Tougher game than the one we had today. Macedonia are no mugs and we drew against them in the last european qualifiers. ------------------------------Robinson-------------------------------- ---P Neville-------------Terry---------Ferdinand-----------A. Cole----- ---Gerrard--------------Hargreaves----Lampard-----------Downing---- -------------------------Crouch-------Defoe------------------------- Ferdinand should shake off his injury and come back for the game and replace Wes Brown.
This will be a good comparison between McLaren and Eriksson. Under Eriksson we only managed to grind out results against them ands teams like them. that woeful 2-2 at home and then a pretty narrow win away if I remenber right.
I'm really hoping to see some more striker partnership combinations. How about seeing more of Johnson and Bent? Defoe is the pace we need at the striker position, but isn't Bent even faster?
I'm sure after today's "huge disappointment" v Andorra, there's no chance of a favorable result with Macedonia.
3-0 would be a good result. I'm with sendorange, games like this will tell whether we've moved on from scraping 2-1 wins against bog standard teams.
1-0 would be okay too. S0 long as the performance is there, that is. Sometims they just don't go in, no matter how hard you try. I wouldn't be looking to flog the team if we don't get a good innings score. If the performance is good, the players keep trying and pressing the space, not sitting back, always looking to win yet well aware of getting caught on the counter, I'll be happy with a win, no matter the score. Don't know about 3-0, unless we got 2 goals right quickly. Late in the game, 2-0 up, new look tactics or not, it'll be nothing but professional and a closed up shop untill the final whistle. Performance in the result, is what is important...not, looking to scalp them by a cricket score. imho.
NO Rooney and no Owen. If we get 2 or above and a clean sheet, i think that we can all say that it is a 'good' result. Under Sven, we had two of our least convincing games. 16/10/2002, Southampton, St. Mary's Stadium, 32.095 [20.00] ENGLAND 2-2 FYR MACEDONIA [HT 2-2] BECKHAM, David 13' ŠAKIRI, Artim 10' GERRARD, Steven 35' TRAJANOV, Vanco 24' 06/09/2003, Skopje, Gradski Stadion, 10.000 [18.30] FYR MACEDONIA 1-2 ENGLAND [HT 1-0] HRISTOV, Georgi 28' ROONEY, Wayne 52' BECKHAM, David 63'pen This game cannot be called a real test, but it is a banana skin. I would like to see a wide, expansive game where we test their full backs, hopefully getting past them on a regular basis. If this can be achieved then goals will come. I am sure that we can beat pedestrian full backs with wingers like Lennon, right and left sided midfielders like Gerrard and Lampard, full backs like Cole and the Nevilles. As for finnishing those chances we will be using the player that Sven boldy brought into the England side and stuck with despite a pounding from the press, boos from the fans and derided for by the ex pros and other english pundits. Though to be fair i think the only reason he wanted crouch was for the aerial long balls, ironic as he prefers, and plays better, when the ball is given to him along the ground. I would also like to see Johnson playing. He is so fast, and looks sharp. We can all see that Defoe struggles internaionally, his size is a major weakness. In international football the strikers are always more isolated than in club football, when it is him jumping for the ball, or trying to bring it under his control under pressure, it is just embarrasing at times. That being said he is a decent player, i just think there will almost always be a better alternative to have. AJ looked very good for his cameo the other day, and we will probably discover this season that we have been sitting on a diamond over the last couple of seasons and not even appreciated it.
Really! I didnt know that. But AJ does look more physical, he certianly isnt thrown around like a rag doll in the way that defoe is in international matches, and definitely competes for headers, unlike defoe.
How do you speak so much about England football, yet miss the simple fact that Johnson and Defoe are similar in height? Your whole statement contradicts itself..Defoe has proven that he can step in and score goals for England when needed..So no, we can't all see that Defoe struggles internationally... Even though he has 18 caps for England, Defoe has only started 6 of those games, and scored 3 goals out of those 6 games..Not really struggling in my opinion..he hasn't been brilliant, but he also hasn't been below par as you suggest..
LOL you are worried about striker selection vs. Macedonia? No wonder why England can't win a major tournament with their fans having no confidence in them.
If you weren't a spazzo pretending to be an England fan you would know that we have had trouble with Macedonia before. Why on earth would you change Crouch and Defoe as a partnership? They didn't do too badly on Saturday. Johnson and Bent are at least the 5th and 6th choice forwards. Why the hell would you ever play them together? No point whatsoever. At the most one of them makes the Euro08 squad.
