If Hart had gone to South Africa...

[gmtx]

there was only one game that mattered.and that was germany and james played well in that game.although the long punt upfield for klose (i think)would of been dealt with by joe.

Not necessarily true, if we'd performed better in the group stages and won our group we would have had an easy run to the semis against the likes of Ghana and Uruguay.

 

[pee dubya]

Hart did go to South Africa ;-)

If Johnson and Walcott had gone though

I dont get this Walcott thing at all, he and Johnston (full back) were Englands week link tonight, hate to admit it but Hanson was correct, the lad has no football brain, just pace

I don't think he's brilliant, and maybe being left out has been a blessing for him, but without a doubt i'd have taken him and Johnson ahead of SWP and Lennon, neither of whom had any sort of form going into the tournament or made any impact. Johnson was being picked ahead of SWP for us, and Walcott offers a far greater goal threat than Lennon, and i think will have a bigger role in the future.

 

[IrishMacca]

there was only one game that mattered.and that was germany and james played well in that game.although the long punt upfield for klose (i think)would of been dealt with by joe.

Not necessarily true, if we'd performed better in the group stages and won our group we would have had an easy run to the semis against the likes of Ghana and Uruguay.

Capello didn't think Hart was good enough, or old enough, and I think he was right, if he had made the mistake that Green did he wouldn't have recovered from it.

And anyone..Ye didn't fail miserably because of Green, and there was no way that ye should have needed to rely on a keeper to beat an average (or so they said) side, or blame him when ye don't, for a team who according to most experts up and down England, thought ye could and would win.

It is not Green's fault that England flopped again. He made a mistake, every player makes one at some stage or another and he was not alone in the tournament, but other teams didn't leave mistakes define, or be the scapegoat, for their shortcomings and failings.

It was a team effort, thing is sadly that Green will always be remembered by many for the reason why England didn't push on, while the other screw ups and flops were able to get back to normal with their clubs.
But as always, there needs to be a scapegoat.

 

[Marksam]

Joe Hart has just performed magnificently in his first competitive cap. I reckon it's about time we had a biased, pointless discussion about how Hart could have changed our performance at the world cup.

Let's start by getting rid of 'that' goal gifted by Green to the USA. That's now a 1-0 win and we end up avoiding Germany in the last 16.

Hart is SOOOOOO good he would've got us to the world cup final.

Funny considering we're destroying the national side!

What do you lot reckon Hart would've contributed to our WC campaign?

(Well done Joe...enjoy your next 3 or 4 WC's as England No.1!)

Hart is by far the best England goalie! thought all our boys did good tonight though, Barry and Milner looked awesome and i thought Johnson did well to! also it struck me how many good English players we have if you think back to the nineties it were always more rag players on the pitch! not any more! CTID

 

[OJ Blue]

there was only one game that mattered.and that was germany and james played well in that game.although the long punt upfield for klose (i think)would of been dealt with by joe.

I did a double-take at your "James played well against Germany" comment.

Seriously, you need to re-watch the goals (I did) James was shite, he was at fault 2 if not 3 of the goals (or at least guilty of some blame), some of the defenders contributed too, but to say James played well is wide of mark, sorry.

 

[pee dubya]

As much as i think Capello could ave picked a better squad, Rooney was the biggest problem i think. He contributed absolutely nothing, he couldn't control the ball, pass, shoot, anything (through a combination of a lack of fitness and confidence). I think Capello's biggest mistake was not dropping him in favour of someone who would actually contribute to the team, be a focal point and help England gain a proper foothold in a match. Because whenever he got the ball he gave it away, it made the whole team completely disjointed, because he's basically the key part of it that everyone else looks for. Better off dropping him for a 'lesser' player, but one that would actually help the team put in a decent performance. The key strategy seemed to be play Rooney and hope he suddenly finds form.

 

[Warwickhunt]

there was only one game that mattered.and that was germany and james played well in that game.although the long punt upfield for klose (i think)would of been dealt with by joe.

Not necessarily true, if we'd performed better in the group stages and won our group we would have had an easy run to the semis against the likes of Ghana and Uruguay.

Really, u think they would have been easy games?, them 2 teams weren't easy for anyone to play against.

It wouldn't matter who we played, we got what we deserved and would never have got as far as the semi's anyway, not with the squad selection capello made, and not with the formations and selections he was choosing out there.

Germany totally showed england up, even if that goal that wasn't had counted, they'd have still gone on to win anyway imo, they were a lot fitter and a lot better technically than england were.

 

[IrishMacca]

As much as i think Capello could ave picked a better squad, Rooney was the biggest problem i think. He contributed absolutely nothing, he couldn't control the ball, pass, shoot, anything (through a combination of a lack of fitness and confidence). I think Capello's biggest mistake was not dropping him in favour of someone who would actually contribute to the team, be a focal point and help England gain a proper foothold in a match. Because whenever he got the ball he gave it away, it made the whole team completely disjointed, because he's basically the key part of it that everyone else looks for. Better off dropping him for a 'lesser' player, but one that would actually help the team put in a decent performance. The key strategy seemed to be play Rooney and hope he suddenly finds form.

Again, one team shouldn't need to rely on one player, and that is what made England so weak, a bunch of individual players, some being carried, some only interested in themselves and too much pressure on one player. England are and continue to be a team of individuals, untill ye figure out how to be something other than a bunch of players, half of which think they're better than they are, England will never make any progress or any headway against the better teams.

 

[Freestyler]

By far easily the best keeper for the previous 9 months in the whole country, should have started, capello is a numpty, it's a joke.

AJ should have gone to, he also made a twat of capello tonight.

as much as i hate the twitching bent bastard, redknapp for england.

 

[ctidcarl]

there was only one game that mattered.and that was germany and james played well in that game.although the long punt upfield for klose (i think)would of been dealt with by joe.

I did a double-take at your "James played well against Germany" comment.

Seriously, you need to re-watch the goals (I did) James was shite, he was at fault 2 if not 3 of the goals (or at least guilty of some blame), some of the defenders contributed too, but to say James played well is wide of mark, sorry.

I think chedinho is correct - James did play quite well in that Germany game, it would have been 6 or 7 if it wasn't for James and while we can argue that it is James' job to keep the score down, he (and any keeper) still has to do so.

With hindsight (a wonderful thing) I'm chuffed to bits that Hart didn't play any minutes of England's ill fated World Cup this summer.

If he had have done and been booed and vilified by media and fans, it could have been detremental to his career..... as it stands, he is the great white hope in Englands nets (and rightly so) and he is receiving accolade after accolade (again, rightly so)