argue with most of that.

If it weren't for the ineptitude of the FA, which ensures that you do expect such things, I'd be baffled as to how he is still in the job. Too old, too old-fashioned, a tactical dinosaur. We need someone who can actually galvanise the team and make it better than the sum of it's parts.

I expect us to lose tonight, or else to squeak a (probably undeserved) draw. Switzerland's change of manager might make a bit of a difference, but they've still got very much the core of the same team (minus Benaglio, but Sommer is a decent keeper). FWIW I'd probably go with:

------------------Hart------------------
Stones---Cahill--Jones---Baines
-----------------Delph----------------
------Milner-----------Wilshere---
-Sterling----Rooney----Welbeck-

Otherwise: Sterling in behind Rooney and Welbeck, in which case I'd be tempted to play Chambers to give us a bit more going forward down the right.

The cupboard is definitely bare in certain key areas.

It is hard to argue with most of that, and what is more, Hodgson hasn't learnt from any of the mistakes he has made. Gerrard was by far the poorest performer, but he was captain so had to start. So what would that suggest? Don't pick a player who is going to be ancient at a major tournament? Then what does he do? Rooney? Not only will he be 30 and 32 at the next two tournaments, he also takes up a role in the side, in a position where England actually do have a few options. Had it been a defender it may be different, but despite the standard media "Rooney was made to be a captain" statements, you can tell by listening to him how poor he would be at motivating a side. Terry was by no means an exemplar captain, he let himself down with certain behaviour. But as a captain he put himself on the line and inspired the team to do the same. That is exactly what is required. Not a player who despite being 28 has to have regular hair transplants and a dietician and fitness coach to keep him in shape when he has two weeks off!

Furthermore Hodgson showed true inability to address naive tactics. We were good against Italy for large periods but then Italy started keeping the ball better with Pirlo not marked out of the game. And they spotted space time and time down the left as Rooney wasn't defending (and why should he?). We were tactically naive and Hodgson made the exact same mistake his England side did in the Euros against Italy.

And post World Cup he makes comments to say Gerrard can still do a job for England. He talks about losing Gerrard and Lampard as if the England side is going to be so much weaker without them. Lampard didn't play and Gerrard was past it at International level. IF you can pass the ball like Pirlo, which Gerrard can only do 50% of the time, then you cannot play at that level. The Euro's were abysmal but Hodgson had a free pass, the World Cup was even worse and he should have gone. We aren't an amazing side by any stretch but if we had a manager who implemented a style of play that the players were comfortable with, we would be a lot better. Until Hodgson is sacked, the fans will stay away. It would be an ideal situation to lose to the Swiss and Woy get sacked. We can still qualify with ease for the Euros and could get a manager who is more akin to the modern game. We stick with Hodgson we fall further behind the top sides.

 

[without a dream]

I think Hodgson has been speaking with Rogers

We've got to be careful we don't throw the baby out with the bathwater. But we do need to tamper with the bathwater.

 

[prestonibbo_mcfc]

Bet his "qualification isn't going to be pretty" went down well with the suits.
Ticket sales will be at a premium ;-)

 

[yeah whatever !!]

He's definitely hanging on at the moment. I was surprised he was given such a smooth ride over the World Cup debacle. Now, the majority of the fans and crucially the Sun newspaper (who seem to have more say than the actual FA when it comes to hiring and firing England managers) seem to have run out of patience. A decent win tomorrow will buy him more time but I reckon it'll be an uninspiring draw that'll give him the chance to spout how Switzerland is a tough place to come to and we are now in control of the group.

His mistakes so far for me;

The complete misery of the Euros where (apart from the Sweden match) we looked thoroughly miserable and failed to realise that Pirlo was running the show against the Italians.

Going completely overboard about qualifying for the World Cup. We should qualify every time and the Germans laugh at us carrying on like it's a major achievement.

Discarding John Ruddy because Norwich had been relegated and calling up Fraser Forster who looked out of place when he played for England.

Not taking an experienced Ashley Cole (and to a lesser extent John Terry) to the World Cup, preferring to take Luke Shaw who he then announced to be unfit and out of condition after the tournament.

Going on a seemingly endless quest to find a partner for Wayne Rooney who is quite literally the white elephant in the room. Sturridge is a given as a starter, Welbeck can't hit a cow's arse with a banjo most of the time but fits the style of play we seem to be looking at.

He then compounds the above by making Rooney his permanent captain and therefore virtually undroppable despite the fact that most of the pundits, journalists and fans around the country openly question what exactly he is currently bringing to the team.

Failing to see that Steve Gerrard was England's worst player by a country mile in all three World Cup matches and asking him to stay available for selection.

Finally, getting all defensive about the turgid performance against Norway when two shots on target was mentioned. He started mentioning blocked shots and bizarrely, Sturridge's lob that landed on the roof of the net. "Erm yes Roy, the roof of the net is classed as off target!"

The fact that the only point we managed in the World Cup was against Costa Rica should have seen him given the bullet before the plane left the Brazilian tarmac.

Hard to argue with most of that.

If it weren't for the ineptitude of the FA, which ensures that you do expect such things, I'd be baffled as to how he is still in the job. Too old, too old-fashioned, a tactical dinosaur. We need someone who can actually galvanise the team and make it better than the sum of it's parts.

