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The Official *England's Journey to Brazil 2014* Thread

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Post by Duty281 Thu 09 Aug 2012, 6:51 pm

First topic message reminder :

"There is a forgotten, nay almost forbidden word, which means more to me than any other. That word is England."
Sir Winston Churchill


Yes, it's nearly that time. Time for England to begin their Qualifying Campaign for the 2014 World Cup in Brazil. Those promising, encouraging, and brave displays witnessed during Euro 2012 will have to be built on as the long road to Brazil starts. Along the way, they will play in London, Podgorica, Kiev, Warsaw, Chisinau and Serravale. The aim is simply to top the group and make it to Brazil with a minimum of fuss.

"Ask any man what nationality he would prefer to be, and ninety nine out of a hundred will tell you that they would prefer to be Englishmen."
Cecil John Rhodes


England have been drawn in Group H with Montengro, Ukraine, Poland, Moldova and San Marino. I don't even need to be insanely optimistic this time round. England will top that group. Moldova and San Marino will be the whipping boys. Montengro, Ukraine and Poland will only prove a challenge in their own ground. Wembley will be deemed a fortress.

"Remember that you are an Englishman, and have consequently won first place in the lottery of life."
Cecil John Rhodes


The fixture list for those Qualifiers is the following:

Moldova v England (7th September 2012)
England v Ukraine (11th September 2012)
England v San Marino (12th October 2012)
Poland v England (16th October 2012)
San Marino v England (22nd March 2013)
Montenegro v England (26th March 2013)
England v Moldova (6th September 2013)
Ukraine v England (10th September 2013)
England v Montenegro (11th October 2013)
England v Poland (15th October 2013)

Lovely, simple, finishing with a Wembley double-header. I predict we'll get 28 out of 30 points, perhaps getting a draw in either Warsaw or Kiev.

"Follow your spirit; and upon this charge,
Cry "God for Harry! England and Saint George"."
William Shakespeare


Of course, while England's fate will be defined by those 10 games, the ever important International Friendly will hone the team against more quality opposition. The friendlies currently scheduled are:

Italy v England (15th August 2012)
Sweden v England (14th November 2012)
England v Scotland (14th August 2013)

So let's get the England train rolling, starting on Wednesday, build up momentum before landing in Brazil in nearly 2 years time. Come on England!

“The English are so filled with their own greatness and have won so many big victories that they have come to believe they cannot lose. In battle they are the most confident nation in the world."
Unknown


Last edited by Duty281 on Sat 11 May 2013, 1:36 pm; edited 2 times in total

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Post by mystiroakey Wed 16 Oct 2013, 1:48 pm

say we get a group of i dunno

Lets go with 

argentina
england
australia
south korea


Which is a very decent group by the way..(i am not even making it low quality)

In an ideal world we should be trying to out play aus and south korea the way we can and the way we did v poland.

However i fear exactly the same as you do. Injuries and negative tactics etc..

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Post by Stella Wed 16 Oct 2013, 1:50 pm

mystiroakey wrote:say we get a group of i dunno

Lets go with 

argentina
england
australia
south korea


Which is a very decent group by the way..(i am not even making it low quality)

In an ideal world we should be trying to out play aus and south korea the way we can and the way we did v poland.

However i fear exactly the same as you do. Injuries and negative tactics etc..
Won't we have to have another european team though, if we get Argentina/south american team as the first seeds?
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Post by mystiroakey Wed 16 Oct 2013, 1:54 pm

actually scrub out aus and sk- they are both asian. 

I have never understand why aus are in the asian group and NZ are in oceana!!!

It literally makes zero sense!

Not sure stella. I think its seeds then 8 euro teams as another pot(then 1 euro team will have to be added to another pot) so if we got argentina there would only be a 1 in 8 chance of getting the worst euro side

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Post by CFCNick Wed 16 Oct 2013, 1:56 pm

Australia moved to the Asian confederation after the 2006 World Cuo to improve their domestic league as they now play in the Asian Champions League rather than stuffing teams from the Cook Islands and Papua New Guinea.


Last edited by CFCNick on Wed 16 Oct 2013, 1:59 pm; edited 1 time in total

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Post by mystiroakey Wed 16 Oct 2013, 1:57 pm

ta cfc- that makes sense - better quality.

