England vs Sweden. [R]

[Colm]

Last game of the group. We only need a draw to top it, but we'll probably play crap again. :rolleyes:

Thoughts?

[sinner78]

Shame they scored the late winner.
denied us the chance to take it easy in the last group game.

[sendorange]

I'm glad in a way that Sweden did win, to make us have something to play for. We should play our best side but I think it's time for a change in the team. Playing our 11 best players is not working, need to add some balance.

------Owen--- Rooney

J.Cole----Gerrard----Beckham

---------Hargreaves

Cole---Terry--Ferdinand--G Neville

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

[The Potter]

Will Neville be fit? No point rushing him.

[sendorange]

I'm assuming Neville is fit, if not it will be Carragher starting there again.

[Colm]

Neville probably won't be fit for what i've heard. Might be available for the knock out stages.

Sven won't change anything though i would like to see the team Sendo put out.

[sinner78]

I'm glad in a way that Sweden did win, to make us have something to play for. We should play our best side but I think it's time for a change in the team. Playing our 11 best players is not working, need to add some balance.

------Owen--- Rooney

J.Cole----Gerrard----Beckham

---------Hargreaves

Cole---Terry--Ferdinand--G Neville

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

sven is just gonna pick the same team as always.
he is too gutless to drop anyone.

[Agent Red]

Pace won us the game against T&T. The wingers really stretched them and created space. Sweden will read the long ball with ease but with the pace we have available it will create room for Crouch to work in. I liked the look of Becks and Lennon together on the right and unless Ljunberg switches sides, England will have plenty of chances from there. Any success on that side will drag players in and leave room for Lampard and Gerrard to operate.

Larsson will be a massive threat and I wouldn't be surprised to see Hargreaves brought on to deal with him. Personally, I'd play Lampard as the holding midfielder but if that happens I'll eat my nuts.

[thegaffer7]

I'm glad in a way that Sweden did win, to make us have something to play for. We should play our best side but I think it's time for a change in the team. Playing our 11 best players is not working, need to add some balance.

------Owen--- Rooney

J.Cole----Gerrard----Beckham

---------Hargreaves

Cole---Terry--Ferdinand--G Neville

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

i would love to see this lineup as well..owen will prove his worth as he plays very well with rooney behind him..rooney is the key for us in attacking as does so well at being the link between the midfield and forwards..if neville is not available perhaps we should put hargreaves at right back and carragher (i hate to say it) in front of the midfield..

[sinner78]

Pace won us the game against T&T. The wingers really stretched them and created space. Sweden will read the long ball with ease but with the pace we have available it will create room for Crouch to work in. I liked the look of Becks and Lennon together on the right and unless Ljunberg switches sides, England will have plenty of chances from there. Any success on that side will drag players in and leave room for Lampard and Gerrard to operate.

Larsson will be a massive threat and I wouldn't be surprised to see Hargreaves brought on to deal with him. Personally, I'd play Lampard as the holding midfielder but if that happens I'll eat my nuts.


Sweden had some impressive play in both their games so far.
But their final finish has been attrocious .They should have won both the trinidad and paraguays clashes comfortably but they managed just a single strike.
Zlatan stills seems to be totally off the pace .Larsson and ljunberg look sharp though .

[SectionX]

zlatan is injured and will definitely miss the england game.


without zlatan and his technicall finesse, we're done in this world cup :(

[sinner78]

---------rooney------

--------------gerrard-----

downing-------j.cole-----------lennon


------------Carrick--------


A.cole----Terry-----Ferdinand----Neville


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




I would try this..
Let gerrard play in the hole and be given license to show his attacking class.
and have some genuine pace and width on the wings.

but we all know sven would never have the balls to drop beckham or lampard.

[sinner78]

This would be a great formation, but I doubt the ref would allow it.


edited

:rolleyes:

[Paddy31]

---------rooney------

--------------gerrard-----

downing-------j.cole-----------lennon


------------Carrick--------


A.cole----Terry-----Ferdinand----Neville


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




I would try this..
Let gerrard play in the hole and be given license to show his attacking class.
and have some genuine pace and width on the wings.

but we all know sven would never have the balls to drop beckham or lampard.

Would you pick Joe Cole? To my mind he has been as guilty as anyone of slowing the play for England. He seems to be looking for an extra touch, or just to hold up the ball. Beckham is more industrious, and while neither can tackle, at least Beckham will jostle and harry. Plus his dead ball delivery makes very dangerous at set pieces.

[BridgeMonkee]

but we all know sven would never have the balls to drop beckham or lampard.

or the idiocy to start Downing either :p

Look, why would anyone drop Lampard? Lampard and Gerrard can work together, Jose would have made it work at Chelsea and Raffa the gaffa would make it work if Lumpy was at Liverpool. SGE needs to work it out.

