England vs Lithuania

[cheshirevaliant]

How did Henderson do against Modric, Isco and Kroos when Real Madrid came to Anfield? Ultimately, if England are to progress, they are the games he needs to be judged on, not games against Burnley, QPR and Palace in "the best league in the world".

 

Re.Wilshere. How many assists does he have in his Arsenal career if he is a positive central midfielder?

 

I agree with Beechy's last point on post #72, unfortunately I suspect we are referring to different people :)

[kevin_struggles]

I'm guessing the likes of Kevin haven't seen any of the few fantastic assists that Henderson has got this season when playing in a more advanced position for Liverpool? An 'average workhorse' as someone described him, which is absolute nonsense, doesn't have the ability to make these kind of passes. I'm not seeing he's a world-beater or anything like, and he does need to now step it up for England further as he has done for Liverpool, but some people really haven't got much of a clue.

 

How he performs for Liverpool is irrelevant to a discussion on how he performed in the games we are talking about, I havent seen him take control of the midfield in a single England game and we need someone who can do that. Henderson isnt it and neither is wilshire. rooney, Kane and Walcott were all reduced to dropping back to take short passes from the midfield instead of playing on the defenders shouldsr looking to get on the end of forward passes.

[TheSage]

I don't think either of these two (Henderson and Carrick) would get anywhere near to Chelsea's first team, or Man City's come to that.

And that's our problem as a national team.

Good youngsters don't get a chance of progressing at the very big clubs.

Wilshere isn't even a regular with Arsenal.

 

Our midfield was miles better 10-15 years ago (Lampard, Gerrard, Cole, Beckham, etc.) and we still did nothing. It's depressing.

 

The same about our back four. Baines has come on a bit but the rest of them are mediocre players. The top clubs prefer to pay £35 million for a foreign player rather than play a good English youngster and wait 2-3 years while he progresses and improves. They don't get a chance.

 

We used to produce loads of excellent defenders - and keepers - but it isn't happening now.

Foreign imports have ruined our national game and now the genie is out of the bottle it's hard to see it ending any time soon.

[valiant_593]

How he performs for Liverpool is irrelevant to a discussion on how he performed in the games we are talking about, I havent seen him take control of the midfield in a single England game and we need someone who can do that. Henderson isnt it and neither is wilshire. rooney, Kane and Walcott were all reduced to dropping back to take short passes from the midfield instead of playing on the defenders shouldsr looking to get on the end of forward passes.

 

Barkley and Carrick did that when they came on.

[kevin_struggles]

Barkley and Carrick did that when they came on.

 

I must have fallen asleep then, all I saw was Barkley running into trouble and giving the ball away with loose passes to nobody in particular, Carrick did try though, hes probably our best bet.

[kevin_struggles]

I don't think either of these two (Henderson and Carrick) would get anywhere near to Chelsea's first team, or Man City's come to that.

And that's our problem as a national team.

Good youngsters don't get a chance of progressing at the very big clubs.

Wilshere isn't even a regular with Arsenal.

 

Our midfield was miles better 10-15 years ago (Lampard, Gerrard, Cole, Beckham, etc.) and we still did nothing. It's depressing.

 

The same about our back four. Baines has come on a bit but the rest of them are mediocre players. The top clubs prefer to pay £35 million for a foreign player rather than play a good English youngster and wait 2-3 years while he progresses and improves. They don't get a chance.

 

We used to produce loads of excellent defenders - and keepers - but it isn't happening now.

Foreign imports have ruined our national game and now the genie is out of the bottle it's hard to see it ending any time soon.

 

That is undoubtedly the reason for the problems we clearly have, unfortunately I dont see it changing. The FA are toothless and SKY runs the Premier League

[For Us All]

The perfect ten.

[Paul6754]

England did the job against moderate opposition. Wonderful to see Barklay dribbling with both feet (particularly the first game), he was excellent it both games but can he do it against better opposition.

 

The plastic pitch in Lithuania was an abomination, if a country cannot produce a grass pitch to play on then play somewhere else or don't enter the competition.

[davidatpreston]

England did the job against moderate opposition. Wonderful to see Barklay dribbling with both feet (particularly the first game), he was excellent it both games but can he do it against better opposition.

 

The plastic pitch in Lithuania was an abomination, if a country cannot produce a grass pitch to play on then play somewhere else or don't enter the competition.