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Post by Stella Wed 16 Oct 2013, 2:00 pm

The Aussies and the USA will nearly always qualify thanks to their easier qualifying groups. This means of course teams like Portugal and France may not go, and teams like Wales will probably never get there, certainly in the near future, which would be a shame. But, it is a world cup after all.
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Post by CFCNick Wed 16 Oct 2013, 2:04 pm

Australia have it tougher than before playing Asian teams. New Zealand won the sole Oceania spot and still have to play a playoff with Mexico (who only got in thanks to two last minute goals from the US last night).

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Post by mystiroakey Wed 16 Oct 2013, 2:11 pm

Yep if we had the best 32 teams- it wouldn't really be a WC would it. But if i was a fringe european fan i would be gutted about the situation

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Post by super_realist Wed 16 Oct 2013, 2:14 pm

mystiroakey wrote:actually scrub out aus and sk- they are both asian. 

I have never understand why aus are in the asian group and NZ are in oceana!!!

It literally makes zero sense!

Not sure stella. I think its seeds then 8 euro teams as another pot(then 1 euro team will have to be added to another pot) so if we got argentina there would only be a 1 in 8 chance of getting the worst euro side
Bit like why Israel are in the Euro qualification zone. Mind you, can you imagine the matches between Israel and some of it's neighbours?

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Post by mystiroakey Wed 16 Oct 2013, 2:18 pm

CFC didn't oceania have more spots when aus were part of it. Surely there coefficient would have been better.

Back to the guys original point though.

Poland have 4 high quality players(at dortmund) and the majority of their other players also play for goodish teams(dont the majority play for decent german or dutch outfits)

and their keeper is decent for arsenal!

I love my man Jedanick- but i can't think of many better aussies than him!! and he is at palace!

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Post by Duty281 Wed 16 Oct 2013, 2:19 pm

Steffan wrote:
Duty281 wrote:It's good if Stephanie puts up his foreign flags during the world cup - England have't lost while he's done that. He was absent for the England-Italy game and look what happened! He's our lucky mascot!
Wow making fun of my name. Very mature
You're exactly like my last boyfriend Stephanie: You give it, but you can't take it.

Banter that is. Wink

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Post by mystiroakey Wed 16 Oct 2013, 2:21 pm

super_realist wrote:
mystiroakey wrote:actually scrub out aus and sk- they are both asian. 

I have never understand why aus are in the asian group and NZ are in oceana!!!

It literally makes zero sense!

Not sure stella. I think its seeds then 8 euro teams as another pot(then 1 euro team will have to be added to another pot) so if we got argentina there would only be a 1 in 8 chance of getting the worst euro side
Bit like why Israel are in the Euro qualification zone.  Mind you, can you imagine the matches between Israel and some of it's neighbours?
Yep israel get the benefit of playing in europe as being 'western', but the others probably get a better deal belonging to the asian qualification(iran has got threw)

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Post by mystiroakey Wed 16 Oct 2013, 2:22 pm

Duty281 wrote:
Steffan wrote:
Duty281 wrote:It's good if Stephanie puts up his foreign flags during the world cup - England have't lost while he's done that. He was absent for the England-Italy game and look what happened! He's our lucky mascot!
Wow making fun of my name. Very mature
You're exactly like my last boyfriend Stephanie: You give it, but you can't take it.

Banter that is. Wink
You will both meet one day and fall in love and then that can be your pet name to him between the sheets!

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Post by super_realist Wed 16 Oct 2013, 2:23 pm

Iran aren't that bad a team. Israel are woeful

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Post by mystiroakey Wed 16 Oct 2013, 2:23 pm

would iran get through a euro qualification?

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Post by Stella Wed 16 Oct 2013, 2:24 pm

mystiroakey wrote:
Duty281 wrote:
Steffan wrote:
Duty281 wrote:It's good if Stephanie puts up his foreign flags during the world cup - England have't lost while he's done that. He was absent for the England-Italy game and look what happened! He's our lucky mascot!
Wow making fun of my name. Very mature
You're exactly like my last boyfriend Stephanie: You give it, but you can't take it.

