England v Spain

[SlavikSvensk]

i've never been a big beckham fan, as i think he's basically a set-piece and corner specialist and not all round great. but the idea that the best set-piece and corner kick man in england's recent history wouldn't even be useful coming off the bench is just ridiculous. even if all he did was play the second half, kick corners and not get in the way the rest of the game, he'd give england chances to score it doesn't have without him.

then that godawful formation experiment when playing croatia in zagreb (who haven't lost there ever) was beyond stupid.

i figure he was trying to send a message that he was going to do things differently, but sometimes you just don't fix what ain't broke...

and those are only the beginnings of his problems. good players are underperforming.

[Aratron]

i've never been a big beckham fan, as i think he's basically a set-piece and corner specialist and not all round great. but the idea that the best set-piece and corner kick man in england's recent history wouldn't even be useful coming off the bench is just ridiculous. even if all he did was play the second half, kick corners and not get in the way the rest of the game, he'd give england chances to score it doesn't have without him.

then that godawful formation experiment when playing croatia in zagreb (who haven't lost there ever) was beyond stupid.

i figure he was trying to send a message that he was going to do things differently, but sometimes you just don't fix what ain't broke...

and those are only the beginnings of his problems. good players are underperforming.

smart analysis

[french_og]

Mclaren has not got a clue - i personally think a 3-5-2 formation would work but what Mclaren did against Croatia was play 5-3-2 - which was 5 defenders, then played 2 holding midfielders and only one real striker. No wonder it never worked.

Then again against spain 4-3-3 but only one regonised striker.

Anyway what ever formation he played there is no excuse for giving the ball away as much as we do. Some of the players the other night were giving simple 5 yard passes away. This is not exceptable at any level.

[lukekendall]

the other thing he has to do is drop lampard i mean it has to be between him and gerrard and everyone knows gerrerd has so much more class!! lampard scores more goals but the chelsea system allows him too! and the amount of shots he has he is going to get a lot of goals!

gerrard and hargreeves in the centre, lennon and j.cole on the wings would be and amazing BALANCED midfield! when they are fit like....

[french_og]

Yeah i agree with that midfield. He needs to get tough and drop Lampard although Gerrard was shocking the other night and was as bad as anyone at giving it away. Maybe he may play better without Lampard and with Hargreaves holding but Gerrard needs to start performing for England as he has not played well for England for a long time.

[lukekendall]

Yeah i agree with that midfield. He needs to get tough and drop Lampard although Gerrard was shocking the other night and was as bad as anyone at giving it away. Maybe he may play better without Lampard and with Hargreaves holding but Gerrard needs to start performing for England as he has not played well for England for a long time.

true that mate he aint! the best players in the world cup were hargreeves, ferdinand and lennon when he came on, i would say they were the best team players and are players that dont think they are untouchable