Who the hell are England going to play up front?

[russe||]

Originally Posted by Sven

Kinda like Barce with Ronaldinho?

why not a 451

Hargreaves and Gerrard in middle, Lennon and Cole on side of Rooney with Owen leading attack, on purpose have left out lamps, you can't play Rooney on wing or as a lone striker,

Could English biggest weakness be the managers allways try crame the big names in for sake of it? Not play a balamce team?

You mean kind of:

------------------------Robinson------------------------

Neville----------Ferdinand--Terry-------------A.Cole

----------------Hargreaves--Gerrard------------------

Lennon----------------Rooney-------------------J.Cole

--------------------------Owen---------------------------

It could work. Rooney would certainly like that role.

I think you have hit the nail on the head. England managers tend to pick the 11 best players in the country and attempt to form a team with them. For example Gerrard, Lampard and Rooney all like to play in the space behind the striker(s), and provide the creative impetus for the team (although they all have very different ways of doing that). For England they obviously can't all do that but rather than nominating one player to play that role and then finding 10 other players to fit into the other roles in the team, all 3 play.

In the team you suggest it may work better with another more defensive player, or a precision passer next to Hargreaves i.e. King, Parker, Carrick etc. most football fans recognise that you can't just take 11 great footballers and call them a team yet to 99% of England fans the suggestion of dropping Gerrard and Lampard would be insane. It is a very odd situation.

[Sven]

It is and I think we all know Mclaren isn't the one to fix it.

[Buddha14]

Owen and Nugent with Bent on the bench. For once can he pick Taylor ffs.

[unitedfan]

England's biggest problem is that they play in their own mental cages. Usually-attack-minded players feel they can't be fluent, defenders feel out of place high up the pitch and nobody spends enough time on the ball. The Curse of the English Shirt. That's why they can't play Rooney the way United does, I also believe it's partly the reason Lampard doesn't produce what he does for Chelsea, and hugely it's the reason you rarely dominate football matches - that deep defensive line and rigid-looking setup.

There is a lot of truth in the notion that the team is an unbalanced collection of big names, too. The lack of balance hurts you, that's clear. That midfield epic is a standout example Lampard-Gerrard - yes they can, no they can't, yes they can, oh they never could. There are ways of getting those two in a balanced team - one was putting Gerrard on the wing, and there are others yet at that. It's finding the middle-ground - you have to find balance, but do what you can to have the best players you can out there.

But I think removing The Curse of the English Shirt is a more pressing matter for you. You need to get inside the players' heads while away, just not Glen Hoddle style.

[russe||]

Apparently McClaren has decided to go with Owen (who's only just got fit) and Smith (who is being used as a midfielder by the Toon) against Germany. IMO that gives a fairly good indication of the two he wants to us in the Euro Qualifiers.

EDIT: In fairness to McClaren Crouch is suspended for the next game so there is no point in laying him in the friendly, Rooney, Johnson, Lita and Bent are all injured so with Owen playing the only strikers than can partner left are Ashton and Smith.

[Garzilla]

Originally Posted by russe||

Apparently McClaren has decided to go with Owen (who's only just got fit) and Smith (who is being used as a midfielder by the Toon) against Germany. IMO that gives a fairly good indication of the two he wants to us in the Euro Qualifiers.

EDIT: In fairness to McClaren Crouch is suspended for the next game so there is no point in laying him in the friendly, Rooney, Johnson, Lita and Bent are all injured so with Owen playing the only strikers than can partner left are Ashton and Smith.

I strongly dislike smith, I would rather see Ashton, think he has a brighter future.