Banter that is. Wink
You will both meet one day and fall in love and then that can be your pet name to him between the sheets!
Not while I'm eating, mystir.
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Post by CFCNick Wed 16 Oct 2013, 2:25 pm

mystiroakey wrote:CFC didn't oceania have more spots when aus were part of it. Surely there coefficient would have been better.

Back to the guys original point though.

Poland have 4 high quality players(at dortmund) and the majority of their other players also play for goodish teams(dont the majority play for decent german or dutch outfits)

and their keeper is decent for arsenal!

I love my man Jedanick- but i can't think of many better aussies than him!! and he is at palace!
There's always been 0 or 1 for Oceania. The Aussie's had to play Uruguay in a playoff for 06.

Most of their squad play for average Euro teams and Tim Cahill in New York.

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Post by Duty281 Wed 16 Oct 2013, 2:25 pm

mystiroakey wrote:
Duty281 wrote:
Steffan wrote:
Duty281 wrote:It's good if Stephanie puts up his foreign flags during the world cup - England have't lost while he's done that. He was absent for the England-Italy game and look what happened! He's our lucky mascot!
Wow making fun of my name. Very mature
You're exactly like my last boyfriend Stephanie: You give it, but you can't take it.

Banter that is. Wink
You will both meet one day and fall in love and then that can be your pet name to him between the sheets!
Well that's something to look forward to!

Maybe I can make him realise that England isn't such a bad place?

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Post by Stella Wed 16 Oct 2013, 2:26 pm

mystiroakey wrote:would iran get through a euro qualification?
very doubtful. Trouble is, once your seeded low like N Ireland etc, you'll always struggle.
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Post by super_realist Wed 16 Oct 2013, 2:29 pm

mystiroakey wrote:would iran get through a euro qualification?
Almost certainly not, but they would fare better than Israel, who are marginally better than Andorra, NI and Liechtenstein.
THey beat USA in a World Cup once. So not too bad

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Post by mystiroakey Wed 16 Oct 2013, 2:37 pm

Yeah how can I  forget IRAN beating the USA.. If the usa cared enough about football we would be at war with iran already!

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Post by owen10ozzy Wed 16 Oct 2013, 2:57 pm

Ah how these boards will be fun to read in the build up to the World Cup. Last night was woeful listening to pundits and commentators declaring the 'brave' decisions made by Hodgson...how he showed he was willing to go out and set the team up to attack etc etc. Seemingly everyone forgot that Hodgson had absolutely no chance but to have the team play that way given his negative tactics had left us needing 2 wins from 2 to guarantee qualification.

Whilst it was refreshing to see us actually go out and play some football I can sit here and say with full confidence that Hodgson will revert to type when it comes to Brazil next year. He will play with a 4-3-3 formation which is more like a 4-5-1.

There were for me worrying signs against Poland in the 2nd half which should we repeat next year will see us struggle to get out of the group stage...those signs have existed throughout Hodgsons reign and that is retaining possession of the ball. Whenever we go ahead...or come up against a top team we sit deep and invite pressure...do that in a country like Brazil where climate and altitude are a huge factor and it spells a whole world of trouble. We will be chasing shadows all game and given our 'fitness' issues heading into major tournaments (due to top players playing to many games and being tired, this despite almost the whole Spain squad playing on average 12 games more than England heading into Euro 2012 and winning it) this in itself is a concern.

Then there is the seeding, given our position outside of the Top Pot we could face our toughest group in quite some time.  

Everyone is also talking about the youth in the team and whilst I fully expect to see some of it come next summer I also expect plenty to be left at home. I wouldn't be surprised to see a midfield containing Lampard, Gerrard, Milner as soon as we meet a Top Nation!

I will watch next summers World Cup expecting us to struggle to even get out of the group whilst playing our usual negative football....anything above that then becomes a bonus.

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Post by mystiroakey Wed 16 Oct 2013, 3:00 pm

Owen i am sure we all have that fear deep down.

Please no gerrard, lamps, milner carrick jobby though.

