[Scotty]

Turkey vow to finish off faltering England

Turkey have vowed to finish off England's stuttering hopes of winning Group Seven when they come to the Stadium of Light for the Euro 2004 qualifier next year.
http://msn.skysports.com/skysports/a...067548,00.html

[sinner78]

We've heard it all before...
We always get written off.....
Every little slip up is classed some kind of major tragedy...
This kind of talk reminds me of all the stuff we heard before we played Germany ,argentina and even denmark....

Write us off at your peril...
We always get mouthy gobshites writing us off...
its nothing new....

[puma182]

This is just trash-talking. I would like to believe Turkey's coach knows better than to Jinx the whole team. The last time a Turkish team was too overconfident going to England was when Besiktas got their butts whooped by Leeds. Gala on the other hand always had a more humble stride and managed decent matches against Liverpool last year.

[Turkoglu]

This is just to pump up the team spritually nothing else.

[crummy]

To be honest if we continue to play as we have been against Slovakia and Macedonia then Turkey will wipe the floor with us.

I'm a proud, patriotic Englishman but i know rubbish when i see it.

The thing that worries me is the seeming total absence of any knid of tactics or formation from England.

Pass, pass, hoof never won many games at international level.

[Manny]

With the players England have they should be among the 5-10 best teams in the world, so the problem could be Sven who IMO plays far to defensive.

Turkey has the opposite problems compared to England. The midfield and offence is great, but the defence is terrible. Even Liechtenstein manged to get a few good chances to score in the latest game.

I think the two games are going to very close.

[ferrari77]

i agree with all thats been said, imho sven seems a bit of a stubborn chap, he doesnt change things up.
like wayne bridge, it took him a lot of games before he gave bridge the chance to play with cole, two natural left footers, think they should have had that chance a couple of games ago.
on another note, does hakan unsal get playing time with turkey anymore, i just remember his CL goal against i believe it was rangers or monaco,- it was a wicked strike.

[crummy]

Although we have some fantastic players we lack a couple of necesssary players.

We don't have a player who can run with the ball to commit opposing players - say a Giggs or a Rommedahl [sp?].

We also don't have a recognised left footed midfield player and however we try to compensate it just isn't happening for us.

We need to presure the opposition much higher up the pitch when we lose the ball - you may have noticed, even during the WC, how we are quite content to retreat to the edge of our penalty area before trying to get the ball back.

We also need to stop giving good possession away - if Slovakia and Macedonia can hurt us - then Turkey can savage us.

It needs to eb sorted out quickly.

That is what Sven gets paid around £3m a year for [$4.5m]

[Alex_1]

Originally posted by sinner_ronald_monk
We've heard it all before...
We always get written off.....
Every little slip up is classed some kind of major tragedy...

You know, I just don't get it. France won the Euro 2000, yet there was so much press on England not winning Euro 2000. What's with the infatuation?

I know a lot of this is in part due to the British media spewing many a stories out of proportion. But it seems like with every result that isn't scintillating, or if England gets an unfavorable result - every Tom Dick and Harry bursts from the shadows proclaiming that "The end is neigh!!"

[BackOtheNet!]

Well every fan wants his team to play well all the time. But that isn't always the case. England were awfull in the second half against Brasil and are still paying for it. It will take awhile for that memory to go away.