I expect us to lose tonight, or else to squeak a (probably undeserved) draw. Switzerland's change of manager might make a bit of a difference, but they've still got very much the core of the same team (minus Benaglio, but Sommer is a decent keeper). FWIW I'd probably go with:

------------------Hart------------------
Stones---Cahill--Jones---Baines
-----------------Delph----------------
------Milner-----------Wilshere---
-Sterling----Rooney----Welbeck-

Otherwise: Sterling in behind Rooney and Welbeck, in which case I'd be tempted to play Chambers to give us a bit more going forward down the right.

The cupboard is definitely bare in certain key areas.

It is hard to argue with most of that, and what is more, Hodgson hasn't learnt from any of the mistakes he has made. Gerrard was by far the poorest performer, but he was captain so had to start. So what would that suggest? Don't pick a player who is going to be ancient at a major tournament? Then what does he do? Rooney? Not only will he be 30 and 32 at the next two tournaments, he also takes up a role in the side, in a position where England actually do have a few options. Had it been a defender it may be different, but despite the standard media "Rooney was made to be a captain" statements, you can tell by listening to him how poor he would be at motivating a side. Terry was by no means an exemplar captain, he let himself down with certain behaviour. But as a captain he put himself on the line and inspired the team to do the same. That is exactly what is required. Not a player who despite being 28 has to have regular hair transplants and a dietician and fitness coach to keep him in shape when he has two weeks off!

Furthermore Hodgson showed true inability to address naive tactics. We were good against Italy for large periods but then Italy started keeping the ball better with Pirlo not marked out of the game. And they spotted space time and time down the left as Rooney wasn't defending (and why should he?). We were tactically naive and Hodgson made the exact same mistake his England side did in the Euros against Italy.

And post World Cup he makes comments to say Gerrard can still do a job for England. He talks about losing Gerrard and Lampard as if the England side is going to be so much weaker without them. Lampard didn't play and Gerrard was past it at International level. IF you can pass the ball like Pirlo, which Gerrard can only do 50% of the time, then you cannot play at that level. The Euro's were abysmal but Hodgson had a free pass, the World Cup was even worse and he should have gone. We aren't an amazing side by any stretch but if we had a manager who implemented a style of play that the players were comfortable with, we would be a lot better. Until Hodgson is sacked, the fans will stay away. It would be an ideal situation to lose to the Swiss and Woy get sacked. We can still qualify with ease for the Euros and could get a manager who is more akin to the modern game. We stick with Hodgson we fall further behind the top sides.

The FA's list of puppets grows thin,I can see Woy around for a while tbh.

We need a manager with no strings attached.

 

[BlueHammer85]

We'll win and every English fan will carry on slagging the manager and the players off. same for any future manager and squad.

 

[supercity88]

I don't know whether people have heard the debate Colin Murray started on talksport and in the metro over the manager's role. He suggested that no one method is without problems but that England and the FA is always 4 years behind because it copies methods from abroad. When Spain won, we tried the passing game - Wilshere was seen as the answer and we felt as though we needed to revolutionise the whole of English football. Now Germany win and we should follow them, in which case Gareth Southgate is the next England manager!

We need our own identity and in England that will always be a quick and direct attack and a solid, hardworking and physical defence. You also need a manager that can either successfully adapt the tactics to suit the best players, or drops players to suit the best team. Spain have had to drop players like Silva, Torres etc at times to ensure they got results. When we had Scholes we pushed him left of midfield to accommodate Lampard and Gerrard. We've never quite nailed it. If Scholes was playing now, in an era of the 4-2-3-1/4-3-3 then there's only one place you would play him and he would run the game as Xavi has managed for Spain. We had the issue of not having a left sided midfielder, and no one ever came up with a solution. Now most left sided players play on the right! We are clueless!

Improved coaching, facilities and training has to be the start point to ensure we get quality players coming through at youth level. City's academy and our methods will help with that. But the FA have to move away from an old trusted manager like Woy who's never set the world alight at any level and is tactically backwards. There aren't many candidates out there at the moment and so the problem will remain. We will no doubt qualify for the Euro's, hear positive talk leading up to the competition, get knocked out early and then start the re-build, no doubt trying to copy the French or Belgian system for the following 4 years!

 

[Uptop]

I think your best team available is;

------------------Hart------------------
Clyne-----Cahill-----Jones------Baines
-----------------Delph------------------
------------Milner----Wilshere---------
Ox-------------------------------Sterling
----------------Rooney-----------------

Although I can't remember if Clyne got called up? So maybe Chambers at RB.

Midfield is the weak area and doesn't seem to have a playmaker who can dictate the game and hold it all together.

 

[LFCJax]

Gerrard was England's worst player at the world cup. Nothing Gerrard could have done about it mind

It was painful to watch, Hodgson asked a 34 year old Gerrard to play as part of a two man midfield, the idea of which would cause any Liverpool fan to shudder in horror. He can only play as a regista now, and he's still Englands best player in that role, unfortunately Hodgson has no idea how to coach a 4-4-2 diamond so stuck him a 4-2-3-1 and gave him no chance.

He's still the best English no.6, but I hope Delph does well in that role until Rossiter/Ledson/Chalobah are ready to step up

 

[BigOscar]

Apparently Sky have got John Terry in the studio to talk through the game. How the fuck is that **** on track to a media career? Is Ryan Giggs going to do the United games now? Fuck me, ridiculous.