Fixing England's Style

[beautifulgamer]

Watching England-Trinidad yesterday once again left me wanting to explode. When on earth is a manager going to make the most of England's abundance of talent? Even most hardcore England fans I know are troubled with the way England are playing despite their six points.

Here's what I saw yesterday:

-Carragher is not a full back

-Neither central defender has the inventiveness to orchestrate attack (they kick it long out of resignation)

-the central midfielders are not getting the ball enough (they need to come deeper for the ball in order to take responsibility of the attack from the central defenders)

-the pressence of Crouch by default skews the attacking style toward the long high ball--which kills the kind of game that would see the likes of Owen, Cole, Lampard, Gerrard and now Rooney, flourish

-the right midfielder, Beckham, while excellent on set pieces and crosses, is not dynamic enough in the run of play and himself disturbs the flow of the team (and speaking of flow: does the team really need him to trot over to the left side of the field every time there is a long free kick over there?)

-since your top two men (the strikers) pretty much dictate "how" you play, England's style will only be corrected (and England can only win this tournament) if they have Owen and Rooney together up front, making runs, showing for balls, turning their men and hunting for through balls...


What do you see?

[Teso Dos Bichos]

Did you not notice the drop Lampard thread?

[beautifulgamer]

Did you not notice the drop Lampard thread?

Just checked it out. Thanks for the reference.

The argument regarding Gerrard over Lampard is moot.

One may be greater than the other but they are both great and clearly the country's best midfielders.

England needs to use both players better.

You should check out what Trinidad's manager Beenhakker had to say (http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/world_cup_2006/5086392.stm)about the "way" England played :

"England's only option was the high ball for Peter Crouch...When they meet stronger and better teams they may have to show more patience. This is free advice - I will not ask money for it...They have great players in the midfield and you saw that for the first 20 minutes they were using them and trying to play football...But little by little they lost their patience. That's exactly what we wanted and what we expected...The first option then was looking for the high ball for Peter Crouch. That is an option but it should not be the only option...If you do that you're eliminating some important midfield players. That was exactly our plan and it worked out once again."

http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/7511/880/200/crouch%20robot%202006%2006%2016.jpg

"...it should not be the only option..."--that should be posted up on the England changeroom walls

If they played with more diversity, more complexity and therefore in keeping with the abilities of their great players--they could win it all...

[Stud83]

The argument regarding Gerrard over Lampard is moot.

One may be greater than the other but they are both great and clearly the country's best midfielders.

England needs to use both players better.


Messi is pretty good, is he not? He's one of the best midfielders in the world, let alone Argentina. And yet he's sitting on the bench, and Argentina is playing exceptionally well without him.

[The Potter]

We need someone with good distrubution to sit infront of the back four and allow the other midfielders to go forward. The gap between midfield and the forward line so-far has been a joke, though Rooney should help.

[beautifulgamer]

Messi is pretty good, is he not? He's one of the best midfielders in the world, let alone Argentina. And yet he's sitting on the bench, and Argentina is playing exceptionally well without him.

Yes but Messi has been injured and Lampard has not. We don't really know what Peckerman would have done with a healthy Messi but it is as likely that he would have started him as not.

[beautifulgamer]

We need someone with good distrubution to sit infront of the back four and allow the other midfielders to go forward. The gap between midfield and the forward line so-far has been a joke, though Rooney should help.

Hear,hear.

The sight of Rio Ferdinand, devoid of options, devoid of ideas, lauching the ball long against Trinidad made me want to kick in my television.

Why on earth would you want to by-pass a midfield that contains the ability of Gerrard, Lampard and Cole? Those three can protect the ball with the best of them. Why not employ them, gain some ground, gain some dangerous positions in the middle third then proceed from there?

Newcomers Ivory Coast could be pointed to as to how simple it is to use pure skill to build up your play...

[Agent Red]

Move Rio forward in place of Beckham, drop Lampard and play Lennon in his place. That way Rio has a better chance to get his passes on target and Lennon can run forward and backwards and forwards and backwards. Damn I'm brilliant.

[Chewmylegoff]

Move Rio forward in place of Beckham, drop Lampard and play Lennon in his place. That way Rio has a better chance to get his passes on target and Lennon can run forward and backwards and forwards and backwards. Damn I'm brilliant.

and drunk

[Colm]

and drunk:D :D :D

[Agent Red]

Chocolate liquers go to my head OK?

[Clockend]

Hear,hear.

The sight of Rio Ferdinand, devoid of options, devoid of ideas, lauching the ball long against Trinidad made me want to kick in my television.

Why on earth would you want to by-pass a midfield that contains the ability of Gerrard, Lampard and Cole?

Because there is no movement from the midfield; for all of their 'class' we have the most static midfield in the entire tournament (except for Lampard, but even he doesn't go to the ball). It's no coincidence that when Lennon came on we were suddenly able to move the ball along the floor through the midfield instead of over their heads.

It's nothing to do with Crouch, he was still on the pitch when we stopped launching the long ball.

[BridgeMonkee]

It's nothing to do with Crouch, he was still on the pitch when we stopped launching the long ball.

Oh, I dont know, not sure 'bout that one.

We need to up the tempo of our game (cooler evening game with Sweden) and play some football in the middle, after all we have players who can actually play football this time round.

[lanman]

...and play some football in the middle...

The problem is that we're playing too much football in the middle. With Ashley Cole not at 100% and Gary Neville injured we have no width on the overlap as the two wide midfielders tend to drift inside. This allows opposition teams to narrow their full backs resulting in a packed penalty box and the obvious problems that brings. When Sven brought on Lennon and later Downing it forced Trinidad to spread their defenders and allowed the strikers and midfielders a bit more space.

[Footstomper]

Because there is no movement from the midfield; for all of their 'class' we have the most static midfield in the entire tournament (except for Lampard, but even he doesn't go to the ball). It's no coincidence that when Lennon came on we were suddenly able to move the ball along the floor through the midfield instead of over their heads.

It's nothing to do with Crouch, he was still on the pitch when we stopped launching the long ball.
Sorry boys, I've solved all of these problems already

http://www.bigsoccer.com/forum/showthread.php?t=370310&page=3

Aint you glad you've got me around?:D

[beautifulgamer]

The problem is that we're playing too much football in the middle. With Ashley Cole not at 100% and Gary Neville injured we have no width on the overlap as the two wide midfielders tend to drift inside. This allows opposition teams to narrow their full backs resulting in a packed penalty box and the obvious problems that brings. When Sven brought on Lennon and later Downing it forced Trinidad to spread their defenders and allowed the strikers and midfielders a bit more space.

That's almost a good point for me. No width is a problem. However, there is no middle as well.

The whole middle is getting bypassed. It's the worst form of football ever invented.