Wilshire start performing lad  and dont get injured

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Post by mystiroakey Wed 16 Oct 2013, 3:03 pm

"(due to top players playing to many games and being tired, this despite almost the whole Spain squad playing on average 12 games more than England heading into Euro 2012 and winning it) this in itself is a concern."




the point is is that spain have depth- the amount of game time is immaterial  if they have played more and are fully fit its fine, if they are not they pick someone else!. The problem is we have managers that pick the 'big names' whatever there form or fitness is like because we dont have the depth of talent at the highest level.

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Post by mystiroakey Wed 16 Oct 2013, 3:16 pm

"

  • Ticket: £58-£112
  • Final ticket: £281-£632
  • Hotel: £146-£797 per night
  • McDonald's meal: £11
  • Average dinner: £29
  • T-shirt: £13
  • Sun cream: £9.50
  • Water: £1.28
  • Imported beer: £3.83
  • Domestic beer: £1.91
  • Coffee: £2.55"




prices for brazil. If I go I am glad I dont eat mcdonalds!!

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Post by mystiroakey Wed 16 Oct 2013, 3:18 pm

"If you like your evenings full of non-stop football and don't mind a late night, then you are very much in luck. After Brazil's opening day game, there follows a 10-day period with three matches per day, kicking off at 17:00 BST, 20:00 BST and 23:00 BST.
The second-round matches take place at 17:00 and 21:00 BST, the quarter-finals at 17:00 and 21:00 BST, the semi-finals at 21:00 BST and the final at 20:00 BST."


How good are those times for us in the europe!! Smile

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Post by Stella Wed 16 Oct 2013, 3:21 pm

mystiroakey wrote:"


  • Ticket: £58-£112

  • Final ticket: £281-£632

  • Hotel: £146-£797 per night

  • McDonald's meal: £11

  • Average dinner: £29

  • T-shirt: £13

  • Sun cream: £9.50

  • Water: £1.28

  • Imported beer: £3.83

  • Domestic beer: £1.91

  • Coffee: £2.55"






prices for brazil. If I go I am glad I dont eat mcdonalds!!
Airfare - £1000
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Post by mystiroakey Wed 16 Oct 2013, 3:23 pm

I dont think i will be going then... But never say never, if the opportunity arises!(Which it wont Sad )

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Post by super_realist Wed 16 Oct 2013, 3:27 pm

It's not that pricey, bar the airfare, and it's not like you need to worry about final or semi final tickets is it?

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Post by owen10ozzy Wed 16 Oct 2013, 3:28 pm

I can understand that the worry for Hodgson will be if we play too attacking then we may well be caught out especially against the likes of Spain, Brazil etc...however we simpy do not have the players to play sit and hold football waiting to attack....reason being the players who can play that deep role are no longer mobile enough to then break quickly...

Putting Carrick, Milner, Gerrard, Lampard into the midfield to 'shore' it up is all well and good but the pace simply isn't there when England then break. This has been shown time and again when Rooney is left isolated up front on his own against the big teams.

Personally I would love to see us just go for it. Too long we have endured negative football, tactics which see us absorb pressure and hope to strike on the counter. It hasn't got us anywhere in major tournaments..

Euro 2000:

Portugal Lost 3-2 ..Having gone ahead twice and sat back
Germany Won 1-0 ...Good win but Germany dominated after going behind as we sat back!
Romania Lost 3-2...Got back into it after going behind..once Romania equalised we sat looking for the draw.

World Cup 2002:

Sweden Drew 1-1 Once again took the lead and then defended
Argentina Won 1-0 Argies dominated possession and had plenty of clear cut chances. Becks Pen won it!
Nigeria 0-0 Need I say more ...oh and Nigeria had more possession than us!

Played well against Denmark before coming up against Brazil where yet again we went ahead...only to then sit and invite pressure onto ourselves.

Euro 2004:

Good performances on the whole, but against the two top teams France and Portugal we lost. France we went ahead only to lose after Zidane struck twice in the closing moments (thoroughly deserved after pinning England back all game) and Portugal in the QF we went ahead through Owen to then watch Portugal batter the goal for next 87 minutes as we sat clinging on like we were a pub team who had found themselves in against a professional outfit!

World Cup 2006:

Beat Paraguay 1-0 and Trinidad 2-0 before being held against Sweden. Bet you can't guess how that game went...oh wait you can..yep we went ahead twice yet were held after sitting deep! Struggled past Ecuador in Round of 16 before losing on penalties to Portugal...after 120 mins of more or less holding out!