Ohhhhh I dunno, looking longer term towards actual competition maybe? If England post-Sven/post-Beckham is too scared to adjust v. Macedonia then let the towels be thrown in now because it's hopeless.
Long term towards actual competition? We still have to qualify. Qualify first and then piss around. I cannot say i am too thrilled with the prospect of away games in Moscow, Zagreb and wherever we end up playing Israel. We still have to beat Macedonia and Mclaren would be a fool if he didn't play the best available team to do that. Johnson and Bent are not the 2 best available forwards. So you would play Johnson and Bent up front? They may be good enough to beat Macedonia. Long-term - As i said, i would be shocked if they both made the Euro 08 squad, so why bother playing them, especially together? It is Rooney + 1 for the forward line for the forseeable future. Johnson and Bent are at the back of the line to partner him.
Ok, they are the same height, that must mean that they are both equal in the air? that means they are both the same strength? that means they have the same reading off situations? You have obviously spent very little time in your life actually playing the game, have you? When i said defoe struggles i meant with certain situations, not the whole environment. if you want to read it as a total right off, thats your misreading of what im saying. Last point on this: Defoe has been in or around the international scene for many years now, and has so far done nothing to justify his continued involvement. He struggle to start matches for Tottenham and is far from prolific in the league. AJ is al round a better player than defoe, imo, he is faster, sharper, hungrier, links up better with team mates, scores more goals, has faster acceleration, is better in the air, and is a more deadly poacher. Bu it seems to me like you don't even watch football matches, you can't have seen defoes performance against Andorra, apart from the two chances given to him on a plate (no probs here as it is his job), he was innefective for the duration of his time on the pitch. his runs were awful, his lack of physicality was laughably exposed at times, by part time footballeres!, he couldnt out run any of their players, and this is an EPL player versus a part time mechanic or traffic road policeman. When the ball was pumped long for him, even with crouch pulling away markers, he still couldnt get the ball past a defender, either by kicking and running after the ball, or via beating him out of guile and skill. when aj came on, our front line looked a hell of a lot more dangerous. Oh, and btw, steve mac has already said that he will be droppping defoe after the macedonia game. he must have been really impressed.
Mclaren has said no such thing. Johnson has inferior technical ability to Defoe, which is not a problem in the hard running Premiership, but in the international game it's too big an issue. I can't see him troubling the top class centre backs that we will face in the big tournaments and where the level of physical play and tempo is so much lower.
I'll go back, once again, to what I've been saying for quite some time, about our attitude with the way friendly line ups are conducted. Every time we have one, I see many posts on here, about starting the likes of Terry, Rio, Gerrard, Lampard, Rooney...etc etc etc. Our whole organisation, from top to bottom, needs to get a grip and start using them to give players such as those two, the opportunity to show what they can do. Show what they can do with meaningful time on the pitch too - not just throwing them on in the 75min. I would like to see McSven come right out and say, the result in the next friendly is meaningless, I'm putting out a team to give players a chance to showcase themselves. Perhaps we should go the way of the old rugby line ups...the possibles against the probables Watching the likes of AJ come on for 15 mins, and then been told he was given his chance, is laughable.
I think the exact opposite to you over Defoe being better suited to international football than AJ, and which being the better equipped to deal with top level defences. Plus i thought i had read that Defoe was to be dropped after this match regardless, no? With regards to Defoe being better technicaly than AJ, i don't agree with this at all. Defoe is not a trickster, he can't dribble particularly well (as witnessed even against Andorra), he is a limited player (not writing him off, but he is not imo a Man Utd/ Chelsea/ Arsenal or Liverpool quality player, or any of the big continental clubs, and he has had plenty of time now to develope into a better player, but has never added to his game. A And last point on Defoe, take from it what you will: He was called up to do a commercial a year ago, and for this commercial he was required to go through some of the skills and tricks from his repertoire, and a few other things like shooting from distance, controlling the ball, you know, the technical side of football. Anyways, the guys making the commercial were absolutely astounded to discover that Defoe could do absolutely none of the above. They had worked with footballers from around the world and found this to be the longest and most tedious shoot they had ever done, and by the end of it they had almost zero workable footage that they could include for the commercial. So in terms of the technical side, i don't know what makes you think he is of a better quality than AJ.
Correct. No point in playing Rooney et al in friendlies. We have a friendly against Holland later in the year, that would be an ideal time to play the fringe players. IIRC last time we played Holland in a friendly, they played a bunch of kids.