 

 

What a waste of time and money, only perhaps made worthwhile by a boost for England's morale. But you are right about the plastic pitch, the stadium that held a tiny few and there was also considerable trouble in Vilnius to blot Englands' reputation again.

 

It's time they arranged the last fixtures in these groups on a weekend on their own, 2 months after the previous game, and matches where both sides have either qualified or could not qualify or make the play offs like this one and a few others this weekend could be cancelled, freeing up the players to play for their proper clubs and saving time, money, travel and problems of tiredness or injury.

 

The 2 month thing would give people time to book late and no wasted journeys would be made.

 

After all, when there is a penalty shoot out in a cup game and one side gets to a point where they cant be caught, they don't carry on with the rest of the penalties just for the sake of it.

 

ps Anyone getting too excited about England should note that LIthuania only beat San Marino 1-0 with a last-gasp goal, though praise to Roy H for doing what he had to do very professionally, just don't think we have a good chance of winning it.

[For Us All]

What a waste of time and money, only perhaps made worthwhile by a boost for England's morale. But you are right about the plastic pitch, the stadium that held a tiny few and there was also considerable trouble in Vilnius to blot Englands' reputation again.

 

It's time they arranged the last fixtures in these groups on a weekend on their own, 2 months after the previous game, and matches where both sides have either qualified or could not qualify or make the play offs like this one and a few others this weekend could be cancelled, freeing up the players to play for their proper clubs and saving time, money, travel and problems of tiredness or injury.

 

The 2 month thing would give people time to book late and no wasted journeys would be made.

 

After all, when there is a penalty shoot out in a cup game and one side gets to a point where they cant be caught, they don't carry on with the rest of the penalties just for the sake of it.

 

ps Anyone getting too excited about England should note that LIthuania only beat San Marino 1-0 with a last-gasp goal, though praise to Roy H for doing what he had to do very professionally, just don't think we have a good chance of winning it.

 

You know what they say,you can only beat what's in front of you?

[davidatpreston]

You know what they say,you can only beat what's in front of you?

 

That's right, and it is why I said Roy H deserves praise for doing that - but for the sake of getting England prepared they need proper opposition and the way the groups in this farcical qualifying stage were worked out is a travesty.

England would have been better having at least one decent opponent, in some groups we had countries like Czech Republic, Turkey and Holland (who are now almost certain not to qualify), another had Austria, Sweden and Russia together.

I know we have harder friendlies coming up, but less matches in this qualifying - a pre-qualifying group of Gibraltar, San Marino, Andorra, Leichtenstein and so on to whittle down the games - would be helpful.

[For Us All]

That's right, and it is why I said Roy H deserves praise for doing that - but for the sake of getting England prepared they need proper opposition and the way the groups in this farcical qualifying stage were worked out is a travesty.

England would have been better having at least one decent opponent, in some groups we had countries like Czech Republic, Turkey and Holland (who are now almost certain not to qualify), another had Austria, Sweden and Russia together.

I know we have harder friendlies coming up, but less matches in this qualifying - a pre-qualifying group of Gibraltar, San Marino, Andorra, Leichtenstein and so on to whittle down the games - would be helpful.

 

To be honest I thought that Switzerland would have provided better opposition than they did,especially after their performances in the World Cup but Roy Hodgson is now unbeaten in 19 World Cup and Euro qualifying games but that means nothing if you don't win anything at the end of it.

[valiant_593]

To be honest I thought that Switzerland would have provided better opposition than they did,especially after their performances in the World Cup but Roy Hodgson is now unbeaten in 19 World Cup and Euro qualifying games but that means nothing if you don't win anything at the end of it.

I agree, I was expecting Switzerland to be decent, (higher in the rankings then us when it started) and we beat them on both occasions very convincingly. I think we will probably get to the quarters and lose to a decent side, same as always. We have done very well in the group but there isn't enough there to win it IMO. France favourites for me.

[For Us All]

I agree, I was expecting Switzerland to be decent, (higher in the rankings then us when it started) and we beat them on both occasions very convincingly. I think we will probably get to the quarters and lose to a decent side, same as always. We have done very well in the group but there isn't enough there to win it IMO. France favourites for me.

 

Quarter-finals for me as well,the winners to come from Germany,France,Spain or Belgium.

[For Us All]

Just settled down to watch Italy v Norway on ITV4,poor turnout for a Tuesday night match?:rolleyes:;)