Euro 2008 - Not there!

World Cup 2010:

USA drew 1-1
Algeria drew 0-0
Slovenia Won 1-0

Then battered by Germany though I am sure people will only focus on the disallowed goal and not look at the fact we were taken to pieces numerous times before that and were lucky to still be in it by half time!

Euro 2012: Top Of Group

Held by France, beat Sweden but each time we went ahead we sat back and then scraped by Ukraine before being completely played off the park by the Italians but we held on for a 'Gutsy' defeat by penalties.



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Post by dummy_half Wed 16 Oct 2013, 3:30 pm

Owen

To be fair, England's tendency to get pushed too far back when trying to defende has been a failing long before Hodgson took over. We did the same under Capello and McLaren - it's a lack of trust between the players meaning that rather than playing in an organised two banks of 4, our central midfielders drop back in to the space between the centre halfs, giving us nowhere to go when we do eventually win possession back on the edge of our area.

At least Hodgson's selections have tended to include a flyer on the wing (Walcott and now Townsend) who can single-handedly carry the ball down field and buy some time. The problem is that they are usually 30 yards away from their nearest teammate.

I think though most of us here are reasonably realistic about England at the moment - we should perhaps be rated in the top 10 teams, but towards the bottom of that, and while we have some quality individuals there are weaknesses that need addressing at centre forward and central midfield. Also, how can we make sure that we arrive at the WC with our main players fit and fresh?

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Post by Duty281 Wed 16 Oct 2013, 3:32 pm

Had trouble retaining the ball last night?

We finished with 61% possession.

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Post by dummy_half Wed 16 Oct 2013, 3:39 pm

I see you made my point for me...

I thing the Euro 2012 performance can be somewhat forgiven - we knew we weren't a very good side. I think the blame there rests with Capello not taking the lessons from 2010 on board (i.e. that we lacked pace in defence and midfield to hold out against quick breaks by the opponents).

WC 2010 against Germany was just embarrassing, especially for John Terry, who was caught out of position so many times in that game. The disallowed Lampard goal has only partly deflected attention from how poor we really were.

Going back to 2002-2006, we at least had a good side on paper and were a tad unlucky particularly in 04 to loose Rooney from the Portugal match (iirc, should also have been a penalty that wasn't given).

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Post by dummy_half Wed 16 Oct 2013, 3:46 pm

Duty281 wrote:Had trouble retaining the ball last night?

We finished with 61% possession.
We did give it away cheaply at times, but were good at winning it back. Poland mostly looked to hit us on the break (indeed, it was getting to the point that our corners were their best attacking opportunities...), so we were always going to have more possession. One particular mistake I remember was at about 80 minutes, we were trying to just play a bit of keep ball, then Gerrard made a loose pass in the centre circle that was intercepted and led to us having to really scramble in defence. It's not really a technical failing, more a basic lack of care and precision in what we are trying to do.

Actually, if you look at the stats, we dominated yesterdays game - 23 shots to 11, 9 on target to 4, 17 corners to 6. Could very easily have finished 4-2 or 5-2 with better finishing from both sides. However, we didn't play very well as we got later in to the 2nd half an still only led 1-0. STATS only tell half a story.

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Post by super_realist Wed 16 Oct 2013, 3:50 pm

If you look at the stats, then Peter Crouch is almost always Englands best striker. So yes, they only tell half a story

Last season Barcelona had something like 90% possession against Celtic and still lost.

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Post by guildfordbat Wed 16 Oct 2013, 3:58 pm

Stella wrote:
mystiroakey wrote:"


  • Ticket: £58-£112


  • Final ticket: £281-£632


  • Hotel: £146-£797 per night


  • McDonald's meal: £11


  • Average dinner: £29


  • T-shirt: £13


  • Sun cream: £9.50


  • Water: £1.28


  • Imported beer: £3.83


  • Domestic beer: £1.91


  • Coffee: £2.55"







prices for brazil. If I go I am glad I dont eat mcdonalds!!
Airfare - £1000
Stella - you might be able to cut down on the airfare if you only buy a one-way ticket. It's reckoned there are still some Scots today in Argentina who first went out there for the '78 World Cup ''on the march with Ally's army!''. Very Happy 

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Post by mystiroakey Wed 16 Oct 2013, 3:59 pm

If and its a big IF Wilshire hits top form and we have walcot , townsend and rooney up to scratch in june. And Roy still plays a positional  defensive game(players running back to position after losing the ball) over the last two games when we have tried to win the ball back within seconds .Then I will pull my hair out!

