If England are serious.....

cw1984

He has never impressed me playing for England. He's all blood and thunder. Chelsea's version of Jamie Carragher. Woodgate is far superior IMO.

RedSky At Night

Very well put! Terry is a very good premiership defender, but his weakness' are always picked on in internationals. He loses his marker far too easily and offers nothing going forward anymore.

Woodgate is currently in terrific form and is a big game player, deserves a chance to impress imo.

FranklyVulgar

Maybe it is the style of the Premiership that is the downfall of the english national team. Teams don't tend to keep possession very well or for very long, it is all very fast and agressive and the players that can put their foot on the ball are usually not english. Scholes is about the only englishman with foot on the ball tempo dictating ability.

peterstorey

He isn't - that's why he doesn't play there any more.

cw1984

No.... he doesnt play there anymore because his club don't play that system. They play with 2DMs and 1 up top.

choiboyx012

england have crap players compared to the last WC squad and several other england teams of the past years. last WC really was the best chance they had in a long time to win something.. gerrard, lampard, joe cole, rio, terry, gary, cashley... all in their primes.. i doubt they'd be as good as they are by the next WC (if they even qualify)... if england fans seriously think the likes of bentley, barry, shorey, john lescott, Swp are "the future" and that they'll have anything on the younger prospects of some of the other countries like portugal, holland, spain, france, argentina, brazil.. then they really are deluded.

peterstorey

And why don't they play that system? Because they tried it with Gerrard and it didn't fucking work that's why.

Sonny1972

Its not the style , the downfall is TO many forreigners in the English league!!!

Successful

It is quite hard to form a team when there's always someone new knocking on the door (something for the transfer muppets to learn from). If you look at other squads out there I believe England is the one with most changes in their first 11 of all. Is it the newspapers? probably.

cw1984

No. Its because its not Rafa's style. A complete change in systems and tactics takes time. If you look at his successful Valencia side they played the same system Liverpool play now. Like Andy Gray said on Sunday, its as though Rafa just doesnt know how to use him.

peterstorey

Yeah but how do you account for the fact that they have played Gerrard in a two-man midfield and he's not been very good (used to be OK with Hamann to do the dirty work)? As Mozza said he simply gives the ball away all the time which is death to a CM.

Instant Karma

Fabregas completes 77% of his passes while Gerrard completes 75% of his. There is not a big enough difference there to claim he gives away the ball 'all the time'

Mozza expects the central midfielders to play hospital passes and is happy even if they create nothing. It works at United where Ronaldo, Rooney and Tevez provide both the cutting edge in the final third and the goals. Fabregas and Gerrard have to provide the final pass and when they try that they are likely to give away the ball a little more. They are actually attacking midfielders who create and score goals rather than just deep lying players who give the ball to the attackers.

peterstorey

Gerrard doesn't play in CM any more so you can't directly compare the stats.

Instant Karma

Yes, he plays further up the pitch and yet has a similar pass completion ratio which is very good. But that isnt the point though. Even in central midfield, he tries more adventurous passes because he needs to create goals rather than be a water carrier.

If any of you actually think that Gerrard does not have enough ability or skill to play 5 yard passes and keep the ball, you are retarded.

peterstorey

That's excactly the point - you can't compare them directly because they now fulfill different roles. When Gerrard did play CM he gave away a lot of possession because his short passing game is poor and he tries those irritating Hollywood balls (not the same as penetrating balls by the way).

Instant Karma

For years he played in a team who's main tactic was to hoof the ball behind the defence for quick Mickey Owen to latch on to. He could have kept passing the ball short, retained possession and allowed the opposition players to organize or he could attempt a long ball as soon as possible. The retain the ball tactic works only when you have a lot of class players in the side. Liverpool still lack decent wingers and a second striker. I doubt any other midfielder in Europe would have been more successful at Liverpool than Gerrard. It doesn't mean that his short passing game is poor but that he didn't attempt it as it wouldn't have worked at Liverpool.

krazyrobus

Nice to see some people still fall for hype.

Gerrard and Lampard have about as much football intelligence between them as Scholes' pinky toe. They are not midfield players they are final 3rd players.

Cole is a good defensive leftback but contributes little to the attack besides running down blind alleys and wayward crossing.

Beckham is a 1 -dimensional crosses, won't even touch Hargreaves for fear of sparking a 20 page thread.

Owen is a 1 dimensional forward who needs a bigger man to give him space to score and if Owen is not scoring he is doing nothing for the team.

I wish someone in the press would tell England they are not as good as they think they are.

peterstorey

The results column is fairly accurate.

Instant Karma

Gerrard once again is single handedly as effective as all of them put together