Montenegro v England, World Cup Qualifier: Tues 26/03/2013: 20:00 BST, City Stadium, Podgorica [R]

That's embarrassing if true. The team is getting outplayed, failing to get any kind of grip, and in serious danger of conceding at any time....and there is NOTHING that could have been tried? Wow.

 

This is not good to hear. Another manager has mentally cracked.

 

The problem of course is that the media are also clueless, so they wouldn't know how to challenge that assertion even if they had a mind to.

 

In case Roy reads these forums I will help him out.

We fell deeper back, due to their extra pressure, and our inability to keep the ball or apply our own pressure. The defence was poor come what may, it wasn't a great back 4, and even Cole was getting done more often than not. With the players out, that area was difficult to rectify. The area that could and should have changed was up front. Welbeck and Rooney were the only real pure attackers, but they needed help and support to make the opposition more weary of pushing forward, and create better counters for ouselves, as well as more dangerous options in and around their box. Chamberlain on for Milner....Young for either Cleverley or Gerrard...both out wide, cutting in. Welbeck pushed forward, with Rooney dropping back to attacking mid\hole position. We would have had more pace and guile going forward, and a much better chance of getting the second we needed and making life less easy for them at the back. No guarantee it would of worked, but at leat it's being proactive.

 

Saw this on the BBC website...

http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/66628000/jpg/_66628793_england.jpg

Not too hard to see what happened, is it. Gerrard moved AHEAD of the attacking mid fielders and the forwards moved back. Like I said, maybe he was under instruction to do it. If so woy wants bloody shooting. Moving a midfielder forward when you're 1-0 UP away from home against a halfway decent opposition is ludicrous.

He should have taken Milner off, moved Stevie wide right and replaced him with Lampard, Osman or Parker, all of whom were on the bench.

 

When a team improves so much after HT it is almost always because of a tactical change initiated by the manager during the interval. The usual response is for the other coach to identify this change and then implement a tactical move themselves to counter it. This is usually in a change of shape or a substitution around the hour mark.

Hodgson failed to react to the changes implemented at HT by the opposing coach who brought on Damjanovic at the start of the 2nd Half. Hodgson only made a sub after an equaliser was conceded. His job is not just to pick the starting lineup but also to respond to in game situations. He needed to make a change earlier, failed to do so and it cost the team. It should also be the case when chasing a goal that attacking subs are made late on in order to give fresh legs to trouble the tiring defenders. Hodgson failed to do that meaning that the team had to play against 3 fresh players while only Ashley Young was brought on to freshen up the attack.

Pretty basic stuff.

Hodgson was now won 50% of his competitive matches as England Manager. 5 wins outs of 10, 3 of those wins were against San Marino twice and Moldova, the other wins were against Ukraine and Sweden at the Euros. He definitely needs to get some more wins in the Group in order to qualify for the World Cup.

It's all very well playing Brazil in Friendlies but the aim is to be able to play them in the next World Cup.

 

If you can't beat even one of your main group rivals - and let's face it Montenegro, Poland and Ukraine are mediocre teams - you're not going to qualify. This campaign really does have an '08 feel to it.

 

It's a real shame that Hodgson picked Gerrard as his captain. That means we're going to have to struggle through qualification with the one man who should step aside being the one man who is untouchable. In his current form he can only really play at the highest level in a holding/quarterback capacity, which Rodgers didn't take long to figure out. Even then, England have players like Carrick who are much more suited to that role. I can't fault Gerrard himself though, he gives his all and can only do what he's instructed to. It's up to Hodgson now to show some balls and bench him himself.

 

Seems to be an issue about England fans chanting abuse about Rio Ferdinand. It is being framed as being racist and Rio has publicly condemned it. I think this story will gain traction.

The FA obviously have to ban England fans from the next 8 games.

 

The chant that has been reported in the media was one about Rio and Anton being put on a bonfire. Classless yes, but there wasn't anything explicitly racist about it.

 

Well, I have no idea whether there was racist chanting or not, but it is being framed as such.

As in
http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/england-racism-row-fifa-could-1790879
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/21973672
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/fo...during-World-Cup-qualifier-in-San-Marino.html

 

If it's a response to Rio not playing for England, and the fans making their feelings heard.....why have they included Anton? What has he done to upset England fans? That is where that chant crosses the line from nasty song about a player they see as having wronged the national team, and one that has racist undertones.

I dare say there is a small section of racist\xenophobic fans who come up with these songs, and it's up to the majority who aren't, to not get caught up in it with them. Most countries in Europe have this nasty side to their fan base (and in many cases much worse than us), but let's not pretend ours are all cleaner than clean.

 

The song doesn't have any racist undertones. People are hearing what they want to hear.

http://fanchants.co.uk/football-songs/manchester_united-chants/build-a-bonfire-12/

 

So you tell me. What has Anton got to do with any of this.

Edit: and for the record, I dont think Fifa can punish England, because it can't be proved that this isn't just aimed at a dislike for specific players rather than the colour of their skin. My personal feeling is that it does have a racial edge to it however.

 

And if they thought about it they probably wouldn't bit that implies people actually think about things before opening their mouths. I think the plain truth is that it was seen as an attack on Rio and people, (well, some people anyway... those that did), just went along with it because they're not particularly bright.

It also has to be borne in mind that, reghardless of what you and I might think about it, Anton didn't do his own reputation any good with the way he handled the JT matter. Instead he relied on his girlfriend pointing it out to him, after having already told JT he didn't 'have a problem' with what had happened at the time. Most people think you should say something to your face if they have a problem with you. Quite honestly if he'd have gone round JT's house and stuck one on him they think that would have been OK. I mean, that's the way most people think.

Unfortunately you can't expect footie fans, in a stadium, to consider the finer legal and ethical points of stuff, can yer.

 

Im sick of hearing about the chuckle brothers and the two faced media using them to cause trouble in the England camp. Even after terry is gone this shit is still going on.

 

I think everyone knows Rio threw a hissy fit when JT wasn't hung, drawn and quartered so didn't want to play in the same team as him as JT's 'SO mean' and that woy covered it up with the 'footballing reasons' line. Now, when JT's gone and he has the chance to actually play for us, (notwithstanding the fact it was probably just him being a total pussy that stopped him), he can't be bothered, preferring to fly to the middle east on some jaunt instead. The fact that Anton was part of the whole debacle is grist to the mill.

BTW... chuckle brothers... like it

 

Ferdinand claimed the Qatar trip was "pre planned downtime" . So we can safely assume the England callup got in the way of his holiday and needed no extra encouragement from ferguson to pull out of the squad.

 

Well, it's only fair. Those England matches are dropped on people with only 5 mins notice, y'know.

 

The burden of proof is on the people claiming racism, not on the rest of us to prove a negative.

 

And the fans response...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/21974280

Fare did not have its own observers at the match and said it had pulled together evidence, including "media comment".​

​

​

...​

​

​

The Daily Mirror also reported that England fans repeatedly chanted "Rio Ferdinand, we know what you are". ​

​

But Miles countered: "They were singing 'We know where you are' with reference to him being in Dubai." ​

The thing is that Rio not bothering to turn up is 'a story' and the fans making their feelings plain about it is 'a story' too. This is just another way to sell their crappy newspapers... they're not interested if it's true or not.

It smacks more of the old US politics thing, 'Give them something to deny'.