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Post by owen10ozzy Wed 16 Oct 2013, 4:03 pm

Yes we had 61% possesion Duty...but that was against Poland...I stated that against the Top Nations this isn't the case. We usually come out worst and against the likes of Spain, Italy etc often find ourselves chasing shadows. If you are untidy in possession, which England have on the whole been for the past 12 years then it is important to try and get the ball as often as possible merely to compensate for the amount of times we are going to give it away.

England have always looked a better team when going out and trying to win matches especially against the best teams in the World. We need to focus on and give those nations problems instead of just sitting and allowing them to cause us them.

Too often teams such as Spain, Brazil, Argentina, Germany come into a game with little to think about other than how to break us down and shut off our best player... Rooney now, Owen before that, Gazza before that!

Stats may well only tell half the story, but when that story shows Spain winning the World Cup and European Championships on the past 3 occasions and the likes of Holland (discredited themselves in the final), Germany, Italy, France reaching Finals stats begin to tell a lot. All of them either retain possession well i.e. Italy or play with a quick breaking attack minded midfield who can counter then they tend to be on the successful side of the story!

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Post by owen10ozzy Wed 16 Oct 2013, 4:07 pm

mystiroakey wrote:If and its a big IF Wilshire hits top form and we have walcot , townsend and rooney up to scratch in june. And Roy still plays a positional  defensive game(players running back to position after losing the ball) over the last two games when we have tried to win the ball back within seconds .Then I will pull my hair out!
This is what frustrated me! Hodgson often sets up the right tactics with the wrong players in place, something which Capello was also guilty of. If we are going to sit and play on the counter against the likes of Brazil and Spain etc etc then fair enough...but you have to do it with a mobile midfield not one consisting of Milner, Carrick, Barry and and old Gerrard & Lampard.

They may very well be disciplined in defending but they can't get forward quick enough to support the striker when needed to! What needs to be done is for the more attack minded players to be taught the discipline to hold position until there is a chance to counter.


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Post by mystiroakey Wed 16 Oct 2013, 4:08 pm

yep all the teams you mention try and win the ball back within seconds.

How many times have we seen england giving up possession against the weaker teams as well. We have made so many teams look better in possession than they actually are because we have been playing a rigid positional style for donkeys!

So what if we get beat in the quarters or the last 16 by a top side that score a goal or two more than us. I would rather be proud of giving it ago over watching a 0-0 draw and then go out on pens!!

We have to start playing without fear

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Post by dummy_half Wed 16 Oct 2013, 4:19 pm

Myst

It used to be the case that England went out of tournaments after their best performance - West Germany in 1990, Argentian in 98 etc. Yes, we came out on the wrong end of the results, but they were excellent competetive games that could easily have gone our way with a little more luck.

Certainly you'd have to have a serious revision of history to say the same about the losses in 2010 and 2012 - we were battered in both games and looked by far second best.

Owen
You make some good points - sitting back and hitting teams on the break was OK when Gerrard, Lampard and Scholes were in their 20s, but they don't have the legs for that style now. We need the likes of Wilshere and Rooney to be fit and on form to make it work, and perhaps even need to consider playing Ricky Lambert as our best option of a player to hold the ball up with his back to goal and bring teammates in.

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Post by Stella Wed 16 Oct 2013, 4:22 pm

We were pretty woeful in 2006 as well. 2002 could have been our year. Beat Brazil, and I reckon it could have been.
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Post by mystiroakey Wed 16 Oct 2013, 4:22 pm

owen10ozzy wrote:
mystiroakey wrote:If and its a big IF Wilshire hits top form and we have walcot , townsend and rooney up to scratch in june. And Roy still plays a positional  defensive game(players running back to position after losing the ball) over the last two games when we have tried to win the ball back within seconds .Then I will pull my hair out!
This is what frustrated me! Hodgson often sets up the right tactics with the wrong players in place, something which Capello was also guilty of. If we are going to sit and play on the counter against the likes of Brazil and Spain etc etc then fair enough...but you have to do it with a mobile midfield not one consisting of Milner, Carrick, Barry and and old Gerrard & Lampard.

