bj_Bhoy 87 said:
My English lineup would be:
Robinson
Ferdinand Terry Campbell
Becks Lampard Gerrard Cole
SWP
Rooney Owen
Risky, i know, but i'll explain my decision later...
Move over Rainieri, the bj is the new Tinkerman
A. On current form Rio is the worst of England's defenders, I can say without any bias that Carragher deserves the place more.
B. Your lineup, imo, wastes at least 2 of England's 3 best players- Gerrard, Lampard and Rooney.
Gerrard/Lampard- Thus far they've been a pretty poor CM pairing, as they haven't been able to sort their respective roles in the team. But the fact is, even if they have their roles sorted out, The DM's potential will still be wasted. I think it'd be better to use one as a mid 1/2 half substitute. Probably Gerrard, as he's the better player at running at defenders. Anyway, Lampard is essentially a playmaker-come-striker as well. What I'd like like to see more though, is Lampard pushed forward into an advanced position and Becks dropped to the bench. See explanation at the bottom.
Rooney- Huge waste as a traditional no.10. Give him license to roam and England will reap far greater rewards. On the evidence of the past 2 seasons, he's more of a playmaker than a forward anyway.
C. When Downing gets back from injury I'd like to see him have a run starting at LM. Good a player as Cole is, he tends to cut in and hence doesn't give the team the same width a real winger would.
D. I like the idea of playing 3 CBs, but I don't think it's really wise to play both Terry and Campbell. Both have exceptional positional awareness and are peerless in the air, but both are exceptionally slow. Teams that play with genuine, top quality wingers like Spain and Holland would give that back 3 a lot of headaches. I'd just have Terry, with King and Carragher on either side. When Ferdinand regains his form, and when (if) Woodgate ever gets any prolonged run without hurting himself, they might be interchangeable for Carra and/or King. It's really amazing how much depth they have in defense though. With how many other countries can you just trot out world class defender after world class defender like that. Oh and Gary Neville would do a nice job on the right side of that trio as well.
My England XI
-----------------------------------Robinson
------------------Carragher---------Terry-----------King
SWP-------------Gerrard-----------P.Neville/Reo-coker----------------Downing
----------------------Rooney------------------Lampard
------------------------------Owen/Defoe
Bench: Beckham, Kirkland, Cole, Hargreaves, Ferdinand, A. Cole
* I would drop Beckham for 2 reasons. Firstly, he's not really the most intelligent or the most inspirational of captains. Unlike Beckenbauer, he doesn't have the tactical awareness to martial his troops around the field, and unlike Roy Keane, he isn't involved enough in the action to lift his teammates. His only comparison to Keane is his propensity to get into fights, in most cases needless ones. When the pressure's on, you can't even count on him to cooly and reassuringly perform his duties (e.g. Turkey, Portugal last year). In this respect, Gerrard, Terry, Campbell and even Ferdinand (when in form), are far better choices. I'd go with Gerrard, not entirely becaused I'm biased either. -Istanbul didn't take place that long ago.
More importantly, Beckham unbalances the England team. Playing him means not playing a superb traditional RW in Wright-Phillips, moreover, it also means not playing a professional DM. I know England isn't blessed with the best selection of DMs at the moment, but Reo-Coker is developing nicely, and when called upon 2 seasons ago, Phil Neville was excellent for United in the same position. King played beautifully in that position for England recently as well. The value of a good DM cannot be understated. By playing King/Reo-Coker/Neville in this position, you'd essentially be freeing up Gerrard, Lampard and Wright-Phillips to do their thing.
Oh yeah, thanks for reminding me johnny. Parker would be a good choice for DM as well.
/end endless ramblings.