Beckham, starts well, but spends so much of the game as a passenger. But he does have some ability and in some ways I'd rather see him the middle and the more energetic Gerrard on the right.

The problem is we have come this far without getting our formation right.

The big problem so far is that the midfield and the strikers have not linked up well and we've looked disjointed. imho it is the strikers that are at fault here - Owen and Crouch have lacked creativity. Hopefully Rooney can rectify that with his ability to link up with Lampard, Joe and Steve. God knows the long ball to Crouch and the feeble knock downs and headers is not going to fool quality opposition and has barely worked so far.

[sinner78]

Would you pick Joe Cole? To my mind he has been as guilty as anyone of slowing the play for England. He seems to be looking for an extra touch, or just to hold up the ball. Beckham is more industrious, and while neither can tackle, at least Beckham will jostle and harry. Plus his dead ball delivery makes very dangerous at set pieces.

Cole has got abit of trickery and pace .
When he is out on the left he constantly cuts inside .
Just thought it might be an idea to stick him in that role in the middle.
he has a fairly high work rate level too.

I know sven will never try anything different if he was in charge of the team for a millions years.
I was just brainstorming some ideas.

[sinner78]

. God knows the long ball to Crouch and the feeble knock downs and headers is not going to fool quality opposition and has barely worked so far.


yep the tactic of constantly hitting balls into crouch has been tragic to see.
If we had Jan koller it would be a nice tactic .But crouch aint jan koller .

[Paddy31]

Cole has got abit of trickery and pace .
When he is out on the left he constantly cuts inside .
Just thought it might be an idea to stick him in that role in the middle.
he has a fairly high work rate level too.

I know sven will never try anything different if he was in charge of the team for a millions years.
I was just brainstorming some ideas.

Don't get me wrong, I like your idea, but I wondered about Cole. I think that Sven will be forced to "experiment" as the competition progresses. Suspensions and injury will cause problems, and he must have a plan B for when things go wrong.

[BridgeMonkee]

Brainstorming...me team...using Lennon and Theo from the bench naturally - or maybe Owen IF he can get fit

-------------------Robinson
Ashley Cole------Rio-----Terry------Wayne Bridge
-------------------Carrick
Gerrard---------Beckham-------Joe Cole
-----------Lampard----
----------------Rooneh

[lost]

Sweden have been even more awful than England, but it is possible that they really come together against England. Larson I am always worried about, but Llungberg is not half the player he was, a very lucky late goal can't hide his lack of quality for the other 90 mins. The fact that they are playing with Allback also shows their lack of ability, as we all know how poor he is. Zlatan will probably not play, but i would be happy if he was. He has been so funny to watch in the last few months, no finishing, no assists, just wild flicks and tricks with zero success rate, he is like a circus seal that bounces a ball on its nose, nice to watch, but utterly pointless, and with very little chance of winning a football match. The rest of the side really don't look great, but it will be the kind of name where a Swede can make a name for himself for many years on the basis of just one game, and they will be aware of this.

We have to play for top spot I think, as there are more challenges for us if we only come second later on after the first KO round, and lets face it, if Germany can't defeat Ecuador, why the hell should we be worried about facing them? In fact, Ecuador look more of a side than Germany anyway, so let's go for top spot, even if the Germans come second and we have to play them.

Anyway, that's enough with the Swedes and others, we have many things to look forward to of our own. First, the return of the boy wonder, Rooney looks match fit, and it was against the middle of the line teams at euro 2004 that he was really doing his business, against Croatia, against Switzerland, i think Sweden will be able to get to see from close up what Wayne can do. Owen should be closer to match fitness, plus I think the English press have Owen pretty clearly worked out. They know from repeat experience that it is when you ask Owen questions about his form he always responds with goals, no matter what the team, what the tournament, what the importance is, etc etc, he scores goals, simple as. I am also sure that Lampard will score soon, he never goes long before scoring, and now that Stevie G finally has broken his WC duck, he could go on from here to really knock a few in. Defensively, we have the best CB in the world next to a vastly improved Rio, Cole will start to make his runs down the wing again soon, i am sure, and Beckham will keep making assists, no matter how shit he plays, his assists stats are on fire, he's burning up the place, thats 6 assists in 4 games i think.

Last point: when Rooney came on, we stopped long balling it for the first time and starting playing ball to feet. If we do this, we should defeat Sweden comfortably. If we persist with the old school tactics, we should at least get a draw, so either way i am positive we will end the group on top.

PS. If you thought we sucked v TT, just remember that a) Sweden only managed a draw with this side, and b) TT only had 10 men for the entire duration of the second half v Sweden, so we were a lot better than Sweden