They may very well be disciplined in defending but they can't get forward quick enough to support the striker when needed to! What needs to be done is for the more attack minded players to be taught the discipline to hold position until there is a chance to counter.

Yeah i think roy was actually hoping a midfield of the likes of gerrard and lampard could give us more possession tbh so we didn't have to necessarily play the counter game but would have more possession when we had possesion(15 passes over 4!!) and then slowly build an attack. But we just dont have that skill so its pointless(unless we do have players in the ilk of wilshire on form and a couple more which we dont seem to have)

However he has never played the true counter style of fast midfielders and wingers both sides and allowed the other team to attack us- but then hit them when they are forward and have lost possession

For me its more about- try and win the ball back first then get back to position- over lose the ball and then straight away get back to position!(the later is fearful football and will never ever work in the long run)

you just can't keep playing to not lose- which is what we have done and yes it has been very successful !!(no losses in competitive games in 90 mins since germany)

But its not good enough

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Post by owen10ozzy Wed 16 Oct 2013, 4:31 pm

Assuming these players are fit then this is how I would line up at the World Cup:

Against the 'lesser' teams:

Hart

Walker  Cahill Jags  Baines

Carrick/Gerrard

Wilshere Chamberlain

Townsend/Walcott/Lennon               Welbeck/Young/Redmond

Rooney  
           
                 Sturridge

Plenty of people can be switched around with someone like Lambert coming out and Rooney going up top with Sturridge as the number 10 etc. The point is it is an attack minded set up with plenty of pace.

When we came up against stronger opposition the following can be done: Baines and Walker replaced with Smalling/Johnson and Cole on the other side, all 3 more defensively better and disciplined in their positions. One of Wilshere/Chamberlain can be taken out of the team and both Carrick & Gerrard played as holding midfielders (or Ross Barkley if he is playing well and regular). Up front you bring in someone stronger and more physical who can hold the ball and allow the midfield to break forward so someone like Carroll or Lambert.

Whilst the talent pool may well be small we have enough decent players to make a good stab of the World Cup if they are selected and fit (that is always the big if) but the depth is there in my opinion.

When you have wide midfield consisting off the choices of: Walcott, Young, Lennon, Welbeck, Sturridge, Johnson then youngsters coming through as well like Redmond, Zaha, Sterling, Morrison that isn't half bad.

In the center of the park you have Gerrard, Carrick, Lampard, Cleverly, Wilshere, Chamberlain with Barkley, Rodwell, Huddlestone coming through.

Plenty of those players can be switched around and play as wide men or strikers etc as well so the options are pretty good. It's just a case of playing them in the right manner and hoping they can be fit and have game time come next June.

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Post by mystiroakey Wed 16 Oct 2013, 4:34 pm

that should be our lesser team team. And to be honest sod it - just play it for all the games..

The top teams play one way(there strengths over the oppositions) to start with and only change tactics if it doesnt work

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Post by mystiroakey Wed 16 Oct 2013, 4:38 pm

Ha i just found out Hodgson went to the same 6th form college as me!!

Maybe he is a decent lad after all

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Post by CFCNick Wed 16 Oct 2013, 4:47 pm

I think he's at the stage of his career that we can say Huddlestone has already "come through".

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Post by nasisillmatic Wed 16 Oct 2013, 4:49 pm

I think it's certain barring serious injury or bans Gerrards starting, but I just don't know who is best playing alongside him in the deep role. I think this will be the biggest problem for Hodgson when playing a top team. There is no stand out holding midfielder to choose.


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Post by mystiroakey Wed 16 Oct 2013, 5:07 pm

If there isn't one- dont bother!!

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Post by NickisBHAFC Wed 16 Oct 2013, 7:19 pm

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ziY8lT5T9XU

Nice to see Zaha has grown up and put his poor attitude problems behind. Wan*er, is he jealous that Morrison is a much better player?!

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